Guest Blogging: Benefits and Best Practices
Guest blogging provides opportunities to enhance your company’s brand and reputation, create relationships in the blogging community, reach new audiences and build links to your own blog.
When approaching the process, focus on mutually benefiting the blogger, their blogs’ audience and your blog by providing thought-provoking, relevant and interesting content.
Although there is no specific approach to guest blogging, and every blogger has his or her unique preferences, we’ve collected some of the best articles on the topic from five bloggers. (After all, who better to speak about guest blogging than those who have successfully done so, or get asked about opportunities on their own blog daily?)
Build Links Backwards
Jennifer Van Iderstyne, online marketing director for Search Slingshot and guest blogger for Search Engine Journal — an Advertising Age Power 150 Marketing Blog — recommends reaching out to targeted media outlets and bloggers to find out their interests before writing the content. In doing so, you guarantee your guest blogging pitch is relevant, targeted and exactly what the outlet is looking for.
How to Land a Guest Post Every Time: 21 Secret Tips
Chief editor of Write to Done and Goodlife Zen, Mary Jaksch suggests focusing your pitch on the blogger’s needs, rather than how a guest post will benefit you and your blog. By creating a positive first impression in the initial email to the blogger, you increase the likelihood that he or she will accept your offer. Aim for natural pitches that answer a blogger’s need, and simultaneously display your personality, writing style and knowledge of the publication you’re pitching.
How to be a Good Guest Blogger
According to Darren Rowse, full-time blogger at several blogs, including ProBlogger.net and b5media Blog Network, the key to being a good guest blogger is finding a balance between your own voice and writing style, the blog’s style and the readers you’re writing for. While you should indirectly sell yourself through your expertise, the main goal should be to add value to the blog and its readers.
10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-list Blog
When looking to obtain a guest post on an A-list blog, Jordan Cooper — blogger at Not a Pro Blog and regular guest blogger for Copyblogger, one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs — recommends first reaching out to B- or C-level bloggers whom you’ve established a relationship with, and who are connected to the A-list bloggers. These bloggers are more willing to help the “small fries” and give your post the extra boost it needs to reach the A-list bloggers. Just make sure you’re not pushy, and are genuine in asking for these bloggers’ endorsements.
The Five Unwritten Rules of Guest Posting on Blogs
Advertising Age Power 150 blogger, Danny Brown of dannybrown.me, advises guest bloggers to submit their best work. Remember to research and fact-check your posts, submit them in the blog’s preferred publishing format, eliminate self-promotion and connect with readers after the post is published.
Your Thoughts?
As these bloggers have explained, the process of getting your work published on another reputable blog takes time, collaboration with other bloggers and sometimes pure creativity. What have you experienced that works well when approaching guest blogging opportunities?
Natalie Farinacci is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Natalie on Twitter @natalie_f.
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