Building Your Blog 500 - Guest Posts On Your Blog

Guest posting is really a win-win situation for everybody involved.  Why?  Let's take a look at what guest posting really is to start with.

Guest Posting: The act of an author or blogger writing an article, and then giving it to another blog to post in exchange for a short author bio, and several do-follow back links to the author's own site or product.

Ok, now that we know what guest posting is, let's look at why it's advantageous for you as a blogger, and the guest poster (or visa versa).

Advantages for the Guest Poster:

• Author gets exposure on an already established website.
• Author gets do-follow back links, which helps the author's own blog rankings, and also sends new readers to the author's blog.
• Author starts to become known and well established in the blogging community.
• Author creates interest in them self and their own blog or product.
• Author gets to show off their best writing work, and knowledge.
• Author builds their writing portfolio.
• Author begins to build reader trust.

Advantages for the Blog the guest post is being published on:

• Blog gets free exclusive content that isn't published anywhere else.
• Blog author gets a momentary break from writing.
• Blog gets great new content from a new voice that will interest readers and keep readers interested.
• Blog author gets the satisfaction of helping new and upcoming bloggers.
• Blog author gets new content.  New content = more readership and more readership interest.  More readership = more traffic.  More traffic = more $$! 

Advantages for Blog Readers:

• Readers get new and interesting content.
• Readers get to see exclusive content by this author that they will not see elsewhere online.

As you can see, guest blogging creates a win-win situation all around.  Now guest blogging being such a great situation, there are some things you should know about guest blogging, and that's what we're here to help you with today.  Below I've compiled some great resources for you to get you started on your guest blogging journey, either as the guest blogger yourself, or as the blog accepting guest posts.

For the Blog Owner:

Plagiarism Checker - As the blog owner, you do not want to accept content that has already been published elsewhere for a variety of reasons, one of the important ones being you don't want to get dinged by the search engines just because a guest blogger lied and copy/pasted someone's work, or lied to you and put the guest post on their own site as well.  You want all exclusive content on your blog, no matter what the topic is.  Use the free Plagiarism Checker to be sure that the content submitted to you by guest bloggers is exclusive, and hasn't been posted online before.

How To Create Guest Post Guidelines For Your Blog - 

This article is a great place to start if you're thinking about accepting guest posts in the near future.  I would also take a look at some of your other favorite blogs that also accept guest posts and get a feel for what their rules are.  They may have thought of some rules you haven't yet.

For the Guest Blogger:

Our Post on Guest Blogging To Get Traffic

How To Successfully Pitch A Guest Post - This is a great article.  The pitch is very important so pay attention!

How Guest Posting is Like A Personal Loan

8 Guidelines for Guest Blogging Etiquette

11 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid When Doing Blog Outreach

Well, that's it for now bloggers.  Be on the lookout for more from us on Guest posting.  There's so much to cover that I want to break it up into multiple posts, and in later posts we'll focus in a bit more on some of these topics.

Do you guest post?  What tips do you have as guest posters, or as bloggers who accept guest posts?  Do you have any questions about guest posting?  Tell all or ask all in a comment below!

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Getting Traffic 103 - Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of those great ways to get yourself noticed and bring new readership to your blog.  You might be asking how that's possible, and I'm here to tell you how.

1) First, writing a guest post on a really popular or successful blog or website can expose you to high volumes of readers that didn't know you existed.  While each website that accepts guest posts has it's own guidelines, the general rules of thumb are: Save some of your best and most amazing posts for guest blogging, and once your guest post is published on another site, you can't publish it on your own site or anywhere else.  It becomes exclusive content for the site you published it on.  You can always link to it from your own site however.

Blogging in this way can build your reputation online, and as people discover who you are and get to know your writing, and perhaps love your posts, they will venture to your own blog to see what else you have to say.

2) Secondly, when you write a guest article for other blogs there are usually up to three backlinks that will go back to your site.  This will help your search engine rankings (higher rankings = higher traffic), and will also hopefully send some traffic your way from the site where you guest posted itself.

At this point guest blogging may be sounding pretty good to you, but you're asking yourself, how do I get myself a gig guest blogging for another site?  Relax, we'll walk you through it.

For the most part you should concentrate on guest posting in your own niche, as these have the targeted audience you'd like to come back to your blog.  You should already be searching out and reading other people's blogs and websites related to your topic in any case in order to get ideas for your blog (although never plagiarizing), so you may already have some favorites.

Some blogs will have a tab or link that says: 'Write for us' and will give you guidelines for guest posts, and others you may have to contact directly to ask about guest posting, or have a post already written and ready to submit to them to see if they'll post it for you.  You shouldn't necessarily just target the top blogs or sites in your niche, but rather ones you like and trust and would like your content to be seen on.  Sometimes smaller blogs will have smaller readership, but very loyal visitors that would be great for your blog as well.

Another great way to get a gig guest blogging is with sites like 'My Blog Guest' which allow you to sign up for a free account, write a variety of guest posts in different topics, and then sit back and wait for other bloggers to ask you to use your guest post on their sites.  While My Blog Guest doesn't have a high user base right now, it's a great idea, especially for beginner guest bloggers.  The following video shows how these services work.


The key things to remember when guest blogging are:

- Save your best articles for guest blogs (you can always link to them from your site).
- Don't re-publish your guest blogs on other sites or on your own.
- Guest post on blogs you enjoy reading in your niche.
- Try to follow the guest posting rules for each blog you intend to post on.
- You can expect some traffic from guest blogs, but it may not be immediate, and it may not always be large numbers.  Sometimes these things take patience.
- You will probably have a greater chance of getting guest post gigs on sites that you 'cold call' if you are already active in their commenting sections, and forums, and if the blog owner is already familiar with you and your site.

If you want to know more about guest blogging and how exactly it can help you, then you should really check out the video HERE on guestblogging.com... seriously, check it out!

Want more great tips and articles about blogging?  Check out our other great articles by clicking on the category tags at the top of the page!

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