Guest blogging has been a hot topic for a couple of years now. It’s one of the most efficient ways to build relationships with bloggers through great content…but only if done right.
In the huge amount of “how-to-guest-post” articles, it’s not easy to find really good tips that would encourage you to stop, think and start doing it properly.
Here are my favorite gems:
1. Leo Widrich: Focus on The Long-Term Benefits of Guestposting
One thing that people tend to forget: Guest blogging is hard to scale and it only makes sense when it’s a long-term project. Every bit counts, every tiny connection you build along the way. Don’t expect fast results and be sure to value each contact you manage to find while guest blogging… at the end of the day, you never know!
The amazing thing about guest posting really is the amount of people you will meet through it. This means either in the comments of your posts or simply the relationship with the person owning the blog.
It will allow you to hit these people up more easily with exclusive product updates in the future to feature your service. Or you get referred to other, bigger blogs where you are able to do a new write-up.
2. Don Sturgill: Write a Guest Post ONLY if You Have Something Worth Saying
Guest blogging has been abused lately but does low-quality guest blogging actually make sense?
Nope, it’s just a waste of time!
…one thing got missed in the rush to become bona-fide guest bloggers: if you take worthless content and move it from worthless sites to sites that aren’t (yet) deemed worthless, nothing changes in the long-term. The search engine robots will sniff you out … eventually…
Take this pledge: From this day forward, I (insert name) will do my best to write or speak only those words that have a reasonable chance of benefiting the planet and its people. Amen.
3. Neil Patel: Do Your Homework Promoting EACH of Your Guest Posts
The guest author’s work is not done once the blog owner hits “Publish”. You are missing a lot unless you make the most of promoting your guest post with your network while engaging with your host blogger’s network. That’s how you build your portfolio, promote your brand, and grow your network.
If your post gets a lot of traffic, social shares and comments, the blog owner will most likely accept guest posts from you again.
Plus, you can use that post as a reference when pitching other blogs…
Respond to comments – to get the maximum engagement out of the post, you need to encourage comments…
4. Mitch Monsen: A Guest Post is Just the Beginning of a Mutually Beneficial Relationship
A published guest post is not your ultimate aim: You should maintain your relationships with bloggers who you built contacts with.
Your relationship with these blogs and bloggers doesn’t end once you’ve got a guest post published; you’ve just developed some exceptional business contacts!
Keep in touch with them and offer to write another guest post for them after some time has passed
5. Nathan Barry: Create a “Blanket Effect”
“Blanket” is a good way to describe it. I personally call it #beeverywhere illusion but I think Nathan’s term is better!
My goal with guest posts is to create a blanket effect. Meaning that someone in my target market should see several tweets, read a couple of guest posts I’d written, and see my post on Hacker News.
The idea being that they may not pay attention the first or second time, but after seeing my book mentioned several times within a couple hours they will click through and be more interested.
6. Tommy Walker: Think about [Guest Blogging] Like Your Favorite Long Running TV Show.
I love this analogy: Don’t expect being famous after one guest post at Mashable. Think about this as “guest starring” in a popular show: One appearance won’t do much for you unless you did absolutely AWESOME:
On TV an actor might guest star for one or two episodes, but over the course of 100 or 200 episodes, one or two performances won’t make a huge difference…
With [guest posting], you should absolutely try your hardest to write something where people demand you come back.
But if that doesn’t happen, the next best thing you can do after your post has gone live is to leverage the experience for repeat post opportunities, and expand your network.
7. Michael Martinez: The Guest Post Should *Benefit* the Host Blog
One important fact about guest blogging people keep missing: It should benefit both the parties. You are not paying the publisher anything, so he / she should have a good reason to welcome you in their community!
No company should be accepting guest posts for its blog where the articles don’t provide value for the company and yet they pass value back to the bloggers through links…
It’s all about the brand, baby. You create a value proposition that helps you stand out from the crowd and in doing so the crowd will remember you. And if they remember you they will search for you.
8. Craig Fifield: Guest Post to Build Your Brand
This one is Gold coming from an SEO pioneer like Craig. Stop thinking about “obvious” benefits and focus on SEO benefits the come from you building your brand power and trust:
…the SEO benefit for guest blogging isn’t from the obvious bio links, it’s from everything else that comes from being known
…don’t worry about getting famous. Worry about providing a useful post to the audience of the blog.
9. Pratik Dholakiya: Turn Guest Posting on its Head (on Reverse Guest Blogging)
While the article is not exactly about guest blogging, the concept still holds true. Stop thinking about guest blogging as simply a source of free content. That’s getting old!
Think about guest blogging as the way to attract “micro-celebrities” to your site. Think about their reputation and trust they bring with them!
…Just how do you find the right microcelebrity, use them in the right way, and for the right reasons…
It’s time to reverse our thinking on guest posts. There’s no doubt that posting on somebody else’s blog can be a good way to get exposure, but you can do a lot for your reputation and credibility by hiring people who already have exposure to post on your blog.
Why 9?
I know 10 quotes would make it a better list, but those 9 were so perfect that I didn’t want to find another one just for the sake of making it 10!
So, if you have more great guest blogging quotes, please share them in the comments!
All images created by the author.
