Guest blogging is a marketing tool which few pick up - and regularly keep track of - mainly because it is incredibly time-consuming, but what are the advantages that make it worthwhile?
You are probably getting on well with general inbound marketing techniques, if you're now looking at the benefits of guest blogs, so we won’t repeat what we’ve already said on blogging. Instead we shall focus on the individual benefits of being a guest blogger, and how to host a guest blogger on your platform.
Guest blogging (defined by marketingterms.com): Writing a blog post to be published on another blog as a temporary featured author.
A brilliant James Brockbank infographic highlights how you can find guest blogging opportunities, if you just want to dive right in. On the other hand, you could stick around with us and read our steps to becoming a guest blogger yourself, and/or how to find guest bloggers for your blog.
Hosting a guest blogger
It’s important that the relationship is mutually beneficial, if only one side gets a good deal then it’s unlikely to blossom into anything worthwhile.
To build a strong relationship with your guest blogger, follow these steps:
- Find a guest blogger who seems to have similar company values, philosophies and goals. A highly recommended way of finding people to connect with is through Followerwonk, which finds Twitter users through search terms, so you can find those you have a connection with – or want to build a connection with.
- Offer them an author bio, complete with any external links they desire (within reason) including website, email and Twitter handle, like this, @ThriveHQ and give them a short space
- Promote what they have done! It sounds simple but a lot of bloggers do this with their own content - they post it out and then never promote it with tweets or an email campaign. Why have a blog if you don't push people there? When it comes to guest blogs it's worth scheduling a few tweets over time with their Twitter handle. If the content isn't time-reliant then keep re-promoting it and get people to your blog, otherwise what is the point?
Why should you be a guest blogger for someone else?
Of course it's good to host a guest blogger, but why not track down some ideal blogs for you to add content to? It's all about becoming a "thought leader" in your field - they are "the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise" (Thought Leadership Lab).
- You could try Follerwonk as already mentioned, but what about really finding someone authorative in your field and getting your work on their site? Wouldn't that be good for your efforts to become one of the thought leaders of your industry! Which blogs do you regularly read and admire with their quality and content? Search 'guest blog' on their site and see if they already host others' content - if they are highly-regarded then it's going to be fantastic for your exposure levels.
- To double-check that all of this effort and research is really worthwhile, why not research who you're writing the blog for? Use various analytics tools to measure the views the site gets, or an even simpler way is to use Twitter! Search for the blog link on Twitter and see how many tweets it has been given from users, or have a look at the sharing buttons on blogs, have many interacted with it? (Facebook likes, tweets and shares).
- Always, always, always publish high quality, relevant content. If you are going for a high-end, reputable blog you want to impress, so don't just produce anything shoddy and mass-mail. Research the blog, its audience and its typical content - are you a good fit? Get someone to edit the blog you've written - check grammar, sources and spellings - if it needs work doing to it, the blogger won't waste their time re-doing it for you.
Keep your purpose geared to 'quality brand awareness', not link-building and shameful plugging. If the blog accepts it and users like it, you will find yourself with a potential new influx of visitors, so make sure your actual blog is up to scratch. Continue to regularly update and produce only high quality content on your own blog, as well as initiating and engaging in conversation with readers.
All of this is just a small piece of content creation, but it is key to becoming a 'thought leader', ultimately what every man and woman in his, or her, field, wants to be.
