Guest blogging is one of the most important ways in building relationship with other bloggers. What’s more, it’s also a very good source of free traffic and content for your blog.
But why guest blogging is so popular?
Let’s go into some facts. Most of privately hold blogs, are updated once or twice a week (or even less often). There are only few blogs, which are updated on daily basis.
Why?
It’s not because bloggers don’t like to post or don’t know, what they should post about – mostly it’s because they don’t have time for blogging. Solution for this problem is really simple – guest blogging. In my opinion, it has only advantages.
Blogger, who is writing guest post, has a new audience. Readers of the blog, where the guest post is placed, can read some new content and become acquainted with another point of view. And the owner of the blog also has profits from it – he or she get free (and mostly very good) content for the blog. Besides, it saves his or her TIME – and it’s very important!
So, how to prepare for this win-win action – read our tips
10 Secrets of Guest Blogging
1) Find proper blogs for your guest posts
Firstly, you should find 5-10 blogs, which are in your niche. You should check, if their owners are open for guest blogging (there is a little amount of bloggers, which doesn’t agree for guest post on their blogs), and which type of articles they are waiting for. If you can’t find, if it’s possible to place your guest post on the blog, please gently ask about it – you may send an e-mail to the Blogger.
2) What’s cool on the blog?
If you have found at least 5 proper blogs for your guest post, you must decide, on which you want to write this time. After making a decision, spend at least 10 minutes, investigating who is reading the blog and which articles has the most amount of comments. A lot of comments below the article means, that it’s cool on the blog. Besides, on some blogs posts with a lot of comments are promoted in the sidebar. So, try to write your post in “cool” category, but remember about one thing – bloggers don’t accept articles, which were already published. They don’t like duplicated stuff…
3) Quality is a king!
This is most important thing in almost all aspects of blogging, and especially in guest blogging. If your guest post will be weak, how do you think, will it be published by somebody? I assure you, it won’t be. Besides, it’s better to don’t have guest post, than having guest post with poor quality. Nobody will read it, and your reputation as a writer may suffer. So, your great guest post should be really great!
4) Use proper linking strategy for your guest post
If you want to get some “link juice” from your guest post, you should also give something from you. Spend some time looking for similar topics on the blog and link to them inside your guest post. The same is with your backlinks – find some useful posts on your blog and link to them. But be very careful with it – if your post will have too much links (comparing to length of your article) it may be treated to spammy. So, like Google said – it should be good for your readers 😉
5) Put some live into your post
Include images, tables or videos into your guest post. It makes your post easier to read and optically diversify the text. Don’t allow your post to look like a phone book – who will read it? Some of the blog owners add pictures on their own. But ask them – maybe they want to get “fullpackage” of your guest post?
6) Create landing page on your blog
Prepare landing page on your blog for new readers. If you made a free ebook (as a gift for signing into your e-mail list), please try to prepare your guest articles around the topic of the ebook. If it’s not possible, prepare some related articles on your blog. They should be related with your guest post, of course. If you already have your landing page or related articles, link back to them in your guest post (using your smart linking strategy of course 🙂 ).
7) Make it easy to publish
Preformat your post in order to make the publication as easy, as possible. If you prepare your article easy to publish, your host will be very grateful to you. So you should check, how your guest post may look. Take into consideration titles, boldings, bullets, HX tags, etc. The best solution is to send it in two formats – in MS Word (doc) and in html (you can prepare it on your blog and copy text from html view in your WordPress).
8) Promote your guest post
Finally, after publishing your article, you may think it’s over – but it’s not. You should notify your blogosphere about your guest post. You may use Facebook and Twitter for it. Even your own blog may be good for it – you can write a short info about it, send it to your subscribers or even ask your blog commentators what do they thing about it – there is a lot of possibilities for doing it.
9) Follow and answer comments below your guest post
There is one more thing, after publishing and promoting your post. Try to start (if it’s not started yet) a discussion below the post. Most comments = most traffic to your blog. Try to answer on each comment. It’s not needed, that you answer on all of them separately. You may answer on some of them in one comment. And be ready for criticism or another point of view– everyone has each own mind, which may be different from yours.
10) Don’t give up
On some blogs you may find information, that guest posts are welcome. So you spent a lot of hours on preparing great guest post, sent it to the owner of the blog and… Nothing’s happened. It’s normal situation. Most popular bloggers get hundreds of guest posts each month. And only some of them will be published. Besides, they examine guest posts not every day, but once or twice a month. So you must be patient and don’t give up, in case your post will be rejected.
