Add new voices to your blog with guest authors

Many blogs, especially those run by individuals rather than organizations, have just one author and that works well in many cases. But sometimes you may find that a friend or colleague has a lot to offer your audience and you would like to bring them on board as an additional author.

The ability to invite additional authors to a blog is available on the Pro Unlimited account level and above.

To invite a new author to your blog, go to the Settings > Authors page. Enter the name and email address of the desired author. You can also personalize the message to be sent, or go with the default text. You'll want to select the right access level for the author. A Junior Author can write posts but not publish them, while a Guest Author can both write and publish posts to your blog. If you are on the Enterprise level or above, you will have the option to add at least one Blog Administrator to your blog who can help manage the design and settings and edit posts by any author (depending on your account level, you may not see the Blog Administrator option until the author has already been added to your blog).

The invited author will receive an email message with a link to sign up for Typepad and accept the author invitation.

Once the author has accepted the invitation, you will see them listed along with yourself at Settings > Authors. From the listing on this page, you can change the access level for any additional authors, or remove them from your blog if they are no longer contributing.

The Settings > Authors page also allows you to turn on author archives for your blog. Each author archive will display all of the posts written by that author. You can also choose to display the author's profile photo and one-line bio in the sidebar of the author archive page.

Have you invited additional authors to your blog? Share your experiences and tips in the comments!