Is guest posts one of the ways which you are using to promote your blog?
I have seen many people sending guest posts but it is only with an intent to get a backlink. Most of the blog owner who accepts guest posts knows what I am talking about.
I know that there are millions of blogs and a place for every article, so each article ends up finding its place. But I would assume you are not one of the those who are just giving low quality post, you write good quality articles and send those to other blog owners as guest posts.
Writing a good article does take its time and effort, are you getting all the milk it is worth for?
Guest Posts Schedule
Are you managing your guest posts schedule correctly? or do you have one?
Most people have a schedule for posting on their blog but lack a schedule for guest posts. You should have a proper schedule for your guest posts.
Why?
Guest post is a good way to gain links and additional traffic to your blog. If you don’t follow a schedule you will get spike in traffic for some days and some days there will be not much traffic. If you manage a proper schedule and spread your posts on the timeline than you will have steady flow of traffic.
Each blog follows its own publishing schedule, so while sending the posts you need to keep that in mind. Usually if you have posted on a blog earlier you know how much time it will take to publish a post, you can setup schedule according to that.
For Example – when I send a post to Problogger, I know that it usually have a slot available after 15-20 days. so I always send a post in advance keeping that duration in mind.
Guest Posts Promotion
Ok, your guest post is published, now what?
What do you do when you publish a post on your blog, you promote it.
Guest post also needs a promotion, it is a page which is pointing to your blog and everybody knows that backlinks from a high PR page is much more important that a low PR page.
I have always followed this rule and promoted my guest post, I go one step forward and do track my guest post page ranks. You can check how I moved up to PR3 in 3 Months with the help of Guest posting. (have you noticed that I just promoted one of my other guest post rather than a post on my blog)
I have heard many people saying that it is somebody’s else blog why should we go and create backlinks for them.
But you are creating links for your own post, or to a page which is having a link to your blog. So in a essence you are getting the link juice back.
There can be many ways you can promote your guest post, Commentluv Plugin can also help in promoting your guest post. Check out this video from Ms. Ileane that demonstrates how to promote guest posts the CommentLuv Way.
I would recommend doing the same kind of promotion as you do for your own blog post.
Something Extra From Guest Posts
Guest posting is a good way to make connections. When I started I didn't know anybody in the blogging sphere. Guest posting has given me some new friends and a name in the blogging sphere.
There are many thing which can be done with guest posts, If your posts are getting published on an active blog than you may receive lots of comments. Once your guest post is published, you should go back and answer those comments.
I always try to answer any comment which I have got on my posts (I might skip nice post kind of comments). It actually gives a nice personal touch to the post and it gives a comfort to the webmaster that you are serious about your posts.
You can check the commenters blogs and who knows you will find a blog for your next guest post.
So are you doing it correctly? What else are you looking for while doing guest posts, let us know through comments.
Excellent post Sanjeev. I agree with you on all points, especially the part about article promotion. You’re right guest posters should promote their guest posts as they would do on their own blogs. This would also help them to get more exposure. Apart from this they should also reply to the comments made on their post, which will help them to establish good relationship between the readers as well as the blog owner.
Yes, Reply to the comments and engaging with the readers is must, I hate when somebody think that they have got their links and leave blog owner to justify their views.
I agree with this too. If a guest author come and post. after it if they don’t reply to comments, Its irritating .
thanks for useful post here.
Sanjeev,
talk about it my friend 🙂
That used to happen to me all the time in the past, before I had to seriously moderate comments and r00t some people out. I virtually hate when people just want to drop links to get what they can out of it, without having the maturity to understand that engaging online socially with others in meaningful conversation would do a lot more good in the long run for their online presence 🙂
ohh there are many people who will just go around for the sake of a link and most of time will not add anything to the discussion. they will post and will be gone. I always make note of that kind of people even if the post is on another blog.
I thinks its fare that author should justify their views.
yeah, I understand where you’re coming from on that one. well, if they truly commit themselves [like the rest of people towards being better publishers] online, perhaps it’ll automatically click in their minds to leave meaningful comments on people’s blogs, as well as “participate with meaning on social discussion forums”, because there’s traffic, as well as links and [good search engine optimization for everyone to benefit from], if you do the footwork of “engaging with others online meaningfully” through fresh web content, as well as blog commenting. That’s pretty much it for now in a nutshell 🙂
I agree that promoting your guest posts is both smart & courteous.
