Blogging can be a very lonely and frustrating profession or hobby. You’ve been blogging for a while and other than some family and friends, the only people who stop by are supposed SEO gurus. You know who I’m talking about. They leave comments about how wonderful your blog is and how they can make it even more wonderful by increasing the traffic that visits your blog. They promise that your traffic will increase tenfold overnight. Perhaps you’re feeling desperate enough that you’re tempted to take them up on their offer. But don’t do it!
The search engine optimization process, and generating traffic that comes to your site is a slow process, which can take months. These gurus will probably increase your traffic, but your new visitors might be any Tom, Dick or Harry they wrangle into clicking over. It would be better to have few visitors to your site, but visitors who are actually interested in reading what you have to say and will stick around, and return from time to time. There is a way you can generate traffic that will stick around. It can actually happen relatively quickly also. Publish guests posts on your blog.
Blog Guest Posting
There are many reasons why you should publish guest posts on your blog. The primary reason is increased exposure. For the purpose of our illustration, let’s say you have a computer blog. And let’s say your blog is relatively new. You already have published a fair amount of content but your traffic statistics are just not improving. If you do some related searches on the internet, you’re sure to find additional blogs relating to computers, such as antivirus software, online security and external hard drive. You get the idea. You can contact those blogs and see which ones are a bit more popular. Every blog owner is almost guaranteed to jump at the idea of increasing their exposure. You can invite the blogger to write a guest post for your blog. Of course, the owner will want to include a link to his or her blog, which you should accept. This helps the blogger by providing a new link to their site, which in turn will help them with Google. The blogger should also post a “sister” blog on his/her site telling visitors about their guest blogging experience and where to find their guest blog post. There you go! You now have a link from a relatively popular blog to your blog which should increase your traffic.
A word of caution. I can hear the wheels spinning. Make sure to use guest blogging sparingly. There are many points on the list for why you should publish guest posts on your blog. But remember it’s YOUR blog. At least 90% of the content should be original and yours! This benefits you in the long run because it gives your guest bloggers additional content that they can use in their sites too. Everybody wins in this scenario and you should see bumps in your traffic not overnight, but relatively quickly.
Guest bloggers also show your visitors that your site has additional value. If a visitor to your site sees your posts and the various posts of guest bloggers, they are prone to think, “Wow! This blogger has other bloggers who are interested in their site, and write for them, so it must be good.”
Where to Find Guest Bloggers
You can find guest bloggers in a variety of ways. But the best way is to search for other blog sites that are at least semi-related to yours. It’s a good idea to add their RSS to any reader you use and follow their site for a while. Remember, you want to make sure they are producing decent content too. Once you’re comfortable they produce relevant and interesting content, feel free to contact them and make your offer. They can only say yes or no. Don’t be shy and don’t get discouraged if you get a “no” response. There’s bound to be plenty of others out there.
So, hopefully you understand why you should publish guest posts on your blog. It’s an important tool which can increase your traffic and produce visitors who are relevant to your blog. Good luck and happy blogging!
About Peter Lee
Twitter: muscleover40
says:
What a good article I so agree with you about the gurus but thats how they make there money because as you have said its a slow process until google gives you some love. Its hard because you still have to earn money and then work on your website or blog. But as someone once said no one fails they just stop trying
kevin redman recently posted..Welcome to Muscle building over 40
Twitter: itechcode
says:
Hey Peter,
Now a days its really increasing. Accepting guest post is good but i think its harm your site too bcz your link juice is passing. If i am wrng than correct me. Thanks for this superb post.
Amit Shaw recently posted..Impact of the Recent Google Changes to You
I think people worry way way to much about passing “link juice.” I have provided tons of outgoing links for over a decade. It never seems to hurt me.
Providing useful outgoing links to your users is valuable. Users wouldn’t really be affected if I made them nofollow but I have not done that (with a few exceptions when I am giving examples of lousiness and I chose not to reward the site with “link juice”).
I have never read from a credible source that Google actually rewards good links, but I would if I were them. It is one more measure that a site is of high quality. Yes it is a very minor measure, but it tells you someone of value that a site links to useful resources on a topic. Anything that I can think of as potentially being a useful measure to gauge page quality I am sure Google can think of. They may decide to forgo using useful information because it isn’t quite useful enough or they are worried it will be manipulated to easily. But I would not rule out the idea that good outgoing links can actually help (if not today, at some point in the future) – in a very minor way.
