A Blogger’s Checklist for Guest Posting On Other Blogs
Writing guest posts on other blogs is just plain smart. It exposes you to other audiences and does help grow your blog’s traffic. But, how should you approach doing it?
I have compiled a quick series of bullet points that will maximize the effectiveness of guest posting.
- Know the Audience. It is important that you know who you’re talking to. Additionally, choose blogs that are relevant to your own blog.
- Form a relationship with the blog owner. It is best when you have some common bond with the other blogger. I meet a lot of bloggers at conferences. That provides a way to create a relationship with them. Even if I don’t have the chance to have an in-depth conversation with them at a conference, the fact that we were both there is a common reality between you. I met Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and talked with him for quite awhile at BlogWorld Expo, and last week I did my first guest post on Problogger. Networking ALWAYS helps.
- Just Write It. If you send the blogger an email asking them what they want you to write about, they’re probably going to ignore you. If you have an idea, just write it and send it to them. Let them judge it.
- Make the guest post some of your best stuff. Do not approach guest posting from the standpoint of saving your best stuff for your own site. You need to provide really good material for the host blog because it represents you.
- Send the post in an easily digestible format. You want the host blogger to be able to do something as simple as copy and paste and that’s it! Make it EASY to post your guest post. When I sent my post to Darren, for example, I pasted my article (with HTML) into the email underneath my email signature. I also attached it as an HTML file. The HTML in that article was VERY simple.
- Include your bio. Most guest posts include a small link and blurb about the blogger which links to his/her blog. Write this yourself and include it with your guest post. Keep it short! Long bios are annoying, take too much space, and the host blog isn’t going to want to post it. So, be pithy. Likewise, send this phrase with HTML. If you want to link to your blog, include the full HTML for that link.
- Interact with Commenters. If your guest post is published, you should monitor any comments which are posted in response and respond to questions. Be approachable.
- Welcome new readers. A little trick…you might want to provide a custom welcome message to any new readers who arrive to your blog from the host blog. Set up a plug-in like WP Greet Box. This way, you can welcome new readers specifically from the host blog and welcome them to the fold, ask them to subscribe to your RSS feed, etc.
So, in short, provide good material and make the act of posting your post to the blog as easy as you possibly can for the host blogger. From there, you might want to explore following up with additional guest posts to the same blog so as to solidify your position within their audience.
Lastly, yes, I’m always open to guest posts on this blog. If you’ve got an idea, send it over.
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Comments
[...] We’ve looked at the marketing aspects, and starting a movement, and know that the best examples A Blogger’s Checklist for Guest Posting On Other Blogs - davidrisley.com 12/26/2008 Writing guest posts on other blogs is just plain smart. It exposes you [...]
Valuable tip, especially as it’s straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak!
Thanks for sharing it.
Gina
Great tips. It’s not just writing the guest post, the work happens after you do that (Replying to comments, etc).
One thing I would suggest is to install a plugin that shows a message based on the referrer, and use that to welcome these users to your blog.
This is really eye-opening especially that piece about making it simple for the blog owner to publish the article. Putting it in a html format really makes it easy indeed.
I’m looking forward to using guest posting as a strategy for promoting my blog in the coming year.
Hi David,
I have been blogging for a 1 1/2 years and have made piles of mistakes. However, like Edison I now know a 1,000 ways NOT to do it.
That said, I sure wish I would have found your blog a year ago!
Thanks and keep up the great posts!
Kim Kinrade
Thank you, Kim. But, you found me at a good time. This blog wasn’t here a year ago! 
I used to have one called WebbyOnline, but it was a rather dead blog for awhile. I moved all those posts over here and now I’m going for blood. 
Nice to have you onboard.
The point about it being ready enough to copy-and-paste is one that should be followed when sending guest posts over. A seamless transfer is something that is quite enjoyable to perform, and that is a good feeling to provide to the site hosting the guest post.
guest posting on Bloghology Social Network is available.
Start connecting, blogging and sharing on the first social network similar to facebook but for the Blogosphere
Hi Everyone,
I have a carpet cleaning business in Houston,TX that was doing pretty good until the economy went bad, and with it my clientele. I have a website for the business but I dont
know what I have to do the get it to show up in a search. Right now it’s somewhere in the yahoo/google netherworld (LOL).
Is there someone on here that can give me some insight or know of anyone that coud give me insight on how I can get my local website on the front
page of a Yahoo or Google search to increase my business without it costing me 5 or 10k $$$? If so please share with me.
I thank you and my hungry over-eating children thank you.
thanks,
TonyB, your clients’ carpets are still getting dirty, so why not extend the website to include advice on how to clean your own carpets?
You could give away a free report with carpet maintenance tips to get a mailing list, then offer carpet cleaning products and equipment for sale, get AdSense ads on your site, affiliate products, etc.
Once you get the snowball rolling, if you do it right it will take care of itself, i.e., people will find you if you use the right keywords and the more they visit you, the more Google will like you.
No need to spend any $$$ at all, just your time and some patience.
Gina
[...] So, perhaps offer a quest post to the blog. Make it unique and relevant and not a sales pitch. You can link to your site in the author description that goes with the post, but the post should be pretty much pure content that is helpful to that blog’s audience. See this checklist for guest posting on other blogs. [...]
[...] Definitely take the time to identify the other bloggers in your market. Read those blogs. Get involved in the comments. When you spot something you can contribute to those blogs, write a guest post and send it in. Here are my guidelines for guest posting on other blogs. [...]
# 3 seems key here, what with all the ways we tend to sabotage our own success — don’t wait for someone to tell you to do something. do it. if they don’t want the content, it’s not like it’s going to be a waste. you can publish it yourself…
[...] decided to flex my writing muscles in a slightly different way than I do around here, and submit guest posts to some well-traveled, well-regarded [...]
Great tips David, I welcome guest posts on business travel and tourism content.