How to Write a Captivating Guest Post? Guest Blogging: What is it? guest posts for promotion

We promised that there would be a separate detailed article about many points, today about point 6 (guest posting).

What is guest blogging?

When it comes to guest blogging, most people immediately ask what the term means. Many of us already know that promotion strategies own blog on forums is to leave comments and posts that contain a link to the site, but what is guest blogging?

Guest Blogging(or guest blogging) is the process of writing content for another blog in hopes of gaining quality backlinks, traffic, and also building a relationship with the owner of that same blog.

Who might find guest blogging productive?

Guest blogging undoubtedly has several advantages, which I will tell you about now. However, I want to immediately make a reservation that many people ask why guest blogging is mainly used by people who earn income from online platforms and similar projects. Because the essence of guest blogging is that you are giving away for free. unique content, to possibly get backlink/traffic or recognition, and this niche is one of the most effective from this point of view.

The problem is that it is often very difficult to find blogs main theme Which is not what generating income online is all about, but that's also the beauty of this strategy, as some blogs allow you to get much more value from your guest posts.

In general, anyone can use guest blogging, in any niche: as long as there are blogs with similar topics to your site, you can write guest posts.

Benefits of Guest Blogging

There are several reasons why a webmaster might resort to guest blogging, and I firmly believe that the reason you write a guest post determines the type of post and the focus of the blog you write it for. I've written before about the main benefits of guest blogging, but I thought it would help if I highlighted my personal reasons for creating such posts.

Generating quality traffic
Number of subscribers accumulated
Building backlinks
Opportunity to earn trust in the resource

I think I have highlighted the most important advantages guest blogging and since that's not what I want to focus on today, I want to continue with my story.

Let's start working on a guest post

When I started guest blogging, I made a terrible mistake that many bloggers make. I published a lot of guest posts on several blogs and didn't think about the benefits or consequences. Many people think that this is good method, but I would like to warn you that it is quite dangerous. You should not take up guest blogging just because many people do it or because you think it should be done, since in promotion it is rare that luck can be used, everywhere you need effective planning from start to finish.

The first thing you should know before you start guest blogging is what you need it for.

Above, I have listed the most important benefits of guest blogging, which include traffic, links, subscribers, and increased credibility. With all these benefits in mind, all you have to do is figure out why exactly you need guest posts, and once you've figured out why, you can get to work.

Completion

Even though I've covered a lot of text here on guest blogging, you'll understand it much better once you try it yourself, and maybe now is the time! You've read this article to the end, and now you can follow the tips above and start writing your guest post.

When was the last time you used guest blogging?

What results did you have in numbers: new subscribers, increased traffic and external links, an explosion of brand mentions on the Internet and in social networks, concluding new deals, increasing the level of knowledge, making your topic trendy?

If you have any difficulties on these points, read the article carefully, armed with a pen and notepad...

A competent guest post performs several functions: attracts a new audience to the brand’s information space, “pumps up” the person’s knowledge and expertise, launches a viral wave, helps fight negativity, shape public opinion, introduce new trends, and so on and so forth.

However, keep in mind one “BUT”: if you are still using guest blogging solely to increase the link base for the site and do not strive for the quality of the material, then quickly re-educate yourself.

SPAM texts with big amount links and zero reader activity will bring your resource one continuous negative in the form of penalties from Google.

Simply put, the purpose of a guest post is to create information buzz around a brand or person. Not for the sake of links, but for the sake of influencing the information environment.

29 Important Points to Help You Write a Great Guest Post

Moment #1. Compile a database of resources that could be potential platforms for your content:

Ask influencers which blogs in your topic they recommend;
Pick up key phrases in your topic. Search for resources on them using the services Yandex Blogs, Yandex News, Google News, Google Alerts, V in social networks;
In a regular Yandex search, you will find collections of the main resources on given topics;
Use the Buzzsumo tool. Select the “agents of influence” tab and study the list key experts in your topic;

Try searching in Clout. Select a topic, and the resource will offer you a list of influential people.

Moment No. 2. Track which sites your competitors are posting guest posts on.

Do this using advanced search in Yandex and key queries. For example, in the form of the name of a competing company.

Moment No. 3. After preparing a list of potential sites for your needs, research your audience.