What is some of the ways you do this?
~Bruce
Hi Bruce, I use all the methods which I use for my blog. If you see there are links for my 2 other guest posts in this guest post also. I also use blog commenting, social media promotion etc for the guest posts.
when it comes to article marketing, I’ve always wondered about one particular thing. That thing is…
After writing the article, is it good to post it to your website or blog first, and then submit that same content to an article directory?
Or, should the content only be submitted to the article directory and not posted on the website “for fear of duplicate content penalty”?
What do you think? 🙂
Duplicate content is a big no for me, either i send it to article directory or will publish to my blog. There are many people who reuses article directory content but i try to avoid it.
This all makes sense – guest blogging is something I haven’t done yet. I want to get Connect Communicate Change more established first, so there is great content if people click through. But I’ll be saving this post for when the time comes! Thanks.
Hi Philippa, There is nothing as early in guest posting and it should start as soon as possible. Yes one thing which is basic that your blog should be ready to get the visitors and if you are open for organic traffic than its time to start guest posting.
I think that accepting guest posts on your blog is a great way to connect with new webmasters and offer fresh perspective to your blog’s readers. Guest Blogging has many more advantages, but it has some risks and disadvantages that cannot be overlooked.
Yes there are certain disadvantages and webmaster has to assertive to make good decision on what to publish.
Aloha Sanjeev,
When I started blogging I was not really fond of guest post because I always had spammers on my blogs trying to promote their blog. That’s why I had just blocked the guest posts on my blog. But after sometime when I got revisits from interested users asking me for guest post to allow. I given it another chance and got few really good guest post from my regular visitor and published them on my blog. It is really a great opportunity for a writer to expose himself on others blog through guest posts.
I really appreciate your post. Its really very interesting. Hope like to read more of yours.
Ohh, If you accept guest post than you will get lot of spam posts, spin articles which might not add value to your readers. This is one of the main drawback to allowing guest post. This is one of the main reason I have started asking for articles in word format from first time authors on my blog, easy to take a look and make decision.
Hi Sanjeev, really great article man! I think you have earned the right now to give suggestions on guest blogging and how to do it so it counts and benefits you. I’ve watched your last two submissions at problogger and I think it’s great your content is getting accepted there and here on basicblogtips! Perhaps we will be lucky enough to see you joining the 1000 USD content on Blog Engage I’m sure you would do just great!
thanks for the great tips I socially shared it on G+ SU and Twitter I’m sure many of my followers would love to read suggestions that are high quality like this!
Thanks Brian, I am doing promotions for my entry and working to get some results. I have promoted the same post in this article also…
Yes I remember now I have so much going on I forgot! Best of luck bud!
Having a guest posting schedule is a big part of the equation. To do guest posting correctly you need to be there to reply to any comments that you might recieve. Nothing says “failure” of a guest post more than a hit-and-run guest poster who does not respond to comments.
Oh, Schedule is really important, We may not want to be in a situation where we need to track multiple posts or there is nothing to track. I have special rule at my blog that if author does not come back and respond to comments, I can remove their links (I didn’t need to do that till now.).
Guest blogging is a great way to earn traffic as well as to propagate the blog.Guest blogging will help us know the writers views.
guest post is indeed a great source of targeted traffic… u are putting your content right infront of intended visitors… as u mentioned it is very important to interact with the people commenting on your guest post….gives a personal touch….
Regards
Aniket
I couldn’t agree with you more 🙂
Writing guest posts is always a good thing to do when promoting your blog website. Guest posting not only improves traffic, but it also makes you more reputable online. In addition, guest posting also helps to improve your targeted search engine traffic, because your guest post stays indexed in the search engines for years to come, as well as staying posted on the website you published your guest post to. I find that great sites such as Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger & American Express OPENForum are superb to do guest postings, as it not only benefits your online reputation, which you can use these wonderful to sites in efforts of building your online company 🙂
Very nice information on making guest posts and it is also encouraging, as well.