For example in May, I prepared 3 guest posts – two of them are accepted:
3 Vital Tips For Creating A Successful Blog
20 SEO Tips for Beginner Bloggers
Unfortunately one of my guest posts isn’t accepted yet (what’s more, I even didn’t get any response about this guest post). But I’m patient…
And what’s your experience with guest blogging? Are all of your guest posts accepted or not? Or maybe you want to write guest post for us? Please tell us about it below!
Thanks for the advice about Guest Blogging Chris. I have prepared a single guest post and sent it to DailyBlogTips and they sent me an email after receiving my guest post saying “Thanks for the guest post we will pass it”
But Daniel didn’t pass it on his blog. I still have that guest post saved in drafts and now I’m looking for a blog to send that.
Hi Ehsan,
as I wrote – you must be patient. I’ll wait about one month – after it, I plan to send my guest post to another blog 🙂
I have just submitted my first guest post recently. I did not seek to post a guest post. Instead a blogger contacted me about doing a guest post based on the content of my blog.
I think this is an even better way. He found me through a blog comment.
Hi David, yes, smart comments on other blogs are also great for builduing relationship with other bloggers. And, as you wrote, they are also a way for possibility of guest posting 🙂
Hi Chris, Sorry for the another comment on this post. I want to ask from you that you are using SmartBlog theme from Themes-junkie right?
I want to ask that which layout you have selected for your blog? I mean layout#1, layout#2 or layout#3?
Do you like this theme – is realy nice 😉 layout#1
I already have this theme, In layout#1 the header image is showing the top right or top left of the sidebar, But in your It’s above pages? How to put the header image above pages in SmartBlog theme?
Hi Ehsan,
for me it looks very similar. You can write to technical support, (my theme was modified by someone else, so I can’t help you).
Best regards, Chris
Hi Chris!
Guest posting is such a great way to drive traffic and increase exposure for yourself. Not only that, but it’s a great way to build contacts with other bloggers.
You are generally allowed to include a few links in your guest post, so as well as your homepage, try linking to some of your blog posts that relate in some way to the guest post that you have written. This way, when people click through to your site, they can instantly read more about the subject that they were initially reading. This can also help boost your pages Pagerank.
Great post!
Hi Matt,
thanks for commenting. Yes, gues posting is very helpful in blog promotion and also in building relationship with other bloggers. But even after submitting guest post, blogger shouldn’t forgot about it, but should try to make the relationship stronger and stronger. Pagerank is no important comparing to relationship 😉
BR, Chris
Great article! I will definitely make use of the suggestions. I’m actually thinking of writing an ebook and this article really sorts things out for me. 🙂
Hi Linda, thanks for commenting. Nice to hear that you like it 😉
BR. Chris
Great article. 🙂
Great tips, Chris.
I will follow your advice and start my first guest posts.
I guess one of the basic points is number 9, in my opinion.
Answer and follow up to the comments of the readers is so important for me.
Thanks for sharing, Chris ! 🙂
Hi Erik, great you are like it. 9th point is very important, but we must consider all of them dutring guest posting. BTW – do you really plan to write your first guest post 🙂 ? Thanks for the comment, Chris
Hi Chris,
8) Promote your guest post
I fear people just don’t do this enough, you wrote it so promote it properly.
The least you can do right?
Hi Simmeon, thanks for stopping here. Yes, some people after approving guest post forget about promoting it and further actions 🙂
Chris
Awesome article. I’ve always been anxious about inviting / asking guest bloggers but this is some really good advice. Thanks!
Hi Jon – we should accept guest post as well as writing guest articles for another websites 🙂
Thanks for your comment.
BR, Chris
Thanks for sharing some great tips on a subject that I keep sidelining.
One of my guest posts was accepted for ProBlogger a few months ago. From that post alone I got quite a little community going at my blog.
Nevertheless, guest posting is something that I keep thinking about doing and then not doing.
I’m busy creating a product at the moment but this is something that I should get serious about when the dust settles. I think it’s great, not only for traffic but for credibility too.
Shamelle, thanks for your comment. In my opinion credibility and relationship are most important in guest blogging, not traffic or links 🙂
And congrats about your article on ProBlogger!
BR, Chris
Great post Chris.
Especially the point of writing on the “cool” topics. I finally made it to your blog and it’s great.
You have now one more loyal reader. Keep us updating like this.
Thanks 🙂
Hi Arbaz, finally you are here 😉 And yes – cool topics are cool 🙂
Thanks for the comment.
WOW!!!
Great content on Guest Blogging. Very nice to see the content. And I would try to follow as well. I do post comments to blogs I like, like this one according to their usefulness.
But i hope it is good to leave a comment so that person knows that I also appreciate their efforts
thanks for all the good work!!
Great you like it. Thanks for comment!
Quality is very important for your blog. A unique blog can increase your rate. Also increase size ranking. thanks for those important tips.