There are over 200 million blogs in the world and it’s increasing day-by-day. Everyone is getting into this blogging world with many purposes like; money, name, branding etc. But majority of blogs won’t survive very long because of the huge competition. It’s quite difficult to Stand out from the crowd. We need lots of plans and out of the box Blogging strategies to rank our blogs or get noticed. We can build and reach our target audience by simple methods like; Advertising, Social Media and Blog commenting. But none of these methods are as effective as – Guest Blogging.
Guest blogging helps you to build natural links, traffic, recognition, trust and authority. As you know it’s quite difficult to build backlinks to our sites these days because of Google algorithms like penguin, it’s vital to build links naturally. And guest blogging is the best and efficient way to do it.
If you’re a blogger and haven’t written a guest post yet, you can start it today. Before that read this ultimate guide to getting started with guest blogging.
Before we start in, let’s see what are the. . .
Advantages of guest blogging;
Backlinks
There was a time when we used to ask other bloggers to link back to our site, and we would return the favor by linking them back. These types of link exchanging methods used to work couple of years ago, but not anymore. We won’t survive for very long if we make these types of SEO mistakes. You may know how Google recently trashed Lyrics site Rap Genius for using these kind of manipulative link-building methods. That’s why guest blogging is the best strategy to build links without any risk.
Traffic
If your blog is new then you won’t get much traffic from search engines, so initially you had to depend on referral traffic. If you manage to write guest blogs on top blogs, you can drive a good amount of referral traffic. Moreover, the blacklinks from guest blogging will slowly boost your search engine traffic.
Recognition and Authority
Guest blogging on top blogs gives you recognition, trust and Authority in blogosphere. Guest blogging also helps you build your personal brand, showcase your talent, and get clients. I got a couple of new clients after my last guest post on comluv.
As you can notice, guest blogging gives you so much of exposure for your brand. If you write guest posts, you can beat many of your competitors.
Gain Subscribers and Credibility
The problem with search engine Audience is, they are always in a hurry; they usually land to our blog to find particular answer or solution for their doubts. They don’t stick very long, and they don’t have time to subscribe. Whereas, the audience arrived from guest posts are the real audience who will subscribe, engage and Provide credibility to your brand.
Getting started with Guest Blogging
As I know, a lot of newbies hesitate to start guest blogging, there are many reasons for that like; fear, critics, quality guidelines, etc. but they are missing on getting huge exposure to their blogs. If you’re one of them, don’t worry; In this article I’ll share exactly how to get started with guest blogging.
If you want to write guest post for others, first thing you need is confidence. Before you approach guest blogging, make sure to improve your writing skills.
Finding the Blogs
This is the first step of guest blogging, but the easy one. I’m sure you’ll be aware of top blogs of your niche that accept guest blogs. But if you can’t find your niche blogs, you can always use Google to find; you can use keywords like “write for us”, “guest blogging guidelines”, “Submit a guest post” to easily find blogs that accept guest posts.
After you list out the blogs that allow guest posts, you need to find out the below things;
- Check whether the blog has good past reputation
- Find out whether the blog has loyal audience or not
- Make sure to check the author background
- Estimate the average traffic of that blog
- Check whether the blog has readers engagement
- Check the backlinks of that blog
After you decide to write guest post for a particular blog, the next step is Pitching. . .
Before you Pitch
It’s not wise to right-away jump into contacting them, there are certain things you had to do before you bug them. . .
Things to do before you contact the blog author. .
- Start Engagement on that blog: The first step is to get engaged with that blog audience and author; Start commenting on that blog, share their contents on social networks, and get familiar with their members. Make sure you have a Gravatar image attached to your email. Spend a week in engagement before you pitch for guest blogging, this will increase your chances of accepting.
- Research and understand the blog: This is vital step; before you plan to write for them, you need to completely research and understand their blog content. Because you can’t write articles that have already published. Also, figure out who the target audience of that blog; whether the blog is targeting for beginners or pros. Check what type of posts they usually accept.
- Study the previously published guest posts: To make the most of your guest posts, you need to completely study the previously published guest posts; check what type of guest posts got good readers engagement. My last guest post was on Comluv; I knew that Comluv is a multi-niche blog and has huge community members, so I wrote a guest post that slightly looked like a personal development guide. The result? My post got good readers-engagement with over 50 comments.
Pitching For Guest Posts
Now you have done all the background work, now it’s time to pitch, but before that;
Read the guidelines carefully
This is essential step before you pitch for guest post; read their guest blogging guidelines carefully. This will help you understand what the blog owner is expecting from guest bloggers; what is the minimum length of a guest post? What are the quality guidelines to follow? How many backlinks they provide? Etc.
Due to lot of spamming in recent years, many blog authors won’t allow you to register an account and write guest posts directly. Many ask you to send a post draft through email, so the pitching has to be done properly;
Personalize your Pitch
Many make mistake here; they pitch like robots. Because of recent Google updates, many won’t accept guest post from unknown authors and they hesitate to link back to your site if it looks spammy. So approach them by addressing their name instead of addressing them like “Dear Site owner”, “Dear Webmaster”. Be polite, and make your pitch look professional without making any spelling or grammatical errors. Also, make sure not to look like a link-builder.
Format well before submitting
If you want to increase your chances of getting your guest posts approved, you need to leave no work for blog owner. The blog owners are usually busy, and they might be getting lot of guest post requests. If you don’t format your work yourself, your guest post might end up in trash.
So make sure to do the basic formatting work like adding related images, tags, interlinking, proofreading etc. The less work you give, the chances of getting approved is more.
Give back more than you take
When you get a guest blogging opportunity, you need to make the most of it. The blog owners usually allow guest bloggers because they want quality contents on their blog. That means they expect your best work, so try to add as much value as possible.
It is important to give back more than what you get (backlinks, traffic) from them, so try your best shot and write very detailed quality post. If the blog owner is allowing you to add anchor links in your post, use it properly and never misuse it. And one more thing is don’t advertise or spam.
Wait with Patience
Once you submit your guest post, wait with patience and don’t bug them asking the status of your post, this will definitely piss many blog owners. They will get back to you, but they might take some time. So wait with patience or your post might end up in trash.
Promote and Share
Once your guest post is published, it’s important to share and promote it like your blog. Also make sure to reply all the comments, and lastly try to be the regular contributor. This will help you get more credibility for your brand.
Make Guest posting your habit
Even though I’m not getting enough time, I’m managing to write one or two guest post per month. Try to write guest posts quite often and make it a habit. Apart from so many above mentioned advantages, guest blogging also helps you to hone your writing skills and confidence. Honestly speaking, my writing and confidence in blogging dramatically increased after starting guest blogging.
Over to you
Thinking to start your guest blogging journey? Start it now by following this guide. Take a leap, and promote your brand with one of the efficient method, you’ll enjoy it.
Are you already a guest blogger? Then Share your opinion on your guest blogging experience in the comment section.
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