Ever thought of Guest Blogging as part of your content marketing plan? Guest Blogging means you write blogs for other sites. It is one of the best ways to attract new audience towards your content. It allows you to venture out of your niche and build some relationships within the industry.
Guest Blogging is a two-way road. You should also guest posts by fellow bloggers. Features from other bloggers may work as a break for your audience from the regular stuff. It may increase their interest in your blog or website. Overall guest blogging will provide you with a different experience.
Things you should consider when your planning to guest blogging.
Set your goals
It is important to set your goals before you start guest blogging. It will help you create a road map for your future plan. Make sure your goals are “SMART”.
S- Smart
M- Measurable
A- Attainable
R- Realistic
T- Time-based
Setting goals makes it easy for you to understand your plans better. Your goals could be like attracting inbound links to improve your SEO, Driving more traffic to your landing page, improve your sales or simply improve relations with other bloggers.
Search for sites
Search for sites that accept guest posts. You can start by googling key phrases like “write for us”, “ guest article”. You can even search on social media platforms. All you have to do is type “guest post” in the search bar. You can also get to know more about the sites that accept guest blogging by following where your competitors are guest blogging.
When you find sites you want to write, don’t forget to make a list. There are several sites available on the web that can help you in checking the domain authority. Use such tools to check the domain authority of the websites you choose to guest blog in. These tools may help you in determining whether that particular website may or may not help you in reaching your set goals. Visit each of these sites, spend more time on them. Familiarize with their audience base as it may help you when your writing.
Build a rapport with the site owner
Before pitching your content to the site owner build a connection with the site owner. Follow their site consistently for a few weeks, subscribe to their newsletters and follow them on their social media handles to understand their site, its values and the type of content they are publishing. You will find so many guest post pitch templates online but don’t use them. Often site owners find such pitches artificial. So when you are preparing the pitch, show them your creativity, and the standard of your content.
Follow the site owner on their social media handle. Tag them in any post you found relating to them and regularly comment on their posts. Try building a genuine relationship with them, you never know where such friendships can lead you.
Choosing a topic
As you already took time to understand your target site and its niche. When choosing a topic, think thoroughly and then decide. Choose a topic that would benefit both you and them. You can add additional information to the already published article on their website. Or write a topic that you think would be popular among their audience.
Use tools like Buzzsumo that can assist you in finding already popular content on their website. All you have to do is type the site’s URL in the search box and then you can see most shared content on their websites. If you find a topic popular that satisfies their niche but not yet published in their site.
Once you decided the topic, then spend an enormous amount of time on the research. It is known that the site owners show interest in the pitches which have proprietary research. Maintain the same standards as your own blog. If the site has any specific guidelines for writing make sure you follow all of them.
Pitch
Make sure your pitch is short but to the point. And also make sure that you add a personal touch to your pitch. Address them personally with their name, they would notice that you did your basic research about them. Add your post title and describe the post that you want them to post on their website. Don’t make the description long, they won’t be spending too much time to read your pitch. So just write three to four lines gist about the topic that they could understand in a single glance. Also, let them know if you have any qualifications for writing.
Content
Once you receive their approval. Start working on your content make sure you write a great guest post. The headline should be edgy, even if the site owner has liked your post title in your pitch you can still do some changes to make it look perfect. Make sure that your content is optimized and ranks well in search engine. Insert key-words related to the topic. Include internal and external links that are relevant. Link content related to the website your writing for and some other useful external links.
Don’t forget to add visually pleasing images relevant to the topic. Format the post properly, one look at it and the site owner should feel pleased, double check all the heading, space alignments, bolds etc.
Interesting bio and promote your content
Make sure your bio is interesting and informative because your bio can drive traffic to your website, turn leads into customers. You can add links like the link that leads to your website, any page or resource link on your website, A link to your site and its social media handle.
Promote your post on all your social media handles and notify your audience base through email newsletters, as it may drive your audience to your guest blog. Ask them to share and comment on the post. This way you can drive traffic to the site that you wrote for. Don’t forget to check your guest post success in google analytics. Respond to the mentions and comments on your guest post. It allows you to create new connections.
Writing one guest post is not enough to reach your goals, the more you write the more your online presence increases. In future, you may receive requests to write a guest blog from your peers in the industry. The more guest blogs you’re writing, don’t forget to keep a track of them. As this practice may help you in long run and save you from making mistakes.
