Any blogger knows there are two essentials to being successful: you have to create engaging content, then get people to read it! Guest posting, or “guest blogging,” is a simple way to do both.
What is Guest Posting?
As the name implies, guest posting is writing a blog post for another person’s blog. There are a number of reasons a blog might want a guest writer and a lot of benefits to creating content for someone else’s blog. It can be mutually beneficial to both parties, and we’ll explore some of those advantages.
How Does Guest Posting Benefit the Writer?
- Build relationships
It is important to build relationships with other influential bloggers in your area of expertise. In doing so you will gain knowledge, share ideas and open the door to future collaborations. You’ll learn skills to help you grow as a blogger and a leader in your field.
- Establish yourself as an expert
When you position yourself alongside other leaders in your industry, you become a part of that group. If a reader trusts the site you’re posting on; you’ll also be perceived as trustworthy. Guest posting on a well-respected site increases your authority. Readers know you’ve been appropriately vetted and assume your content is accurate and worth reading. You also grow your blogging portfolio, thereby enhancing your credentials.
- Get seen by a new audience
When you post on someone else’s blog, you open yourself up to a whole new audience. Not only is your work read by more people, but by people who are already interested in your specialty. Therefore, the odds of them following you after reading your guest post are relatively high. The host site may even share your post on their social media pages, further driving your visibility and converting their followers into yours.
- Drive traffic to your blog
Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for any blog. When you post on a popular website and provide a link to your own blog content, not only do others view you with increased authority, search engines, like Google, do too! Increasing your rank on search engines is essential to getting your content seen by more people. As more sites reference your blog, your search ranking improves, potentially driving more visitors to your site.
Ultimately, allowing other sites to host your posts increases the amount of your work that’s available online and raises the likelihood that your content will be found and read.
How Does Guest Posting Benefit the Blog?
- Build relationships with other bloggers
The benefits of relationship-building go both ways. We discussed how bloggers benefit from building relationships with other industry leaders; the same is true for hosting sites. No matter your career, who you know is just as important as what you know. Blogging is no different.
The more contacts you have, the more opportunities you create for yourself. When people know who you are, they are more likely to refer to you and link to your work. This creates more traffic and networking opportunities, thereby resulting in a positive feedback loop.
- Get fresh content
Great blogs have great content. Guest posting is a wonderful way to get new voices on your blog. Every blogger has their own style, and your readers can benefit from hearing relatable information in a new way.
By inviting other bloggers, especially those with different expertise, to contribute to your blog, you add fresh and engaging content to your site. Your subscribers are more likely to stay engaged and committed when they know they can rely on your site to stay up to date and receive relevant information.
- Grow your audience
Having engaging content on your site is only half of the equation. You also need readers to find you. When you invite a guest blogger to post on your site, they bring some of their following to you. They’ll often share posts with their audience and on social media, creating more organic traffic.
Overlap between followers may exist, but there will also be people who have never heard of you or your blog. Because this new audience will already be interested in the topic area you’re writing about, they’ll be more inclined to become a regular visitor to your site as well.
- Save time and energy
Blogging requires time and energy. You can love it and be great at it but still find yourself struggling with writer’s block or lacking motivation from time to time. Guest posting brings fresh content to your site. Readers get access to new information, and you get additional content at a fraction of the effort. Furthermore, you can continue creating content while guest bloggers work on posts for your blog, increasing the number of posts written within the same time period.
Try Guest Posting
Guest posting is mutually beneficial and something all bloggers should consider. Whether you’re the host site or the guest writer, you can greatly benefit from participating in guest blogging.
Both guest bloggers and hosts establish new relationships while simultaneously growing their respective audiences. Guest posters can expand their reach, build their following, and grow as an authority in the field professionally and through SEO. Host sites can also expand their current reach while providing inspiring information to existing subscribers with less effort.
Ultimately, if you want to add to your marketing repertoire, give guest posting a try. It can provide blogs with good content, and help you grow professionally and personally.
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