Guest blogging is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to build links and audience. You don’t have to be an experienced blogger owning a popular website in order to do so – all you have to do is to be able to write the blog post that will be both interesting and informative.
However, what should you do in order to make it right?
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Create a portfolio.
It doesn’t matter who you are: an independent blogger or a freelance writer wanting to promote your services with the help of guest blogging. Either way, you should have something you can show to website and blog owners in order to persuade them to work with you. If you are a blogger, your blog can be used as a portfolio; if you are a freelance writer, you have to create a portfolio on one of the many websites (free or paid – it’s up to you).
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Do a proper research.
There are so many blogs online and your goal is to find the ones that will benefit you the most. Look for the blogs related to your niche (after all, you do want to attract readers from your target audience). Choose the most popular ones and double-check whether they allow guest posting or not. Some blogs and websites have a special page with guest posting terms and conditions: you have to read it in order to make sure that you fit all the requirements and will be able to provide the right post. Some web pages don’t have such option, though: in this case, you can still contact their owners directly, asking for a permission to write a guest post.
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Write a nice outreach letter.
Guest blogging has to be beneficial both for you and for the blog owner. The owner of a blog receives content that is interesting and unique at the same time, while you receive an opportunity to attract new readers and to promote your blog. That’s why it is so important to make your outreach letter really personal: otherwise, it might look like a mass mailing.
If you know the name of a blog owner, address them by their name. Also explain why you want to write a guest post for the blog (maybe because you like the content there, for example). Don’t simply say that you want to write – offer some topics too and encourage the blog owner to choose the one that they like the most.
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Take your time writing a guest post.
If you want to get as much out of it as possible, you should put a lot of effort into writing a guest post. Simply analyzing other bloggers’ posts won’t do: there are plenty of such articles online, while your goal is to create something really unique. Therefore, work hard to create content that is actually interesting and original. Write about your own experience and ideas rather than share well-known tips. Feel free to joke (if appropriate) and share personal stories and examples to illustrate your point of view.
A good guest post is hardly written at once: usually, it takes time for bloggers to come up with the first draft, then add some interesting details, and so on. Therefore, don’t rush: the more time you spend on writing a guest post, the better the outcome will be.
Pay attention to the backlink: it shouldn’t look too obvious and it shouldn’t be used to many times in the text. The readers don’t like it when a text looks like something written for promotion only: they will check out your blog, but only if they find your post interesting and not too promotional. Also do proper on-page seo. Here’s our complete guide to On-Page SEO.
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Don’t forget to track the results.
Some bloggers settle with simply writing a guest post. Once the post is published, they never return to this website and never reach its owner again. This, however, isn’t a wise thing to do. By doing so, you miss the opportunity to improve the quality of your guest posts and to build up the audience even more.
Actually, when a post is interesting, the blog owner usually wants to continue cooperating with the blogger. That’s why you should keep in touch with the website owner just in case. Be sure to thank them for the given opportunity and ask them later whether they need more guest posts from you or not. Moreover, don’t forget to check out your posted articles and reply to the comments the readers leave.
Also, monitor your statistics to see where the visitors come from. If you receive many hits from one of the websites you wrote a guest post for, but don’t receive any from another one, maybe this means that one of your articles wasn’t nearly as good as the other one. Pay attention to it, as it could help you adjust your blogging strategy and write better guest posts.
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Create a schedule.
Despite guest blogging might look easy to some of us, it is actually a serious business. Therefore, you should consider structuring it, especially if you write a couple of guest posts each week or each month. Keep a list of the posts you have to write and a list of the bloggers you wrote for. Schedule some time for corresponding with bloggers and make sure that you have enough time to write the desired number of guest posts without affecting your own blog’s updates.
Summing this up, guest blogging is not a tough thing to do – but only when you do it right. You have to choose the blogs you want to write for wisely, work hard to provide high-quality guest posts, keep a schedule, and track the results. This will allow you to understand how exactly the system works as well as to make the most out of it.
If you also have some guest blogging tips and tricks that you are willing to share with us, please do so in the comment section below. We’ll be happy to hear your opinion!
About the Guest author:
Richard Nolan is a blogger and a private tutor, sharing his experience in spheres of blogging, self-growth, and psychology. Richard writes for numerous blogs and gives useful tips for bloggers, students, and teachers.