Guest posting by far has been the greatest driver of traffic for my blog and for expanding my readership. Many of my readers found my blog through my guest post on Money Saving Mom about 4 Ways to Combat the Urge to Spend.
Guest posting is not just a way to grow your blog but it is also a way to hone in your writing skills. Guest posting can help you become more creative as you write in order to resonate with readers from another audience.
Guest posting is also a great way to write outside your normal niche. It can allow you to discover new passions and new networking connections.
If you want to improve your guest posting and drive more traffic to your blog or freelance business through guest posting, these are my tips that have helped me along the way.
Relevancy
It is super important that whenever you write a guest post that you keep in mind the blogger’s audience. What is the niche that the blogger primarily writes for? For example, my blog’s niche is money management therefore a post about how to change the oil in your car is not relevant for my blog readers. However, if the post were instead tailored to reveal how much money someone could save by changing the oil in their car themselves, complete with helpful tips on how to do it, the post would be more relevant for my readers. If you want to drive traffic to your site, you need to write your post with the other site’s audience in mind.
Sticking to the Guidelines
If a blogger has on their site a list of guest post submission guidelines, follow them. There is no need to email them asking for the guidelines, simply follow the guidelines that have been laid out for you. However, if there are no guidelines listed, you should email the blogger asking if they accept guest post submissions and what their guidelines are. Make sure in your email, you show that you are an avid reader/follower of their site. There is nothing that will make your email get deleted faster than coming off as spamy or that you are attempting to use that blogger’s reach instead of providing that blogger a great post to fill in their editorial calendar. You have a better chance of having your post accepted and published if you stay within their guidelines.
No Soliciting
There is no need to try to sell to another’s audience (using affiliate links, banners, or other forms of moneymaking solicitation). It is a huge turn off to readers and most bloggers will deny your submission. Remember, this is not your blog you are posting on; it is someone else’s. It is where they make money and trying to profit off their hard-earned work is not cool. You can and should however (unless their guidelines say otherwise) link to some of your previous posts within your guest post.
Be Genuine
Another guest post of mine that drives traffic to my site is my Dumping Debt Takes Hustle post. I was completely honest, genuine, and authentic in my post. I love helping others through my blog and I want to expand my reach, not recreate the wheel. When you guest post, be genuine.
Comment
When you guest post, you should make sure that you are active in the comments the day the post goes live and for a few days after the publish date. This keeps the blog owner from having to answer for you on their site – remember, you wrote the post so you should respond to others. This will also help you engage the blogger’s community in order to help drive traffic back to your sites. It’s win-win.
Write Well
This is a no brainer, but you should always write your best and well when writing a guest post. Just as you want your content to be king on your site, you want your content to stand out on other sites as well. I still like to throw some of my personal flair in my guest posts but I refrain from my crazy grammar and my southern euphemisms. I am not writing for my audience, I am writing for someone else’s and they may not appreciate my y’alls.
Guest posting is a great way to drive traffic back to your site when done correctly. Use guest posting as a tool to help engage with others and build your own audience.
What would you add to the list that has helped you write better guest posts and drive traffic?
Lots of great tips and advice – thank you! 🙂
Great tips Jessi! I have never done a guest post and it’s something I’m looking into. Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful tips! Someone also recently told me to consider guest posting for the blog I most like to read, regardless of their overall topic. Then, as you mentioned in your oil change example above, you can focus on their topic while opening up your own blog to a whole different group/type of readers. Sounds logical! 🙂
I’m fairly new to guest blogging but my opinion on recycling content is in line with yours. I cringe inside when I hear someone say, ” I can just write something for you and then change it a little to post on my site.”
Thanks for the tips!
I’ve only guest posted four or five times, but I think I’ve done everything you’ve mentioned! I’m so glad you let me have the privilege of guest posting for you last week! Your blog is such a great resource and I was happy to introduce my followers to you. Keep up the great work!
Thank you Erin for you awesomeness! I seriously loved your post and you have been rocking the comments – THANK YOU! 🙂
I really need to get on the guest posting thing. The one guest post I did I wasn’t sure of the proper protocol for commenting so I’m glad to hear I did it right!
Hello Jessi! Thank you for the wonderful advice. If you don’t mind, I would love to ask you a questions. I just got accepted for my first guest post, but the blog I am guest posting for is about the same “size” as mine. I thought since it was my first one, I should practice with every opportunity I got. Do you think this is the right way to think? Thank you!
Hi Kumiko! Absolutely! Guest posting is great no matter the size of the blog and the more you write the stronger your writing becomes so it becomes easier and easier to write for other audiences (especially when it’s a large blogger). 🙂 Hope this helps darlin’!