The Power Of Guest Blogging and How To Actually Get Started!
In the following we will be discussing an important topic that is “The Power of Guest Blogging (And How to Get Started!)” and will discuss it in detail within the article:
5 Key Benefits of Guest Posting
First things first: why do you have to bother writing an article for somebody else’s blog?You may assume that it is best to focus on making content for your own web site instead of wasting time growing somebody else’s blog; however, you’ll be able to make a much more significant impact by posting on established blogs and see some tremendous advantages.
The following are five huge benefits of embracing this powerful content marketing strategy.
1. Build Relationships in Your Niche
Guest posting can assist you to build relationships with different relevant bloggers from your niche, which is especially helpful if you are new to the scene. While some bloggers could refuse, there’ll be others who will gladly accept your posts as they are, without any further requirements. Why? Because that means they get free content for his or her blogs, and if they are a one-person web site, that’s very useful for them.
Reaching out to inquire about guest posting gives you a unique opportunity to make new connections in your online world. Of course, not all these contacts can prove to be positive. However, by taking a proactive and skilled approach to pitching fellow bloggers and brands in your niche, you’ll begin to get your name (and talent for writing) out there, building credibility for you.
2. Boost Rankings and Brand Awareness
Guest posting can help your blog rank higher in search engines. Inking of blogging Neil Patel’s article, he cites several examples of Why Guest Blogging is the Best inbound marketing Strategy, including Jon Cooper, who “embraced guest blogging and reaped significant rewards as a result. For example, one guest post of his that was published on Moz generated nearly four hundred visitors”.
To this end, you would like to find relevant bloggers in your niche who can include links to your own blog within the articles you publish on their websites, because the additional relevant backlinks you have got, the better your blog will rank on search engines. This should not be too tough since most websites permit at least one link to your web site within the body copy and another link in your author bio. As you guest post on more sites, you’ll expand your reach to connect with tons of or thousands of potential new followers. This reach and your overall visibility can increase as your guest posts get shared on social media.
3. Improve Your Writing Skills
Guest posting is an excellent way to help you refine your writing skills. Maybe you think that you’re the best writer in your niche – you own a private blog, you have a couple of followers, and your faithful readers leave positive comments. But as time passes or over time, you will get into a routine and possibly settle for less in terms of quality of writing as well as the value of delivered information. It’s a natural process that occurs when you don’t have any real challenges.
On the opposite hand, when you provide your services as a guest author, you need to deliver content that is both valuable and extremely well written to get past the gates of a professional editor. You will be forced to pay attention to each little detail, including the analysis, content, and grammar, thus improving your writing. It’s simple: The more you write, the better you become at it. By writing for a variety of blogs and diverse topics, you’ll continuously challenge yourself, so you will have to adapt and learn to write in different styles.
4. Establish Authority
On your own website, you are the chief. However, it takes a long time and tons of effort to create a blog from scratch and make it a recognized fountain of knowledge and wisdom.
When you actually produce well-written, authoritative guest posts on reputable websites for established brands, which is properly researched, you get the chance to offer unique insights in a fresh voice that actually resonates with their readers. This works wonders for your own reputation. People who fancy the post can likely click on your author’s bio and visit your web site, curious to discover more about you and your work.
By actually getting published or printed on major authority websites in your niche, you’ll quickly create an aura around your name as well as brand, earning the respect of more people in your audience.
5. Shorten the Sales Cycle
Content marketing is a fickle beast that has the power to drive sales or drain company budgets. When you distribute content which is of high-quality through multiple channels, using popular blogs as well as established platforms, you nurture trust with your target audience. Furthermore, you also build brand recognition as individuals become familiar with your content and see you as skilled in the field. This has a significant impact on your sales funnel. In effect, the more authority you build, the easier it will be to get prospects to trust your brand and be more open to your products or services.
