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Tips For Guest Posting

23 Comments

One of my goals for this year was to write more guest posts for other blogs. To that end, I’ve written some for my friend DeAnna Troupe, two of which have been posted, and one other that we’re still waiting for.

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Danny Choo via Compfight

It occurs to me that there are both people who’ve never written guest posts for anyone else, as well as a lot of posts I’ve seen talking about the benefits of writing guest posts. There are few articles that give tips to writing guest posts, though I’ve seen a few. Here are my tips, some which I’ve seen mentioned before, others that I’ve never seen.

1. Try to write your guest post based on the topic of the person’s blog you’re writing for. If you write about digging clams and someone asks you to write on their blog about dog grooming, it’s probably best to turn that down unless you know something about grooming dogs. Someone else might like your writing style, but neither of you are going to get any benefit out of it. Take some time looking at the blog you might be guest writing for to see the topics they write on, then write something on that topic. I did that when I wrote a post for Connie Baum in January on internet marketing scams on her Healthy and Wealthy You blog.

2. Make sure you revisit your post at least the first couple of days to respond to any comments your article might have received. This one varies only slightly depending on how active a particular blog you write for might be. For instance, if you get to guest post on a blog that usually has lots of comments, it’s best to get back early to see what might be there and then address those comments. The reason why addresses tip number three.

3. Whether a blog gets lots of visits or not, leave some kind of comment at least within a couple of days. If a blog doesn’t get a lot of comments, you might miss if someone eventually does comment on a blog, and thus waste an opportunity to engage with someone new. Leaving and subscribing to comments gives you that opportunity. I always make sure to leave a comment whether there’s been anything or not.

4. Make sure you link back to your guest posts on another blog in some fashion on your blog. A great way to do it is what I’m about to do now, which I did last time, by writing something about it on your blog. For DeAnna’s blog, called Learn Small Business, the two posts that are there so far are Is There A Good Way To Market Your Business and Why A Business Blog. Go check them out; I’m sure she’d love the love, and I’d love the commentary.

One of these days I’m going to be asked to write a guest post on one of those blogs that gets tons of visitors. I’m not going to know what to do with myself on that day, but at least I know I’ll be writing on the proper topic.
 

23 thoughts on “Tips For Guest Posting”

    1. DiTesco, it would be an honor to write a guest post for you. I have your email address; be on the lookout for something.

  2. Great tips Mitch. I’m looking for people to guest blog, but no one is interested. 🙁
    .-= Rose´s last blog ..Easter Toy Gift Ideas =-.

    1. Rose, I’ll do one for you as well if you’d like. As I said, I put the word out that I’d do it more this year than in the past, so all one has to do is ask. I hope you’re feeling better.

    2. Hey Rose, want to do a guest post on my sexual aids blog. Anne did one and another post from a woman would be nice. 🙂

  3. The points you mentioned are why I have turned down a few guest posts offers.
    I don’t have an internet business background and the offers came from business oriented blogs.

    1. That’s too bad, Glen. But I know what you’re talking about. Lucky for me, I’ve learned that I can write at least one article on almost anything.

  5. I remember accepting one guest post where the guy hardly replied to any comments leaving me to do all the work, which I didn’t mind doing, but like you said he lost a golden opportunity.

    I reckon it’s a good idea to do a guest post on a blog that has the subscribe to comment plugin so that you get notified when people actually leave a comment.
    .-= Sire´s last blog ..The Honest Truth About ACME People Search Engine =-.

    1. That would probably help, Sire, since otherwise we’d never know if there was a response or not.

      2. One of my “rules” is the guest MUST subscribe to comments and reply; failure to do so will mean you don’t return a second time.
        .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Contextual Links will Open On DEDC – My Setup FINALIZED! =-.

      3. See now Dennis, I never even thought about having rules for people who guest post; not that I’ve had tons of guest posts to this point.

      4. Like a comment policy, it’s mostly common sense stuff, but like a comment policy it’s good to have something official to point to. lol
        .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..48hr Downtime – Lots Done-LOTS More To-Do! =-.

      5. Thanks Dennis. I like to think it’s something that people would think to do naturally, you know?

      6. Yep, good luck with that…
        .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..48hr Downtime – Lots Done-LOTS More To-Do! =-.

  6. We can discuss you guest posting also. DE is quickly gathering the same type community DSWM had, so you might have your hands full with comments. 😉
    .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.

      1. Nifty, shoot me an email if you want to discuss topic.
        .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Contextual Links will Open On DEDC – My Setup FINALIZED! =-.

  8. Mitch

    I found your site via Kristi’s Fetching Friday. If you want to build traffic and relationships, guest posting is a must. I found many of my clients just won’t do it – through fear of rejection.

    You can sometimes be rejected or ignored – especially if you aim to be guest posted on some of the bigger names blogs.

    My view is try again – somewhere else.

    Andrew
    .-= andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Guest Blogging – Why don’t you do it? =-.

    1. Hi Andrew, and welcome.

      Truthfully, I’ve never thought about asking anyone if I could write a guest post for them, and I don’t see it happening. I’ve offered people the chance to write for me, and I’ve been asked to write for a few people as well. Other than that, though, I’m not actively seeking it; kind of a weird pride thing I guess. 🙂

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