Here you go.
Another blog post talking about guest posting.
Maybe there’s something about it.
Just joking.
I can’t stress enough how effective guest posting can be if done right and you MUST use it.
There’s no way I will talk about how to score guest posts in this posts (I just assume you know already) if not, let me know in the comments and I’ll write a follow-up article.
What will you learn today?
I’m going to show you my procedure of finding topics for the actual guest posts and I will tell you how to write a post that performs like crazy.
My guest posts get shared above average every time and they also get a lot more social shares than the average article.
How does that happen?
Is it because I’m a great writer?
Maybe.
To be honest it’s more about research, practicing and the right tools and tactics.
For example here’s what the editor of boostblogtraffic.com said about my guest post:
The post did pretty well! It’s our second most popular post so far this year – based on one week figures.
Glen Long, Editorboostblogtraffic.com
So you can see I’m talking real stuff here.
Same for nichehacks.com where I wrote two guest posts for Stuart Walker.
Both posts showed up in the most popular sidebar and did very well for him traffic wise and in case of social shares.
I wrote the “How to build a viral blog…” and the “How to increase blog traffic…” posts you can see above.
Today I’m going to share how I am able to achieve results like this every time I try.
How to Write A Winning Guest Post
It’s not easy.
Basically it’s hard work.
But: It’s not complicated.
Start by analyzing the content and audience of your targeted blog.
The tools I recommend are Buzzsumo and ahrefs Content Explorer to find out what content is popular on each particular blog.
You do it like this:
After you decided which topic to write about (and getting approved by the blogs editor) you want to execute properly.
This means you need to write a great post.
I always try to match the style of the hosting blog as good as I can.
This means I write about the same length than their posts, short or long sentences, custom images or not and so on.
It’s like reverse engineering the successful posts I found before.
If I can find any flaws in the post or if a reader mentioned something missing in the past posts comments I try to add it to my guest post.
This helps to increase value further and make it even more share-worthy.
One additional tip on the side though:
No. 400 words are NOT a great fit for any guest post.
There’s no way to deliver something really useful in only few words.
Unless you’re Seth Godin (Hint: You’re not.).
This means you should always calculate enough time to write an epic post before pitching it to the guest host.
Sometimes it will take time to get approved or needs a bit forth and back with the editor until it’s a fit.
That’s okay.
Guest posting isn’t for those who are in a rush.
It’s a long term traffic strategy and as a side benefit you get some nice links to your website.
I mainly see it as a way to get my name out and also to get some high converting referral traffic.
My post on boostblogtraffic.com got me about one hundred subscribers within a week.
Usually, I get like ten.
So was it worth the effort?
Heck, YES!
I always try to publish at least one guest post a month on authority blogs.
You should try that too.
For me, this is one of the best ways to build connections with other bloggers, get them to know me and more.
Who knows?
Maybe we can work out something bigger in the future.
If you only take away one thing from this post. This should be it:
The guest host will thank you.
The readers will thank you.
Your reputation will grow.
Last but not least – long term – your bank account will thank you.
Believe me, this is the way to roll.
Don’t listen to those who say guest posting is dead. They’re doing it wrong.
