No of course it doesn’t, just drawing you in, sorry for the false advertising, feel free to leave if you are looking for sexual conquests through blogging (sheesh get a life!).

Guest posting is an excellent way to market your blog and personal brand, in this post I want to talk about the benefits, mechanics and purpose of guest posting.

What is A Guest Post

A guest post is a post you write for another blog in an effort to build awareness of your own blog or to market yourself within the niche of that blog.

The guest post is usually written for a blog within the same niche as your own, and probably for a blog which has a bigger readership, you are trying to ride on the tide of “other peoples traffic” in an effort to boost your own visitor stats.

One more thing, you do it for Free.

What Is The Benefit

For the guest blog, the benefit is a piece of quality content written for free by someone else, leaving the blog owner time to do one of the million other things they have in their life.

For you the guest poster the benefits are:

• Heightened Exposure
• Chance to build your authority
• Traffic

How To Get A Guest Posting Gig

Ask nicely, simple as that.

Well kind of, if your blogger is a AAA list blogger they will get thousands of guest posting requests for exactly the reasons stated above, so I recommend, getting to know the blog in questions, join the conversation by leaving comments (see 7 reasons to leave blog comments) and gaining the attention of the blogger then go in with a pitch.

The Pitch

Understand that your guest post is not the most important thing in the target blogger’s life, you need to sell your guest post to them.  I try to do this with as much brevity as possible to take up as small amount of time of my target blogger as possible (target sounds a bit sinister by hey ho).  Be polite and do not demand space on their site.

Dear Blogger

My name is Joe Blogger and I own and write for {myblog link}  which is in the same niche as your site {target blog}

Do you accept guest posts, if so can I pitch you a guest post idea I would like to write for you blog.

Following up your post on xyz I would like to write a guest post of why w is always left out of the xyz conversation.

Thanks in advance for any time you spend on this unsolicited approach.

Regards

Potential Guest Blogger

Click send and wait.  Remember you don’t automatically get that slot, if they say no, take it on the chin and find another place to guest, if you went right to the top of the blog food chain in your niche, it is likely you will fail, try a medium size blog first.

Write Your Best Post Ever!

You may settle for substandard on occasion on your home blog, but never on a guest posting slot.  Research well, write well, double check your spelling and grammar before you send off the post.  I like to write a guest post and sit on it for a day, double check it the next day with a clear head and then post it.

Go easy with the self promotion, a simple heading saying who you are and a link back to your site should be enough, if the post is up to scratch, people will want to know more about you and click on your link. Here is what I like to us:

In a guest post, Neil Matthews of WPDude.com discusses why guest posting can increase you attractiveness to the opposite sex.

Brace! Brace! Brace! Here Comes The Traffic

If you do guest posting correctly, there will likely be a large wave of traffic coming to your site, you need to be prepared to ride this wave:

Have quality posts visible on the front page of your blog to engage your new readers

Consider creating a specific landing page and link to that from the guest post with a welcome messagers

A warm welcome to readers from {insert guest post blog here}, thanks for visiting I hope your enjoyed my guest posts, here are a list of some of my favourite posts here on {enter your blog name} I hope your enjoy them, if you do please consider taking out a subscription to my RSS feed.

If it’s a really big blog consider installing a cache plugin so your cheap hosting account does not failunder the load.  My preferred cache plugin is wp-cache.

Join The New Conversation

If your post is interesting enough you will generate comments on the guest blog, remember to engage in that converstation and leave your own comments in reply to the queries or suggestions.  Little touches like this stay in people minds, all helping to reinfoce the benefits mentioned above.  You also get a chance to whip the comment trolls into shape.

Other Benefits

If people see your writing there are other benefits than just a visit.  Personally I have been offered paid blogging gigs and gained consulting clients from guest posting.  It is one of my favourite marketing methods.

Following Up A Guest Slot

I like to thank the blogger for the opportunity, say how well it has served my own blog.   The leaves the door open to future guest slots.

Wrap Up

Make guest posting a regular part of yoru blog marketing until you reach the crucial tipping point where the momentum of your blog begins to market itself.

Guest posters are always welcome here 🙂