Bet you heard this before:
Guest posting isn't dead.
It's true. It's isn't dead — and you know what?
If you want to increase the exposure of your brand, it's one of the best strategies out there.
Sure, it can be a scary thing. But the rewards can be extraordinary.
More followers. More traffic to your site. More subscribers to your list.
And in this post, I'll share 5 great tips (lessons) about guest posting that helped me guest post in some pretty awesome blogs.
Let's get started.
Lesson #1: Choosing The Right Blog Is The Most Important Thing
Newsflash:
It’s absolutely imperative that you choose the right blog to guest post on.
Why?
Because although guest posting can help you get in front of a lot more people in your niche, it can just as easily get you in front of people who don’t care one bit about what you have to say.
That's why you need to do your research.
Here's how:
First, take a look at your competition and where they've guest posted in the past.
If your niche is blogging, you want to find as many places your competitors have guest posted on so you can do the same.
For example, let's look at a regular contributor to Basic Blog Tips, Anil Agarwal.
You already know that he guest posts on BBT, but how can you find out if he's on other sites as well?
Step #1: Find the Picture on Google
To be more specific, you want to find the picture they usually use in their guest posts.
So let's do a quick search on Google for Anil Agarwal:
And here's the results:
Step #2: Search by Image
Now that you found the image it's time to do an image search.
Note: This is much more effective than doing the search string “anil agarwal + guest posts”. In fact, you'll find a lot more sites the person contributed to this way.
Take the image and drag it to the search bar:
Now it's time for the last step.
Step #3: Find Sites You Could Guest Post On
Once you drag the image to the search bar, something like this should appear:
At this point, you want to go through, at least, the first 10 pages to see if you could find some sites in your niche that accepts guest posts.
For example, here's a few that I managed to find:
Once you've finished, rinse and repeat the process with other bloggers you know guest post frequently. You may find some serious gems.
Lesson #2: Consistency Is Key To Maintaining An Impact
In my experience, it's important to be consistent with guest posting. Especially in the early stages of your blog.
Why?
Because sites that you guest post on can be used as a way to determine the credibility of your website. And the more often you post , the more exposure your brand receives.
So the question is this:
How often should you guest post?
Daily, weekly, few times a year?
Depends on your goals.
In a 10 year span, Neil Patel managed to write 4,294 blog posts.
(Now whether that's by himself or through ghost writers, that's a consistency of 1.18 posts per day. Many of which are guest posts on other sites.)
4,294 posts for the past 10 years!
You don't have to resort to being THAT consistent, but you can easily make a plan to guest post once a month. And if you have that mindset, you need to have a guest posting strategy in place to truly get a ROI from your guest post.
Lesson #3: Each Guest Post Should Be The Most Important Post You’ve EVER Written
You've written some form of a truly great post, haven’t you?
Sure you have.
But you want to have the mentality that your guest posts should be 100% better than any post you've written on your site.
Why?
Because that blog owner is doing you a favor by extending an invitation to speak to their community.
They chose you because they trust you. They trust that you’ll provide value to their readers. And they trust that you’ll use this opportunity to write the absolute best post you’ve ever written.
For example:
When I wrote this post on Ms. Ileane's site a few years ago:
She trusted me enough to contribute something great to her community. And I'd like to think I did that.
You need to do the same with each guest post you write.
Research thoroughly all the points you want to make. Double and triple check your spelling and grammar. But more importantly, treat their blog and community with the respect they deserve.
Which leads us to the next lesson.
Lesson #4: Make Sure The Topic Is Relevant To What That Blog Talks About
Here's the deal:
No matter what, you NEED to make sure that your topic is something that blogger’s community would enjoy. More importantly, something that makes sense.
For example, how would writing a blog post on advanced SEO tactics help out a community of beginner bloggers? Or writing a blog post about Word Press functionality to a community that wants to know conversion tactics?
It wouldn’t.
The idea for your blog topic is very important.
You need to analyze, research and study topics that have done very well on the site you want to guest post on, and create something equally, or better.
Lesson #5: Engaging With Commenters
This doesn't need much elaboration, does it?
When you get a guest post published, guess what?
That post is the single most important post for that week.
Which means that you promote the heck out of it and respond to every comment.
It's your job to do what you can to make that post a success. And engaging with commenters is a BIG part of the success of a post.
Think about it.
If your goal for guest posting is to reach a new audience, and you don't even bother to respond to comments they leave … guess what?
They won't follow your blog.
They took time to actually leave a comment so make sure you respond.
Conclusion
Guest posting is far from being dead.
As important as these lessons are, you still need to be strategic if you plan to guest post
Yes, it can give you brand exposure. Yes, it can help build your email list. And yes, it can produce great business opportunities you previously wouldn't have been exposed to.
But, none of those things can happen without a sound guest posting strategy.
As long as you have that, you're okay.
Now, are you ready to be a better blogger through guest posting?