Guest blogging is cool.You write your article and someone publishes it. You already have a stage with nice and loyal audience to perform. If you are having your own blog, then it is conventional to translate “guest blogging” as ” increased traffic” or “free advertising”. Increased exposure, RSS subscribers, backlinks, Twitter followers, profits and so on. The blog where you guest post gets one article, most probably a killer article, or at least a high quality article without the owner of that blog spending much time and effort.
Guest blogging is difficult. Not everyone can write guest articles. It is not just you who reads the article and decides to publish it, because every article of yours can seem to be a killer article to you. You have a big blogger (not by physique, or may be too!) reading, reviewing and short listing your article, which is one among probably hundreds of submissions. You will be turned down initially when your guest articles bounce back, but then slowly you will get used to it. It is really hard to keep up with the motivation to continue writing guest articles this way. For the blog owner it takes quite some time to review the guest submissions, make sure the article is unique and does not violate copyright and so on.
Guest blogging is vital. Ah, you see, now I came to the point. It is vital, especially if you blog already, because you already have the experience of bringing things out from your mind to the paper or a computer screen. Writing on your own blog and writing guest articles can go side by side. This is indeed very healthy. By writing at another blog, you gain visitors to your blog, if you have really put that killer post out there. And, of course all this means, that you are going to have free advertising. Free is exaggerating, I know, since writing one guest article is something that you need to pay yourself for your ‘writing’ service.
All these are obvious. And, probably you are still not convinced as to why you should guest blog.
Your bounced article says it all, use it:
Don’t get me literally, while it is still true that you will make use of that bounced article by sending it to another blog. But when your article is rejected, especially by more than one bloggers, will you not sit down and read your article carefully? By this time you know for sure that your article is not simply rejected because the big blogger has no free slots to get yours published. Or it is not simply because you are not that bigger to be considered. You know that there is something more than this and something meaningful that needs your attention. Yes you need to revise your article. You now need to read it with more careful eyes, with critical eyes and with the eyes of a peer.
Two or more successful bloggers can’t be wrong. If they think that your article is not worth publishing, then it is, because those A-listers have become so and are still there because they can write killer content. They know what makes a killer article. And, if they decide that they cannot make their readers happy with your article then it certainly means your content lacks quality.
Now ‘quality’ is a relative term. But when you have to revise your article to meet the quality needs of those A-listers then this will be easily and spontaneously reflected on your blog. The quality of your normal and casual posts in your own blog gets a cool elevation.
(More) Accountability:
As a blogger, you know how much accountable you are to your sizable readership. And how much will be your accountability for a super size readership? More! That is a vague term actually. I would replace that with ‘perfect’. Your accountability on that guest article should be perfect, flawless, with no caveats and with no ifs and buts.
Why? It is because you are writing for a wider audience, you want to establish your stand, you have drafted your best possible post for this popular blog and you don’t want make this opportunity to go in vain. It is something serious for you and your business and you cannot afford to make mistakes, give out false information, write vague and boring content and so on. You really need to touch the audience of the popular blog, but for that you cannot simply write exciting stuff that is not true or invalid. More than being catchy or interesting, your content needs to be unique and true in the first place. See how much responsibility you have got by writing a guest post?
Guest blogging molds a blogger in all ways. It shapes you and trains you. I would say it is a kind of free training where you don’t pay a penny but get equipped to put yourself on a more prestigious stage. Writing articles for your blog and publishing them makes you fluent and improves your writing skill certainly. But writing guest articles, getting them peer reviewed by experienced bloggers and getting them published on a popular blog not only improves your writing but builds all the characteristics that is needed for you to be a popular blogger.
So, what do you think?
Just came across this artcile and really liked authors point of view on guest blogging. I am a tech blogger for several years now.. but never went on for guest blogging.
Guest Blogging = Good Networking is a good idea to follow. Hope i will guest blog someday.
From what I read above, I must soon start Guest blogging..
I have commented in another site last time, i probably sound harsh, but this is my opinion on Guest blogging.
