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What to Focus on When Implementing a Guest Blogging Strategy

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curateGuest blogging is one of the best ways to increase traffic, search engine placement, and SEO value of your website or blog. While it does take significant time and effort to find the best platforms for content, as well as organizing the writing and marketing of the posts, guest blogging will help any company or individual gain visibility, credibility, and links online. Guest blogging can also help drive a sense of community and conversation surrounding the ideas of the post itself in the comment section.

To be successful at guest blogging, there are few guidelines to ensure that posts are shared often and are driving links back to your website.

Write an Amazing Bio

The majority of blogs or websites that accept guest posts will allow writers to include a short bio at the end of their content. This bio must be carefully optimized to include the best possible information about the company and its services in the shortest amount of space. Be sure to always include a link to the company’s website, and also a few keywords surrounding the company’s products or what they offer.

In many cases, the bios can only be about 25 words, so be sure to eliminate any necessary information, while also personalizing the writer and the company.

Here’s an example:

Kelsey Jones is a writer for Performancing (hyperlink), a new media company focused on blogging, marketing, branding, and more. Follow Kelsey on Twitter (hyperlink) or read her posts on the Performancing blog (hyperlink).

Of course, not all sites will allow 3 links in the bio, but always use as many as are allowed. Great bios include call to actions that give readers options to learn more about the company or its writer.

Choose an Engaging Topic and Title

To make a splash on someone else’s site, guest post topics must be engaging and interesting. The best posts answer questions, drive controversy, share news, or teach the reader something they didn’t know before. The title of the post is what first introduces the content to readers– so it must be catchy while also giving them an immediate idea of what the post is going to be about.

Titles that do well include numbered items (such as “Five Marketing Tactics You Don’t Know About”), make people mad or curious (“Why Your SEO Strategy Sucks”), or answer a question by teaching the reader something (“The Complete Guide to Adobe Photoshop”).

Once a catchy title has been generated, the content must be just as well-written. Don’t include  anything that isn’t absolutely necessary and be sure to include photos, links to support statements, and call to actions or the inspiration for change.

Tie-In What The Company Does

It is also important to tie in industry keywords or services that the company sponsoring the guest post provides. This increases the company’s credibility because they are writing in areas that they are actually working in. For instance, it doesn’t make any sense for an app developer to write a guest post about knitting. However, if they just made an app that showcases knitting patterns, then the post could be “The Best 5 Knitting Apps”, including their app (if guest posting guidelines would allow).

Just because a blog is willing to take posts doesn’t mean it is right for your company if they aren’t in your industry. It will also mean that less readers will actually click on the links in the writer bio to go to your website. While having a dofollow link on an reputable website has some benefit, the benefit for your gaming customers just isn’t going to be there on a canoeing blog.

Online and Social Sharing

When the post is published, be sure to promote it via the company’s social media accounts. This only serves to generate visibility for the post, which can lead to more site traffic and more trust from the website the guest post is published on. If a guest blogger’s content is heavily read and shared, then a website is more likely to ask them to guest blog again.

Besides social media, there are other places online to share content– email blasts with link roundups, newsletters, the company’s website, or a blog post summarizing the content with a link to the article. By promoting the content in every available outlet, you are not only benefitting by getting your posts more exposure, you are also showing your existing audience that you are reputable enough to be published on other websites.

Follow-Up

Once a post has been published, it is important to check it regularly for the first couple weeks to respond to any comments. Users appreciate having their questions answered by the actual writer of the article. The bigger the site, the most comments articles it will generate, so it is important to make sure these are answered in a timely fashion.

For posts that are extremely popular, many readers appreciate follow-up articles by the same author. So if “The Complete Guide to Adobe Photoshop” went viral, then the author could benefit from writing “The Complete Guide to Adobe InDesign.” Because the author has already set himself up as an expert in Adobe products, it only makes sense to continue writing content surrounding that software.

The Legal Risks in Guest Blog Posts

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Swim at Your Own Risk

Ideally, guest posts are great for both your site and for you as the webmaster. For the guest post author, it’s a way to expand their reach and talk directly to your audience. For you, it’s a way to take it a little easy one day, offer some variety for your readers and improve the discourse on your site.

However, like almost anything you do online, guest posting comes with a set of legal risks. For the author of the guest post, these risks are pretty clear, they’re the author of the post so they bear all of the usual risks that come with publishing anything online.

But what about the owner of the site? They didn’t write anything and are just accepting and publishing the works of someone else, do they have legal risks to worry about?

The answer, sadly, is yes. You can’t simply publish anything that someone hands you and expect that you face no potential liability or other consequences. Depending on the details of your guest post, you can be held accountable for what your guest authors publish. Fortunately, there are simple ways to mitigate that risk and prevent guest posts form causing you trouble down the road. [Read more…] about The Legal Risks in Guest Blog Posts

Picking And Choosing Guest Posting Opportunities

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Not all guest posts were created equal. Guests posts offer a variety of different advantages for your blog – one that isn’t summed up with just one Internet marketing strategy like providing your web site with more “link juice” or getting a trickle of traffic because of your opportunities. No – guest blogging is more than just that.

There are many blogs out there that are strictly dedicated to the idea of guest blogging and what it can do for your website. It is something of a huge phenomina in which whole websites were created for to help people find better and more guest blogging opportunities. It is a marketing strategy that has taken hold of the SEO and it seems as if it might be here to stay for a while because of all the benefits it provides, not only the people that are doing the guest posting, but websites that are created from guest posting. [Read more…] about Picking And Choosing Guest Posting Opportunities

Blogging Pitfalls: How to Avoid Lazy Writing and Editing

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At the end of the day, the most basic activity a blogger must do is write.