To get started, ask yourself a few questions:

Who are these people, what do they do?
What posts spark discussion? How does the audience react to them?
Which reactions are more: neutral, positive or negative?
What content is shared on social networks?
Is commenting accepted here or do readers prefer to vote for a post with likes?

Carefully read the information “About the blog”, here resource owners voice their position in relation to guest blogging.

Moment #5. Contact the site management and suggest topics to choose from.

Often people make the same mistake: they write a post, and then send it en masse in the hope that someone will agree to publish it. Work backwards: find out first information need resource.

Moment #6. Sell your idea to the blog owner.

Especially if you want to publish on a million-plus resource or an opinion leader site. Talk about the value that your material will bring to the resource. Show examples of successful guest posts. In other words, make a sales proposal, send it by e-mail or talk over the phone.

Moment #7. Strictly adhere to the guest posting guidelines.

Moment #8. After you decide on a platform and receive permission to publish the material, once again sketch out a portrait of the resource’s readers.

This way you will focus on the audience, their problems, needs, and expectations. Often on blogs a culture of communication has already been formed: in some places polite communication is accepted, in others people are accustomed to heated discussions, and in others there are trolls walking around in droves. In any case, the characteristics of readers should be taken into account.

This tip will also help you decide on the direction of your article.

Moment #9. Make sure the topic of the publication is trending.

To create information noise around your brand, it is desirable that the topic concerns something new, controversial, outstanding, unusual. We strive to ensure that the guest post causes a flurry of reactions.

Moment #10. Check again that the topic of the article matches the content direction of the site.

In other words, do not talk about love relationships on the pages of a business resource.

Moment #11. Analyze the headings of the selected resource.

See which ones caused a stir and which ones went unnoticed. Based on this information, sketch out your version of the “headline”.

Moment #12. Create material in the “How to” style.

General phrases, banal truths and self-praise are unlikely to arouse the interest of the audience. Try to make the material useful, practical and solving specific tasks readers.

Moment #13. Think about juicy illustrations

Bright pictures will increase the viral potential of the material. And competent descriptions (alt tags) will work for promotion on social networks.

Moment #14. Prove your authority in the text

Put forward your theories, talk about your cases, question generally accepted statements, tell your story. Write the article in such a way that it clearly increases your authority in the eyes of readers.

Moment No. 15. Read the text again and ask yourself: “How will this affect my reputation?”

We repeat this point because it is important. Guest material should be cooler than the articles you write for your resource. People here are used to you, they know you and trust you. And there you just have to win the audience.

Moment #16. Start a discussion in the comments

To do this, you need to invite comments, and then respond to them carefully. The appearance of fresh remarks can be tracked in Google Alerts or in special monitoring services: IQBuzz, Wobot, Babkee.

Moment #17. Choose the right ones keywords to the material

Moment #18. Think about what word will become an anchor for a link to your resource.

Moment #20. NEVER. Never send people from a guest post to home page your resource.

This way you will lose them. This rule applies to both Yandex Direct and “target” ads on social networks. Ideally, the link from the guest post should lead to a special landing page. Perhaps on a narrow sales page of the native site. Just not on the main page.

Write the scenario of reader behavior after studying a guest post in your overall guest blogging strategy.

Moment #21. Give your guest post readers something useful.

For what? Because we want to increase the viral potential of the material:

PDF book;
A selection of articles;
A selection of videos;
Free subscription;
Check list;
Mind-map.

Moment #22. Think about what your signature will look like.

What do you want to reflect in information about yourself: USP, contacts, titles, achievements... What? Read the article “The Art of Creating an Email Signature”, it will inspire you.

Moment #23. Get involved in producing a guest post.

Moment #24. When promoting a guest post, talk about the blog owner and his resource

See what happens: you repost the article with a mention of the blog author. He, in turn, reposts this note to his audience. New audience shows interest in the publication, shares it on social networks... And so on. A chain reaction is triggered that will bring you hundreds of new subscribers.

Moment #25. Take advantage of the buzz around guest posting

Tell your readers that your content has received 1,000 likes and 800 shares. Let them know that you will cover the topic from the guest material in detail on the pages of your resource.

Moment #26. Pay attention not only to monster blogs, but also to start-ups

It has been proven that owners of new resources invest more time and money in their promotion. Why not take advantage of this?

Moment #27. Guest blogging is part of a content strategy that addresses specific business objectives.

