Guest blogging, or guest posting, is a very beneficial practice for SEO and branding if you know how to implement it. Ready to learn how to guest post on an influential blog in your niche?
Content marketing has great health. In recent years, there has been a lot of hearing about “Content is King. ” I have already brought up this motto in other posts. The truth is that, to the extent that I consider that putting content to work for you is what is important, more than a king I see it as a “commercial”. The best! Able to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (366 if it is a leap, like 2016 ).
To illustrate what I say, just look at the following graph:
These statistics illustrate the conclusions of a study carried out by Smart Insights, and that indicate in which areas of digital marketing you should invest in 2016 to achieve a greater commercial impact. Content marketing was the trend most mentioned by those surveyed in the study, with 22%, no less than 5 percentage points of difference with the digital marketing area that came in second place.
As well; Today I want to talk to you about a practice within content marketing that can help you launch your business, grow your audience, consolidate your image, or that of your brand, etc. We are talking about guest blogging!
The benefits of guest blogging for the guest blogger and the host
Before explaining what you can do to intervene as a guest blogger or guest blogger in an influential blog for your niche, let’s quickly see what are the advantages of publishing guest posts, both for you, who are trying to publish your guest post and for him. the influence that allows you to do it on your blog.
What do I get from publishing a guest post as a guest blogger?
And the answer is:
- Make yourself known: you gain visibility for a larger audience. In general, if you are going to publish a guest post, the logical thing is that you do it on the blog of someone more influential than you.
- Get external links for SEO: There has been a lot of talk about whether guest blogging was going to start penalizing. No, if you practice it with caution. If you start publishing guest posts left and right, and always saying the same thing, it may not benefit you too much. Typically, the host blogger will let you put a couple of links to your site, and that will improve your SEO.
- Increase your subscribers: because not only visits a blog lives, rubbing shoulders with an influencer can also bring you, subscribers. By the way, if you are interested in attracting subscribers, check out this post.
- Acquire a reputation for your branding: it is an opportunity to demonstrate what you know, and position yourself in the minds of the audience you are addressing as an expert in the sector.
- Networking: if you can get an influencer to open the doors of their blog for you, you are establishing a win-win relationship, in which both of you win. It can be the prelude to collaborating on other projects.
We now go with the advantages for the host blogger
What does the owner of the blog where I collaborate as a guest blogger again?
A priori it could seem like an asymmetric exchange, where you earn more than your host. But this is not the case, and you will immediately see why:
- Indexable and positionable content: content is the fuel of a blog or a website, and it is precisely what you are going to offer.
- Saving money/time: posting frequently on a blog is very time-consuming, especially when you do, as the standard in content marketing sets, at least once a week. If the influencer writes his posts himself, you will be saving him precious time that he can dedicate to other aspects of his business; If you contract the creation of posts to a professional or an agency, you will be saving money.
- New: keeping an audience interested in the content published by a blog is not an easy task. Many end up always talking about the same topics, fall into a routine, and may bore a part of their audience. Inviting someone outside the blog to talk about topics of interest to your audience, but from another perspective, it is always a breath of fresh air.
As you can see, all are advantages!
How can I post as a guest blogger on an influential blog?
Now, I will explain how you can do it to collaborate on a relevant blog for your niche. Do not lose detail!
#one. Locate important blogs in your niche or sector
Surely, they will not accept the proposal to publish as a guest blogger (unless you already have a certain reputation as an expert in your field, of course!). Identify various blogs where you would like to put a guest post.
I recently published a post talking about how to organize an influencer marketing campaign. There I provided some tips for locating influencers through social media tools and other recommendations that you can perfectly apply to the subject of guest posting. I’m sure it will serve as a complement to this post
Let’s say you already know which blogs are the best candidates for guest posting. Wait … Don’t propose it to the blog owner yet! Read the next point.
#two. Interact with the influencer before contacting him
When you approach someone asking for a favor (because while guest blogging also has advantages for the host, it is still a favor) and that person does not know you, everything is very cold. You think “Who is this and why should I help him / her de Ella?”. It is logical. The thing changes when there has been a series of interactions before that.
Use your social skills! Share your content on Twitter, mention it, or better yet, comment on your blog. You can also cite it in one of your posts. If you control your SEO and check the backlinks that are placed on your content, you will probably be seen.
If you manage to get your attention, it will be much easier for you to sneak in a guest post, because it will no longer be perceived as a favor, but as a collaboration proposal.
#3. Make your proposal to publish your post as a guest blogger
Now yes! Send him an email proposing your collaboration as a guest blogger.
Avoid asking what you want to write about. Make it easy for them! The idea is to save you work, not give you trouble.
Study his blog beforehand, read it, and discover what type of content he likes to publish, the approach he gives to the text, etc. With the information collected, create a proposal that fits with your blog.
#4. Meet the deadlines!
If you publish constantly, you will most likely have your editorial calendar, a document that is used to schedule publications (if you want one for yourself, you can download it here ).
If you set a date to send your guest post and you miss it, you will upset his plans, and you will force him to reschedule tasks. Remember: she’s doing you a favor, don’t make it difficult for her!
#5. Prepare high-quality content
Nobody would like to invite a blogger to their blog to send them a text with misspellings, grammatical errors, superfluous or uninteresting content, etc.
If you choose this last option, remember that even if someone else writes it, it should seem that you are the one doing it, from your own experience, with a personal approach, etc., which is also useful if you are going to speak in the name of your company.
What most “sells” in guest blogging is the blogger’s personality.
# 6. Talk about what you know
You must deal with the topics in which you are an expert in the matter.
Do not be hesitant or venture hypotheses that you have not proven, or that you only know from hearsay.
It is your opportunity to present yourself as an expert in the sector, take advantage of it!
# 7. Pay attention to your host’s observations
It’s your house, it’s your rules!
If the host blogger hits you, asks you to review part of the post, or correct a mistake, kindly agree to review it.
# 8. Take care of SEO on-page
As if it were a post for your blog, the guest post must be optimized for search engines.
SEO topics like keywords, for example, you can agree with the influencer.
In any case, follow the SEO optimization standards on-page. Don’t know what they are? Check this post
But, in addition to the on-page standards, don’t forget that now there is a new paradigm when it comes to SEO optimization based on user experience or response. You will discover everything in the link that I just left you.
# 9. Respond to the comments generated by the post
Guest posts tend to generate buzz, and if you post it on a true influencer’s blog, get ready, because the answer might be big!
If you start receiving comments, the logical thing is that you respond to them. Don’t leave the brown to the host blogger.
Ask him for permission before you start answering, but don’t worry, he won’t object. Comments are good for SEO, because they are a ranking factor in themselves, and because they provide extra indexable content.
These tips should be enough to do a good job with your collaboration as a guest blogger.