So what exactly does a guest blogger do and what are the benefits of being one? Guest posting in its simplest definition is writing for another blog other than your own.
For those of us who might not be familiar with the concept of guest posting, one of the first things that comes into mind is why should I write for somebody else’s blog?
Some blog owners might scoff at the idea saying that time spent writing on other people’s blogs should instead be used in improving their own blog’s content. This is true since developing our blogs should be a priority before venturing into guest posting.
But if you’re really serious in making your blog one of the most visited websites then this is one strategy you definitely shouldn’t miss.
Reputation
If you want to be considered as an expert in your niche, then getting your name published in popular blogs is the fastest way of building your reputation. What better way than by being featured on a highly respected blog.
A well received guest post by your peers can definitely give you some well deserved credits.
Article submission sites are excellent link sources but provide no other major benefits. The real value of links in terms of SEO is a suspicion. Search engines especially Google has decreased its algorithm value. Some article submissions sites have even disabled links in response to these changes.
Building Bridges
Blogs are like social networks and building relationships with your readers and fellow bloggers is the best way of keeping your blog healthy. This could also open new doors for you as a writer and get your fellow bloggers to write some guest posts on your blog.
Having a successful blog is not all about SEO. There is also that intangible factor such as human relationships. This builds stronger bonds that no linking strategy can replicate. Fellow bloggers could also give you valuable tips on how to become a successful blogger.
SEO
If all the other benefits fail to persuade you then this might be the reason that finally moves your hands. Guest posting provides you with quality backlinks which that are valuable in SEO. Blog sites which allow guest posts usually provide authors options for link building to their site.
Some might contend that article submissions also provide you with hundreds of links at a fraction of the time it takes to write one guest post.
However, with Google’s updates the quality of links (and the link building levels) generated from link farms may have suffered a serious downgrade. This is perhaps why guest posting has become a better alternative.
As you progress with guest blogging, don’t forget to track backlinks so that you can fine tune on your targets.
Increased Visibility and Traffic
Guest posting gives you better exposure and could be a tool for driving new traffic. Popular blogs get hundreds if not thousands of visitors a day. The potential of hooking up with some of these readers is a real possibility.
All it takes is some well placed links and quality content to give you those much needed clicks.
I’m pretty new to guest posting and I really appreciate any comments and tips on how we could help our fellow writers and netizens become better guest bloggers. So drop us a comment.
Have you written any guest posts in the past? How was your experience with guest posting?
Michael Scottsdale is a professional writer and currently works as a consultant for online businesses. When he’s not writing for Intermedia’s Office 365, he could be found blogging about simple tips on how people could take advantage of the internet’s numerous business opportunities.
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If you follow up on the comments made on your guest post, then this is definitely the best way to get a high number of backlinks, traffic and building relationships to other bloggers.
But if you don´t want to follow up on the comments, then it´s in my opinion not a thing for you, since I believe that it could actually hurt your blog. There’s nothing more annoying for a blogger, than a blogger who doesn’t respond to the comment that you have written to their posts. Or at least that´s my opinion.!
But as an answer to the question, yes I have written guest posts on other blogs and I have only good things to say on that subject.
But on the other hand I haven’t had much success with guest bloggers on my own blog, out of the 3 bloggers that has written a post on my blog none has responded to the comments made on their posts.
This is also why I have it as a rule that I want to see a couple links to other guest posts he or she has written on other blogs, this helps to screen some of the bad bloggers out..
Hello Jimmy. A lot of bloggers are getting very stiff on this. You guest post, you answer comments. Simple. If you want t bad reputation, don’t comment. These bloggers I’m talking about simply go and delete the back links. - which I think is fair.
@Micheal.Your first two points I have actually never looked out that way. I have to look at that carefully and add that to my vocab, because establishing yourself as an expert and building relationships are absolute KEYS to all this.
@Ivin I did think about that, but the posts and links are indexed.
And I did get something out, I got their article and learned that I need to check up on a possible guest poster to insure that it doesn’t happen again.
I agree with you, BTW very good article. I’ll try to submit some guest posts.
I’ve noticed from my website stats that traffic coming from the article sites, even ezinearticles.com, has decreased over the last year. Article marketing seems to have lost much of its effectiveness even though the guys over at Market Samurai are still big on it.
A lot of the article sites, got hammered by the Panda update due to all the spam sites that has republished the articles.
Before the update I had published a article on articlebase.com, and almost daily I got a pingback from one of these sites but since then it has drop to almost zero.
This and as @Damon wrote, not all the articles are good a lot of them are crap, are imo the reasons why so many of the article sites got hammered.
It was the same with the link directories that didn´t check for double content, they was sandboxed by Google and why ppl didn´t learn from that I can´t figure out.
This is also why I stick to guest posting.
Michael Scottsdale says
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the input. I’m sorry to hear about Jimmy’s bad experience with his guest authors. Answering comments and communicating with your fellow bloggers is certainly some of the things that makes guest posting better than article submissions.
Hey Michael,
I certainly agree with you that article marketing is on the way out as far as google is concerned. You get a much bigger benefit by guest posting on a popular blog in your niche. Of course, the good thing is that when guest posting you can’t submit the same (lets call it crap) that most people submit to article directories.
If you want to get on a popular blog, you are actually going to have to write something worth reading and that makes the web a better place for everyone. Everyone can win in that deal and that is why Google is pushing more favor that way in my opinion.
Michael Scottsdale says
With the recent changes in search engine algorithms, Guest posting is definitely the way to go. I just don’t see how I could compete with big sites that have writers churning up hundreds of articles to submission sites. This way, people who genuinely have something to offer to people not search engines could be on equal footing.
I agree. My fear though is that all of the spammers are going to flock to guest posting. They will get very creative with it and eventually might cause google to devalue links from guest posts. It is up to individual bloggers to not let crap content get through. I fear spammers will start paying blogs to let them guest post and this could influence some bloggers to let some crappy stuff in that they might not otherwise.
Hold the Line
Guest blogging nowadays is a way better idea than submitting to article directories.
Michael Scottsdale says
I’ve been doing article submissions for more than 2 years prior to guest posting. After Google’s updates, switching to guest posting was the logical choice. I can’t imagine myself connecting to my readers. Guest posting beats article submissions not only SEO wise but people wise as well.
Having great guest bloggers is awesome. Comluv has some really good ones and there are enough unique articles submitted that I can spend my time coding instead of sat in my chair with mad writers block and a feeling of guilt for not writing more words instead of code!
Luke says
Guest Blogging is fine way to earn quick bucks and most importantly it advertises your blog as well. You can spend a whole day writing few articles and do with a guest post in significantly lesser time.
I have been hearing all the rage about guest bloggin and I’m really excited to get involved… do you have any tips for approaching credible people to guest post on your blog?
You can always contact ppl, that has written a guest post on another blog like Michael has done here. You can also find them on large websites, where many good blogger writes guest posts.
Or you can use a site like this one myblogguest.com.
But before you open up your site for guest bloggers, set the ground rules first so that your guest bloggers knows what you want and you know what you can. For that you can check out the rules on this blog, they are good.!
In Article marketing, one article is distributed to 1000′s of directories which gives more exposure than submitting an single article in a site. we have hundred’s of backlinks, where as guest post will be having only couple of links…For ranking factors we need to switch to article marketing only.
Being honest i was not aware of such ways and ideas which are so helpful for any individual.
I really feel delightful after reading this post. I will definitely implement the ways which are in post. Firstly i thought that article submission is best way to generate back links and traffic but now guest blog posting sounds more reliable then it. I will go for guest blog posting in the future,
Michael Scottsdale says
Guest posting is not really that different from article submissions or blog content writing, We just have to always focus on the quality of our writing. As for the quality of links from article submissions, they’re just links. You might have hundreds of links going back to your site but does this translate to actual readers going to your site? Search engine algorithms are impossible to crack. Guest posting however offers you the possibility of people going to your site. And if that’s not targeted marketing then I don’t know what is.
You make some good points. With social media growing, and more people connecting to each other via the internet, building relationships is more important than ever. Doing guest posting is win-win and builds upon itself. Article submissions are very impersonal, and after the Panda update, article directories don’t hold as much weight as they did in the past.
Guest blog posting is a great strategy. As you mentioned, the first step is to build up your own blog first. This shows other blog owners that you know your stuff. It’s important to spread your knowledge throughout the web and not just keep it on your own blog because by doing so you are expanding your reach. Getting a blog post onto a popular industry blog can be great for increasing traffic to your blog and site and can eventually improve conversion rates.
This is nice. Thanks a lot for sharing this. And I’m agree with you there.
I have really had good experiences both guest posting and having another blogger guest post on my blog. It was good to read these comments to remind myself to go back to the blogs that I wrote to see if there were any new comments to which I needed to respond. It has also helped me get to know the bloggers involved better, which is also a positive thing.
JOSEPH says
Superior option! It’s a positive change for sure to motivate the followers and bloggers to forward. I think it’s the right time to start it initially. Thanks Michael for sharing your idea.
Wow really a rich content ,
i truly feel your words are true and my person view is also the same that guest posting is much more better than article submission. because we get good links from guest posting and we get involved with the peers all the time. It improves us in lots of ways.