Got a new blog?
Want to grow it to mammoth proportions?
Then you’ve got to be guest posting.
You probably don’t need me to tell you this – the smartest minds in the blogosphere have already wizened up to the fact that guest posting is one of the best ways you can find to grow a new blog.
It just makes sense; it’s “going where the eyeballs are”, and doing so with the endorsement of someone who’s already credible to those eyeballs.
So I won’t belabor the point that guest posting is important.
You already know it, and you might already be doing it, too.
But are you doing it right? 😉
Why Most Guest Posters Are Doing It Wrong
Most guest posters are doing it wrong.
No ifs, ands, or buts about it – they’re doing it completely wrong, and wasting lots of time and energy in the process.
They’re doing it wrong because they’re doing it for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way.
They spend too long writing posts that won’t even get them the results they’re looking for, and they throw away the most valuable potential outcomes of their work.
Sounds pretty sad, right?
I mean, guest posting holds so much potential, it can literally be the driving force behind spectacular blog growth in a very short timeframe.
Well, the good news is that it’s an easy fix, if you know what to look for, and what to change.
So here we are, three keys to doing it right:
Key #1: Write About the Right Stuff
Yup, that’s right – for guest posting to work, you’ve got to write about the right stuff.
Pretty straightforward, right? And yet it’s amazing how many people get this wrong.
Let’s break it down:
Say you want to do a guest post for a particular blog. For the post to be a success, you have to write something that will appeal – and be insanely useful! – to that blog’s audience.
It also has to be related closely enough to your topic and blog that when readers click through to your site, they will find your stuff valuable. I mean, there’s no point in writing for DogTraining.org unless your website has something that appeals to dog owners, right?
This is why I find it so incredibly ridiculous when I get emails from SEO companies offering to write a guest post about “anything I want”.
If you don’t know why you want to talk to my audience, then why should I be interested in what you’ve got to say?
In other words, the benefit in guest blogging has to go three ways for it to be a really useful, fruitful opportunity.
It has to benefit you, in terms of credibility and new readership.
It has to benefit the blog owner in terms of quality and value for their audience.
And it has to benefit the readers of that blog, who will both enjoy your post, and get more value from visiting your website.
Key #2: Focus on the Relationships (Not the Traffic!)
When you write a guest post for a popular blog, you get a spike in traffic.
It’s awesome, and it’s exhilarating, but it’s not the most important thing you’re getting.
Not by a long shot.
Much more valuable in the long term is the relationship that you’ll build with the blogger and their readers.
A popular blogger can do incredible things for your online career – if they like you, that is.
They can give you feedback on the posts you write for them, which can be hard to come by and is absolutely invaluable. They can promote your products, services and other materials to their networks, both on their blog and through their social media presence. They can even connect you to other bloggers and professionals who will also be able to help you carve out your niche and develop your authority.
Blogging is all about relationships, and the more and deeper relationships you have, the more quickly and easily your blog will grow.
Writing a guest post just for the traffic is a sucker’s game, at best.
The real value starts to show itself when people start recognizing your name. When they start seeking you out. When big bloggers like you enough to help promote your blog.
Isn’t that worth more than a little traffic spike? I thought so.
Key #3: Learn to Write Really, Really FAST!
The biggest myth about guest posting is that you can write one or two posts, and then boom – you’re set for life.
That’s so untrue that it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
If you’re going to succeed with guest blogging, you’re going to have to write a lot of posts for a lot of people (last year, I wrote over 80 of them!).
And because you can’t spend every waking hour of every day writing these posts (we have lives, after all, Not to mention businesses!) you’ve got to learn how to do it FAST.
Danny Iny (@DannyIny) skyrocketed his industry-leading marketing blog to success by writing 80+ guest posts on major blogs in less than a year (earning him the nickname “The Freddy Krueger of Blogging”).