If you publish “smeared” posts without a specific goal, then the effect will be unsteady and indistinct. Incorporate guest posting into your overall project content strategy. For example, guest blogging can perform the following tasks:

trend promotion,
promotion of a person’s expertise,
launching a virus
fight against negativity,
increase in the number of subscribers.

Moment #28. When incorporating guest blogging into your strategy, consider regularity.

Let's say one guest post for every five internal ones. This way you will have time to prepare strong material.

Moment #29. Guest blogging is a powerful networking tool

By publishing your materials on third-party platforms, you will establish warm relationships with resource owners, active commentators, and experts on social networks. Be aware of this possibility. And don’t forget about the posted material, respond to comments, communicate with readers.

Did this material benefit you personally? Have you had a good or bad experience with guest blogging? Tell us about it in the comments.

Hello, friends!

Sometimes I come across discussions regarding the effectiveness of guest posts. After reading such “opuses” I had a desire to speak out...

Let's start, perhaps, from the very beginning. A guest post is an article that is published on a third-party blog.

The purpose of such a post is to interest readers of another blog in your electronic diary.

Everything is clear here, but to ensure the integrity of the picture, I felt that this point should be noted.

And yet, they did not become readers.

All! It needs to be shouted out that guest posting is an ineffective tool.

This reminds me of a bowler who, after a series of misses, says - “This bowling alley is bullshit!”.

You need to start with yourself, otherwise there is no other way. I declare with all responsibility that guest posts are an effective tool.

And now I will consistently argue my point of view. When my blog first appeared in this world, there were only a few live diaries on the topic of copywriting on the Internet.

* Now there are more and more of them every day...

Most simply hung around like dead weight and were not updated for several months (or even years).

And, the question became acute for me: where then to publish guest posts?

As a result, during the first months of my blog's history, I published more than 10 guest posts (the vast majority of them appeared in diaries unrelated to the topic of writing texts).

Therefore, I can argue my point of view.

The very first rule of writing a compelling guest post is to think about the other blog's readers. If they are your goal, then you need to focus on them.

You must clearly imagine what they are interested in, what information is most important and valuable for them. What questions do they ask?

If you want to attract their attention, you need to know how. As the saying goes - good writer worries about whether he has been able to understand his readers correctly.

For example, if I were to guest post on a blog aimed at a female audience, I might focus on the following topics:

copywriting as an earning opportunity for women on maternity leave
Why are the vast majority of copywriters women?
How much can a girl earn by writing articles?
why do many customers prefer freelance girls?

How to identify such “hot spots”? In fact, there is nothing difficult - carefully study another blog, see what topics are most hotly discussed.

Be sure to read the comments and look for information that would be interesting for visitors to read. This way you can get data on trending topics.

It is very risky to write within the limits of probability theory, reassuring yourself with the hope that your post will be liked.

This is already a gamble that professional authors rarely undertake (and only for experimental purposes).

Alternatively, you can agree on the topic with the blog author. He feels his audience better and can give you an idea.

The next thing is to study the format of publications on another blog. If the author is accustomed to focusing on large-scale analytical articles, readers expect a similar approach in subsequent publications.

If you take a different path, it will be very risky.

At a minimum, they won’t understand you, at the maximum, they will throw stones at you (and the blog owner will get it too).

The next criterion is that you should not just write an article for the sake of a link. Your task is to prepare valuable material.

The reader got acquainted with your post, noted several useful points for himself, imbued with confidence in you and safely went to visit you.

But this can be a problem. If you have little understanding of the topic of the blog you are running, you are unlikely to be able to provide valuable information.

Because the only rational way out is to make a rewrite or some kind of “clone” of a bourgeois article, using a translator. But, I believe that such actions are unworthy for a guest post.

They will simply form an opinion about you as a beginner who has little understanding of what he writes. What's the point of going to your blog then? Continue reading the same poor material? Sorry...

And the last thing is very not an easy task: combine in one post the topic of your blog and the specifics of the diary where publication is planned.

This is where you need to try...

Therefore, when composing a guest post, pay attention to the questions that I indicated - and everything will work out for you!

I'm sure of it. Basically, you can try to convince me in the comments...

I will be happy to support the discussion!

