One thing that I really love as a blogger is guest posting. There are so many things that guest posting helps you achieve. Above all, writing guest posts consistently gives your website or blog a quick SEO boost.
However, in desperation or hurry, guest bloggers make potential mistakes while writing guest articles. The most common is that they look at guest blogging as article syndication or article distribution, which it isn't.
Guest blogging should always begin with a well-thought-out plan of action so that it helps you maximize the benefits.
Here are four key questions to keep you right on track.
Q1. What goals do I want to achieve?
Every online marketing tactic that you use begins with a goal. So, why isn't so with guest blogging? I don’t think there are too many marketers or bloggers who start guest posting with some specific goals on their minds.
With guest posting, you may want to –
Drive traffic to your site
Get more exposure in your chosen niche
Create backlinks
Build a community of loyal followers
Showcase your unique skills
Generate leads for your business
Starting without a goal is like shooting arrows in the dark. If you want to hit the nail on its head, you should clearly understand your goals.
Q2. What topics should I cover?
When you write a guest post, you are actually competing against other guest authors. To stand out in the crowd quickly, you should always choose the topics for your guest articles carefully. A good idea is to cover those topics that are hot and happening in your niche.
To find trending topics, you can go to sites like AllTop – I’m sure you have heard about Alltop.com before. The news site has a special section dedicated to blogging where you can look at all the recently published posts from a large number of popular blogs.
Q3. Where should I publish the guest article?
This is again one very important question that you need to ask before you want to write a guest post. Of course, you’ll find several blogs that accept guest articles in your niche. But you've got to make the selection very carefully. You should always choose host blogs based on their relevance to your niche, their overall popularity and their reputation with search engines.
Sometime back, I wrote an article for BusinessesGrow.com blog where I talked about the six most important signs that help you decide whether a blog you choose to guest post on is truly authoritative.
Those six signs of an authoritative blog include freshness of the blog, the quality of published guest authors, blog statistics, blog Google PR, the average number of comments per blog post and social media influence.
Q4. How should I promote it?
Guest posting won’t bring you the desired results until you have also worked out an effective promotion strategy. In fact, you need to invest as much effort into the promotion of the guest article as you put into writing it. The more promotion your guest article gets, the quicker you’ll achieve your goals.
Top Resources for Guest Post Promotion
Are you a guest blogger too? Please feel free to talk about any tips or views that you may have in mind.
The advice sounds good. But why an expert writer with all above qualities contribute to your website or blog. just for a link? if this post is so nice he can post it on his own blog and it will definitely get more traffic as you are doing. But a good advise for original blogger. thanks
Hi Evan,
But if you want to reach more people in your niche, you should go with guest posting. Guest blogging is not limited only to gain links but also
1.Drive traffic to your site
2.Get more exposure in your chosen niche
3.Build a community of loyal followers
4.Showcase your unique skills
5.Generate leads for your business
as Obaidul Haque said in this post.
Another nice post here. I think guest blogging is a great resource as it adds content to a blog which is different than the blog owner’s content and is like a breeze of fresh air. I do think there are some who do not approach guest blogging as serious as posts on their own blog which is a big mistake in my opinion.
I think it’s great to do some guest blogging as it gives you more exposure and I’ve found I have had new subscribers and likes on FB pages as well. Great tips Obaidul. You reminded me of AllTop which I haven’t visited in some time. Thanks.
Hello Obaidul Haque,
Writing guest post has been very tuff task for me ! Well this is about me but some people can easily write their next guest post like you without having any problem. Your tips are really good it give me confidence to write my next guest post & I also learn not only how to write guest post but also how to promote it.
I like writing quest posts mostly because I can get some feedback from others than my usual readers. I like to debate some common issues that I also post on my blog and see if I can get other ideas or just the same. It’s pretty interesting, you will have different results 🙂
These four questions are most bloggers have problem with when they decide to publish guest post on other blogs and it’s very important for them regarding their traffic and ranking of their blogs.
Hey Haque most of your prescriptions are premium; should a newbie blogger like me start investing in every blog promotion option or initially we just need to work hard to get maximum free links and after that go for premium options.
After reading this blog post my concepts towards Guest blogging has been cleared a lot and also helped me in understanding.
