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I try not to sound too egotistical when I say this, but over the past 12 months I have certainly been one of the ‘faces of guest posting,’ simply because I have had a lot of public success with the tactic. I’ve been interviewed about marketing using guest posts over 10 times, I’m mentioned on the homepage of a guest posting community and I’ve written far more of them than I care to remember.
Because of this, I feel I’m probably one of the best people to cover this subject with a long in-depth article. If you’re wondering what guest posting is or why you should even care about it then you’ve been missing out. You’ve seriously been unaware about one of the best marketing tactics available today. Thankfully, if you’re reading this article then you may have time to utilise this strategy before it is too late.
Why Guest Blog?
If you’re wondering about the “what’s?” or “why’s?” of guest blogging then they’re going to be covered here. To begin with, let’s explain what guest blogging actually is. In it’s simplest form, guest blogging is the exchange of content from one blogger to another, for a site which the author does not own.
In essence, someone (you, perhaps?) writes content for another website and this act makes you a ‘guest blogger.’ If you’re wondering what you get in return with more specifics than the typical “exposure” response then let me give you a run-down:
- Links - Links control the web. If you want rankings on Google, you need links. If you want authority in your niche, you need links. If you want traffic from other blogs, you need links. Guest blogging is a fairly easy way to get custom anchor-text, high quality one way backlinks to your website. There are few other techniques so effective.
- Traffic - There are millions of webmasters out there and they’re all competing for targeted eyeballs online. Guest blogging is not only a way to get one fundamental of the web – links – but also another fundamental: traffic. The difference between someone who makes money online and someone who doesn’t, is generally because one has a website which gets traffic. It’s that important, and guest blogging provides it.
- Subscribers – Not everything is about web spiders and the big G of course; the readers of a blog are more important than anything else. This, of course, is why so many bloggers care about their feed count. Subscribers are the life and soul of a blog and if you can get in front of an audience on another site, it’s likely that they’re going to subscribe to your feed. (More on this later).
- Branding – Research suggests it takes someone eight views of a brand name or logo to have it stored in memory. On the web, your name and your blog are your brand, and guest blogging helps you get them out there in your industry. My own activities with guest blogging have sometimes found me on 3-4 sites all on the same day. This massively pushed my brand around the niche and put my website on the map.
Guest blogging is a great situation for all parties involved. Blog owners win because they get excellent, free content for their site and bloggers win because they get more links and more subscribers on their blog.
How to Find Sites
If you’re going to guest blog on other websites in your niche to enjoy some of the benefits that guest blogging has to offer, then you need to actually find websites to write for. After guest posting consistently for over a year, I now have quite a few tactics for helping with this process.
- Google Search – Google is always the place I start with my internet research because it gives quick, accurate results. Depending on what you know about your niche, you can use Google for two things. The first is simply to help you find sites in your industry by searching for things like “niche blog” (changing niche for your industry). Alternatively, you could search for things like “niche blogging” or “niche guest posts” to find sites that want your content.
- Niche Browsing – Many sites in your industry will make it clear that they accept blog posts on their site. Therefore, all you have to do is simply browse around the top sites in your niche and see which one’s do. Look for text like “write for us,” “become an author” and “submit your article”. These are all indications the site wants guest posts so click on these buttons or send the blogger an email.
- Google Blog Search – Google blog search, if the name doesn’t give too much information away, is a blog search engine. Because of this, we can easily find blogs that are accepting guest posts. If you type something you may have typed into the regular Google search box such as “niche guest post” or “niche article by” then you should find some interesting results. If you remove the niche section it’s possible you’ll find a lot of sites that offer guest posting, but few will be relevant.
- Contact Authors – Every blogger should know at least 10 other writers in their community very well. If you don’t, then start finding them now. Most of the guest blogging opportunities I have had did not happen because I found ‘write here’ buttons on a website, but because I simply contacted the author. Get in touch with the influencers in your niche and simply ask if they would be interested in your free content. If they say “No” is that really so terrible? Giving them a chance to say no, also gives them a chance to say “Yes!”
There are other more complex ways to find people to write for in your niche then this should be more than enough. If you think that every article for someone else can take you up to 2 hours to research, write and edit then even just 10 guest blogging opportunities is going to put a lot of work on your plate.
Writing Publish-Worthy Posts
Although bloggers who accept guest posts also ‘win’ because they get free content, they still want great content. On that same note, guest blogging has so many benefits because you get to show a new audience the kind of awesome content you’re capable of writing, not to slip in a link and hope to get hundreds of subscribers.
The Basics
The basics of all good blogging applies to guest blogging so because they’re so important, I thought I would jot down a few of them here:
- Write content that is unique and hasn’t been used elsewhere previously
- Break posts up with images, bullet points and headings
- Write your best work. Blog posts to a blogger are like paintings to an artist. They’re your portfolio and show you off.
- Keep the piece relevant to content the blogger has published in the past
- Provide as much value as you can to the new audience you’re interacting with
If you write good content for other sites, you’ll have your posts approved and you’ll receive the benefits that guest posting has to offer. If, however, you put in minimal effort and product sub-par content, then you will have done nothing but waste your time. Even if your post gets published, nobody will take the time to check our your website and they certainly won’t subscribe for future updates.
The Process
The process that you go through with guest blogging very much depends on the website you are writing for. For example, in almost all cases, bloggers will say that they want to see your article idea before you get to work. However, these same bloggers will say that if you want an interview with them, send questions with the request so if the answer is “Yes, I’ll do it” then things get done.
Based on this, I decided to send a number of guest posts without saying anything. I simply sent my content and said ‘I really hope you enjoy it’. Now, these were people that clearly accepted guest posts, but they were also people who said they wanted to know the idea before the article is written. This is usually just a measure so that the blogger doesn’t waste his time, but when I was writing these things so frequently, the only time being wasted with the process was mine.
