7 Major Tips to Be a Better Guest Blogger

You’ve probably heard about the importance of guest blogging once or twice and you might even have heard people tell you they built a successful blog based on guest blogging (I’m an example myself). The funny thing might be you trying guest blogging only to discover that you are not getting the desired results or to end up feeling like guest blogging have been exaggerated.

This post will be giving you tips on becoming a better guest blogger and it will be presented in a way that makes it easy for you to practice the tips provided.

Believe There’s No Difference

It is true I wrote over 300 guest posts in one year but why do you think I did that? It was simply because I didn’t know better and it took me long to realize I was making a great mistake.

I developed a habit of only submitting my guest posts to smaller blogs and I didn’t make much progress until I realized there isn’t much difference in submitting to a small blog or a big blog. All you need is a mindset change.

When I say you should believe there’s no difference I’m not actually telling you to start submitting crap content to the big blogs with the hopes of getting results and I’m not saying the big bloggers will tolerate some things other bloggers will tolerate, all I’m saying is that it takes the same time to write a guest post for a big or small blog, all you need to do is summon the courage. I have written posts that only took me 40 minutes and they ended up sending me several hundreds of visitors after being published on a big blog and I also wrote similar blog posts for smaller blogs but it only resulted in a few click throughs to my site.

My point is that when you remove the fears and limiting beliefs preventing you from submitting guest posts to big blogs you will find it easier to get results. I know it might get rejected and as someone who has written hundreds of guest posts do you think my guest posts didn’t get rejected? I’ve faced my own share of rejections, but what I always do is learn from them and make a better post next time – and I highly suggest you do the same.

Content Makes the Big Difference

I have written guest posts for several big blogs and one major thing that keeps on surprising me is how unstable the traffic you can get from your guest posts can be. I usually get around 400-500 visitors from my guest posts on big blogs but my recent guest post on Problogger sent me over 1000 visitors in 7 days (as shown by the screenshot below).

What do you really think made the difference? Is it because Problogger’s traffic is always increasing and that the blog has grown since the last time I submitted my previous guest posts? Even though that might be part of it, it isn’t the main reason. The major difference isn’t the size of the blog but the quality of your content! Whether you will get hundreds or thousands of visitors from your guest post on a particular blog will be determined by your content alone.

A great guideline for writing great content when it comes to guest blogging is to ensure you only submit practical and engaging content. I mean you should only write on a subject you’re highly knowledgeable and passionate about and you should ensure you write with all clarity – doing this will make the readers of that blog see you as a better writer thereby resulting in more traffic for your blog.

Write as an Expert

If you really want to be a better writer or guest blogger it is very important for you to note that readers are always looking for those to follow and learn from so it can affect your guest post if you’re writing in a subjective manner instead of in an authoritative manner. No, I’m not saying you should write your guest posts like you’re commanding the readers of the blog you’re writing for, all I’m saying is that you should write like an expert on the subject – let people see that you know what you’re talking about as a result of the confidence with which you write and they will easily take action based on your guest post, spread the word about it and even visit your blog.

Prepare Your Blog

A major mistake most guest bloggers make when guest blogging on a big blog is failing to optimize their blog for the traffic about to come. A lot of them think their blog is prepared but they will be surprised to see otherwise.

If you take a look at the above screenshot of my recent guest post on Problogger how many subscribers do you think I gained from that guest post? 100? 150? 200? You will be surprised I gained as much as 400 subscribers (both via RSS and EMAIL) and the only reason for this is because I did things differently than most guest bloggers.

I have seen guest posts from several new bloggers and the mistake they make is linking to their blog homepage directly. I have also made the same mistake before but if your main aim for guest blogging is to capture your traffic and convert it to returning visitors that isn’t the best thing to do. Instead, it will be better to link to both your homepage and your subscription page (mostly a squeeze page), and by doing this you will be able to capture half of the visitors to your blog homepage and the other half to your subscription page – this will help you convert some of the visitors into subscribers thereby creating opportunities for you to convert them to returning visitors.