Regards
Siddhartha Sinha
Guest posting gives a boost to own blog as well plus it gives you social approval and fame as well. I was unaware to its importance in my earlier days. But now i give huge importance to this. Thanks for the article.
Awesome Post Obaidul,
These are indeed crucial questions that every blogger needs to adress before embarking on guest blogging.
thanks for the share.
Hi obaidul
Your tips are really good it give me confidence to write my next guest post
thanx for these tips with us. they really will help me alot
ragards
rahul
I think it’s great to do some guest blogging as it gives you more exposure and I’ve found I have had new subscribers and likes on FB pages as well. Great tips Obaidul. You reminded me of AllTop which I haven’t visited in some time. Thanks.
great article. i have always heard that guest posting is a great way to grab huge traffic and get exposure and i have tried it and believe me it works. but yes finding new topics is tough task. so the first point is valid. we should think about “which topicss should be covered”.
It’s an amazing post. Obaidul mentioned all the things about guest posting which is very important nowadays. And yes it’s very helpful strategy which is trusted by search engines and people.
Good tips on how to find topics to write. Topsy is another, they also have the things that are doing well and you can get lots of great ideas.
Till now I have published around 8 to 10 guest posts on different blog. But no advantage I got except a dofollow link. I thought that guest posting will drive traffic to my blog but in vain. So, now I have decided to quit guest posting and start concentrating on my own blog.
When someone decides to guest post, the person must plan and know what to write about. But the key ingredient to successful Guest Posting is lots of research about your niche.
I previously thought that the guest posting is only intended for attracting more traffic fro m already established blogs. But, it also helps in building strong relationships among the bloggers which helps a lot in the long run.
-Yogesh
Interesting post, whenever you do a guest post it is always important to engage and respond to the comments that are left on the post, I see a lot of bloggers expecting to leave a blog post and run. It will do your reputation a lot better if you engage relationships with people on other sites.
Beth 🙂
Good tips as usual. guest bloggers many times use the blogs like a temporary place to publish some of their post. they dont even spend some time to share the article written by them and got published. i stopped accepting guest posts from new comers and rare writers.
Thanks for the tips. sharing it right away.
Robin.
Hi Obaidul Haque,
Great post indeed. Guest posting is a great way to drive traffic to your site. I have seen most of the people do guest blogging to create quality backlinks. But, one should not forget that reputation of the guest bloggers matters the most. Even Matt Cutts has clearly indicated that guest posting is great if it is written by a reputable blogger. Thanks for the informative tips.
Great article mate.
Guest posting is a great way to achieve many things like traffic, backlinks and build strong relationships. However you have brought quite some new points that should be considered before submitting the next guest post.
Thanks 🙂
You have some really good points here Obaid. However i am confused as to when to start guest posting. My blog is just less than a month old with about 5 posts. Is this the right time?Help appreciated. Thanks..Ali 🙂
I would like to add here. If you wish to make the whole process of guest posting systematic, there is a need to maintain an excel sheet with Guest blogging opportunistic, anchor texts, approved links, PR and domain authorities of the sites in your desired niches. Then you can easily win in SERPs as guest posting is becoming the most efficient method of getting the best and non-spammy links.
You’ve laid out essential questions for writers to consider before coming out with a post. Niche is important, so as the topic, so true, I find alltop a great resource. There are bunch of ideas out there and you just need to filter what’s best for your interest.
I know the power of guest blogging.That’s why i always try to write guest posts on my niche related blogs.But i don’t cover these points before submitting guest post.From now on wards i strictly follow these points to get more traffic and more followers.Thank you Obaidul
Personally I think I need to start thinking about Question 1 more. I always have trouble with Question 2……. it probably takes me longer to think of something good to write about more than it takes to write the actual article lol!
Thanks! Great post!
Obaidul, you have done a great job specially to give me idea about finding topics to write. My blog will be benefited by this article a lot. 😀
Hi!
Thanks for sharing this. Recently, been quite busy preparing guest posting and this article as seen on Blog Engage is marvelous! Some guidelines for me and this is absolutely great!
Again, thanks! Definitely deserve a share!
Reginald
Awesome post guest posting is a reliable way to get free backlinks and traffic
thanks for sharing this awesome post have a cool day ahead 🙂
Ya I am working on it! I struggle a bit sometimes with this site because I get to explaining something and it turns out to be long-winded. Although I try and break it up with pics and screenshots if nothing else.