As such, you effectively shorten the sales cycle. In other words, instead of waiting for leads to find your site or reaching out to them directly (outbound marketing), you can use guest posting as part of your inbound marketing strategy. Guest posts on trusted sites provide you with a stage to present your brand message and value propositions that expedite the customer journey for your product and services.
Common Guest Posting Strategies
Guest posting isn’t simply a matter of writing a 500-1,000-word post. You can implement any variety of strategies, that should, of course, cater to your wants and the time you have available to create guest posts.Following are three common strategies you can consider when you want to guest post on other blogs:
- Be personal and direct. Contact the owner of a related blog and ask for permission (and their authors’ guidelines) to become a guest writer. Create your posts as well as publish them as text articles with back-links to your own blog. This is the most common form of guest posting, and it’s already proven to be effective by thousands of bloggers from around the world.
- Create videos. Upload video tutorials and reviews and upload them on YouTube or other video-streaming and -sharing websites. If your videos are really valuable and informative, there’s a good chance that they will be embedded as references by other bloggers from your niche. Some of them will give you backlinks.
- Share downloadable content. Create shareable content for other blogs like how-to guides, e-books or info-graphics. People love this sort of content; however it is expensive or time-consuming to create, so giving it to a blog in exchange for your author bio and backlink is a win-win situation. You can even create a brochure on-line and embed it in an article similar to a video or audio file or publish it individually.
By experimenting with different ways, you can distribute content on several channels, which maximizes the impact you have.
What to Do Before Guest Blogging
Imagine that you open a new shop. You hand out flyers that advertise a sale this weekend, but when people show up, you aren’t ready. There’s nothing on the shelves yet, and you’re still working on the paint job. Immediately, individuals can walk away with a poor 1st impression – and probably not come back. Why should they? They aren’t sure what your business is about and they find nothing of interest to make them want to return.
Guest posting is a bit like handing out flyers, in that it involves some grassroots hustling. But similar to the flyers, you need to make sure that you’re ready for the attention.
Before you reach out and start creating guest posts, here are some things that you ought to do:
- Set up your blog
- Build a network
- Define your guest blogging goals
- Create an Author Bio
- Set Up Tracking with Google Analytics
The Importance of Setting Goals for Guest Blogging
A very minute or common mistake that many bloggers make with guest posting is that they dive in headfirst with absolutely no clear sense of what they are trying to achieve. The allure of obtaining a byline on elite websites is all they see, even if it doesn’t make sense for their bigger business goals.
Before getting started, you must define your goals. With clear targets that add up for your business and blog, you can maximize your return on investment from guest blogging.
Think about the following goals:
- Getting back-links from influencers
- Exposing your blog to brand new audience as well as reaching new readers
- Developing relationships with other bloggers from the same or a related/adjacent industry
- Building your brand from scratch
- Gaining influence
You may decide that you wish to hit several goals, which is perfectly fine, so long as you develop your strategy accordingly.
For example, you may have a new e-commerce store that sells electronic gadgets. You could increase brand awareness and generate new leads by doing five guest posts for popular sites that are read by your target audience, even though they are not blogs from the same industry.
However, if you wish to enhance your SEO and find relevant backlinks, you’ll probably need to focus on doing guest posts within the same industry or niche.
For many blogs, the very 1st goal is to get more readers. Later, you’ll look at growing the reputation and rank of your web site or blog. Knowing the difference and when to focus on each of these goals is important. If you don’t clearly define your goals and strategy, you could waste a lot of your time and money.
Consider these stats:
- 47 percent of buyers viewed three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep
- Content marketing actually gets 3x more leads compared to paid search advertising
- On average, companies with blogs produce 67 percent more leads per month than those without
- Companies that publish 16+ blog posts per month get nearly 3.5x more traffic than those that publish 0-4 monthly
These are great numbers, and even better when you realize that there are a lot of e-commerce websites out there that are not blogging. Content is the most important thing you can deliver free of cost to your customers.