I don’t recommend you going ahead and relying on this, but it goes to show that people like to do business without much fuss. If you know your work is up to standard, you just might get away with this like I did. Otherwise, the process typically goes like this:
- You find blogs accepting guest posts or contact those who you’re unsure about
- You tell them what you would like to write about and see if they would be interested
- They get back to you with any suggestions or thoughts
- You write the article and make sure to include a link back to your website in the bottom
- You send it to the author
- They publish the article if you like it, and you receive the rewards
As far as publishing time goes, I’ve had one blogger who published my post the next day and one who took almost four months for an article to go live. A handy rule to remember is that generally, the bigger the blog (in terms of subscribers), the longer the wait.
Guest Blogging Examples
I’m certainly not the only guest blogger in the world so there are lots of examples out there of it’s benefits. Some of the most prominent guest-bloggers (and people I count as friends) include Ali, Jade, Mary and Dirk. This means that I can give examples about each of the points mentioned earlier and show how things work out.
Links
As you know by now, guest posts give links to the authors website. These links in-turn send traffic which could then become subscribers to this persons blog. The links don’t just send direct traffic but they also help with search engine traffic. If you want more traffic from the likes of Google, Yahoo and Bing, you need more links.
The image above shows a Yahoo backlink count of links to PluginID. The tool seems to be a bit ‘off’ lately as PluginID has around 15,000 backlinks but this screenshot should show proof that guest posting can get you a lot of links. Also highlighted in the image is an article that I did for ZenHabits.
Traffic
As I am working a little on getting the name of ViperChill out there, I have already written a few posts to both help people and build this audience. Notice how I don’t think of guest posting as just getting something in return, but also doing a good service to the readers of the blog I write for. Because of this promotion, I recently posted an article on Problogger about the lessons I’ve learned from blogging over the last 12 months.
The article ended up getting me almost 700 highly targeted visitors from the site which I believe resulted in around 200 feed subscribers through watching my stats closely around this time. This clearly shows more proof about the benefits of guest blogging and what 1-2 hours work can do for you.
Subscribers
Traffic and links are great, but they’re only second compared to the potential of getting new devoted blog readers. Devoted readers talk about you, they share your content, and they buy your products. If you want to make a living blogging, then you must realise your subscribers (the real people behind your site) matter a lot.
My guest post for Problogger went live on November 15th when I had 2,646 subscribers. On November 17th the site had 2,848 subscribers. That is an increase of 202 subscribers in just two days.
Guest Blogging Email
Instead of just showing you the benefits of guest blogging, I also thought it would be useful if I provided a sample email of what I send to bloggers after I’ve written an article for them. Note that I send all of my posts in text (.txt) files because I send bloggers the HTML code of my post, and not just the text version. This allows us to keep links intact and make the post far easier to edit.
If you can’t read all of that text clearly then don’t worry too much about the specifics. Instead, the two most important tips I can give you when sending emails like this are simply: be friendly and to get to the point. Bloggers are busy and they don’t want you rambling about your life story but neither do they want you to be robotic, so be personal in there. As long as your content is good, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about this email.
Getting the Most from Guest Blogging
Everything I have told you so far has hopefully given you a clear understanding of what guest blogging is, how to get blogging opportunities and how much potential this ‘method’ has. Before I leave you all to start getting in touch with bloggers in your niche, I want to share some tips from getting the most out of guest blogging.
- Write Awesome Content – I know I covered this earlier in the post but I believe it’s worth repeating due to how important this step is. Remember: even if you get your article onto the site of someone else, it doesn’t guarantee any results. The best way to make sure you reap the benefits of guest blogging is to write the best articles you can for other websites. This means that they’ll a) want you to write again and b) you’ll get traffic and then subscribers from their site.
- Leave an Optimised Link in the Byline - Guest blogging has been around for a while, and there are hundreds of people who do it. The biggest mistake I see these people make, however, is that they just leave a normal link in the footer of the article to their site. While it’s obvious that you should leave a link to your own site in the bottom of your post, you can get more ‘use’ out of the link if you change the anchor text to something you want to rank for in Google. I’ve received thousands of visitors from this tactic and it means that the benefits of guest blogging on each site will be with me for a long time to come (search engine rankings).
- Vary Where You Post – Generally, the way to maximise the benefits of guest blogging is to write for bigger blogs. If a site you write for has a large audience then that means there are more visitors who can click through to your website and subscribe to your feed. I have noticed a few people trying the guest blogging ‘tactic’ just on a few websites and constantly using the same ones. They had great results at first, but this quickly died down. If you keep writing for the same site, the people who want to subscribe will, and those who haven’t already probably won’t. I have wrote for sites with 200 subscribers and I’ve wrote for sites with 150,000 subscribers. I’ve enjoyed both and received the rewards for varying where I place my content.
- Respond to Comments – Because guest blogging is about writing on relevant websites, it’s important to stay professional and friendly with the influencers in your niche that you interact with. Not only should you try to keep in email contact with the blogger you’re writing for, but respond to as many comments as you can once your guest post goes live. This will show the blogger (and their site readers) that you genuinely want to give people genuine advice on whatever it is you write about.
- Make Subscribing Obvious – If you want people to subscribe to your blog after they click through to your site, at least make it easy for them. The amount of sites I go to and struggle to find how to subscribe to them is actually amazing. Remember that most of your visitors are probably not as web-savvy as you are so you need to make your RSS and email subscription options very clear. As you can see, I have mine in a bright yellow box at the top right of a page (for those who are web-savvy) and then sections in both the blog sidebar and single post footers for those who need a little push.
- Have Excellent Content Waiting – People won’t judge you just by what you write on the site of someone else, but what you have waiting for them when they arrive. If visitors don’t like what they see and don’t feel like missing your content is missing out then they just won’t subscribe. For example, I once promoted my personal development site on an internet marketing blog (where I wrote about internet marketing) and as expected received links and traffic for doing so. However, I only gained about 20 subscribers from 500+ visitors because only a few people were interested in both topics.
A lot of these are common sense suggestions, but I do see them being ignored on a daily basis. If you can write great content and stick to these tips to maximise your rewards, then you’re going to have a lot of success with guest blogging.
Please Share!