But my main reason is just to focus on what is best for my users. If getting good content from someone then linking to there other content for those that want more is a good idea. I consistently search for useful outlinks for my users and include them in posts and have plenty of sites with hundreds of high ranking internal pages (PR4, PR3… on hundred of internal pages). I suppose those outlinks could be preventing me from ranking even higher…
John recently posted..Touring The Hunter Valley Wine Region
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
Of course as the owner of the blog, you must also make sure you have more articles that written by you than guest authors. In fact accepting guest posts is actually a good way to make sure you won’t be lazy
Link juice leaking? Well, if you can make sure you write more than your guest authors, than the ratio should be fine and shouldn’t be a problem.
Peter Lee recently posted..Tips to help your Laptop perform its’ best
Twitter: DopedFish
says:
Been thinking of guest posting too as I have a fairly new blog. Still have to look around for good bloggers with unique and relevant content in their posts to guest post for me.
And going for those “SEO gurus” will not cut the cake. Some are good but 99% of them can bring your website down (in search and in traffic terms).
Georgian recently posted..Ways to get your website removed from index
Twitter: TechieSaves
says:
I also accept guest posting on my blog and it’s a great way to get valuable content in eschange for a link or two back to the guest’s site. It’s probaby the best SEO technique as well so everybody wins.
Marty recently posted..5 Best Alternatives for Your Dropbox Account
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
It definitely is Marty. Links in the post body are called editorial links. These links carry more weight than comment links and exchanged links because they look natural to search engines.
Peter Lee recently posted..New Technology allows for Smear-Free Touch Screens
Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
I could only pray that one day a guest poster wants to post on my blog and know his stuff when it comes to writing articles regarding real estate. (if anyone knows someone like this, please send them my way!)
Chris recently posted..5 Reasons To Use A Real Estate Agent In A Down Market
Guest posting is great for both the website owner and the blogger. It can honestly say that I can not point out any negatives of guest posting. The website owner gets new content and the blogger gets more exposure. A Win- Win for everyone.
Steve recently posted..HCG Ultra Diet Drops – An Overview
I recently started accepting guest posts for one of my blogs…but haven’t actually published any yet, despite having received several emails with proposed articles, all of which were of horrible quality. So in theory, I am sold on the idea that publishing guests posts on my blog will be great for both exposure and traffic…but in practice, I am reading through low-quality stuff and writing rejection emails while waiting for at a good post to come through and getting ready to get active to go looking for guest posters. I think contacting the right people in you niche and asking them whether they’d like to contribute is much more effective than passively waiting for a gem of an article to get emailed to you
Alice recently posted..The Life and Styles of Retirement Homes in Montréal
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
I know what you mean. I had the same experience before. I even received articles which are totally not relevant to my niche and look spammy. Contacting some of the fellow bloggers that you known and request them to write for you is absolutely the right thing to do Alice
Peter Lee recently posted..Pinterest : An online Pinboard Social Media
I don’t know that there is such thing called guest posting. I’m not a natural blogger. I think that is what I need in increasing my traffic. Will try that soon!
monstertutor recently posted..Display Particular Post/Page in WordPress
Guest blogging is a great way to get content for your blog and gain exposure as you mention. The biggest problem I see is maintaining quality. Too often people get complacent and over time the quality of the guest posts declines greatly and the blog is no longer worth reading (and I drop it).
So do guest blogging but keep the standards high.
John recently posted..Touring The Hunter Valley Wine Region
I had hired some one to do guest blogging for me, her job was to send the Guest Blogging request and then send them a post when a positive response arrives. It kept on going for a month and it was a costly affair.
Since last month I have started doing it on my own. The productivity has increased and the response has increased too..
Cathy Kerr recently posted..is too much tv bad for you
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
If you hire someone to do the job, he/she might simply send your guest posts to low quality sites, hence the backlinks you are getting are also low quality. We want our guest posts to be able to publish on blogs that are of good quality and the only way to make sure of that is to do it on our own. I’m glad you finally do it on your own and seeing positive results from it Cathy
Peter Lee recently posted..Festo introduces The ExoHand
Cathy, have the guest posts given you a traffic boost? Any noticeable impact on your search rankings?
I had considered hiring a VA for this as well, but I’m reconsidering.
Thanks,
Jeff
I believe a paid guest blogger would have been efficient if you had a meeting of the minds. Well, training guest bloggers to our satisfaction can be an easy way. Well, I’m just thinking that two heads working on increasing traffic will be more efficient– given that you two are on the same page.
Betty Rhodes recently posted..Why Incredible Chick?
Twitter: esoftload
says:
Yeah!! i too accept guest posts in my blog and from those guest posts my blog readers get different topics to read and the best is way of writing changes from one contributor to others which keeps reader interest!!
