How Guest Blogging Can Help You and Your Blog

Guest blogging has become extremely popular over the last year or so. It seems every blog you read has their occasional “guest post”. Real popular blogs have tons of writers knocking on their door willing to write high quality content for their blogs for free.

For free?

Yes for free.

It’s quite possible you’re now wondering: why?

Why are all these people writing quality content for free? Well this is because there are several ways you can benefit from guest blogging–money not being one of them.

If you guest blog you will get credit for it with your name and a link back to your site in return. This will send a tremendous amount of traffic to your site if you’re targeting high traffic blogs to write for.

Traffic in turn can lead to other things such as: more subscribers, comments, and last but not least more exposure. You’re giving the readers of another blog a preview, if you will, of your writing skills and knowledge on the subject. Once they read your article (assuming it’s any good) they’ll be urged to click back to your site to find out more about you, and what you’re blog is all about.

In this post I’m going to describe how you can:

• Be a better guest blogger
• Get opportunities to guest blog
• Guest blog without screwing everything up

What makes a good guest blogger?

What makes you any good? What is it about your post that’s going to have the blog owner not only wanting to publish your guest post, but also begging you to come back to guest blog again?

Well, to begin with a good guest blogger understands first and foremost that they’re a guest. The fact that they understand this means:

They understand when they write a guest blog to publish on someone else’s blog it’s the same as rearranging furniture in someone’s home. You are a guest, therefore show manners and be polite.

Here are several things you can do to make sure you’re on top of your guest-blogging game:

1. Research - study the blog you’re going to guest blog on. Find out what the majority of its audience is and what they want to read. Once you establish this you can move on to see what’s being posted on this blog. When you get a feel of what the author has covered try and determine what’s missing.

What hasn’t the author covered, or what hasn’t the author covered in a while that you can touch up on, refresh, or even add to since the last time the topic was covered?

You want to determine what type of readers it has and what they’re looking to read. If you did your research you’ll have a feel for what’s missing and what the author hasn’t covered in a while.

This is perfect.

Now you’re properly set up to decide what you’re going to write.

2. Write Quality Content - you’re all set to start writing. Before you begin you should know that what you write will reflect on you and your blog, as well as the blog’s owner–that should be quite obvious. Since you want to establish a good reputation and be credible it is a must that you add value to the guest post.

Don’t write recycled content or even worse copy someone else’s. Not only will this make you look bad, but it may also affect the person’s blog you’re guest blogging on.

Here are some tips to follow:

• Be Informative - provide useful information that blogs readers can put to use; this should be a priority
• Accuracy Counts - whatever you’re writing about make sure you do your research and that it’s accurate
• Style Matters - write in your own style without straying too far away from what the author of the blog and its audience deems acceptable
• You‘re on stage - remember that future employers can look back at what you’ve written–this can “make or break” potential business deals

3. Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation - Remember what I said about acknowledging that you are the guest? Well a good guest washes their dish and cleans up after themselves; a better guest will offer to wash everyone’s dish. Bad grammar, spelling, and punctuation is like not cleaning your dirty dishes and then having the nerve to kick your feet up on the coffee table.

If you were accepted to guest blog for someone at least do them the favor of cleaning up after yourself. Don’t make them have to call up their editors or do it themselves.

You want to make the best of your guest post. Following the tips above will help you do just that. Not only will you impress the blog’s readers, but you will also impress the blog’s owner.

This can lead to many other potential guest blogging opportunities on that blog, and can lead to recommendations from that blogger to others; adding to your overall exposure.

Now That You‘ve Learned To Be a Guest . . . You Can Learn To Get The Gig.

How can I score a guest blogging gig?

There are several ways to do this, but timing rules all. If you have perfect timing and there is a need for guest bloggers, then as long as your post is good, relevant, and you’ve learned to be a guest you should be fine.