For sure guest posting is one of the greatest tool for promotion. To bad that not everybody is accepting this option to their blogs 🙂
It is also one of the misused methods, once a blog owner start accepting guest post there will be a huge line of spin articles and low quality posts, which takes its toll. I guess not everybody want to be in that place.
shouts out to to Ms. Ileane, for creating the wonderful “about me” page. I peeped your “steelo” on the “blazing instro music”, in addition to “feeling the about me video. Loved every minute of watching it. keep up the good work!
# Your boy in Delaware 🙂
Now a days many sites are also letting us contribute as well as some sites are giving the guest articles such as myblogguest.com
Yes, there are many ways we can get guest post, I have also tried few ways but the main thing is to make sure there is no compromise with the quality.
I’ve been guest posting for a while now. It’s a great way to promote your own blog, but I think more importantly, it’s a great way to break up your routine (if you always post on just one topic on your blog). For example, I run a finance website, but I was able to post about how to make money inside a virtual game using real-world money saving techniques, onto a video game blog. It was a very fun experience.
This is another benefit of doing guest blogging, get some freshness. Though I would not suggest to go different niche as links from similar sites contain more value and chances of getting targetted traffic is high.
Thanks for the reply =)
Great point about swapping different niches – this is probably a no-no.
Cheers!
I agree with most points in your post, but I would point out a bit more how good it can be for your site if you write a guestpost on a subject and a site that are relevant to your site. And the linkjuice is nice when you are promoting a guestpost, but the extra traffic you can get through it is even nicer.
For me personally when I read 1 good guest post, I will just enjoy reading it. But if I see 2 or more guest posts from the same author and all of them are high quality content, I will check out the authors site.
Good stuff Sanjeev!
Multiple post on a same place help, most people like to see 2 or more article before getting a trust and go on to the author blog. I also do the same.
I’m not guest posting correctly. I need to create a schedule a work it. That is on my list of goals for 2012. My editorial calendar will definitely include guest posting.
sanjeev still now i don’t hav any idea to publish a guest post but after reading your article
i am going to publish an article on basicblogtips.com it’s nice
Good stuff Sanjeev… There’s so much more to Guest posting than pumping out a rished post with a couple of links back in the bio box.
This issue has slowed up my intake of guest posts – as you said some are just after the link.
But there’s plenty of quality guest posting too – BasicBlogTips is a great example.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the subject – Reminds me that I have to get started on a guest posting schedule very soon!
Low quality and spun articles made me think about accepting guest post all the time, I have just changed the guest post system on my blog in a hope that I might be able to deal with them better.
Writing really high quality guest posts has to be one the greatest internet marketing methods, if not the greatest! Really adding value and building relationships beats any other lower quality marketing methods hands down. It’s important to take guest blogging really seriously, I think you idea of creating a schedule is such a good idea. One that I’ll pass on!
Thanks Robin for liking the idea, I do have my schedule (though not able to follow it completely), it does keep me focus.
I don’t see the point in people guest blogging with a low quality post. It’s blatently obvious to anybody who starts to read it that it will contain no useful information. Sure, you can get a link out of it, but the link is worth less if the post isn’t popular, and making a high quality post can get you a lot of referral traffic. People need to stop writing for the search engines, and start writing for the readers. Good post by the way.
Many of them might not be webmasters, you may find them on freelancer or elance for selling links. So once links are there and they got their money, its done for them. Yes people need to stop using these lazy techniques and start writing for the readers.
This a great post. I am just getting into guest posting and it’s a great tool if you use it properly. Granted it’s a more long hand method, but it still works great. I prefer to be a little more old school and hand write things myself even though it takes longer, but some people choose to automate or outsource. I guess it just depends on their preference.
I also like it old methods and hand write my posts. It does take extra time but gives good return. I also like to give blog owners a comfort that they are not dealing with a person who is behind a link.
really very nice explanation for guest posting uses.keep rocking 🙂
Those are some good points you make, Sanjeev. I think my biggest pet peeve about guest posters is that many don’t return to reply to comments on their post. I have had good guest posters that went to great lengths to promote their post, while others seem to ignore the post entirely. From a blog owner perspective, it can really frustrating.