For the guest blogger, it will give you benefit to get temporary traffics to your blog, once your article is published, people will visit your blog because they are more likely curious about who you are. After that, they probably won’t visit your site, unless you really have good quality of a blog.
Guest bloggers will only give more benefit to the blog owner, because they can post without writing articles, getting more traffic chance, and also can earn more money.
That was my opinion, correct me if i am wrong 😀
Kimi Kimi!!! It’s just a mutual exchange stuff buddy. Both the owner and guest author gets benefited in this case.
Let me tell you the benefits of being a guest author mate, you can build links, you can communicate (thru comments) with the readers of other blogs, who in turn, can become readers of your blog. I agree you will get temporary traffic only, but I can be sure, if your guest article is of high quality you will get loyal readers from that minimal traffic. 🙂
I have almost 100+ guest authors here, and that’s the reason why this blog is still running. 🙂
You’re probably right, will try it.
Thanks for clearing it up!
Glad u took it positively buddy! 🙂 And you are most welcome here too :
http://hellboundbloggers.com/join-hb/
Hi Kimi,
No you are not being harsh. I actually agree partly with you. Yes, when you guest post on a blog people will just instantly want to check on you so they click to find your blog. But this is just for that instance and then they don’t come back.
But, if you can really make your guest article to be a good quality one, then you can gain some fans. Fans will find your blog and if your blog is really rich in content, you have gained loyal readers.
Having said that, my perspective on guest blogging is that, you don’t write guest articles for traffic. It is for your own good to develop your traits as a blogger. Traffics comes next as a byproduct.
Hey Jane,
Love the point of yours.
Guest blogging is for own good to make ourselves better.
Thanks for the reply!
Jane, I thoroughly enjoyed your style and your fresh approach to guest blogging. One of the top benefits of guest blogging is really the expanded experiences, broaden outlook and a lot of training. You learn so much while exposing your content to the new audiences.
Also, as a guest blogger who treats guest posting the way you do, you just must check MyBlogGuest: http://myblogguest.com/ – it’s the community of guest bloggers advocating the same high-quality approach to guest posting. I am sure you’ll be a great fit there!
Thanks Jessy and glad that you liked the article. I do hang around sometimes at myblogguest but I don’t have much time for substantial interaction with people there. I do offer or ask for guest posts at Blogger Link Up. That is not a forum but works perfect.
Guest Posting is a win win deal both for the host blog and the guest writer. But one thing should always be ensured that quality of the posts should not be compromised in any case for mutual benefit. It will hurt in long term.
Thanks
Kumar
its always important to have a guest blogging…
nice article…..
Hey sheeba, nice. I like the way this has been crafted. Keep up the great work.
Awesome post. Guest blog is the traffic gaining medium. Have to practice guest blogging to get good traffic.
I guess all the bloggers must try guest blogging. It is tough but gradually you start learning a lot and guest blogging is interesting because you make lots of blogger friends and build a new community overall.
Yes, that is a good point about building community. While you can still do it at social sites like Twitter and Facebook by spending lot of time, guest posting makes it a lot easier for you to build a very good community of friends, well wishers and even fans 🙂
Guest blogging seems like fun, writing for other sites and getting published in blog sites that people visit often. But it is hard work since someone will be proofreading what we write.
Just registered myself with HBB and i’m thinking to write one post here soon. 🙂
Glad to know that you have taken the step 🙂
@Sheeba, very nicely written post.. You got the right points about guest posting.. Seems I needs to start this soon too…
Yes, you should start guest posting, it is healthy. Good luck 🙂
You are correct. Guest Posting is really a must for every blogger to get more visits. Nicely presented post. I have also written 11 guest posts and I have got a lot of visits from them and I encourage bloggers to write guest posts from my personal experience.
Nice article, you have put in lot of research and effort in this article….Keep up the good work….
Thank you Loudable!
Guest blogging is much more effective than traditional article marketing because it can get you highly targeted traffic directly from the source where its published as well as quality in-content links to target pages.
Very true. More than targeting on traffic, you have a serious role of “writing” here 🙂
Nice post Jane…I have recently started guest blogging…the insights are really encouraging