One of the best ways to grow a blog is through guest blogging.
But not all guest bloggers and blogs are created equal. You’ve to learn the rules of the game. More so, if you want to submit an article to another blog, there are things you should do first.
In this garnished post, you’ll not only discover the action steps to take to get the best out of your content, but also you’ll become a better blogger.
The hard truth about good content
Where should you publish your best post?
This question has been asked several times at discussion boards, social media networks and I get handful of emails every now and then concerning this.
You may not like what I’m going to say here, but it’s vital to understand that if your blog is fairly new and you’ve no loyal readers yet, it’s pointless publishing the best post on your blog. Because no matter how good your post is, without the right people accessing it, you’ve wasted your precious time.
But when you send it to a popular high-traffic blog, you’d be able to generate targeted traffic, enhance your credibility as an expert in your chosen niche and build your list faster.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean you should publish low-quality content on your blog. You’ve to balance it.
So, here are the 5 things you should do next time you write a guest post:
1. Â Write down the kind of reader you want
The first thing you should do in your next guest post is to visualize your ideal readers.
Be specific here: who do you want to read your content? Do you want business owners or blog owners? These two groups of people are entirely unique and have their own lifestyles and preferences.
For instance, a business owner naturally would be more inclined to hire a professional to help fix some aspect of his/her business. A blog owner on the other hand might not necessarily have the mindset of a business owner.
Most bloggers prefer to do the work themselves – because they believe in doing what they love and waiting for success to come. A business owner takes charge – makes decisions and outsources if that’s what must be done to grow their business.
Before writing a guest post, you’ve to study your audience. Because when you understand their deepest feelings, you can be able to tailor your content to suit them. Once you’ve written down the kind of reader you want, see the next line…
2. Â Get ready to capture leads
A landing page is a must for your next guest post. I don’t care why you’re blogging in the first place, whether for passion or profit you need to capture leads. Truth be told, if you don’t get people to subscribe to your email list, you’ll lose them and in most cases it’ll be forever.
Your landing page doesn’t have to be too elaborate or too inviting. Just a page where readers can know more about you and what else you’re giving away at no cost will be fine.
If you’ve a good blog design with your optin box well situated at a vantage location like the header or below the menu, then you’re good to go.
If not, create a separate page for your next guest post. For instance, if you’ve plans to write for problogger.net, then you should have a customized page for people who love your content. Capture email leads and start communicating your goodness to them.
It’s all about solving problems for your target audience – nothing more. Don’t try to be perfect or awesome. Just do your best to put smiles in their faces.
3. Â Prepare useful, valuable posts in-house
When next you write a guest post for another blog, you need to prepare useful and valuable posts on your blog. This is necessary so that when people visit your blog, they’ll not be disappointed.
I’ve been disappointed a lot of times when I read a rich and well-researched guest post and decide to learn more from the author, only to get there and find a bunch of garbage on the homepage.
Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t be a great guest blogger outside and nobody to reckon with in-house. Get your blog ready with epic content that will hook fresh visitors, get them interested in you and spur them to take action. That’s what blogging is all about. It’s not difficult at all except you’re lazy.
Here’s how to do it: Once you send your guest post and you get a message that it’s been scheduled for tomorrow, next week or next month, the next step is to write epic and practicable posts for your blog.
This content will welcome visitors and further reaffirm to them that you’re not a talker – but a doer.
4. Â Write for high-traffic and active blogs
Gone are the days when guest blogging was all about garnering backlinks from hundreds of blogs. Google updates have changed all of that and the focus now is good content.
Before you send that well-researched article to a blogger, please evaluate the traffic of the blog and its activity. Does the blog get comments at all? What about social signals like tweets, Facebook shares and likes? There must be an element of activity on the blog you’ve in mind.
Personally, if a blog has a pagerank less than 3, I avoid it. Now this doesn’t mean that PR3+ is the only best blogs to write for, but at that stage the said blog must have a level of activity, comments and more than 30 popular posts.
So many bloggers have compiled lists of blogs that accept guest posts. You might be tempted to send your article to a new blog just because it’d be easier to get published, but the traffic, SEO juice, social signals and word of mouth benefits will be lesser than what you’d have gotten if the blog is high-traffic, and engaged.
5. Â Pre-sell on your guest post
Yes, you’ve to pre-sell. Are you writing your first book and you want to sell more on launch week, then creatively infuse the message in your next guest post.
This is different from promoting your book. The way I pre-sell is this: I’ll write a powerful and benefit-driven title that’s relevant to the product I’m releasing or promoting.
Then I’ll answer readers’ questions, provide at least 87% of the solutions they need and then ask them to click and learn more.
You’ve to realize that readers are not expecting you to solve all their problems at a go. In fact, it’s wrong to lay out all the solutions in one guest post. Make your guest post epic by giving readers a reason to act right now.
Right from the first paragraph, every single word and sentence you write must be persuasive. That’s why you should learn the basics of copywriting because it’ll help you in converting readers into customers.
A word of caution: Don’t ask people to buy your book inside the content. It’s not content marketing. The way to do it is to build interest, show them what they stand to gain by visiting your website.
Use call to action instructions as if you’re touched by their problems and you desperately want to help. Don’t use tricks or hype in any way. But don’t forget to pre-sell because it works.
You can’t ignore this:
Do you want your guest post to be accepted and published within 7 days? Are you sure you can write an epic content that can twist the head of the blogger to schedule your post without further questions? If you’re not sure, let me help you do it. Check my writing service page.
If the above call to action paragraph got you hooked, then I’ve succeeded in showing you how to pre-sell. The only thing left now is for you to give it a shot.
Remember that guest blogging is still powerful and could be the only source of traffic for your blog if you immerse yourself wholly and consistently deliver valuable posts.
Keep these 5 things close to your heart and you’ll never regret starting your blog. I love you. See you at the top!