Pitching ideas or stories to publications is nothing new. In fact, it’s basically a given if you work in PR. Professionals, businesses, brands, and online creatives alike use public relations to promote their images and keep them positive. But guest blogging is a little different. You don’t need to be a CEO or a career expert with 20 years of experience to successfully build your own brand online. Now let’s get down into the details of this unique marketing strategy:
What is guest blogging?
In simple terms, guest blogging is creating a blog post to share on somebody else’s blog. If you’re willing to write an article that’s about 1,000 words in length, and follow the guidelines that any given publisher shares, you can pitch your idea to them to see if they will share your guest post on their website.
Why would you want to do that?
It seems like a waste of time creating content that won’t even be published on your own website or blog. Why would you spend hours trying to do research for a guest post and take the time to write it, and then not even get the reward for the hard work?
Well, that’s kind of the point. Only sharing content on your own website can limit your opportunities to be noticed online. Wouldn’t you want to be found on an online publication like Huffington Post? Think of all the visitors that go on their website daily!
Once I share with you all of the benefits of guest blogging, you’ll wonder why you never invested in it before!
Here are some ways that guest blogging can help build your reputation online:
1. Guest blogging can improve your SEO rankings and web traffic.
Guest blogging is one way of increasing your number of inbound links. These are links that are located on other websites that bring web visitors back to your site if they choose to click on it. Inbound links can improve your website ranking because search engines view them as authoritative content. As a result, your very own website can achieve a higher ranking.
Also, if you’re publishing content that gives advice or can help a reader solve a problem, this can especially increase your referral traffic. Headlines with “how to’s” and “x ways to do this” are the most likely to be shared online. There is a bit of a science behind it, if you want to know more details.
2. Guest blogging can boost your credibility.
Popular blogs and publications are popular for a reason. The editors have developed and maintained a trusting relationship with their viewers. Those viewers are reading content from their sites because they find it useful, informative, or even entertaining.
When you’re seen as an author of a blog post on another site, you’re more likely to be seen as an expert and a willing collaborator. When you guest blog on top-of-the-line publishers in your niche, you’re showing their audience that you are also worthy of recognition.
3. Guest blogging can increase your social media following.
The larger the publication, the higher the number of followers it has on social media. Imagine if you posted a guest blog for The EveryGirl. They have nearly 100,000 followers on Twitter! That is a massive audience that you could be exposed to when they share your blog post on their Twitter page.
You could also include links to your social media accounts in your byline which could boost your following immediately after a guest blog is published online. Who wouldn’t want an extra 200 followers on Twitter or Facebook?
4. Guest blogging can expand your online exposure.
After posting on blogs that are bigger than yours, you are expanding your influence to a larger network of readers. If you post a blog post on a site that receives 20,000 visitors per month, that is thousands of eyeballs that weren’t aware of your content before. Even if 5% of that blog’s readership visited your website, you would have 1,000 more unique visitors than you did before!
In other words, you’ll be able to grow your audience by sharing your expertise or providing an opinion to another blogger’s audience. If someone liked what you had to say, they will want to learn more about you. When you create share-worthy content, you’re more likely to gain not just new readers, but fans who will visit your website more often.
5. Guest blogging allows you to network with fellow bloggers and online business entrepreneurs.
Networking is always encouraged whether you’re a college student looking for an internship or a keynote speaker attending a conference. The same concept applies to online creatives. Building relationships is important online because it’s easy for you to get lost in the sea of bloggers and online businesses.
The more you guest blog, the more networking you will participate in. The more networking you do, the more opportunities will come your way that will improve your brand, your credibility, and your exposure, which was previously mentioned. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
For me, guest blogging is fun to do. It’s a great feeling seeing your name, your photo, and your bio on somebody else’s website. After my guest post at CreateLounge was published, I noticed that some of my page views were a direct result of being published on that website. It was awesome!
What do you think about guest blogging? Are you more willing to try it now? If you have, what kind of success did you achieve?