If you can’t tell, I have put hours upon hours into this article. My aim with ViperChill is to write more in-depth and value giving articles than anyone else in the industry so I try to deliver that goal on a weekly basis. If you do enjoy this article, I please ask that you share it on Twitter (link below or top left), Facebook, Delicious or even just email it to a friend.
Your support is appreciated!
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Hey Glen!
Totally awesome article! Very in-depth and useful to anyone who does not know what guest blogging or its benefits are! I hope it goes viral
Thanks for the link!
Hey Diggy, thanks I appreciate.
To everyone else, Diggy asked me in private about my thoughts on accepting guest posts on your own site. Despite having had a lot of success with guest posting, I have never allowed any posts on my own site.
This isn’t so I ‘steal the love’ but because I wanted to build up my own name and own brand first before I start sending people off across the web. Most sites I wrote for were a few years old so I’m sure they were similar when they started as well.
Really though, it’s completely up to you. If you want free content then…why not?
Hey Glen.
This is great info for wannabee guest bloggers – comprehensive and realistic – thanks for putting this together.
Just added a link to this post into my draft of a forthcoming post. No set publishing date, but will ping you when I finish / publish it.
Great stuff!
Kind Regards.
Dean.
Great article. I gonna make a try in Problogger and http://www.babumvarghese.com. his would be my first step towards guest blogging
Hello Gustavo greets from Spain
I love your content and guest blogger this strategy has opened my eyes to the work I do. I wish you every success.
regards
this is good article, we can learn some knowledge from it.
Good call on this going viral, Diggy! I’ve seen it a few places and thought I’d stop by to compliment Glen.
Most important thing about guest blogging that he goes over: write awesome content. It’s so true. It doesn’t matter if you’re the NYT, if you put out amazing material, you’re going to get amazing results.
I agree! Thank you for the great content. I didn’t realized how important guess blogging is to create back links. I appreciate it!
Warm Regards,
Nancy
Great tips Glen, I would add that Lisa Barone has a great post to compliment this one that details the finer points of approaching a blogger which is a must read. Kinda new here so I wont drop a link but readers can google her.
If you’re talking about ‘how to woo a blogger’ then it’s funny as I have that into my “to link to folder”. Only three links in there so I’m letting it build a bit more I share the love.
Thanks for your comment, Denny!
Nice, that’s the one Glen. Good stuff!
Glen, what a fantastic and in-depth piece … I’ve had a few people ask me about guest posting (why, how, etc) and I’ll definitely be pointing any future questioners towards this!
I remember when you were all over the place with guest posts — at one point, it seemed like half the blogs in my RSS reader had a post from you. So I’m honoured to be mentioned as a fellow guest-poster; alas, I’ve not managed to write so many guest posts as I’d hoped in the past couple of months, but I’m hoping to get back into the swing of it in early 2010; this post was a timely reminder and refresher for me!
Quick question: when promoting PluginID, did you deliberately target blogs which had an overlap in readership? Or was I just lucky to get a lot of your posts on my radar?
Thanks Ali,
Glad you like the post, and no problem with featuring you!
Regardig your question, I began by focusing on the biggest blogs in the niche. It turns out that these big blogs link to each other a lot (or in a sidebar) so those were the ones I had ‘marked’ to use. Maybe you did the same when subscribing to sites? Or, the big guys just naturally get onto the majority of peoples radars?
But no, I didn’t set out to have my name on your computer screen so much, Ali
Very well-written and easy to digest, Glen.
You’ve clearly put a lot of work into this (not to mention all the guest posts it took to learn the ropes!), so kudos to you for making the knowledge accessible all in one place!
Thanks Colin,
Awesome to see you over here, buddy. Thanks for the comment!
I have done many guest posts, but the biggest problem is asking them first – and they say yes – write the post – send them a copy – never hear back from them in months.
What do you do? Do you use the post somewhere else and ruin the relationship or have all the work go down the drain by never being published?
After having written over 40 guest posts, this has only happened to me once and was a very big blogger in the industry. I simply emailed them again a few more times to get their attention (people are busy) and it worked out.
If someone doesn’t like your post, just send it elsewhere.
Awesome article, Glen.
I’ve just started my blog, but I’ve already written 10 guest posts and fallen in love with it. It is something I will be focusing on exclusively in 2010. I have only submitted (and gotten my articles approved) by two big blogs, so I’m going to start writing more for the big dudes in the future.
Make sure you don’t forget about the little guys. Less ‘potential’ with them but still not something to overlook.
This is really great information for me. I’ve been following your viperchill blog now since your guest post on problogger and loving it. I’ve been considering guest posting as well but didn’t really know where to start the process.
Because my blog is new, I have a bit of redesign for 2010 and will definitely include optimizing sign up abilities for my readers. I’m also setting a goal to write 5 guest posts within the first 3 months of 2010.
Thanks for the motivation and I look forward to the next post.
You knocked it outta the park with this one, Glen. Hat tip to you!
Glen, thanks for the great information here.
My question for you is this. How long were you a blogger before you decided to begin guest posting on other blogs. Is there a time when its too early to be posting on others blogs?
The reason I ask is this. I am a new blogger myself. I feel like I lack the credibility at this point since my blog is only a few weeks old and lacks a history of posts and I won’t be taken seriously, but at the same time I know content is king and if it is strong original content then it shouldn’t matter. Should I work on my own blog for a while, or try to drive up readership instantly with guest posting?
Thanks for your time, and thanks for so much great information.
I have been a blogger for four years, so I’ll assume you mean how long after starting PluginID? If so, then just a month or two.
Your content is your credibility. If you write good things, then that will do the talking. Put yourself out there and see what happens.
Hi Glen.
I always appreciate the effort you put out for material such as this. You show here a lot of the concepts around the process, including relevant images along the way, and folks can get a good idea of what to do and why from this.
Good call about how larger sites usually take longer to publish a post.
Each time I get jealous of your output, I remember that you were putting hard effort in when I was not putting out as much, and then it is only myself to fault.
I like that you included a section about how to find sites for this purpose, as that can be a hold-up for some folks.
