Though their death may have been prophesized back in 2014, the art of guest blogging remains alive and kicking. If you’re new to blogging or a dab-hand at it, you’ll know how hard it can be to get going and gather a following. Sometimes, it can feel fruitless and like you’re giving away your best content to a small audience. Guest blogging can change that.
From the name alone, I know what it sounds like, that guest blogging is only beneficial to the host and not you. They’re going to get all the traffic from your hard work, and you’ll see no rewards; but that is not the case. Your content will not be stolen and plagiarised, far from it; what the host site will do is feature you on their landing pages with your logo and name. Sounds good, right?
At a quick glance, guest blogging and guest posting has many positives; from building relationships with both readers and other names within your industry, to additional exposure. This applies to both sides of the relationship, so it’s a win-win situation all round. With almost 63% of people saying they perceive blogs as more credible when they feature multiple authors, there really isn’t a reason to not at least think about guest blogging.
The first step is, hold for applause, research! This is where our cyber-stalking skills will always come in useful. If you’ve got your finger on the pulse of your industry, you’ll be aware of the top dogs of blogs and those are the places that should be high on the list of where to submit. You don’t want to be submitting willy-nilly, only to be disheartened as they’re a blog about fashion and you’re writing about food. That will waste your valuable time. So, sniff out the top dogs and, perhaps, the blogs that are publishing posts from your competitors.
Your competitors can be your greatest resource. If a blog has published them, why shouldn’t they also publish you? Plus, it’s an opportunity for you to showcase how much better you are than them. Not that this should be a competition… though it is our greatest motivation a lot of the time, and we won’t tell anyone!
Now you’ve got your list of where to submit to, you can now research the type of content they’re looking to publish. What’s come before, how can you make it fresher, or what new take can you bring to the table? Bulletproof content is the best foundation you can have when it comes to guest posting as you’re not only keeping to the high standards of the host site, but you’re also levelling up your authoritative and knowledgeable image and putting your best foot forward to potential customers.
If this hasn’t been enough to twist your arm yet…
Once you’ve gained those new eyes on your shiny guest post, you’ll be gaining those eyes on your own website and social media pages. Guest blogging and posting is still one of the best ways to grow your audience, thus driving traffic to your site. Essentially, by submitting posts, you’re pitching your startup to an established audience that may not know of you yet. So, if you can add value to their reading and all-over experience, they’ll be far more likely to go over and check out more of your dazzling content.
You’ll hit the ground running as soon as you’ve been accepted for one post which means that your continued success will build your company up with a solid number of valuable backlinks. One way to figure out if a website is credible enough to submit to is through their own backlog of backlinks. Think of it like a feature on a song, more often than not, you’ll find yourself wondering who this new voice is and what other music they do by themselves, so you’ll search for them through the original artist you listened to the song for.
The goal for guest blogging is to submit to as many sites as possible to maximise your reach as far as it can go (not to mention the boost it will give your search engine visibility), but though the rule of thumb is to submit to places that has a larger following than your own, you have to be careful not to submit to your direct competition. Again, research will be the most helpful asset you have for this.
When you’ve been posted on all these wonderful websites, the work doesn’t stop there. As you’ll know, it is important to build a relationship of awareness and trust amongst your potential and target audience and being featured on websites that are larger than your own is a great way to achieve this. Especially when you’re still scaling; being featured is a way to tell your readers that you are legitimate and now you’ve got the social proof to back it up.
You can increase this further by spending some time in the comments section of your posts and responding to any comments, clarifying any points, and just sharing all that valuable insight you have stored away. This will establish you as the go-to person for readers to come to for everything to do with your niche.
Not only that, but they will lead to new sales opportunities and business leads (which is music to your ears!). Say your content has solved the problem of a reader, they’ll hold you in high standards and will want to come over to your site to seek out more information from who they’ll now consider an expert in your niche.
Go forth and submit those guest posts. It won’t be long before you’re seeing the rewards from it!
