Guest Blogging - Advantages for the Guest Blogger

I have recently become aware of the advantages, for both parties, of guest blogging. This month we'll take a look at the advantages for the guest, and next month (same date, same place) we'll look at the advantages for the host.

Advantages for the guest blogger:

Here are some of the advantages you may gain if you are a guest on someone else's blog:

• Build Backlinks: Guest blogging is regarded by many as one of the easiest and most effective way to build backlinks to your site. Guests to your host's blog will follow your links. An increase in backlinks will increase your ranking on Google, and if they like your site, they may start to visit it regularly.

• Build Your Platform: We hear about this need all the time. Editors often look to see what your platform is like before considering your contract. If they find you as a guest on other blogs as well as your own, this can only help your platform.

• Build Your Brand: By guest posting on your host's site, readers will associate you with that site's niche, and start to search for you when they want to know more on the topic.

• Build your site traffic: Guest blogging is one of the best ways to draw readers to your own site. Chances are your host will advertise your post on Twitter, Facebook,etc, which will also get your name "out there". If readers enjoy your guest post, they may start to follow you on other social media sites as well.

• Build Your Subscribers: As other guests to your host's blog follow your links back to your website or blog, they may well want to sign up to receive your newsletters or follow your RSS feed, so that they do not miss further posts by you.

• Build Your Credibility: As other bloggers read your excellent guest posts, they in turn will want to know more about you, and may also invite you to post on their blogs.
• Build Exposure: This stands to reason, the more blogs where you post original material, the more people will read your work, and the better known your name will become.
• Build Promotion: of book launches, or other products you wish to promote. A condition of your guest blogging should be that you get a bio with clickable links.
• Build Your Social Base: Writing is a lonely occupation, but if you want to be read, you need to make friends in the cyber world. By posting as a guest on other blogs, you start to mix, not only with the hosts of the sites, but also with their readers.  

So what are you waiting for? Take a look at the other sites that cover interests similar to you, and see if you can write an article for them - or even share one you have already written on your own blog (provided you don't want them to pay you!)


Before you guest blog:

• Research the blog. Know its goals. Figure out what sort of posts the host wants. Read the last dozen or so blog posts. Get the feel of the site.
• Post original material. By all means quote from some material on your own blog (and don't forget to link back) but your host doesn't want a clone. For Google ranking, the material you post must be original.
• Write your very best. Where obviously your own blog deserves good writing, and everything you post should be well proofed before going public, it is even more important when you're posting on someone else's blog. Send in poorly written material and chances are it won't be posted at all. You certainly won't be invited back. And it won't achieve any of the advantages listed above.
• Send a sample. Rather than querying whether you can do a guest blog for a site, send along a possible post and say, "After researching your blog, I thought you might like to use this on your site?" Or "Would you like me to adapt this for your blog?" That makes it easier for the host to accept it--or reject it if it isn't suitable.
• Comment on possible blogs first. It is a good idea to frequent the blog for a few weeks, and comment on other posts. This way the host already knows your name, and may in fact follow your link back to your website or blog. He or she may then invite you to do a post.
• Promote your blog post.
○ Tweet your post on Twitter - more than once. Remember, the world is ruled by time-zones. A good time for Americans to read your tweet is a bad time for Australians. I promote all my blog posts eight times in all: three times, eight hours apart, the first day; then once a day for five days, each at a different time.
○ Share your post on Facebook, LinkedIn, ShoutOut, and any other social media you are involved in.


OVER TO YOU: What sort of posts could you write or share with other readers of this site? What would prevent you from doing so? Let's talk! Hit comment and leave your thoughts.



SHIRLEY CORDER lives a short walk from the seaside in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with her husband Rob. She is author of Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer. Shirley is also contributing author to ten other books and has published hundreds of devotions and articles internationally. 

Visit Shirley on her website to inspire and encourage writers, or on Rise and Soar, her website for encouraging those on the cancer journey. Follow her on Twitter or "like" her Author's page on Facebook. 

13 comments:

Heidiwriter said...

I love guest-posting for the reasons you mention, Shirley, and I love having guests post to my blog.It's also just fun to "meet" and get to "know" fellow writers and bloggers. I've made many on-line friends this way.

Magdalena Ball said...

Thanks Shirley - you're so right (and welcome to guest blog for me at magdalenaball.blogspot.com anytime - I know well the benefits!). One of the best things about blogging is that it remains in place more or less permanently - I've had comments and link-throughs from guest blogs I wrote years ago.

Karen Cioffi said...

Great guest blogging tips, Shirley. It does open a whole new community to your and your products/services. That's why WOTM has member guest blogging in place as one of its marketing strategies and benefits.

widdershins said...

The 'commenting on other blogs first' strategy works! I've recently started getting invites to guest blog ... without even asking! The first time it happened, I almost fell out of my chair! .. but now I'm cool. :D

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Shirl, did you know that Dan Poynter actually suggests people not have blogs of their own but offer themselves up as a guest blogger for at least some of these very reasons. He thinks the reach goes farther than starting a new. BTW, I suggest this and some other blogging ideas in my chapter on blogging in The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkProm)

Suzanne Lieurance said...

Shirl,

No wonder I keep getting emails with guest blogging requests from people I've never heard of. :)

Shirley Corder said...

Thank you for all the super answers. I'm keen to guest blog for any of you when you have a vacancy. (Thanks Magdalena, I see that hand!)

Carolyn - and yes, I have the book - far be it for me to disagree with the great Dan Poynter, but at least by having my own blog I can reciprocate for those who want to guest blog for me. (Next month's post - The advantages for the host. :-))

My blog is actually part of my website - so an advantage of that is if someone visits the blog, they also visit my website. I also don't blog about what we had for breakfast. :-)

My huge problem is that I have two blogs (two websites). One my name (to inspire and encourage writers and readers) and one to encourage those in the cancer valley. So it is a challenge to keep up with both. I am now hosting more guests and that is a help for me, as well as hopefully for them.

Kathleen Moulton said...

As always Shirley, you are a delightful author. I'm printing your post off and adding it to my resources. I am venturing into the the guest blogging territory and your information is valuable. Thanks!

Kathy

Sherry Ellis said...

This is an excellent post! I'm going to tweet it.

Kathy McIntosh said...

Great ideas and information. I need to start doing this. Both as a guest and a host.

Shirley Corder said...

Thanks for your input ladies, and for your encouragement. Karen, please could you explain again how the "member guest blogging" works? I was trying to remember earlier today. Thanks.

Mary Jo Guglielmo said...

Great post Shirley. I have limited the guest blogging I've done, but I am going to rethink my approach. Thanks for the insights

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Dear Shirley,another inspired and inspiring post. And Carolyn's reply offered, as always, more helpful tips. What a wonderful resource you have again provided for us. Many thanks.

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