Solid resource here.
Dude, exactly what I needed to read. Going to be linking to it. You da man.
A little bit of a technical question I am hoping someone could answer. I noticed in your Yahoo screenshot that bar by the links. Is that some sort of pagerank that measures backlink quality? If so, how can I get that?
Hi Tony,
That is the alexa sparky plugin, which gives an estimated view of a websites’ traffic.
- Glen
Thank you for this, Glen. I’m one of the arrivals from your ProBlogger post, which was also excellent.
I’m on the verge of graduating from casual LiveJournalling to a first serious blog, and was just wondering a few days ago how I could go about getting some guest blogging spots once I’m up and running. Your article couldn’t be more timely.
That’s great to hear, J.V.
Thanks for sticking around after the Problogger article. it’s awesome to have you here.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve tweeted this article.
Thanks Anne, appreciated!
It is funny, but as a mew writer, I really don’t see much of a difference between guest posting and freelance writing. Both are about getting out there.
One you get paid, the other you get indirect benefits?
- Glen
Yeah, but the process is the same. Also, I have to imagine that magazine writing/newspaper writing/internet writing will all merge soon, especially as the business model changes.
I’m looking at it froma different perspective.
This is a great post. Guest posting is one of my goals for 2010 and I will be bookmarking this post for reference. Thanks for the great info!
Dang Glen, this was friggin awesome. It’s funny, I was telling my biz partner today about my desire to do more guest posting, and tonight when I checked my email you were kind enough to tell me exactly how to do it! Love your blogs man. Awesome quality, not frivolous quantity. Keep up the great work bro.
Good timing then!
Appreciate your comments as always Marcus and glad that I could help!
Very nice tips, I’ll have to share this on Blogger Den with the rest of the community! I’m sure it has a good chance of hitting the front page, which would be really cool
Thanks BD, that would be cool
Hey nice article. Here is the best resource for getting blogs for writing. http://www.google.com/search?q=write+for+us
I’m sure that would work, but the results aren’t going to be very targeted. You could put the industry in that query, of course.
Your argument for varying the blogs you guest post for is strong. I’ll try to keep that in mind.
This is a great post. I actually cant wait to read it over in more detail. I’ve been getting the guestpost itch and need to scratch it.
Nice job Glen.
“However, these same bloggers will say that if you want an interview with them, send questions with the request so if the answer is “Yes, I’ll do it” then things get done.” – that’s a tip I didn’t consider. I was thinking of sending the request first, and then writing the questions if they said yes. So thanks.
Impressive Glen,
When are you going to except quest posts on your blog then mate, remember I am first in line. Keep up the great work man, I love reading your stuff.
[...] Big Wave was an example of the first. When my guest posts just happened to be featured on 4 of the biggest blogs in my industry on the same day, people began [...]
Glen this post is great.
It’s just what I needed because I’m planning to do some guests post on February.
So, for example, if I want to rank for “personal development” in google, instead of placing my blog’s name I should replace it for “personal development” blog. Am I right?
Thanks for the good info, see you buddy.
Hi Glen,
Great article! Easily the best introduction to guest blogging that I’ve ever seen (better than the one I wrote by far!).
Perhaps it’s worth making a point about taking advantage of visitors to your website from the guest article? For example, when you do get visitors, do you have strong call-to-actions to encourage them to subscribe via RSS or follow you on twitter? Perhaps encourage them to sign up to your newsletter or purchase a product/service?
In terms of finding guest blogs to write for, have you seen my project yet? http://www.BlogSynergy.com is a platform (currently free) that helps you to find bloggers to write guest posts for you, or find blogs to write for… would love to know your thoughts on it!
Thanks
Dan
I love the article, Glen!
Can you please explain more about the “Optimized link in the byline?”
A while ago I wrote an article about guest posting from an Editor’s perspective. It’s about what I look for in guest posts for WritetoDone and how to write a pitch that rocks: http://bit.ly/3eM64C
Bye the way, I’m always happy to consider guest posts for Goodlife ZEN or Write to Done
[...] readers and a link back to your own blog. Glenn Allsopp wrote a very nice post about the concept of Guest Blogging. The guest posts I have done for other blogs in [...]
[...] Glen Allsopp/Viperchill: Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide [...]
Hey Glen,
Great job with this post! I have found Guest Blogging to be an effective way to build awareness of my blog InterAwesome.com. One of my new years resolutions is to find more guest bloggers to contribute to my site, and this post helps toward that end. Thanks for the tips!
Hi Garin
I’d be interested in guest writing for your blog. I was going to contact you directly, but you don’t have an about page or a contact page. What requirements do you have for guest bloggers? I didn’t see a guest blogger information page either…
Dan
[...] Of course, there are other uses to guest blogging. [...]
[...] This is a blog story by Glen Allsopp who writes about viral marketing. If you liked this post, you may also enjoy his in-depth article on guest blogging. [...]
Hi there Glen
Really Thanks for writing this great article on guest bloging. THis is such a thorough guide on how to get the best out of guest blogging. Really.
Believe me, I don’t praise so openheartedly often. But this one deserves it. I am now going to follow your blog very closely.
Hey Deobojyoti,
You’re very welcome, I’m glad you got a lot of value out of this one
Glenn,
Great article. Just some additional observation that I’ve had with guest blogging. I have people that try to write on my blog and all they submit are ‘corporate’ type sales pages. I have to put an “index-nofollow” meta tag on these posts because I don’t want the search engines following these “affiliate links.” On the other hand, if someone’s links go to their own blog or website, I’ll give them an “index-follow” and also write a ‘title tag,’ ‘description’ and add ‘keywords’ to clean up the SEO.
Anyway… that’s the way I approach a guest blog.
All the best,
Rick
[...] Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide Glen Allsopp, ViperChill | 12/21/09 [...]
[...] & blogging – Guest blogging: the ultimate guide – Glen Alsopp (Viperchill) The finalists in this category were all excellent reads, and I [...]
