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Guest blogging is an excellent way to position yourself as an expert in your industry.

You can get more exposure through guest posts and attract more customers, as well. Many people use guest posting as a way to leverage more interest in their website. They also use it as a platform to gain backlinks, as well as mentions and become an industry leader. However guest blogging isn’t easy and does require some skill in order to gain your backlinks on high quality websites. While it can be difficult to break into guest blogging, your chances of success are much greater if you follow some tips. If you’re looking to improve your chances of guest posting success, these tips will put you in the position to succeed with all your guest posts. Let’s get started.

Choose the Right Opportunities

When people start out with guest blogging, it’s not uncommon for them to cast a wide net and take any opportunity they can find. That’s actually a really bad idea, though. You need to be selective, so you can get the best results possible.

Begin by looking at the blog’s audience. You want to choose blogs that attract people in your niche. Once you find those blogs, check the quality. You want to position yourself as an expert, and that will only happen if you post on high-quality blogs. If the blog’s posts are of a low quality, you could actually hurt your reputation by posting on the blog.

Then, look at the engagement levels. You want to get comments, clicks, and shares, and that is more likely if the blog already has a high level of engagement. Look at the engagement levels of the current posts. If it gets a lot of engagement, you know it’s a good fit. Other things to ask yourself:

• How much traffic does the site get on a regular basis? Your ideal sites will have decent amount of traffic coming through.
• Does the site require anything in return for guest posting? Some sites require a fee to guest post.
• For quality, what metrics does the site have? Generally the better the metrics, the better the site.
• Do they allow you to have a backlink to your website? That’s the main goal here. If you want it to help your ranking try to get a Dofollow link and not a nofollow link.

Finding sites that offer great guest posting opportunities is hard, but with time and effort you’ll learn to spot them from a distance.

Follow the Best Practices for Guest Blog Pitches

Lots of people make a huge mistake when pitching guest blog posts. They create a single pitch and then send it from one blog owner to the next. Generic pitches aren’t going to get results, at least not with the quality of blogs you need to post on. You need to personalise every pitch you send.

You can’t do that without reading the guest post guidelines. The guidelines will explain what you need to do when pitching ideas and creating posts for the blog. If you fail to read the guidelines, the blog owner will ignore your pitch or submission.

Next, send a personalised correspondence. Address the blog owner directly, and talk about the blog to let the owner know you’ve read it.

Then you need to explain who you are. Be sure to talk about your own blog in this section so the blog owner knows you know how to create blog posts.

Then, submit the pitch, if the guidelines require it. Your pitch should be something fresh and new that hasn’t already been covered on the blog. Explain why you think the pitch is a good fit. You can even say something like, “I came up with this topic because of your post on X, Y, or Z.” Include a few pitches so the blog owner will have the opportunity to select the one he or she likes the best. Some things you shouldn’t do when pitching to sites:

• Don’t demand to guest post on their site. Remember it’s their site and you’re the guest writer.
• Avoid trying to stretch the guidelines. If they only want 1000 words for example, don’t write a post that’s 2000 words just to impress.
• Avoid trying to stuff the post with links or asking to add multiple website backlinks. Keep it simple.
• Don’t continually email the website constantly every day or every three days if you haven’t heard back from them. Do a follow up at least once in 5-7 days and then move on. Give them time to respond.

Pitching the right way is so important when it comes to guest posts. Take your time and don’t rush it.

Follow the Best Practices When Writing the Post

When you take on a guest blogging opportunity, it’s up to you to write something that fits into the blog’s style. That means you need to follow proper formatting. If the blog posts typically have headers, images, or anything else that stands out, incorporate that formatting into your own post, as well.

Next, you need to think about the body of the post. You might want to use it to advertise your company or brand, but that would be a mistake. Guest blog posts should always provide a real value to readers. Otherwise, people won’t read them, and you won’t enjoy the benefits of guest blogging. Use the space you get to provide value, and then promote yourself or your company in your author bio.

Links are also important in guest blog posts Blog owners love internal links, so add one or two to let the owner know you did your homework. Include some external links to back up facts and information, as well.

Finish it with a call to action. You might want to use the CTA to tell people to visit your site, but instead, use it to ask them to comment on the post. Engagement is critical to guest blogging. You want people to engage with you to make your post spread across the internet. When actually writing the content don’t forget:

• To keep the content interesting by offering tips and tricks to the subject you’re writing about.
• Format the post well. Don’t be afraid to use bullet points, numbered subheadings, and paragraphing to balance out text and white space.
• Ensure your content is 100{7aba29edf44a4bc7bb834f1dc1c63f7c2f88158984562340bf94dc65472f3791} unique. Use Copyscape.com to check to duplicate content. Website owners will reject content that’s been copied from other websites.
• Make the content present well to the website. Add images, screenshots, and make the text the same font to give it that professional look.

Writing your content and making it look good is all apart of the process of getting your content published, don’t dismiss it.

Respond to All Comments

Don’t just invite people to comment. Respond to them when they do. Show them you’re committed to helping them solve a problem. Make yourself a valuable part of the community. Then, they will be more likely to visit your website. When commenting though, don’t forget:

• Keep it friendly and helpful. If you get a bad comment, don’t respond negatively. Remember other website visitors will be reading your comments.
• Comment on other people’s posts as well. If they see you reading other people’s work on the website, they’ll take you more seriously and will be more inclined to read your work more.

Comments are a great way to help gain a good reputation. If you don’t use them to your advantage you’ll run into trouble long term. Remember the above tips and you’ll be able to utilise them to your best advantage. Don’t waste this great opportunity.

Point People in the Right Direction

Every guest blog post should have a goal in mind. The goal might be getting people to sign up for your email list or getting them to grab an offer. You need to send them to a page where they can complete the desired task. Use the link in your bio to send them to a landing page or a specific page on your site where the desired action is clear. You will get lots more conversions if you do this.

As you can see, guest blogging isn’t a quick and easy process. You have to be willing to put the time in if you’re going to get results. It’s well worth the effort, though. When you guest blog the right way, you can get an infinite number of rewards including the possibility of money.Here’s a great video on how you can make money from your guest posting efforts: