Business Growth Secret: How to Be Successful at Guest Blogging
By Andrew Patricio
October 19, 2016
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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By the small business content developers at BizLaunch.com.
Once you’ve established your business and found a healthy rhythm, it’s time to grow your company. How can you do that? By finding the right tools and strategies to reach a greater number of customers.
A smart tool to boost visitors to your site is by guest blogging for more popular websites to build high-quality incoming links on exceptional sites to expand your business’s sphere of influence.
One way to boost these mentions is to produce excellent blog posts for other websites. You might think that you need to get mentioned in the Globe and Mail to see a benefit from those incoming links, but there are many smaller niche blogs that also may provide a favorable boost. Here are 4 ways to ensure your effectiveness when guest blogging.
1. Pick an appropriate website.
This may be one of the most intensive steps in your guest blogging journey if you are not yet aware of the offerings available in your industry. While you might think that the best strategy is to shoot for the stars and try to get your blog post in front of the largest audience possible, you must remember that an established track record is necessary to earn those advantages.
If you want to ensure that your guest blogging strategy is effective, remember these two important guidelines: look for blogs that attract your target market and blogs that have a readership slightly larger than your own. As you grow your guest blogging strategy, you can use previous guest blog posts as references to show more prominent websites what you can deliver.
2. Have an effective strategy.
How do you convince a suitable blog to pick you over another candidate? You need to come prepared. Show that you’ve thought about how to talk to their audience on an issue that will resonate with them by digging into their archives. Look for topics that generate engaged responses, but have perhaps left an angle uninvestigated or questions unanswered. Think about a new way to discuss the subject that will inform that blog’s audience. Touch upon these considerations in your initial pitch.
3. Prepare to inform and entertain.
Your communications should be professional and respectful, but don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd with interesting tidbits. Use unusual facts or even a bit of benign humor, but avoid silliness or twaddle just for the sake of “standing out.” You will attract attention, just not the kind for which you’d hoped.
Use every bit of communication to show how you differ from other guest post submitters. Once your topic is accepted, your blog post should follow a similar recipe. Your guest blogging success will be in direct proportion to the effort you spend creating an engaging and compelling piece of content.
4. Participate in promotion.
While part of the strategy behind guest blogging is to write for a website with more traffic than your own, you must collaborate in promoting the post. Doing so makes you a good social citizen. Use your website, your social media profiles, and even your newsletter to broadcast to your readership the boon of your guest blog post.
In fact, it’s a good idea to periodically revisit the post and engage with commenters by answering questions or even just expressing gratitude for the comments. In this way, you will display your effectiveness as a promoter, which will move you to the top of the list for future guest blogging posts as well as demonstrate your dedication to building an audience for your business blog.
Why blogging for your business matters...
Effective audience building takes considerable work. Too many business owners think that a blog with a few posts is a sufficient marketing strategy when the truth is that it takes substantial, dedicated effort to build an audience. With that said, you might think “Why try?”
Writing for both your own business blog and others in your niche develops essential skills that strengthen your capacity as a small business owner, and it helps you cast a wider net with your brand.
Once you’ve established your business and found a healthy rhythm, it’s time to grow your company. How can you do that? By finding the right tools and strategies to reach a greater number of customers.
A smart tool to boost visitors to your site is by guest blogging for more popular websites to build high-quality incoming links on exceptional sites to expand your business’s sphere of influence.
One way to boost these mentions is to produce excellent blog posts for other websites. You might think that you need to get mentioned in the Globe and Mail to see a benefit from those incoming links, but there are many smaller niche blogs that also may provide a favorable boost. Here are 4 ways to ensure your effectiveness when guest blogging.
1. Pick an appropriate website.
This may be one of the most intensive steps in your guest blogging journey if you are not yet aware of the offerings available in your industry. While you might think that the best strategy is to shoot for the stars and try to get your blog post in front of the largest audience possible, you must remember that an established track record is necessary to earn those advantages.
If you want to ensure that your guest blogging strategy is effective, remember these two important guidelines: look for blogs that attract your target market and blogs that have a readership slightly larger than your own. As you grow your guest blogging strategy, you can use previous guest blog posts as references to show more prominent websites what you can deliver.
2. Have an effective strategy.
How do you convince a suitable blog to pick you over another candidate? You need to come prepared. Show that you’ve thought about how to talk to their audience on an issue that will resonate with them by digging into their archives. Look for topics that generate engaged responses, but have perhaps left an angle uninvestigated or questions unanswered. Think about a new way to discuss the subject that will inform that blog’s audience. Touch upon these considerations in your initial pitch.
3. Prepare to inform and entertain.
Your communications should be professional and respectful, but don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd with interesting tidbits. Use unusual facts or even a bit of benign humor, but avoid silliness or twaddle just for the sake of “standing out.” You will attract attention, just not the kind for which you’d hoped.
Use every bit of communication to show how you differ from other guest post submitters. Once your topic is accepted, your blog post should follow a similar recipe. Your guest blogging success will be in direct proportion to the effort you spend creating an engaging and compelling piece of content.
4. Participate in promotion.
While part of the strategy behind guest blogging is to write for a website with more traffic than your own, you must collaborate in promoting the post. Doing so makes you a good social citizen. Use your website, your social media profiles, and even your newsletter to broadcast to your readership the boon of your guest blog post.
In fact, it’s a good idea to periodically revisit the post and engage with commenters by answering questions or even just expressing gratitude for the comments. In this way, you will display your effectiveness as a promoter, which will move you to the top of the list for future guest blogging posts as well as demonstrate your dedication to building an audience for your business blog.
Why blogging for your business matters...
Effective audience building takes considerable work. Too many business owners think that a blog with a few posts is a sufficient marketing strategy when the truth is that it takes substantial, dedicated effort to build an audience. With that said, you might think “Why try?”
Writing for both your own business blog and others in your niche develops essential skills that strengthen your capacity as a small business owner, and it helps you cast a wider net with your brand.