Well done Glen,
Came across this article from the SEMMY awards, and its really good stuff! Congrats on your nomination as well…
I also loved the way you defined and promoted guest blogging. I kinda knew about it but I just never took it seriously, but based on the way you’ve defined it you’re definitely gonna make me sit up about it and get to work. So thanks for that!
[...] never considered guest posting or you aren’t sure where to start with it, read my massive guest blogging guide. It really does contain everything I have to share on the subject and you’ll learn why [...]
[...] Guest blogging: the ultimate guide – Glen Allsopp [...]
[...] post by Glen Allsopp who writes about Viral marketing. He has also written an in-depth guide about guest blogging you may also [...]
[...] Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide Glen Allsopp, ViperChill | 12/21/09 [...]
[...] Blogs & Blogging: Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide [...]
Great post Glen. I have been blogging for a couple of months, and am just venturing into trying to get guests posts published on other blogs. It is one of my main focuses for 2010. This article is insanely useful in getting me started on the right track for doing just that. Before reading I was wondering exactly how I would go about it, and you’ve laid out an incredibly straightforward path to guest blogging succes. Thanks for that. Great visuals as well.
Hi Glen,
Nice post! Never thought of the Linkbuilding tactics this way!
[...] http://www.viperchill.com/guest-blogging/ [...]
Best guide I’ve seen on the free side so far.
I may purchase a couple of products in this space. Will be interesting to see how those stack up against this article.
Very nice post!
Thank you very much!
[...] This year’s annual SEMMYS Award in the Blogs & Blogging category went to fast-rising blogging star Glen Allsopp. You read his winning post here: Guest Blogging. [...]
[...] blogging as a great way to build your authority in your niche and will then link to my guide on guest blogging. I also use the anchor text of the search query I’m trying to rank for if it doesn’t [...]
[...] Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide I try not to sound too egotistical when I say this, but over the past 12 months I have certainly been one of the ‘faces of guest posting,’ simply because I have had a lot of public success with the tactic. I’ve been interviewed about marketing using guest posts over 10 times, I’m mentioned on the homepage of a guest posting community and I’ve written far more of them than I care to remember… [...]
Hi Glen
Thanks for the post and great tips. I’m a visual artist, new to blogging and trying to find ways to raise my profile and encourage people to have a look at my work. I’m reading a lot about blogging and online marketing and would like to see if these strategies can be applied to the arts. The art world is a bit of a closed shop but your post is really helpful. I’m going to print it out, read it again and see how i can apply it in my field. Thanks again, all the best, Janee
Hey Glen,
Thanks very much this is exactly the information I needed to read today!
And very timely as I am looking for a couple of guest bloggers. I hope you don’t mind if I use this space to give ask your readers to contact me if they are interested in guest blogging on http://www.grassrootsinternetstrategy.com.au/blog/ if you have a specialty in the areas of internet marketing, social media marketing or business tips in website planning.
And Glen if you were interested we would be honoured!
Thanks once again for a brilliant post.
Serena
[...] Welt zu den Gastbeiträgen der Blogosphäre dar. Und ähnlich wie die Youtuber erkennen immer mehr Blogger Gastbeiträge als essentiellen Anteil für Erfolg im Internet an. Wird anderswo über Egoismus [...]
[...] have wrote a massive guide to guest blogging that tells you more about the practice, so read that for a detailed guide on how to get links [...]
this is the first time i read about guest blogging. and now i have one question, if you don’t mind. can we send the same post to more than 1 blog? what’s the consequences of doing this?
This is awesome. I’ve recommended to a number of clients that they try guest blogging, either as an intermediate step before starting their own blog, or as a way to expand their reach and point traffic back to their blog. I’ll be pointing my readers & clients to your post – thanks!
This is a well put article and it gave me more ideas.
Craig
Hey Glen,
I just came to to here via a post you did on SEOmoz’s YOUmoz site, so there’s a bit of evidence in action. I really appreciate the time and effort you’ve put into this post – it’s refreshing to find quality information.
One of the things that I like the most about this tactic is that I can’t really see Google having a problem with it from an SEO perspective. I mean, the links will be editorially given based upon the judgement of the recipient as to whether or not the guest post provides useful information for their visitors. It’s a pretty clean sort of link building.
Now it’s time to read some of your other posts
Nice post, thank you
I think there is a general consensus that this post hits the nail right on the head. The time and effort you put into this post is very evident.
Here is what I like about this post: I loved the step by step guide on exactly what to do in order to begin guest blogging. I’ve been blogging for three years, but I was blogging in a niche where there weren’t really any other blogs (I blogged about a small tourist area), so the opportunity to do guest posts wasn’t that great. This post is great because it gave me some insight on how to get started writing guest posts to promote my new blog on Social Media Marketing.
This is why I would share this post with others: There are tons of great reference points. I love “how-to” – like guides on how to do things. This post provides readers with the steps they need to take to be successful and tactfully makes no assumptions as to the knowledge (or lack of) of its audience.
As Michael Martine said above, “You knocked it outta the park with this one, Glen.” Thanks!
Hi
As said by everyone above, thanks for a great piece. One question though, if you were accepting guest blogging, would you vet what you post based on what the site is they are linking to? I mean, would you only allow something on topic to be linked to (as is the best practice when looking for in-bound links)
Thanks
John
Hi Glen,
Great Post and Great Tips. Definately very inspiring and motivating for me.
Thanks for Tips.
It have been very encouraging especially to a newbie like myself as I am struggling daily to try to bring traffic to my blog.
Cheers
Steven Chui
http://www.successcube.com/
“We are more Capable of what we are able to do than we ever know”
Thanks Glen for an informative piece. I learned some new tips form your article. My friend and I experimented exchanging guest post on each others blogs and it was great fun. We have totally different niches but managed to weave our interests into a common theme for the posts. I love the writing process and am ready to give it a try elsewhere.
Another great post. I would be happy if you guest posted on my blog. Let me know if you want to.
Good Post! I really like the information you give. Very helpful and you really explained it well. Keep up the good posts!
