Probably all of you by now know that if you truly want to succeed in blogging, you must understand, or start to understand promotion as an inevitable part of every blogging success. That being said, you should embrace the idea of guest blogging as one of the leading ways of promoting your new brand.
Why is guest blogging so important?
Well since this particular post is not centered on that topic, I’ll just try to summarize that in a sentence, and fully elaborate in another article in the future.
Guest blogging is so important and used because it targets the perfect audience, makes you a person of certain credibility (that is imposed simply by you being allowed to blog on another site), gives you the ability to reach wider audience without particular effort and therefore gives you the chance to make readers switch to reading your blog.
So we know it is important. But the real question waits to be answered: How do we approach guest blogging, and know we are doing the right thing?
Well first let me tell you that there is not one right way. Or there is no concept that stands as the only correct one. But just by observing what the successful bloggers are doing you can get the right picture.
Here I have for you something that not only I, but many other bloggers will recommend regarding guest blogging.
1. Guest Post Your Best Content
Before you go through the entire technicality, and finally get permission to submit your article, the first thing you must differentiate is which of your posts to give away for guest blogging. Now “Give away” is not the right choice of words, but since I heard it far too many times in conversations I had with bloggers I decided to use it just to provoke some attention.
It is because many bloggers out there (especially the new ones) believe that they are losing their articles to someone else, when they submit them to another site.
This mindset makes them not write at their best, not use keyword, try to forward something lame, and some even have the guts to ask readers to visit their blog after all of that insults towards common sense.
The thing is, if you really want to make readers come to your site, post something that is among your best. No, I take that back. Post your very best.
You see, that way and only that way, you have a chance of making some sparks of attention.
Write your best; make analysis of the site you are writing for, try to get to know your potential readers, what they want, what is their interest. Take all the time you need.
The other blog will do all the promotion for you in years to come, and your post will be there to make readers fall in love with you.
2. Always act like a professional
This can be a very important aspect, especially in your approach towards other fellow bloggers. If you want to guest post for someone, act like a professional, and convince him that you can offer something significant and useful for his audience.
Never add the person you wanna write for in your social media profiles just so you can try to convince him by sending a message. Try to resist the urge of sending him a guest post proposal or pitching him an idea on his facebook or twitter account. Similarly, forget about asking him for guest posting on his site in the comment section. It’s just lame.
Since both of you are professionals, there is no place for such things. The right thing to do is to send a formal e-mail to his address and neatly explain why you think you should be given the opportunity, and more important what you have to offer in terms of quality material.
You can also just mention couple of ideas you wanna write for, briefly explaining how you analyzed that those would benefit the site. Or if you are that confident, try sending him a draft of something you are convinced will spark his attention. That way, the both of you save time on formal discussions.
3. Always choose highly respected, authoritative blogs.
Choose carefully the sites you are about to write for. Never forward your material (best material, as we agreed) to sites that are not there to stay. Then all of this would be for nothing. Search for highly authoritative blogs with loyal audience.
The guest post should hopefully stay on the site for a long time, so choose sites that have been there for a while, and that are likely to stay.
Also go for sites that compare with yours when it comes to quality, or better than yours. It is better to make things happen with one such site, than with fifty “far under the radar” sites.
That’s also important when it comes to link building, but about that in some another post.
Try this analogy:
Let’s say you are an upcoming celebrity, and you are invited to talk on fifty different radio shows that have like the smallest rating. Now imagine you are being invited to appear on Oprah or Letterman?
You get the picture?
Only one guest post on the right place is more important than fifty others scattered through the net on baby sites.
And also before you choose the place you are about to write for, try and ask yourself where the audience that could be interested in you niche hangs around. When you have finally found a place, it is towards there you should be targeting all your efforts.
As you see there are many factors that decide whether or not you will use guest blogging with its full potential. These advices in three very important aspects should hopefully make you stand up among the others, and soon double or triple the chances of successfully promoting your blog.
By Guest Author –Slavko Desik is editor and writer at Lifestyle Updated where he combines his passion for living a healthy lifestyle with leveraging his knowledge about blogging.
