Guest Blogging Mania?
Is Guest Posting Mania or Helpful? As a fellow Virtual Assistant, I'm sure you have a great deal of knowledge and experience to share. One of the VERY BEST ways to share that knowledge is to write about it and share it with others.
I have been a Virtual Assistant since 1996 and in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant world since 2000. I have worked my fanny off to become an expert in this area. I know what Agents need and want and can make it happen relatively quickly with my team.
Now I happen to be in the Social Media Marketing and Blogging area. I started with just real estate and then people began to find me in other areas too.
I am big into guest posting, as you will see from this post. But it's the sharing of information that's the best.
“Guest Blogging” means writing and publishing an article on someone else's website or blog.
I believe guest posting is the single most important strategy for growing your blog readership, your reputation and your leads. Allow me to explain with these three reasons to guest post.
Three Great Reasons to be a Guest Blogger. Basically, there are three reasons why guest posting is such a key strategy for every blogger to build their online influence:
Build Relationships
Bloggers need good content. By being a good guest blogger, you add value to someone else’s blog. When you offer your expertise, you build relationships with other bloggers and experts. In fact, Websites with a blog have tend to have 434% more indexed pages and they can be tremendously influential.
Great Search Engine Ranking
The one non-negotiable factor you should have for guest-posting is this:
The host blogger must allow you to include a link to your own blog in the post somewhere (usually it's at the end).
This will usually looks something like this:
Kathy Goldman, Guest Blogger
www.SocialMarketingFusion.com
Professional Social Media Marketer & Blogger
If your host will allow more, then enter as much as they allow.
Over time, these back links will raise the value of your own blog on search engines. This makes your content easier to find via Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others.
Meet New People
Perhaps, the best part of guest posting is that it allows you to enter an already-established community, and share your message. It allows you to connect with new people, which can ultimately benefit you, if you do it right.
If you’re adding value to the discussion, you’re going to see that convert over time to more readers, fans, and followers. Conversely, if all you’re ever doing is asking or selling, you may end up famous, but with a reputation you don’t want. (You don’t want to be “that person” who’s hawking his own agenda.)
Guest posting allows you to get your message in front of big audiences. It doesn't matter whether you have a blog yourself. You can always use your website as your back link.
Here are some ideas for guest post blogs:
- A niche report (including details on specific blogs accepting guest posts on relevant topics)
- Hyper-local content for locally marketed clients or persons
- Guest posts written specifically for your own campaign
- Social media promotion
- Biographies about the company/blog host
I've written hundreds of blog posts. I already know where to place posts to make them the most effective and how to use social media to spread these posts even further. It is important to note that each of your posts are entirely unique and written specifically for your host. Don't forget: If you cannot have the post published under your name with a link back to your website, then there really is no value in the post for you.
What About Guest Posts to Your Own Site?
I highly encourage bloggers and VAs to support each other in their endeavors. If the blogger who requests a guest post on my site is experienced, knowledgeable and can add value, there is no harm i having them post on my blog or vice versa.
I’m also a fan of allowing other people to guest post on my own site from time to time. You should consider offering guest posting on your blog, too (if you don’t already).
If you’re asking for opportunities to guest post on others’ blogs, this just makes sense. It allows the relationship you’ve developed with the host blogger to be mutual.
Some bloggers will even blog about their guest post and link to it from their own blog (giving you some great link juice). Personally, I’m a huge fan of this practice.
Being a good guest blogger
When I guest post for someone else, I do the following:
- Link to the post from my blog
- Promote it on Twitter (several times)
- Share it on Facebook
- Thank the person
- Stick around and respond to comments on the post
While not everyone does this, it’s not a bad idea. However, this is important: If you have to choose between getting people to guest post on your site or guest posting elsewhere, do the latter. It’s always better to get your name out into new communities.
Add value. Help people. Be patient. And over time, you’ll win. The only problem you may have is trying to get enough out of it to make it worth your while.
Now here is the question you might be waiting for....
I would love to be a guest blogger on your site. Would you be okay allowing me to guest blog for you sometime? As you have read, it's a win-win and you will get even more exposure when I begin posting on all my platforms!
Here's my Guarantee: If you are disatisfied with the blog before I post it, I won't post it and you are not out anything.
Guaranteed!
Not convinced I can do a good job for you? Check out some of my credentials:
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