Everything You Need To Know About Guest Blogging
Guest blogging comes in two forms. Either you write a guest post for someone else’s blog, or they write a post for yours. Both are good ways to get your name out to your audience.
Guest blogging is an awesome way to generate more traffic to your website, make a name for yourself, and can even be a game changer for the success of your business. To get started you either need to have your own blog packed with content or you need to be an established writer.
The Advantages Of Guest Blogging
If you’re one of the above, you’re in luck because guest blogging offers a huge range of opportunities. Here are some of the biggest advantages of guest blogging:
1- Fresh Content On Your Website
Offering space for guest writers to publish content on your blog means you’ll always have fresh content on your website. The ability to generate fresh content regularly allows you to improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), reach new readers, and potentially make more sales.
Your subscribers will find it interesting that you are collaborating with other industry leaders and sharing their views on a specific topic. Keeping your website fresh with the odd piece of completely new content will keep your readers engaged.
2- Increased Social Media Interactions
Publishing guests posts or being featured yourself will increase your social media interactions as long as you are proactive. Most blogs offer readers the chance to share the content on social media platforms.
Sharing your guest posts on your social media platforms will tap into that writer’s audience, thus engaging new people and further increasing your presence on social media. Be sure to integrate your social media strategy with your guest blogging one.
3- Higher Quality Search Engine Optimization
Using guest blogging to increase your SEO can be extremely beneficial. While many search engines can penalize guest blogging as a form of link building, including links that add value to your reader’s experience can be a winning strategy.
To make this possible, you must ensure that the content you are linking to is of high quality and not solely your own. Look at it this way: would you write your guest post if you weren’t allowed to add a link to your own website?
If the answer is yes, then it means you’re not just in it for the extra readers, so you’re not likely to spam your post with too many links to your own content.
Just remember to link to other authoritative sites and try not to link back to your own content more than 2 or 3 times within a guest post.
4- Higher Quality Leads
By creating high-quality blog posts on other platforms, you’ll be increasing your chances of generating high-quality readers to your own blog.
If the audience reading your guest posts enjoy your content they’ll likely go out of their way to find you online, whether a link to your own blog can be found on your content or not.
5- Increased Customer Retention
The likelihood is, if you generate quality leads through exceptional content, you’ll also generate more email subscribers. When readers subscribe to your email newsletter, you’re instantaneously creating a bond with them.
You can continue doing so by strengthening your relationship with the owner of the platform you are guest blogging on. Make sure you always submit blog posts on time, that are grammatically correct, and of the same quality you would expect to see on your own blog.
6- Increased Brand Awareness
Blogging is a must for brand recognition. While this shouldn’t be your driving force behind blogging, it does allow you to reach more readers. Guest blogging does exactly the same but through multiple platforms.
Being published across various websites gives you the chance to get recognized as a writer as a well as tell others about your own blog. It’s a great way to setup your brand as an authority figure within your chosen industry.
How To Pitch Guest Blog Ideas
The best way to pitch your guest blog idea to a platform is to first choose the right blog to target. You must pitch to a website that:
- You read regularly
- You believe you will benefit from
- They will benefit from having you
- Is well established within your niche
- Takes guest blog posts
Once you have chosen the platforms to which you’d like to contribute, you must come up with a bullet proof idea the author will not be able to say no to. Your idea should not only be in the right niche but also be a good fit for the audience of the blog you are pitching to.
You must ensure your post is unique, does not resemble other posts currently on the blog, and has the appropriate tone of voice for the platform in question.
Writing Your Pitch
To really convince the editor that you are worth publishing on their platform, you must send them an outline of your blog idea. Whatever you do, do not send through a finished post before coming to the agreement that it will be published under your name.
Once you’ve created your outline and you’re ready to send it, you must think about your email. It can be daunting to click send on your pitch email, especially if you’re writing to a big, well-established editor.
To put your mind at ease, editors aren’t looking at your credentials, they’re looking at your ability to write. With that in mind, make sure that your email has absolutely no spelling mistakes.
Make your email pitch bulletproof by:
- Providing a unique and on-target blog idea
- Being clear and concise
- Being personable and proving that you’re not sending a mass email
- Following up with another personable email
How To Attract Guest Posts On Your Own Blog
Attracting guest bloggers to your own blog also has a number of advantages. You’ll gain mutual reputation benefits, be able to take a break from writing yourself, generate new perspectives on your platform, and attract a new audience, thus increasing your subscriptions.
But, how can you get quality guest posts on your own blog? The best way to do so is to advertise the opportunity on your website. There are mounds of writers wanting to be published, so tell them that you’re taking guest bloggers on.
Once you’ve made the opportunity available on your blog, promote it on social media with an appropriate hashtag strategy to increase visibility. Words of wisdom- vet your applicants so that you only have the highest quality content on your blog.
Final Thoughts
Guest blogging is a great way to get more traffic on your own blog, but only if you do it well. Pitching to brands and media outlets is a time-consuming endeavor, but one that can really boost your traffic.
Work with brands and individuals that share the same passion for your niche and are able to produce high quality and resourceful content that will benefit your readers.
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