The only trouble with guest posting is that it takes a lot of time to write the masterpiece blog post. And when you have invested that much time in it, it’s hard to let go of your baby and sometimes easier to post on your own blog :-/
I’m a convert now. How rare it is to hit a blog that answers the question you were asking when you found it.
Great posts (I’ve read 2 so far), and spot on writing.
[...] effective ways to build a blog is to use guest posting. I’ve written an extensive guide to guest blogging that covers pretty much everything you need to know about the [...]
Fantastic article Glen, thanks!
Posts like this are a great help to new writers/guest bloggers like me.
I don’t have my own blog. However, i do have a social presence (i.e Twitter), so i have been promoting links back to my profiles instead.
The ultimate aim is to of course to become an authority within my niche (consumer technology), so any guides like this are greatly appreciated.
I just launched a humor blog (no products, services or ads on site), and I’m looking to either do some guest posting on other sites, or to partner up with another humorist where we can cross post. The goal would be simply to increase readership, which of course, could open up business opportunities down the road. Curious to see if you have any suggestions for this type of situation. Thanks!
Hi Glen,
I recently worked for a major SEO firm in Phoenix and left to freelance. Although I know my business when it comes to SEO I am at the early stage of trying to land the first few customers. I am considering guest blogging as a way to share some knowledge and gain some links but really know very little about it. I googled “guest blogging” and voila, your very awesome article came up. Thanks so much for the time you put in this! I have a much better understanding now and some ideas on a direction.
Hi Glen – question.
Is it worth paying for the ‘privilege’ of guest posting on a high-PR site? I’ve seen a couple asking for money for this.
guesting posting is great not just for blog growth but to build a relationship with other bloggers.i enjoy doing it.
Great piece of advice here. I will soon try to find out some blogs for guest blogging.
You are really a good guest blogger. I also did guest blogging as my #1 link building strategy. This makes my previous blog got it’s PR3 and hit the front page of google in some keyword terms.
Not only that guest blogging is very useful for link building but also it helps you to gain your credibility, respects and recognition in the niche you are in.
Thank you very much for this great post.
- Blogging Access.com
this is an excellent article.
does anybody know how do you find blogs related to your industry?
and how do you approach them when you found them?
thanks!
Hey Fabian,
Both of these have been covered in the post.
Thanks For sharing such great piece of information.
Congrats…for 2010 SEMMY Winner in Blogs & Blogging …Exllent Article for web Masters for Blogs & Blogging…Thanks for sharing to us…
Looking at the results of guest blogging I invited 3 people, who are expert in their field to write a post on my blog.I had a hope that atleast one would say Yes.Unfortunately,I feel experts are willing to guest blog only for famous organizations/personalities from whom they expect to get back some traffic or other business.
From the invitations I had send,one replied me,” I would like to pass it,since I myself need to first write a post for my blog.”
The 2nd one says:I dont like blogging.
The third one said: I dont have time to write.
Now the situation is,I wanted some guest whom I actually know.Otherwise there are many people expert in their field whom we can ask.
[...] If you want to learn more about the practice then read my guide on it over here. [...]
Glen this is a great article post. Most internet marketers need to know about the benefits of guest blogging for two main reasons. Guest blogging will increase you writing level and quality and you will get a ton of traffic as a results of it which will increase you sales and reputation as well.
I’ve been soliciting people to guest blog on my site and so far it’s worked out great. I’m getting some great content and they’re getting a lot of exposure. I’ve been getting a few new articles every week, but they usually come in when I least expect it. I’d like to try and take it to the next level and get people to become regular contributors but to make it work you need consistency and a commitment from them to deliver when expected. Is it normal practice to offer some kind of financial compensation to regular contributors? I would think after a while exposure as the motivating factor would wear out and they would probably drop off. Do the super blogs out there pay their contributors (assuming they are not employees)? I want to be fair to the contributors but I’m not sure what the best practice is. Any suggestions?
I always thought it was very time consuming to guest blog but I can see the benefits now, plus the cudos for getting out there and having a holler in your own filed of knowledge…cheers for the insite
Guest blogging is definitely one of the best ways to get targeted traffic and imrpove your SEO rankings. Glen, I also appreciate that you even took the time to share with us an email you wrote to another blogger. Not everyone is that transpartent. Thanks man! You rock!
I was going to write a piece about guest blogging, but you’ve laid it out so well here, I think I’ll just refer people to you.
One thing I’m big on is creating environments to start global conversations. When you can get a discussion going, questions can get raised and answers given. This is a great way to market because dialog builds trust, trust brings sales and happy customers. So guest blogging opens up the opportunity for anyone with a reasonable level of writing skills to start a conversation with people they might not normally reach.
I’m looking at what you’ve done here. You wrote this almost a year ago, yet the conversation continues. That’s great work! But it also brings up another issue for guest bloggers . . .
When you guest post on a blog, it might be a good idea to subscribe to the comments so you can stay on top of what people say about it, and remain part of the conversation. People may have questions, or could give you new ideas to write about in another post.
This might require you to limit the number of blogs you guest on, but the effects will be good for the longevity and value of the posts over all.
So does anybody want to be interviewed for my blog? =)
Great post! Fine advice that I agree with, so have subscribed to see more. Only wish I knew how to manipulate my WordPress theme as well as you do. Or understood your directions. Not that it’s your fault. I’m just competely computer illiterate.
I’ve spent at least an hour reading your stuff, plus clicking through on links re technical information. Found you on your Problogger guest post.
Ev Bogue referred me to you site and I am impressed. The information you present answers a lot of my questions especially the guest blogging part. Thank you for putting so much effort into these articles mate, it really shows.
Great information here. I just started learning on how to promote your website and this is one of the great ways to do it, Glen. Thanks.
I am continually amazed by how many marketers who have blogs just don’t appreciate the value of Guest Blogging. Sometimes it seems like marketers and bloggers live in 2 different worlds.
