This article is written for those who are already strong in their intent to become a guest blogger! For those who just want to find out more about guest blogging itself – would be better to read our Guest Blogging post first.

“The scariest moment is always just before you start”.

Stephen King

Guest Posting Tips. From finding a topic to submitting an article!

From what to start? First we should determine reasons that pushed us to idea of guest blogging. And we should keep them in mind during the all process. Its ain’t a secret, that most of us are interested in bringing traffic to our own web site/blog/landing etc. So thinking about that, we should have a clear understanding of our main goal – to bring the traffic for what purpose? Our next steps – choosing an article topic, choosing a platform, etc. are by all means should be in the tight connection with our goals. So make a stick note with you core idea and keep as close to the subject as possible. On the other hand – we should find the topic that will be interesting to a large number of people, our potential audience. We need to provide information that is needed! No matter of our true aims!

How we can find out what is interesting for our audience? Using this tool: Google Trends  and this one:  AdWords Keyword Planner

We should make sure that there are no tons of articles, covering all the aspects, that might ever be. Can you write something new, or maybe you can get deeper in some details, or maybe you juss got an other point of view on the subject and you want to raise a discussion!

Strategy and guidelines of writing a guest post

A guest post should bring people to an outcome, not a landing page!

Landing page undoubtedly is very important and it should be done in the right, but the aim of marketing – and online marketing is no exception – to increase the profit. Though the intermediate objectives might be different: raising awareness of a product or brand; notifying loyal consumers about the new version release, or expanding the product line; improving the company’s status, holding re-branding campaign or just reminding of itself – still the ultimate goal of all these measures – increasing sales! So no need to write ego-syntonic posts! You first need to be a seller not a writer!

Try to make reader click on call-to-action.

Remember, that the main aim is to bring the reader from the guest blog to the needed place! All your spent time – is useless if you can’t make the user go your way. As people always procrastinate – it sometimes can be hard. They avoid taking action every time they can. You should involve readers. You should provide strict call-to-action steps with the FREE VALUE for the reader.

For example – we need to sell a theme? What we can do with the guest blog post? We can compare several themes, stress advantages, show interesting features (all of these might form an individual, unrelated post), then we can lead the reader to see our demo with the bonus of niche-specific free giveaway for subscription. This might be free white paper to download or send via email – i.e. “how to start your blog” – for the blog theme; or ultimate AdSense setting guide (for viral theme), or “How to create a successful CV” for CV-resume theme etc.

Sending readers to random posts you just want to promote or to home page – is bad practice.

Mention a “big experts” and refer to the trustworthy, well-known resources. 

There are several reasons for that tactic – first of all you’ll be associated with this community, the second reason – this might open the door to their readers, subscribers. You can send the link to your post to one of the authors – and there is always the chance, that they will share it in socials or will refer to it in their own blog.  Also this will prove – you know the subject well enough. It’s so-called giving before receiving…

Don’t think for the moment – think in advance.

Writing a post try to imagine how it will look like in a year? Would it still be actual? When mentioning any time period – for example “recent updates” or “recent studies” – better specify dates…not to force reader to go and search for the article publish date. Before posting answer these questions:

Does this article answer chosen keyword phrase?

Will it bring the reader to the place I need?

Does it boost my reputation on the subject?

Can it help to make any new communications, discussions or contacts?

Answer comments, or use them as a topic for the next posts. Develop further communication.