Isha Singh recently posted..Top 10 Best Applications for Android
Twitter: 3MwindowfilmTO
says:
I’m thinking of setting up a blog for my company website but my industry is a very niche industry and I think it will be hard finding people to guest post relevant content. I looked everywhere for bloggers that write about my industry but I could find very few. How do you suggest I engage these people and ask them to guest post on my blog? Also if they just submit posts that they have previously submitted on their own blog, will it not be considered as duplicate content by Google?
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
I suggest forget about asking for guest posts from other bloggers if you have just started your blog. You must write your own posts initially no short cut. Build your way and make friends with other fellow bloggers. When you have some posts of your own on your blog, then only ask them to guest post for you. Check the guest post with CopyScape, remove it immediately if it’s a duplicated content.
Peter Lee recently posted..Google AdSense Alternatives That Work
Twitter: 3MwindowfilmTO
says:
Thanks for the prompt response Peter. I really enjoy reading your blog and I’ve learned alot from it. Keep up the good work.
Twitter: trungpc81
says:
Thanks for your great post, it’ll help me gain more guest bloggers for my blog.
Trung Nguyen recently posted..How to Start a Blog That Will Generate Income?
Twitter: evangelist32
says:
Guest posting on someone else’s blog is actually the way I got started. It was a fairly popular blog, & I got a lot of return visitors from that post. The same thing applies to everyone. If you do get a chance to guest blog, then I suggest that you blog about useful, informative things. This is a great way to get return visitors!
Wade recently posted..Submit Sermons or Articles
I totally agree with Peter Lee.Boss it is boring sometimes to keep your site active, so allowing guest users may not shut down your website totally. But yes keep it limited.
Man’s Performance
Twitter: DavidBennett
says:
I agree with your reasoning and it’s a good idea to contact sites that you think might want to guest post. I haven’t tried that route. I am registered with MyBlogGuest and that attracts contributors at PhotographWorks.com on the subjects of photography, image editors and image editing, graphic design, and typography.
One caution is that I had the site open for contributors to register themselves as ‘contributors’ so that they could post a draft of their article rather than have to email it to me.
Despite a big notice on the page telling people that I wanted articles about photography, image editors and image editing, graphic design, and typography – I got articles about teeth whitening and exercise diets, etc.
Of course I just deleted the draft articles and the users.
But it made me wonder what benefit the contributor got from this? Is there any benefit to them, do you know? I can’t think of any way it helps them.
So now I have a link to my Contact form where interested guest posters can give me an outline of what they want to write about.
I have had several useful articles posted and am always interested in more of them.
Not to plug this too much, but I also have a techie site at Quillmedia.com and I accept guest posts there, too.
David Bennett recently posted..Wild Ass
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
Those irrelevant topic of articles you are getting are pretty much the work of bots. I would suggest you to use some plugins such as SABRE to control registrations. Just google search : wordpress plugin sabre. Hope this helps
Thanks for the comment David.
Peter Lee recently posted..Get Fit with Kinect Fitness Games
Hi Peter Lee,
I agree that guest blogging is very important for a blog but since some time I am receiving some guest posts from unknown persons. How I can make it sure that these posts are exclusively for my blog and will not be republished elsewhere? Do you suggest me something in this regard?
Adam recently posted..KeywordLuv enabled PR6-PR1 Blogs List
Adam, when talking about guest post from unknown persons, I would like to add that republishing isn’t something you can have control over, unless you somehow make terms beforhand. And stating it clearly to all your guest posters that they need to follow these rules in order to post on your blog. But by doing so it will also impact on how many are willing to do guest posts. If there is any other way to deal with this I would like to know.
JD recently posted..♫ Tommy Emmanuel – Guitar Boogie – Chet Atkins Vintage Trophy 1930 Martin Acoustic Guitar ♫
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
Unfortunately we can’t control that Adam. But 1 thing is for sure, all blog owners don’t like to receive republished. I assume they will check the article before publishing it via tools like copyscape. I personally check the article with copyscape and if it’s a republished, I will ban the author and reject the article. Of course you will have to use the paid version of copyscape to do this. If every blog owners practice checking before publishing, then we don’t have to worry about receiving a republished anymore.
Peter Lee recently posted..Educational Computer Games
Hi Peter. Today guest posting is considered the only legitimate way to built backlinks and get targeted traffic if we see according to Google perspective particularly after its recent hit on BMR. So here I want to ask you all who understand the importance of guest posting and are getting benefits of this authentic way of building backlinks that what should be the best guest posting strategy.
Kevin recently posted..click here
Twitter: smallwebbiz
says:
I get those SEO gurus emailing me asking to place guest posts and then when I reply they never get back to me! I guess it’s just some automated outreach, that’s no better than spam in my opinion!
Mike recently posted..What Everyone Forgets about Web Design!
I also was wondering about the duplicate content issues as you can’t trust everyone, and no telling where they actually get the content from. It can be a spun article with their backlinks in it which will hurt your site, and help theirs.
Sean recently posted..Biscuit Joiner
Love the first sentence in this post and I do believe that it is true. Blogging nowadays has its widely used perspective in one’s niche. Guest blogging is a good example wherein it takes the blogging activity into different level. In this act, one should create a blog post not for the purpose of posting it up on its own niche but rather giving it as ‘guest post’ into others niche in return for the title of placing links into your site. So for those in business and online profession this is one of the most vital aspect in blogging.
Twitter: MicahChipchase
says:
Interesting, you always hear everyone talking about why it’s important to guest post on other blogs, but no one ever talks about try to get guest posts on their own blogs.
I think this is a great idea. And like you said, don’t sit back and wait for people to come to you, get proactive. Invite people to post on your blog. Just be prepared for the fact that not everyone will accept your offer. And that’s ok
Micah recently posted..“Internet Entrepreneur Claims Cure For “Google SEO Shinanagans”. Is Blog Engage really the answer?”
I don’t know about anyone else but somehow writing for someone else’s blog can be really inspirational and bring out your best. Somehow there is less writers block when working for another site. Maybe because you can bring fresh content. As far as the comment above regarding spun content ect, normally just reading the content you get submitted and checking their credentials on , say linkedin, you can work this our pretty quickly.
Phil recently posted..Facebook Offers – How it works and how to use
Hi, we should have an personal blog for everyone. So that we can share our own thoughts. You did good. Happy blogging.
Bsheikh Blog recently posted..Compare Boat Parts When Shopping Online
Finding guest posts within your niche is not a problem For instance I had a client who ran a football blog, and once I told him about guest posts, it was easy for him to get other people, who of course were all football fans – to write on his blog. Some of them of course were established bloggers themselves and continue to write on his blog regularly. Its important to provide whoever you invite to guestpost on your blog with an incentive: which is usually backlinks and exposure. Guest posting on other people’s blog occasionally is a good way to return the favor!
Leo recently posted..SEO Client Problems and How to Deal With Them
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
My thoughts exactly. Guest posting is a good way to build good relationships with other bloggers and their readers too. When you accept their guest posts, they will tend to promote it over their social medias and on their own blogs, hence their followers and readers will get to visit your site too. Thanks for reading Leo.
Peter Lee recently posted..Sites Where You Are Most Likely to Get Hacked
True. Relationship-building is very important when it comes to blogging, and having blogs that get traffic.
Furthermore, I occasionally guest blog on some other well-known blogs which get a LOT of traffic on a daily and monthly basis, and guest blogging on these blogs is a great way for me and my blog to get more exposure, as these sites gets visitors in the thousands!
Lastly, I spoke of incentive, sometimes, you might need to offer monetary incentives (apart from non-monetary ones) to established pros to get them on board.
Leo recently posted..SEO Client Problems and How to Deal With Them
Twitter: naeciprian
says:
i think you are right guest posting in some cases is good but be verry carefulll of original content and try to monitor that with copyscape this is my opinion so you can avoid some panda penalty in future but on the origin guest posting is ok !
nae recently posted..Self Employment Health Insurance Tax Deductions
Twitter: sanjeevkrjha
says:
Visitor publishing on another person’s weblog is actually the way I got began. It was a pretty well-known weblog, & I got a lot of come back guests from that publish. The same factor relates to everyone. If you do get a opportunity to guest weblog, then I recommend that you weblog about useful, useful elements. This is a superb way to get come back visitors!
Twitter: complearnhow
says:
I have accepted a few guest posts to my blog and think its great. I want to write guest posts for other people but by the time I get round to doing it I have no idea what to write about. Thanks for sharing
craig recently posted..10 quick tips to make your iPad 2 a securer more productive iPad
The guest posting is an excellent way to have more visitors and good liking,but the problem he’s if we have a website in an other language than English it’s very hard to found people for a guest posting..
Marie recently posted..Hamster Hoho
Twitter: koundeenya
says:
Guest posting can definitely help us. If we guest post on others blogs, we get quality link backs and traffic. When we are unable to post on our own site, we can have someone guest post on our blog. Useful from both the ends
Koundeenya recently posted..Why Should You Start Using Google Plus?