About that how to write... guest post . Prepared him Tatiana Ivanko- the author is very interesting project "Real Parents" in which she raises controversial issues related to children, and tirelessly improves his and our readers’ parenting skills. Tatiana is a permanent and active participant our community, for which we thank her very much! 🙂 Well, now over to Tanya.

What is a guest post and why is it needed?

This is beneficial for the blog owner, because... allows you to take a break from writing articles and at the same time not get out of the rhythm of updating, as well as infuse a fresh stream of information and a vision of the issue from another author, which also helps to maintain the interest of readers and subscribers.

But guest posting has its downsides.

First, you give yours forever. 🙂 Submit an article with a unique interesting content another blog. Or they could publish it on their site, and it would also attract new readers and also increase the popularity of the blog.

If you write guest posts in order to get links from other sites, then there should be many such posts, not just one. And here again the question arises - maybe it’s better to publish these articles yourself?

Traffic to your blog will increase, but this effect may be short-lived, just for a couple of days, and your the target audience will increase slightly. After a few days, referrals to you from the site will stop altogether, because... the article will be archived, and new articles will appear in the top.

If, after weighing all the pros and cons, you decide that you still want to “get noticed” on another resource, then try to get the maximum benefit from publishing a guest post.

Where to publish a guest post?

If your blog is only a couple of months old, don’t try to publish on very “pot-bellied” sites right away. You will most likely be refused. Submit articles to sites that are higher in position than you, but not very far away. Go towards the goal gradually.

If you still want to try to publish an article on a promoted site, then first take part in the life of the site. Comment on articles. And not just “Interesting! Thank you!”, but with meaning. Share ideas, make friends with discussion participants, and become familiar with the site’s authors. Then you will have more chances. When offering an article, talk about the benefits for the site owner: “This will be interesting to your readers,” for example.

What rules must be followed to make a guest post successful?

1. Site theme

First of all, the site on which you will post your post should be on the same topic as yours. If you have a “mom’s” blog, then posting a guest on or on the website of some “mom’s” magazine is one of best options, because the target audience is almost 100% suitable, and the chances that they will come to visit you are quite high. But a women’s site with a general theme (which may also include the topic of children) is a less successful option and the return will be less.

2. Statistics and frequency of updates on the site

Before submitting your article, take a close look at the site itself. Pay attention to traffic (counters are usually located at the bottom of the page).

See how often the site is updated. If new articles are posted several times a day, then it is unlikely that your article will be particularly noticed by visitors to this site. It seems to me that if a site is updated 4 times a day, and it has high traffic, then people get to it mainly from search engines. These are unlikely to be regular subscribers, although there may be exceptions.

3. Design of guest posts

If possible, see what other authors' guest posts on this site look like. How is the author introduced? In addition to the name (or nickname) and site information, there should also be a description in 2-3 sentences of the blog of the author of the guest post, so that readers can get an idea about him and understand what else can be read from him. These two sentences must contain intrigue; they must be written in such a way that they definitely want to come to you. If you see that the author is not introduced, then do it yourself in the introduction to your article.

4. Links and tags

What links to a guest post does the site provide? To do this, you need to open some guest post, press Ctrl+U (to view source pages), and then use search (Ctrl+F) to find the URL of the site presented in the guest post in the text of the code. If next to the url not worth it tags “nofollow” and “noindex”, then the links are open, and this is exactly what we need.

Even if the links are open, they should be discussed separately. How many links to your resource can be placed in the text? Usually it's 1-3. And will links specifically to your post be open, without “nofollow” and “noindex”? I suggest checking it out after publication.

Could you please clarify if at the end of the post you can offer to subscribe to the RSS of your site? This is a very good marketing ploy, although not all site owners will agree to it. But, as they say, demand doesn’t hit you in the nose!

Now about the post itself.

5. Characteristics of the text

The text of the guest post must be unique. Those. it should not be published anywhere else - neither on your blog nor on other sites. You can announce the article and leave a link.

Also, the text should be interesting and exciting so that readers want to click on the link to read more of you.

6. Funny pictures

It is very good if the post is accompanied by illustrations or photographs. You can put your own marks on the photos for the post (if they are yours, of course), for example, the site address. Discuss this with the site author.

7. Literacy!

8. Communication with readers

Be sure to take part in the discussion after publication and respond to comments. This will have a very positive impact on your blogging reputation.

Good luck with your article writing!