These are very useful tips. I allow guest posts on my website, it keeps things fresh and provides a different perspective for my readers. Recently I guest posted for another blog in my niche (I did it before visiting your blog). The owners were ecstatic about my article telling me first that my article resulted in a near record number of retweets for their blog. The next day they told me that my article had generated THE most retweets their blog ever had. I was very happy to contribute my knowledge and expertise and I hope that that blog’s readers will benefit from the information I provided in the article. Interestingly, though, I have not seen a change in my traffic. I publish in a very popular niche (health and wellness) and some of my site keyword rank higher than other very popular websites. As a matter of fact one of my very recent articles ranked higher than a similar article for newsweek. Still, my traffic is not where it should be -and it should be noted that based on the statistics of some blog ranking sites of which I am a member my site has a better popularity rating than a lot of other blogs. And I’ve been at this for a number of years now. There’s always something new to learn, but I do employ many of the SEO strategies that have been profitable to many of the big name bloggers. The most important thing is to keep going, keep learning and testing strategies which is what brought me to this site. I hope to pick up new ideas here.
Hey Glen,
I must admit – I’m guilty of not utilizing the advantages of anchor texts. Thanks for the reminder of how important they are!
The section in this post that I found the most useful was when you mentioned how to find websites to guest post on. I had no idea Google had their own blog search tool! That’s pretty awesome.
Thanks a bunch for the in-depth article. I’ve been on a guest posting frenzy lately, and I know this post helped loads! I’ll be sure to share it on Twitter.
Christina
Impressive Glen,
When are you going to except quest posts on your blog then mate, remember I am first in line. Keep up the great work man, I love reading your stuff.
i tell you what i loved reading this post so much, im going to come back again! i found it really interesting and certainly something new.. i had a good idea for a while that writing blog comments was a good link building way for traffic. but fair play you really put some effort in here! i would like to write my own blogs and this is certainly one good reason why i should. thank you so much!
Thanks for the insights. I had never really considered the potential increase in subscribers. Doh!
I just found this post and it’s so timely as I’ve dragging my heels on guest blogging, knowing I should do it but didn’t know where to start.
Really great idea to have the posts waiting. I’ll begin writing over the holidays and in New Year look at connecting with other bloggers.
Thanks for providing specific examples such as the email, it’s really helpful as a starting point.
Ayngelina
One word Amazing!
Thanks a lot for this sharing, I was looking for a good article on Guest Blogging. You have open up the world for me.
Thanks again
Thanks a lot for article! This is by far the best explained guest blog post I have read. Especially liked the inclusion of how you approach blogs. Now to give it a go.. cheers
Wow One of the best pieces I’ve read in a long while. I’ll get more serious with guest posting then
I can see you’re an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your data will likely be really useful for me.. Thanks for all your assist and wishing you all of the success.
Thats great article. Like to read it. Its very informative. Guest glogging is a great technique in SEO. Best for bloggers.
Really its an ultimate guide for guest blogging !
Thanks.
Thanks for the useful information. Your articles are always very helpful, especially for people like me who don’t have much knowledge of blogging!
Hey Glen,
I am a newbie in blogging. I started my blog in this month only. I have learned a great tip of Guest blogging. This detailed article helped me to know important tip today. Thanks
Hi There:
I’m a newbie to blogging and recently jumping into the social media pool I am looking for ways to do this effectively. As I read your terrific article I realized just how far I am personally from being able to write well enough to be a guest blogger. However, I’m up for the challenge, have subscribed to copyblogger.com and hope to get my skills level up there before too too long. Thanks for the post and all the best in your efforts.
Thank you. This is the first time a blog has shown me the long term use of guest posts. I always thought it was for getting a burst of traffic and a backlink. Now, I see it also makes a huge difference in newsletter signups which means you should be able to get people back to your site after reading each e-mail.
thanks man,great share
change the title to “All About Guest Blogging “
Why?
Awesome tips you have got here! I have written several Guest Posts and also have a Blog which accepts Posts on topics related to relationships. I have seen some wonderful results by both Guest Posting and allowing others to Blog on my site.
Hi
Great post! I´ve just learned what guest blogging is thanks to this article! Thank you for sharing! let´s put all this in action =) (sorry for my english)
We are always accepting guest bloggers on our site, but with guest blogging the more blogs you guest blog on the better. What works for me is doing a search on Twitter for terms such as “guest blogging” or “guest blogger” and then following those people who are into guest blogging.
Guestblogging is interesting. I’ve always thought to continue to build up my own blog to a certain level and then pursue the guest blogging. I think many people might start to guest blog before they get their own blog in full order or with a full clear vision.
I guess it goes on a case by case basis. I don’t want to try and go out guestblogging until I have my full clear set up done.
I’m pretty close to that now. It’s the biggest thing for me. Then it’s time to go on a rampage all over the place. Watchout!
Scott
http://www.nuwomb.com
Hi everyone!
Since I learned more about SEO, thanks to Glen, I’ve subscribed to Cloud Niche (http://cloudniche.com) and the idea number 3 from Glen is very interesting for guest bloggers: Since Ezine and other content farms have been attacked by the Google algorithm update (Panda), why not offer to all Internet Marketers a new way to get links, without the risk to be penalized, through guest blooging in different niches.
It is why I put this great idea to action and I now offer everyone to guest post in the new blog of my Health & Happiness Magazine (I am open to any good guest posts that are topic related). You can get more information here: http://www.healthhappinessmag.com/blog/submit-post-guest-blogging.html
I wait to read you and thanks again Glen. I hope your idea will work!
Anna
This article is a great read! However, I am faced with an issue with regard to guest blogging and I hope you can help me. 2 organizations have already contacted me and asked if I am willing to accept guest blogs from their writers. They did not suggest any monetary compensation on their email but since these are companies who are earning online from their products/services offered, I feel the need to charge them for the guest blog. If only they have personal websites, which is related to my niche, I would accept their guest blogs for free.
So my question is this: Can we also ask for monetary compensation for accepting guest blogs from companies? If so, how much is the normal rate for a guest blog?
Hope you can shed light on this matter. Thanks!
Glen, really appreciate this article!! Not only did you give me some “filler” time at work, but you also put some in depth thought into this article and explaining it very well!
