Guest Blogging: It’s not Dead!
In recent months there’ve been many articles stating guest blogging is dead. I’m here to tell you it isn’t and shouldn’t be dead when done correctly.
What do I mean by that?
It is said Content is King. If you blog for your own business, you know that the more often you blog, the more exposure your business gets. Sometimes though, it is important to bring new and different ideas to your business. For example, if you write about mens shoes, it might be a good idea to ask a podiatrist you know to write an article about how shoes can affect foot health. Doing this will bring more information to your readers, and could potentially bring the podiatrist new business.
As a blogger it is also important to align yourself with other movers and shakers in your community so that when the opportunity arises you have the possibility to write for them too! This could have the same affect as it did for the Podiatrist. By aligning yourself with these people you can capture an audience that you wouldn’t normally capture, while also sharing your expertise.
A few short rules to follow:
– Know who’s writing for you. It is important to know, like and trust those that write for you. If you meet via an email, it would be worth setting up a coffee meeting, either virtually or in real life to better understand the writer. Read some of their pieces, and understand what, if anything, they will be linking out to. If you trust them and you have similar interests, visions and/or values – give it a shot. Even if you have to run the piece through the editor’s desk, consider offering feedback to the writer.
– Know who you are writing for. Don’t just answer any open roll call for guest bloggers, understand the website and the website’s audience. Your expert voice should be offered and provided to sites that add value to the topic or industry in which you’re writing, so as to not lose credibility or authority. Search engines appreciate relevant content and links and anything less can hurt the website which is publishing. If it’s not a good fit for you, it’s probably not a good fit for them either. Don’t spin your wheels or waste time working for the wrong audience.
– Do not post duplicate articles. This one goes without saying but trust me, it happens. Make sure the articles you are posting on other people’s blogs are unique articles with fresh content you haven’t published elsewhere. Also if you have guest bloggers on your site, do a brief Google search to make sure the content they submitted isn’t someplace else on the web.
When done properly, guest blogging will bring great benefit to your online presence, authority in your space, and your guest bloggers’ businesses not to mention the value added to your audience.
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