10 Steps to a Great Guest Post

The movie Field of Dreams came out while I was in junior high. I’ve never been much of a baseball fan, but the movie’s magic or perhaps its most inspirational line “if you build it, he will come,” spoke to me.

I know I am dating myself here and there will be some of you that have never seen this film, so I am going to break it to you straight. He did build it and people did come…

If only blogging were that easy. Build the site. Sit back and wait for the people to find your glory. Would be nice right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to put yourself out there and welcome the visitors in.

Guest posting can provide great short term traffic, develop new subscribers and help your site’s SEO by providing high-quality back links. It can also help to develop your brand and strengthen relationships to other bloggers.

1. Do your homework. Once you’ve set your sights on a blog where you’d love to guest post, make sure that you understand the site’s submission policy. Don’t be afraid to ask the editor/owner for information on what type of posts do the best on their site. (Don’t focus all of your efforts on the “biggest” blogs. Sometimes smaller blogs have more loyal readers.)
2. Develop great content. As tempting as it may be to reserve your best content for your own blog, guest posts are your opportunity to make an impression, both on the blogger and the readers. Never submit anything but your best.
3. Provide great visuals. Our community is highly visual and sites like Pinterest can be top referrers. Make sure that you provide good photos to go along with your content.
4. Link to other posts on the host’s site when applicable. This not only helps the blogger’s SEO, but it shows that you actually read and enjoy the site.
5. Link back to posts on your own site when applicable. This will help SEO for your site, but it also increases the chances that you will develop traffic off the guest post. (Word of warning: don’t submit a post that’s nothing more than a giant advertisement for your own site…tacky.)
6. Add a byline at the bottom of the post. Include your photo and a one or two sentence bio. You can also include a few links to some of your more popular posts – the last impression you will leave on the readers is a little bit about you!
7. Deliver the post on time, as promised. There’s nothing like panicking at midnight because your guest post hasn’t yet crossed your desk, right?
8. Promote the post. Great! You’ve submitted your post. Make sure that you advise your fans that you’re guest posting…Stumble, Pin, Facebook and Tweet your material just like it was showing up on your own site.
9. Watch the comments. There are frequently questions or kind words in the comments section. Make sure that you subscribe to the post comments, or check back frequently to interact with those who take the time to comment.
10. Thank your host. You would never stay at someone’s home and leave without providing a thank you. ‘Nough said.

It always seems as though there is a whole lot of guest posting going on this time of year…Many of you are guest posting all of the time. Are you guilty of skipping out on some of the steps above? I sure am…

What are some of the things you look for in a guest post or items that you’ve found success with?

We’ll be following up on this topic this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. MST, during #snapchat.

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