What a great post about the “other side” of guest posting. I’ve written a couple of guest posts for submission, but never thought about it from the “poster’s” point of view.
And I agree with one of the above commenters that those who guest post on your blog should be responsible for replying to comments. That’s what makes the guest post such a unique resource – the ability to call upon the expertise of the one who wrote the post!
And it is easy for author to justify their own views. If it has to be done by Blog Owners, they might not be able to relate to the view. I sometime allow posts with whom I might not agree, but its good to give user another perspective. If I don’t agree with that view than I can’t justify it.
Hello Sanjeev. You got me thinking. Guest post should be an honor, and therefore you should promote your guest post as you would your own.
Nice tips.I have posted my 1st guest post few days ago and it really helps.It is a nice way to interact with new people,build links and drive traffic to your own blog.
Yes, There can be many things which can be achieved, people needs to be serious about that.
I love the guest post schedule idea. It is indeed the key to get consistent traffic. I guess most of the people just lack the time and commitment (or rather excuse, lol) to fix up a guest post schedule.
To be honest, it takes me more time to produce a guest post than own post. In return, we have new readership and traffic spike…
Cheers,
Ming
There can be lot of excuse but after adding it to schedule I have seen much improvement. Yes it does take time but the returns are as much rewarding too.
Guest posts promote your blogs to new heights. It is a great way to introduce your products and services to new circles.
I agree Sanjeev, excellent post.
I’ve only done a few guest posts and people have reached out to me and asked me to write one. I have another on the horizon. Not sure when I’ll have that one up.
I don’t write guests posts regularly and I don’t have guest posts on my blog either. I will hopefully this month though but I found that when I had someone write for me earlier this year, the majority of my readers didn’t enjoy reading something from someone other than me. Thought I would give it some more time before implementing that again.
I can see where having a better schedule for that will come in handy. I have a regular blogging schedule so if I do start to accept more, I’ll have to be sure that my readers can expect to see one on a certain day of the month. That would be down the road though.
Thanks for this insight. I can see why this is something everyone needs to get a better handle on. That’s why you write them in the first place right!
Or you can try creating curiosity first, If you have somebody to do a guest post, how about announcing it a week before on your blog with a title and author bio. So your readers can expect it rather than a surprise entry.
Hi Sanjeev,
You’ve mentioned valid points here, I’ve seen few blogs where bloggers do guest post but don’t try to connect with audience through reply back. Guest post is great way to get more exposure in your niche so you should take guest post seriously as you take your blog post.
Awesome read, Sanjeev!
I especially like the promotion part of your post. I have never thought of building links to blogs that I guest post on. Yes, I agree with you. By building links to the guest posts, you are building links to your own site (Plus, if you manage to get one of your posts on the first or second page of Google for a popular keyword, then it is going to help you in the long term and short term with brand recognition and traffic). I guess I should implement the technique to my guest posting strategy since I have started working on a new blog.
Anyways, thanks for the post,
Jeevan Jacob John
And if your posts are on more authoritative blogs than it is easy for them to reach first or second page rather than the new blog. So it is really beneficial in long term.
Yes, it can benefit both party and its a good way to create long term relationships in the blogging sphere. If you don’t do it correctly you can loose that option.
Guest posting has always been an effective way to increase rankings and targeted traffic. We just need to take time to conduct research and study to make sure the quality of the article is good. Guest posting is useless if content in low quality.
Yes Rick, Quality is really important and with Guest post it is more important as they works a showcase for us. If a guest post is really good quality it can bring a curiosity in readers to explore the blog.
indeed a guest post must be promoted in general better than own posts but that that depends also on the rating of the publishing site
well said, Sanjeev =)
These are really great guest blogging tips and I will soon use these to write guest posts on ComLuv. Thank you.
Guest posts should be on the up swing now that Panda and Penguin updates have devalued backlinks. The meat and potatoes are in the content and that is where you link needs to be. Therefore, guest posts, are a great way to build backlinks and get extra traffic to ones website.