How to be a Successful Guest Blogger and Drive Traffic to Your Blog
by amandatradwick on Dec 16, 2011 • 6:06 am 12 CommentsGuest blogging is one of the best ways to build quality backlinks to your blog, which can improve your search-engine ranking. Also, when you write for another blog, you are being introduced to a whole new audience of readers, which you can attract to become regular readers and subscribers of your blog. However, effective guest blogging requires more than just contacting a few blogs, asking to post, and throwing up some haphazard content with a link to your blog. If you want to make the most out of your guest blogging opportunity — both to become a successful guest blogger in the long term and to get quality traffic to your site — here are some steps you should follow:
Find Appropriate Blogs
If you write a blog about caring for dogs, you likely won’t have a high reader conversion rate if you guest post for a blog on car repairs. To ensure that you are targeting the right audience, perform keyword research to find appropriate and relevant blogs. Also, look for blogs that have a steady flow of traffic to make sure that you are maximizing your efforts. Alexa, Technorati, and Google PageRank are some good tools for researching and choosing appropriate blogs with quality traffic.
Make Contact
Before you start contacting blog owners, be sure that you have some quality posts ready to pitch. Simply saying “I would like to guest post for your blog”, and waiting for an idea, may not land you a writing opportunity. Instead, treat each point of contact as an opportunity to sell yourself and your blog. Be sure that you include information about your blog, your writing experience, your areas of expertise and some topics for potential guest blog posts (including catchy headlines). Highlight how the blog owner would benefit from having you as a guest, as well, perhaps including information about your traffic base, how you will promote the post or your unique expertise.
Write a Quality Post
Once you have the go-ahead to write a guest post, start your research and planning as if you were writing a post for your own blog. Your guest post is an opportunity to connect with new readers, and if your post is poor quality, readers will likely think that your blog is of poor quality as well. They will have little incentive to visit your blog. Write a quality post with a unique angle, and be sure that you have optimized your posts with appropriate keywords (both for your blog and for your guest blog). Optimizing your posts will increase their visibility, helping you and the blog owner.
Optimize Your Byline
Your post is a way to highlight your expertise and the quality of content that can be found on your blog, but your byline is a way to let readers know a little something about you and to tell them why they should visit your blog. Be sure to include a photo of yourself (or an avatar), relevant information about your blog and your expertise, and a link to your blog. Use anchor text or other keywords in your byline as well.
Promote Your Post
When you submit your guest post, you are not yet finished. Once your post is published, you should promote your post by linking to it on your own blog, as well as any social-networking sites you are on. Not only will this encourage readers to visit the guest blog, thereby establishing a good relationship with the partner blogger, but it will also encourage more buzz around the post, helping to boost search-engine ranking. Be sure to also reply to all comments about your post in your efforts to promote it and build up more buzz.
Guest posting is a valuable marketing tool for any blogger, but it requires research and diligence to get the maximum benefit. Following these tips can help you to become a successful guest blogger and to encourage quality traffic back to your site. What other tips do you have for successful guest blogging? Share your ideas in the comments!
12 comments
Amie Marse says:
Dec 16, 2011
Great post. One other tip worth mentioning is to research whether or not the blog has a “guest post” tab or option. If a blog owner has gone out of their way to write about “how to be a guest blogger” for their site and you don’t read it – you won’t be accepted.
Raj says:
Dec 17, 2011
I do agree that guest blogging is a good way to promote one’s own blog and try to connect to a different audience, but I am not very sure if the backlinks will retain its value over the long run…
Jane @ write killer post says:
Dec 17, 2011
Great post to get the maximum from guest posts. quality content, simple yet innovative spiced with humour will attract new visitors to your own site also.
Jane @ write killer post says:
Dec 17, 2011
You should give the best shot in guest blogging. A high qaulity article, filled with fresh content, having authenticity, sprinkled with entertaining phrases will win many hearts and many new hits to your site.
neo says:
Dec 17, 2011
hi amanda
Personally I think the best way to be a great guest blogger is don’t REUSE the same article in different blog.
I see many reuse the same article with different tittle and some content modification. Should create unique content not reuse
Franck Silvestre says:
Dec 18, 2011
Guest blogging is powerful. If the blog has a lot of traffic and followers, it’s even better. It is important to also capture your visitor’s email and present them with your services and products.
Ellie says:
Dec 18, 2011
Enjoyed your article on How to be a Successful Guest Blogger and Drive Traffic to Your Blog. I especially liked the way you deliniated the five step approach.
I am not into internet marketing; but, merely looking for ways to popularize my new site on anxiety attacks. You have provided me some very helpful tips. Thank you 🙂
Ellie
BuySellWordpress says:
Dec 19, 2011
Everything that you wrote is very important and should be kept in mind by everyone who’d like to practice guest blogging
Doug says:
Dec 26, 2011
I think writing a quality post is the challenge for me
Andi says:
Jan 1, 2012
Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the informative, helpful post. And you’re right- even reading your signature, I’m interested in contacting you about grant writing, one of my other interests! You mentioned finding appropriate blogs- What do you think is the best way to find other, local bloggers, for a business that depends on locals?
Arjun Rai says:
Jan 6, 2012
Its very useful information for every blogger, i really enjoyed this informative post. Thanks for sharing this and good going amanda 🙂
Aliana says:
Mar 26, 2012
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