A Dedicated Guest Blogger Program For Your API

I get endless waves of people wanting to “guest post” on API Evangelist. It isn’t something I’m interested in because of the nature of API Evangelist, and that it really is just my own stream of consciousness, and not about selling any particular product or service. However, if you are an API provider, looking for quality content for your blog, having a formal approach to managing guest bloggers might make sense. Sure, you don’t want to accept all the spammy requests that you will get, but with the right process, you could increase the drumbeat around your API, and build relationships with your partners and API consumers.

There is an example of this in action at the financial data marketplace Intrinio, with their official blogger program. The blogging program for the platform has a set of established benchmarks defined by the Intrinio team, to establish quality for any post that is accepted as part of the program. What I find really interesting, is that they also offer three months of free access to data feeds for API consumers who publish a post via the platform. “Exceptional” participants in the program may have their free access extended, and ALL participants will receive discounts on paid data access subscriptions via the platforms APIs.

This is the type of value exchange I like to see via API platforms. Too many APIs are simple one way streets, paying for GET access to data, content, media, and algorithms. API management shouldn’t be just about about metering one way access and charging for it. Sensible API management should measure value exchange around ALL platform resources, including blog and forum posts, and other activities API providers should be incentivizing via their platforms. This is one of the negative side effects of REST I feel–too much focus on resources, and not about the events that occur around these resources. Something we are beginning to move beyond in an event-driven API landscape.

Next, I will be profiling the concept of having dedicated data partner programs for your API platform. Showcasing how your API consumers can submit their own data APIs for resell alongside your own resources. In my opinion, every API platform should be opening up every resource for GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, as well as allow for the augmenting, aggregation, enrichment, and introduction of other data, content, media, and algorithms, to add more value to what is already going on. Opening up a dedicated guest blogger program modeled after Intrinio’s is a good place to start. Learning about how to set up guidelines and benchmarks for submission, and evolving your API management to allow for incentivizing of participation. Once you get your feet wet with the blog, you may want to expand to other resources available via the platform, making your API operations a much more community thing.