Understand Your Host

When I was still new to guest blogging my reason for writing for small blogs isn’t because I didn’t want to write for big blogs, in fact, I tried guest blogging with big blogs first but all my posts were always rejected but one thing made a difference and that was me learning one great principle that changed my guest blogging career forever.

That great principle is to understand your host. It is true that the blog you’re trying to target is talking about blogging tips or about make money online tips but you first need to understand if the blog is giving general or specific tips, if you’re able to understand this it would be easier for your guest posts to get published. For example, when I learned this principle I took a look at some of my guest posts and discovered the reason for my first guest post being rejected on Maxblogpress.com is because I submitted content on data entry when they only accept guest posts about blogger success stories 😉 I also applied this same principle and it has helped me get my guest posts on Problogger, DailyBlogTips and JohnChow.com.

If you only learn one thing from this whole article, let it be this, because it will do wonders for your guest blogging career.

Master Your Email

Another key thing I’ve learn in my whole guest blogging career is that the email you send to a blogger will determine if your guest post will be published or not and how fast your guest post will be published.

This goes further to you doing your research about who the blogger you’re writing to is and how he/she responds to emails. For example, some bloggers prefer you sending them your guest post in your pitch email instead of sending them your idea directly (that’s what I always do and it has never failed me) -the reason for this is that they get a lot of guest post submissions and doing this will save them a lot of time. I know Daniel Scocco does this and I also know that John Chow does it.

In case you’re still confused or you want something more practical, here’s the email format I use when trying to send guest posts to top bloggers.

Hi Blogger,

Hope you’re having a great day?

I am Onibalusi Bamidele from YoungPrePro.com and I have been reading your blog for sometimes now. I love your posts (especially – mention specific post) and I see you put a lot of value into publishing quality posts. As a result I have written a great and unique post for your blog and I also believe this post will bring about a lot of debate. The title of the post is “{Insert Title Here}” and I have attached it to this email in an HTML formatted .txt file so that you can easily publish it in wordpress.

Regards,
Onibalusi

Don’t just copy the above email template verbatim; modify it to fit your needs.

The above is just one of the kinds of emails I send to bloggers when trying to write for them and here are some tips I’d like you to note from the emails I send. Let your emails be short and to the point – top bloggers get a lot of emails and have a lot to do so sending them pages of email will only ensure you don’t get read.

• Attach your guest post in an HTML formatted .txt file or in word format (this depends on the blogger, but I always prefer to send it in txt format) so that the blogger can easily copy and paste your post into wordpress – NEVER paste your guest post directly into the email as this makes it look less presentable while also losing its format.
• Let your email give the blogger an insight into what your guest post is about and if possible include your blog post title – this will give the blogger and idea of what your guest post is about thereby making him want to quickly read and reply to it.
• It is HIGHLY IMPORTANT that you write polite emails – don’t write emails like it is the bloggers duty to publish or even read your guest post. Top bloggers would prefer not to publish any post on their blog for a month than to publish one from a rude guest blogger.
• Always include your guest post in your first email.

Aside from the above tips I wouldn’t obsess over email if I were you because bloggers put more value into the quality of your guest post than the kind of email you send them.

Understand the Key Person

The last, but very important, thing you need to know is that it is very important for you to know the key person when it comes to getting guest posts published on a particular blog. For some blogs it is the main blogger but on some bigger blogs it isn’t the blogger but the editor – for example, if you submit a guest post to a blogger whose blog has an editor, the blogger would end up sending the post to his/her editor and if it takes two days for the blogger to read your email it means it will take two more days for your guest post to go live.

Do your research; know who the key person on a particular blog is and you will easily accelerate the process of getting your guest posts published.

Onibalusi Bamidele is a guest blogging expert who has been repeatedly featured on several big blogs, hire him to help you take your guest blogging to the next level and also ensure you download his free guest blogging guide for practical advice on getting your guest posts published on big blogs.