This is a guest post from an amazing guy by the name of Zaid Rasid. We’ve corresponded via e-mail and I had to have him guest post on the blog. He has some amazing guerilla tactics when it comes to marketing online.
One of the easiest ways to get noticed as a blogger, or as a starting entrepreneur is to write a guest post on a blog. I’ll talk about some of the advantages below and I’ll share some valuable links that can get you started. In my personal opinion, writing a guest post is one of the best ways to expose yourself to an audience, while generating qualified traffic back to your own blog or site. In case you aren’t totally clear as to what a guest post is, i’ll define it for you quickly. A guest post is essentially writing a blog post for another blog author and submitting it to him to be published on his blog.
The Benefits
Brand awareness: writing a guest post is a great way to get your brand out to the public. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned writer, it exposes you to multiple audiences and it gets you noticed. Ultimately, the larger a site you write on, the larger an audience you reach.
Web traffic and links: a lot of new bloggers put a lot of emphasis on optimizing their website for SEO in the hopes of driving traffic. Although this is very important, finding a site to guest post on that already has a lot of targeted traffic is much easier. Also, you can include one or two links in each guest post back to your own blog or website. Eventually these add up and will help with your own SEO efforts.
Authors crave it: most bloggers are open and welcome to guest posts. You will have to put some effort in composing a quality pitch (which I’ll talk about below) and you’ll have to make sure you have an interesting topic to write about. But once you have your bases covered, you’ll find it easy to get authors to accept your content. Bloggers are busy people and they are always looking for fresh, quality content.
Writing experience: once you start guest posting, you’ll start to gain some momentum. Soon you’ll have a wide portfolio of guest posts featured on multiple blogs. Later on, when you start pitching some larger publications, you can refer to your previous examples to illustrate your seriousness and experience in writing.
Making connections: writing for another author is a great way to establish a quality relationship. Ensure you engage with the author, through Tweets and comments before you pitch them. You never know, eventually you might meet the person in real life.
TIP: if you want to meet someone really influential in your field, find out who they interact with, and see if those people have a blog that you can pitch. Develop those relationships and make your way to the top. Those people will eventually vouch for you and might even mention you to the person you’re trying to reach.
How to do it
I first learned about the concept of writing a guest post from a guy named Ramit Sethi, who even wrote a piece about Dean. I will say that the definitive blog post that describes how to write an effective guest post was written by Ramit. I studied it and practiced it word for word, and have been able to get featured on some top blogs myself. Here are the links to a couple of his posts:
Writing a guest for I Will Teach You to be Rich
How to get 150,000 people to read your blog post in 1 week (and how I did it)
Ramit mentioned a product that you can buy that teaches you some good strategies to help you with guest posts as well. Erica Douglass created a $50 product called Guest Post Secrets. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it was the best $50 I’ve spent towards my blogging.
From my own experience, I will give the following advice:
- Be authentic and develop a relationship with an author before you pitch them. Read their blog, Tweet out their content, comment on their posts and then pitch.
- Put a lot of effort and time in your pitch. Tailor it to the author and show them you’re serious about writing for them
- Handle rejection. There will be tons of writers who will say no or not respond. This could be for a variety of reasons but make sure to never take it personally. Keep track of everyone you pitch and for the one’s who said no, move on. Or try pitching them sometime later and see if their circumstances have changed. For all the rejection you do encounter, there will also be a ton of bloggers who will say yes!
- Write a quality post. The point of all of this is to provide value to the blogger you are pitching. Write something interesting that will garner comments and reTweets. Make the blogger look good to his own audience. This will open doors for you.
- Include a brief by-line about yourself with links back to your own blog or site. Include a good quality pic of yourself as well.
- Get started. We all know a friend who has a blog. Even if it’s the smallest blog in the world, ask your friend if you can guest post so you gain some experience. Use that post in a future pitch to illustrate your writing. One thing will lead to another and you’ll start gaining some momentum
If you’re wondering how I was able to get Dean to allow me to write this guest post for him. Well, read the above:)
Have fun.
About the author: Zaid Rasid is the founder of the internet marketing blog Better Social* Skills. He provides expert social media, lead generation & brand awareness advice to small and medium-sized businesses. For a practical look at how online marketing can work for you, visit www.zaidrasid.com or follow him on twitter: www.twitter.com/zaidrasid
Matt
May 31, 2011 at 11:07 amI always have mixed opinions on writing guest posts… partly because, everyone wants you to write a guest post for them (I've had several people ask and I just can't keep up). I know in a perfect world I'd write something, but some people want something super structured, whereas others give you free reign. Do you do anything to "qualify a site" ? eg. make sure there is a community there? Or would you write a guest post for the blog that has 10 people a month in traffic? Part of me says I would, because I care more about building a relationship with the author I'm guest blogging for than the traffic. Hmmm.
Dean Soto
June 1, 2011 at 10:50 amGood points, Matt.
It all depends. I would write a guest post for another blogger that I knew was serious and not necessarily that had a lot of traffic. I always want to beassociated with people who are doers. There are TON of bloggers out there that blog for 3 -6 months and quit when they don\’t see huge increases in traffic. The fact is that most blogs don\’t get a lot of traffic until 2 – 3 years down the road.
The fact of the matter is that just like in networking, you want to build relationships and help those who are willing to go all the way. Not because it\’s going to necessarily benefit you, but because you aren\’t wasting your valuable time.
I dunno if that makes sense.
@ZaidRasid
May 31, 2011 at 7:23 pmHey Matt, this is a great question. I do both. In the case where my relationship with the blogger is not as strong, and I feel like I want to write a guest post, I'll use my Alexa toolbar in firefox to gauge the blogs traffic levels. I'll look at the frequency of blog posts written by the author (it means he's engaged). And I'll see if there are a good amount of comments, facebook likes and tweets. If it meets some of that criteria, I'll put together a good pitch.
As for what a blogger expects, in my pitch I usually provide three options for them to choose from and sell them on my idea. From there, they usually let me write at will and provide some minor suggestions.
In some other cases, I'll write a guest post for a friend, or a contact online regardless of their 'stats'. You're right when you speak of quality and relationships. I actually think that writing for people you are closer with or people who are influential in your industry has many more benefits. It's all about building quality relationships and connections and not just a numbers game, IMO.
Hope that helps.
Dean Soto
June 1, 2011 at 10:57 am“I actually think that writing for people you are closer with or people who are influential in your industry has many more benefits. It’s all about building quality relationships and connections and not just a numbers game, IMO. ”
Exactly. When people stop worrying about stats, they do better. Just as if you were at a networking event, it’s extremely rare that you’ll build a relationship with a well-known speaker at the event. However, it’s the relationships that you build with your peers that really make the difference in your business and life.
Blog for people who are serious and you’ll be all good.