Hey Glen,
Loved the article. I’ve recently been struggling to come up with new ways to get inbound links and traffic to my sites and your article definitely gave me some new ideas. Keep it up!!!
he Glen
if we make a guest blog web site with the help of world press then what is benefit get to me n pls reply me
The answer is in the post
Hi Glen,
Very nice post ! Never thought that linkbuilding would work this way!
I enjoyed your article immensely and can tell you put lots of time and energy on it. I enjoyed it a lot. I also agree with your comments about content. There is nothing worse than getting into a really bad article that has little value to it. Thanks for your time and comments.
Very helpful post, began my blog a month ago and am spending time each night getting more and more traffic towards it. Guest Blogging should help me get my video game news to the right people!
Thanks.
Hi Glen,
Great article once again! Guest posting is something that I was looking to get into but didn’t know where to start and your primer is just what I needed! Your right that most of your post was common sense but that’s actually what people usually miss out on. So it’s great that your emphasizing that aspect.
Thanks!
I found so many of the valid points that you brought out in your article to be very useful. I will be bookmarking this site for further use. I have been making comments on some articles about the things I like and dont without knowing the extent the content would have on the site. Thanks for the very resourceful article and the time that you put into it.
Thank you for your amazing post! It has long been really helpful. I hope which you will proceed sharing your wisdom with us.
WOW! That was one MEGA informative blog post! A great read thanks!
Hi Glen,
I’ve been reading a lot of articles about guest blogging in recent weeks and this is without a doubt one of the best! Informative, well written and immensely practical.
Thank you for sharing your insights, tips and experience with us. Really appreciate it!
You got a really great blog I have been here reading for about half an hour. I am a newbie and your post is valuable for me.
Great info! Very new to blogging! Very helpful.
Thx for a great article! I recently started guest blogging and did realized the benefits you’re talking about. Also wrote about guest blogging experience on my blog.
Great article. I’ve used some forums where people with blogs look for guest posters but these tend to be of lower quality where they are happy to accept any content.
I really like the idea of guest blogging, that makes it white hat approach for blogging that will ultimately earn improved ranking with search engines so its a win win solution.
Keep posting such informative info.
thanks
I’ve been guest blogging for a couple of months with good results…your post showed me a couple of things I need to do better. Great article…thanks!
Interesting article.
The problem with having Guest Blogs is the style of writing.
I have a India Travel Blog and get requests for Guest Posts.
However the writing styles differ so much that I don’t like to publish it.
ViperChill,
Thanks for this awesome website. It’s so refreshing to see somebody who’s not “trying to make money online while showing others how to make money online”! Looking forward to watching your video series!
Feels so good reading all these essentially written articles.This is why they all need to be shared.Thanks for the awesomeness Glen.
now with the blog networks getting nuked – guest posting will be even more important than ever before.
a new cool tool to find guest post quickly is link prospector. i wrote a blog review on the tool:
http://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com/blog/seo/link-prospector-tool-released-today-go-get-it/
no affiliate links, not pushing the product nor have an alternative motive. just a cool tool for finding guest posting opportunities fast.
One of my favourite ways to get blogs to guest post on is to simply got to a big website, and hit the comments section. There are plenty of other bloggers always commenting on posts, so go to their blog and drop them an email and ask to guest post. It goes on and on because there are so many blogs out there!
Bit of an old post but it’s now more relevant than ever. Guest posting seems to be the way a lot of people are turning and as such quality control is more important. Ultimately it’s win/win – users are getting content that’s of an outstanding quality and webmasters are getting highly topical traffic.
Yes I did enjoy this article on blogs guest posting. I practice this method at least 3 times a week. 3 to 5 times each, it’s really worth it, even though it’s time consuming. It’s so cool to know that after so many years it’s still useful and powerful for different reasons, specially SEO.
Guest blogging is definitely one of the best ways to get targeted traffic and imrpove your SEO rankings. Glen, I also appreciate that you even took the time to share with us an email you wrote to another blogger. Not everyone is that transpartent. Thanks man! You rock!
Excellent guide “article!” I especially like the part about having content waiting. A guest blogger, or writer, for that matter, is never finished writing
Great article. You summed it up perfectly and I agree it’s all about providing valuable and usefull content. Guest blogging takes a little more effort than some other SEO methods but the results speak for themselves. Not only are visitors targetted but the increased conversions made it a stand out choice for anyone who is serious about their IM efforts.
From these posts, i get more details about the guest blogging and their importance.
I will do some serious guest blogging soon, so many good things about it. Hopefully i can find some related sites to do it on.
Wow man,
This is an awesome post. Extremely helpful and beneficial. I am very new to blogging and this provided me with a lot of clarity about how to approach guest posting. Much appreciated.
I am not only impressed with the article, which was very helpful, but with the fact that you have been getting a steady stream of comments for over two years on this post. Well done! Thank you for sharing such wonderful information in such a concise manner.
Peace,
Morgan
Your article is worth sharing. I’m new in wordpress and still right now i don’t get how the backlinks work. I think this is the most important in SEO am i right?
Hi,
As I am new in this field as blogger and try to provide content with posting on my blog.
Really very useful information about guest blogging. Thanks for sharing such kind of useful information.
Glen! Glen!! Glen!!! your articles and email newsletters are so magnetizing you always leave me with your thoughts and unique uncommon approach to blogging and make money online stuff.
I love your work, i am always inspired as always.
Thanks
Hi
I like what you have written in your article, a better to way to do guest blogging i can say.But really in practical it’s hard to find your niche sites for guest posting.I’ll really appreciate if any of you please provide me with some History related sites for Guest posting.I’m working on some project that provide online shopping for Historical armor & weapons.
Thanks
Thanks Glen, this article was extremely helpful and gave me enough ideas to keep me busy for the rest of the year! Also, congrats on your success and that you are using it to travel, it’s what I love too and one of the reasons for doing what I am doing – so I can travel! And work from anywhere – not just to work from home or hang out in a mall all day
Cheers,
Lisa