A Five Step Guide to Guest Posting

When your site languishes in obscurity, it can be difficult to decide where or even how to get the traffic, links, and interest that you know you deserve.  One of the best ways to get new links and raise your visibility is to guest post on related blogs and sites.  This is a particularly good idea if you have a blog of your own that you’ve been working on which provides regular, interesting content about a product or service that you’re selling. That way, your guest post will capture people who are not only interested in reading your blog, but also buying your product.  Follow these five steps to guest posting success.

1. Write a guest post.

Before you contact anyone or do anything, ensure you have a top-quality, interesting, relevant post ready to go. This should be the absolute best copy you’re capable of because potential new customers will be judging you and your company on what you write.  Include a picture or two and format the entire thing both in a word document, as it should look, and in html with links, so you can send it whichever way the blogger would like it.  After you’ve written the best post you think you’re capable of, set it aside for a day.  Then move on to step two.

2. Identify your blogging targets.

Find blogs that are relevant to what you’re selling.  If you’re selling clothing, target fashion blogs.  If you’re a bookseller, find the best book blogs.  You might think you’ll struggle if you sell something like furniture or housewares – but in reality there are plenty of blogs which cover designs and lifestyles that would be thrilled to feature you.  Make a list of your targeted websites and take note of their email addresses.

3. Ready your email pitch.

Don’t include the guest blog just yet; introduce yourself, what you’d like to guest post about, and include the benefits they’ll receive from featuring you.  Quality content with no work on their behalf is one of them; if you don’t believe that’s enough, throw some offers on the table.  If you can offer their readers a giveaway or a discount, do so; it’s far more likely that people will read to the end of the post if there might be something in it for them.  If not, perhaps you can offer the site a link from yours or a mention in one of your blog posts.  This is especially important with larger sites; smaller sites might be thrilled to feature you for nothing.

Make sure you modify your pitch to each blogger; personalisation counts, and catching someone else’s name in an email (or worse, an email with no evidence that you’ve ever gone to look at the blog in question) will result in immediate deletion.  You’ll also have a far greater chance of guest posting if the blogger is familiar with you from previous comments on the blog, so if you have a particular target, try commenting for a couple of months before you propose the post.

4. Edit your guest blog.

Once your prospects have agreed to host you on their blog, tailor it slightly to suit each blog best.  Don’t include too many links to your site; that will make you a prime target for rejections.  One or two will be perfect, three only if they come naturally.  If you’ve had a lot of acceptances, write a second or even a third post to ensure you’re not bombarding new, potential customers with the same post over and over again.  Try and schedule dates that are reasonably far apart, perhaps a week between appearances, so if the same readers do come across you on multiple blogs, they realise how much you have to offer.

5. Promote your post and make new visitors welcome.

Set up a sticky post on your blog, welcoming new readers and reminding them who you are and what you’re eager to do for them.  They’ll feel comfortable right away, rather than drifting around your site to find out what you have to offer them.  Make sure you link to your product with an effective call-to-action in case they’re just after what you’re selling.  Don’t forget to mention your post on all of your social networking profiles and be a visible presence in each blog’s comment section.

And that’s it!  Make sure to continue producing interesting content once you have those visitors; engaged customers are more likely to spread the word about your products and continue to buy them over an extended period of time.  Good luck!