Guest posting is one of the oldest and most effective ways to build a credible reputation and generate traffic for your blog in one fell swoop. Guest posting is the practice of writing an article to be posted on someone else's blog. If accepted by the other blogger, your work will be introduced to a new audience of people who may, if you're lucky, became part of your own audience.
You build credibility because someone is endorsing your work. The more famous the blog is, the better this will work. However, even if the blog is relatively unknown, someone vouching for you who is not you is beneficial. If people can take the information in your post and act on it right away, that bolsters your position.
And of course the main thing is that you generate traffic, because you don't offer to guest post without the promise of some promotion for your site in return. Often the promotion will be a link to your blog in the author biography, and often you'll be able to link to your own posts throughout the piece.
Some people say that you should start small and work your way up to the bigger blogs once you have a reputation that precedes you. I say send out your best work for the big blogs first. While it can be nice to give content to peers who are also starting off fairly small, targeting the biggest movers and shakers in your niche puts you in front of the most eyeballs the quickest.
Be humble and polite. Be professional. Ensure that your email is written with flawless spelling and grammar because many bloggers and editors won't look at your attached piece if they find something about your email even remotely off-putting. Don't be the rambling fan. Write your email from the perspective of an equal, one professional to another.
Treat the recipient like a human being. Although this attitude is finally starting to slip away, there was a time when less renowned bloggers viewed the heavyweight bloggers the way music fans look at their favorite artists. It was a little bit odd and some bloggers still have these cult followings.
If you can't get an email address for the blogger and need to use a contact form on their site, don't include the article in the body text. Simply ask if you can have their email address so you can send them your article for consideration.
Above all, don't contact someone about a guest post if you haven't actually written anything yet. Promising and then failing to deliver something will seriously damage your reputation.
If the blog generally pays contributing writers, and you're writing the post as a writer without much emphasis on promoting your site other than a link at the end of the post, then it's pretty fair to ask if there is pay for the guest post. If you're heavily promoting your site, then don't ask for money. The time you spend writing is a marketing expense.
My suggestion is that if the blog owner normally pays people to write for them, think like a business owner, not a freelance writer, and offer to write the post for free if your site receives prominent exposure in the piece. A link at the bottom of a post and a bit of cash won't do much to generate traffic for your site.
We've been over the planning and production of content, and a guest post is pretty much the same, though there are a few extra things to be aware of. First of all, stick to writing about what you're awesome at. When you're writing for someone else's blog and audience, it's not the time to start experimenting – do that on your own site. Give them a good, solid piece on a good, solid topic that you know like the back of your hand. There's a good chance you would have written about the topic ten times before. Suck it up and do it again!
Be aware of how you link out. Unless you're told otherwise, the safest bet is to split the links you include in half: 50% link back to other posts on the blog you're writing for, while 50% link to your own blog. Some blog owners don't like it when guests start linking to all their friends' blogs and other random sites.
Don't give everything you know away! Leave the reader asking enough questions that they'll make the effort to check out your blog. It takes a lot for some users to be tempted to check out a new site, so you've really got to work to give them a reason to do so.
Finally, be sure to send your post along with a bio, at the end. If the blogger you're communicating with doesn't receive a bio they may just link your name to your site and fail to tell their audience anything else about who you are. Bios are hard to write for yourself, but it's something you'll need to use all the time in this industry, so spend some time on one you're happy to re-use.
After the post is published on the other blog, link to it on your own blog. Tell your readers how much you enjoy the blog you've guested on. It's only fair. Send out a tweet and get some friends to retweet it. Make an effort to show that you're a grateful person and appreciate your host for having you in front of their audience.
It's also customary and conducive to future relationship building that you send a thank-you email when you see the post go live. Let them know you appreciate the time they spent editing and formatting your piece and don't criticize them for removing a particular paragraph or word; it's the editor's job to improve on what the writer created, and the blog owner knows what their audience wants to see.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Webworldarticles.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
This article was sent to us by:
Roger Hill at
02172011
1. Creating Your Own Wordpress Template Tags
All articles in this directory are property of their respective authors. Additionally, read our Privacy Policy
© 2010 WebWorldarticles.com - All Rights Reserved. Partners: Gunblade Saga