What do you mean timing? Well many bloggers go on vacation, or have personal issues to take care of, and emergencies do pop up every now and then. So what I mean by timing is a time when a blog owner mentions they’re going away. This is the perfect time to do your research, contact them, and ask if you can write for them while they’re away. But that’s if the “timing” is right.

What if I want to guest post when no one is away?

Good question. First thing you want to do is go back to number one which is Research. Decide what’s missing, and what you’re going to write. There are two paths you can go down; I only choose to go down one path.

Allow me to explain:

1. Contact and Ask - this is much more complicated then just contacting and asking. There are some variables that can make this work and some that won’t allow it to. This way involves contacting the blogger, and asking if they would be interested if you wrote them a guest post.

Here’s what’s wrong with that picture:

Most people (bloggers) like to know the person they let into their homes (blogs). The problem is: you’re a stranger. So how can we fix that?

• leave meaningful comments that will grab the authors attention enough to add to it
• leave comments asking questions so that the author will answer
• make a connection through social media sites by sending a friendly message
• shoot them an email with a link to a really good post you think would interest them

Doing these things enough will help you establish some sort of relationship with the blog author. You want to do it enough that you’re someone who’s memorable i.e., someone they will remember if you send them an email a month later. It’s good to do this beforehand with the authors of your favorite blogs.

This way when you’re ready to write a guest post for them they will already be familiar with you, and are more likely to accept.

note: if you’ve guest blogged before it wouldn’t be a bad idea to link back to those posts as an example of your work.

2. Contact and Send - I tend to go down this path more often. However I feel the best way is a combination of both this path and the one above. In this path I usually don’t know the blogger I want to write a guest post for, so I have to find a way to get accepted to guest post even though I’m a stranger.

You must do everything you can to write the best post possible. Then contact the blogger in mind and send a friendly email with the post you wrote included.

In this email I explain I would like to write a guest post for them, and if they answer yes the post is already included in the email ready to be read and examined. Now here’s the thing . . . Let’s say the blogger had their mind set to say no because they didn’t know you. The fact the post is included in the email will more than likely stimulate their curiosity to read.

If you did a good job and wrote a highly quality post that’s relevant, informative, and exactly something that blog’s readers in particular would enjoy, then I see no reason why the author of the blog would say no.

Mistakes You Want To Avoid

Remember that you’re a guest in someone’s home. You want to try and obey their household. Here are somethings you should try to look out for when writing a guest post:

1. Style - it’s important to be careful as to your style of writing. Remember that readers are used to the way the author has been writing, so you want to make sure your style isn’t way out there in left field for the blog in mind’s type of audience. They may not connect with you at all.

2. Your Tone - the tone you use is crucial as well. You want to be careful as to how you come off in your writing; you definitely don’t want to come off too arrogant or cocky. Some people can be offended by arrogance and take it as insulting.

3. Unwritten Rules - there are some unwritten rules every blog goes by. It really depends on the blog and its author, but if you’ve been a loyal reader for a while you will know more or less what’s acceptable. If you’re writing for a new blog make sure you do some reading, and interact a bit in the comment section, so that you’re familiar with the blog.

4. Lights, Cameras, Action! - Remember you’re on stage. Especially if you’re guest blogging on high traffic blogs. Everything you say will be reflected on you; your name and blog is on there as well as your reputation. This can “make or break” you.

Do your research and write well. Everything else will fall into place.

Conclusion

If traffic and exposure is something you would like for you and your blog, then guest blogging is something to definitely consider. Scope out the top blogs in your niche that get large amounts of traffic, and attempt to guest blog for them.

Every post can potentially send hundreds, even thousands of visitors back to your site; some will subscribe, leave comments, and eventually become loyal readers.

The more you do it, the better it gets, and the more you and your blog will grow. Remember to be familiar with the blog, do your research, be accurate, and most importantly remember you are a guest.

I hope these tips can help you all become better guest bloggers, and help you get the guest blogging gigs that will lead to the exposure and traffic you want.

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