While it is true that bloggers are, with good reason, expanding more and more into video and audio, at some point every blogger is going to have to write something. It might be a description, a bio or even just an advertisement but, at some point, a every blogger is going to have to put words onto paper.

But not every writer has the heart of a poet or the writing skills of a hard-hitting journalists. Bloggers come from all different backgrounds and styles and many have had little training or experience with writing prior to starting up their blog.

The good news is that you don’t need to be the next Shakespeare to be an effective and popular blogger, in many ways it helps not to be, but you do have to be able to write clearly and in a way that is engaging to your reader. It may not require a Ph.D in literature, but it does require that you work on honing your craft and make your writing as good as possible.

Failure to do so can sink an otherwise great blog and make your previous hard work a complete waste of time.

[Read more…] about Blogging Pitfalls: How to Avoid Lazy Writing and Editing

5 Ways to Drive Visitors Away from your Blog

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Writing great content is essential to attracting visitors to your blog and keeping them on your blog for more than a few seconds.  The last thing you want to do is drive them away before they even have a chance to read that great content.

If you want to drive people away from your blog quickly, do the five things listed below.  If you want people to stay on your blog long enough to read what you painstakingly wrote, avoid the five things listed below at all costs.

6 Tips to Make the Most of Your Blog Writing Time

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Have desk, will writeBlogging can be an enjoyable experience or it can be a draining time-suck. Which would you prefer? Whether you’re blogging for your own reasons, freelancing, or doing it for your business, finding the time to write can be difficult if you’re juggling it amongst other work. Here are a few tips to leverage the time that you do have.
[Read more…] about 6 Tips to Make the Most of Your Blog Writing Time

Lacking Inspiration? Read A Blog to Write A Blog!

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This is a guest post by Cori Padgett, the creative brains and dubious brawn behind the blog Big Girl Branding.

Alright, sometimes blogging isn’t easy. One day you get stuck and at a loss as to what to write about. Another day you feel like what you’re blogging about is just dull, dry and boring. Still another day rolls along and you feel you wrote something spectacular, but the rest of the world doesn’t happen to see it that way.

Wind meet sails. Sails… meet deflation.

It happens.

But it doesn’t spell doomsday for your blogging career. It just means you need a little inspiration. You need a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to get your creative juices flowing, to unblock those clogged neuro-pathways and unleash your inner blogger rockstar. [Read more…] about Lacking Inspiration? Read A Blog to Write A Blog!

Productivity Tips For Bloggers From a Bestselling Author

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productivity-graph2Steven Pressfield is great example of perseverance for anyone in the creative field including bloggers. His first couple novels never saw print. But he kept at it and 17 years after his college graduation, he finally got a book published and received a paycheck. His later books became bestsellers.

In this podcast interview, he gives a couple productivity tips that have really helped me in my blogging.

The Writer Life is a Battle

At 1:41 of the podcast, Pressfield talks about the writing process as a war. To succeed, you have to have similar qualities of a good warrior; qualities like courage, patience, and long-suffering. He brings up the image of an infantryman that’s gaining ground on the enemy slowly but surely. In the day to day struggle, writing is like that.

This principle has helped me realize that blogging is hard work. Sure, there are days when the words come easily and I knock out a quality post in a couple of minutes. But those days are few and far between. Usually, it takes me awhile to get going. My first few sentences are pretty bad and I have to struggle to stay focused on finishing the post. By the time the post is done, I’m satisfied but I’m mentally tired.

Resistance is the Enemy

At 14:25, the interviewer quotes Pressfield’s book The War of Art:

There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t and the secret is this: it’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.

Pressfield goes on to talk about Resistance as the negative force that rises up whenever we want to start a creative task. Resistance shows up in many forms: procrastination, self-sabotage, excuses we make up, reasons we give ourselves that we’re not good enough, self doubt, etc. The most important thing for a writer to do is overcome Resistance.

Pressfield says that Resistance comes to us in negative voices. Our task is to ignore the voices and realize that they are bulls**t. They are keeping us from making progress.

I found this principle very helpful because it showed me that I’m not alone in the creative struggle. If a bestselling author has to deal with Resistance, then I will have to deal with it too.

Also, by identifying the enemy, Pressfield helped me not to be surprised by Resistance. I am prepared to deal with it because I know it’s there.

Turn Pro and Stop Being an Amateur

At 25:00, Pressfield gives a great metaphor for overcoming Resistance. He says we have to “turn pro.” When we see ourselves as amateurs, we will yield to Resistance when our circumstances become tough or distractions come up.

But if we think of ourselves as pros, we’ll have the mindset to carve out daily time to pursue our creative endeavors. As pros, we won’t give in to external influences.

Pressfield brings up Kobe Bryant. During the season, his knees may hurt and his back may be sore, but he still suits up and plays in the game. Pros like him don’t make excuses. They see their task as a job instead of a hobby.

Pressfield says a mysterious thing begins to happen when we turn pro. Inspiration starts to flow regularly as we persevere and make it a habit to work on our craft daily.

Further Information

Make sure to listen to the whole interview where Pressfield has more advice for writers. Check out his book The War of Art for an in-depth treatment about productivity and overcoming procrastination in the creative process. Also, he started a new blog, which includes writing tips.

Performancing offers blog management services.