Guest Blogging Etiquette

Guest blogging brings lots of benefits, from building authority to generating back-links to your book sales site and attracting new readers on your own blog.  However, before you start offering guest blogs, your own blog should be around at least  for a year, with a minimum of between one and  two-hundred entries.

Make sure your own blog or website is ready for the new readers that you will get by guest blogging. You need to ensure that your blog/website has the following traits: marvelous design, quality writing, share buttons and a subscription field – in short: you blog should show professionalism.

Where and how to search for guest blogger opportunities.
To get the most of your guest blogging, look for a blog with an audience that’s similar to yours. Guest posting on a blog with a similar subject as you can greatly increase the number of your visitors.

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  • Check out comments from others on your blog
  • Study your favorite blogs’ blogrolls
  • Google for terms such as “guest post” or “guest bloggers”

Read as many posts on these blogs to become familiar with the blog’s writing style and to understand the most sought after topics. Subscribe to their newsletter, follow them on Twitter, visit their Facebook or Google+ page.  Leave your comments where you see it appropriate, however, useful and valuable comments.  Doing this will present yourself as an active blog reader competent in the subject the blog deals with.  You will be recognizable by the blog’s owner and other readers. This increases the chance to have your guest post accepted by the blogger and published.

Strictly follow the instructions the host blogger has provided in his invitation. Look for signals of interest in guest bloggers before making your offer. Has the blogger made any indication they are open to guest blogging? Always do your homework before you start offering a guest blog.

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Write Your Guest Post
Congratulations, you are invited to write a guest post! Now, don’t wait a months or so to send it in. You are expected to have your article submitted within the next 2-3 days. On the other hand, give the blog owner at least a week or two time to post your guest blog. They might have lined up other posts before yours came in, or have to squezze in something unexpected. It happened to me the other day that an impatient guest blogger posted the article (which she had emailed me 5 days earlier) on her own blog, without ever contacting me, because she found it too long until her guest blog appeared on my site. Will I ever offer her a guest blog again? Go figure!

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Make sure the content matches the audience and the goals of the host blog.
When you have a good feel for the style and posts on the blog, write a guest post specifically for that blog. Never copy and paste one of your old blog posts or a guest post that you have already posted on another blog. Write the best copy ever, refine, spell-check, fact-check and produce a high-quality guest blog, your host will remember and invite you for future writings. This way you will gather more readers who click on your link and visit your own blog.

Your guest post must be of interest to the blog’s target audience, and most importantly, it must be a specific topic the blogger hasn’t written about before. Your post should add value to the host’s blog and be written for the host blog’s audience. Photos and links for your article add additional an additional bonus to your guest blog.

Include a link or two to a post on your own blog or website. The anchor text of the links should have a search engine friendly key word. Never write: click here. Always use specific key words from your own articles.

If your blog post gets approved on one of the top blogs in your niche, your content was intriguing and you get traffic over to your blog. When this happens, make sure your blog is ready to make the most of this new found traffic.
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Thanks, Doris

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