Twitter: rkrenin
says:
Indeed, Guest blogging can really help any blog. I am using my blog guest to attract some guest bloggers to my website, so that I can have regular content. One must also thoroughly check the various posts from guest bloggers before posting as lot of people resort to cheap techniques including article spinning etc. for getting links for their website.
Guest bloggers do add value if the topic they write are related to your over all content. I think, if I’m reading Google’s announcement of the Penguin change correctly,that crazy un-related links from guest posters will bring down the value of your blog.
Miller recently posted..Tampa Bay Times Selects Kforce as One of Tampa Bay’s Top Workplaces
Twitter: TechInitio
says:
Guest posting is great. If your guests use the right formats of course. Guest posts make a blog look rich, have different opinions on subjects etc. It also looks serious when you have people that are not dedicated posting something useful to the rest!
Twitter: SEOProRomania
says:
Well, I have a small problem. I recently started my blog and ran into this post. I thought it’s a pretty good way to drive traffic to it so I sent 20-30 invites to related blog owners, but so far I only received 6 replies, all saying my blog is way too fresh and has too little PR for them to benefit from posting on it. It seems to me I’m in a loop: bloggers won’t write on my blog because I have too little PR and I can’t increase my PR because people won’t comment on it. Any suggestions?
Razvan recently posted..Pierderea pozitionarii pe Google: un nou update de algoritm
Twitter: ricekrispietret
says:
Keep blogging.. Keep commenting and learn as you go.. Do a kick butt guest blog for some one else. You can guest blog here. Just leave them a message and what you would like to blog about and then get it approved and you are on your way to better rankings in no time..
joel recently posted..Original rice krispies treat recipe
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
It’s YOUR blog. We cannot solely depend on guest authors to keep writing for our blog. You should write most of the articles on your blog especially for new blogs. Guest post is just a bonus! It’s absolutely normal others are not interested to guest post for you because your site is new and has little PR. Don’t give up Razvan! Since your blog is still new, forget about inviting guest authors to write for you. Write you own instead. Everyone started from scratch, it’s hard work no short cut!
Peter Lee recently posted..4 Things To Love About the Samsung Galaxy S3
Twitter: SEOProRomania
says:
Hi Peter and Joel, thanks for the advice. I will do my best to create content good enough for people to want to comment on their own, without me even asking. By the way, I had no positive feedback to the email I’ve sent
Thanks again for the advice!
Razvan recently posted..Ce avantaje aduce prezenta pe prima pagina Google?
Twitter: stadriemblems
says:
I have used Blogger Link Up and My Blog Guest, and most of the sites on there are of low quality. It’s funny how most of the reasons people give to accept guest blogs are to get more exposure and grow your audience. A lot of the time I use guest blogging because I can’t come up with anything new to write!
Marisa recently posted..Enter the “Caption the Patch” Contest to Win 100 Stadri Dollars
I am wondering if anyone has any good advice on how to make a blog interactive enough as to really draw guests back, as it seems so easy to draw in a few and have them never return. Great post and look forward to some potential input!
I know almost everybody is now looking at “Guest Posting” to be the core in building links but “Guest Posting” is not really about just getting a link back to your site or blog. I see it as building a relationship with other bloggers within your niche, helping each other out by providing a content that can help there readers and followers.
Absolute fresh content and not duplicated from the internet are two major parameters of the Google updates. If you are confidence on these then the Panda, penguin or parrot updates will not be of concern at all. The guest blogging will give the search bots their treat of new and fresh content. You get the blog to become more popular. Thanks for the great post!
Twitter: techattitude
says:
Guest posting ensures flow of quality content on your website in a variety of topics. But it is important for you to find good guest bloggers who don’t post duplicate content.
Bishal Sharma recently posted..Top 6 iPhone and Android Apps for Weight Loss
Twitter: supsampust
says:
Any wandering salesman who ends up on my blogging doorstep is gonna get the boot. I don’t need your ambulance chasing, thank you. For bloggers using WordPress, there are some guest post plugins available. I’m currently test driving–you guessed it–”WordPress Guest Post Plugin.” Works pretty well.
Samuel recently posted..How To Write A Good Article!
Twitter: momokocreative
says:
Guest posting is a great tool but, like others tools, it’s not always simple to get actual benefit, or at least more benefit than cost.
Espacially for some niches, it can be very difficult to find quality partners for guest posting. Maybe you can find 2-3 valid people, but how much time you have to spend in order to find them? If your blog is written in a foreign language, for example, you market shrinks a lot.
So, i’d suggest to put this technique into perspective. Why limit the guest posting in our blog to bloggers only?. Bloggers are used to post.
If some expert on one niche has a good social network reputation, he/she may want to advertise the guest article a lot because they not write posts on a regular basis.