Guest posting can drive more traffic to your blog than any other traffic generation method.
A lot people have got substantial increases in traffic using guestposting.
But it needs to be done right.
WHY YOUR GUEST POSTS DON’T BRING YOU TRAFFIC
You are not promoting them.
You may think that your host blogger and his or her readers will promote your guest post for you.
After all, host bloggers have their own blogger outreach networks ready and waiting to share your content, just as they share all the content on your host blog. Right?
Yes. But it’s not enough.
If you want to leverage the power of guestposting in driving traffic to your blog, you have to be ready and able to promote your guest posts till their pips squeak.
By not doing so you are leaving yourself short of all the traffic you could be getting. Not to mention, opening up potential new networks.
PROMOTING YOUR GUEST POSTS DOESN’T HAVE TO BE TIME CONSUMING
Done right, it can be a simple task that takes 15 to 30 minutes a day. Payback in resulting traffic increases make these minutes golden.
So, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how to promote your guest posts and give them rocket-fuel power to drive traffic back to your blog and increase your audience and profit-making potential.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU PITCH YOUR POTENTIAL BLOG HOST
STEP 1: HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF WHO’S BLOG YOU WANT TO WRITE FOR
Choosing the right blogs to write a guest post for can increase traffic by itself. You should target blogs where your potential readers are currently reading and subscribing too.
Create a “hit list” of blogs that you want to write for.
This means studying blogs in your niche (and also blogs in related niches too) to find which ones are a good fit with your blog. This includes reading all the comments on the top 5 to 10 popular posts on each blog.
Quick note: If you don’t find any comments on a blog this maybe a sign that the blog doesn’t have an engaged audience and therefore is probably not the right blog for you because engaged audiences are involved readers. They want answers and they are likely to have problems they want solved quickly.
Study the blogs in your niche to find out which have the most engaged audiences. Include these in your “hit list”.
STEP 2: FOLLOW THEM ON TWITTER
If you’re not already doing so now, follow the owners of those popular blogs on Twitter. Not just the ones you read. If you see that there are readers who regularly leave comments, follow them too.
Watch what kind of content they tweet links to. This lets you see who is most likely to tweet a link to your guest posts.
When you get a guest post published tweet them to tell them about your guest post. If you have also spent time and effort into building relationships with them, you will be able to count on at least some of them checking your guest post out and sharing a link to it on Twitter.
STEP 3: RIDE THE HASHTAGS
What are the regular #hashtags in your #niche? Which #hashtags get the most engagement. For example, in the #blogging #niche these are #blogging #contentmarketing #bloggingtips.
Who are the influencers using the hashtags in your niche? It’s a good idea to follow them. This is another way to see what content they share (or talk about) regularly.
STEP 4: SPY ON THEIR TWEETING ACTION
By following popular bloggers you can also watch whose content they share.
What you’re looking for are patterns that show you which bloggers they promote to their followers. Why? What content are these bloggers creating that makes influencers promote it on Twitter?
What kind of content do they share?
Do they favour list posts over other kinds of posts?
Do they go for content that’s rich in data and full of screenshots.
Do they tend to share instagrams?
TIP: TweetDeck is a great tool to use here because it’s free and it lets you create lists and columns. You can create different lists for different bloggers you want to follow and watch. Here’s an example of mine …
STEP 5: WRITE GUEST POSTS ON POPULAR TOPICS THEY SHARE MOST
If you know what style of content and what topics blog owners share most you have a big advantage over other guest posters.
This information can help you let them know when your guest post is published. Write great content and they will be more likely to tweet a link to it.
Make sure you include a targeted and attractive “give-away” in your “author’s bio” to persuade people who read your guest post to visit your blog and sign up to your email list.
STEP 6: SEND YOUR GUEST POST PITCH
Your job is to write your guest post to help your host’s readers and is going to pay off in traffic for your host.
You also need to create enough interest in readers that they will want to visit your blog. The more you succeed, the more traffic you will get back to your blog.
It’s a balancing act that you have to learn to do if you want your guest posts to pay off in more traffic to your blog.
Studying their blogs will help you do both because you will see what kind of content is popular with their readers. This includes number of comments each post gets as well as how many tweets.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR GUEST POST GETS ACCEPTED
STEP 7: KNOW YOUR GUEST POST’S PUBLICATION DATE
This is important because you need to be ready to respond to commenters and to start implementing your promotion plan.
Your host should give you a date for publication when he or she emails you to tell you they’ve accepted your post. If they don’t, you need to ask them for a publication date. Explain that you would like one so that you can be ready to engage readers and respond to their comments on the day.
STEP 8: SEND A THANK-YOU EMAIL AND TWEET
This is an important step. They have accepted you as a guest on their blog. They have also shown their faith in you and in your ability to inform, educate and entertain their readers. That deserves a Thank-you, don’t you think?
A simple email with a line or two saying: “Just a quick not to say Thanks for having me as a guest poster/writer on your blog. I really appreciate it and can’t wait to respond and engage with your readers comments.” is a good place to start.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR GUEST POST GOES LIVE
STEP 9: TWEET THE FACT THAT YOU’RE PLEASED TO HAVE HAD YOUR GUEST POST ACCEPTED BY [@HOSTBLOG]
You could also send a tweet to say Thanks a few days afterwards too.
“Proud to be a guest writer for [@hostblog] with this post:
STEP 10: DO A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR THE SAME (OR SIMILAR) CONTENT
This is a quick way to discover who else is likely to tweet a link to promote your content.
This is how I discovered Carol Tice had written a post on a similar topic and why I was lucky to have her tweet a link to my guest post on FirepoleMarketing.com.
STEP 11: EVERY HOUR OR SO CHECK TWITTER FOR WHO HAS SHARED YOUR GUEST POST
A quick way to do this is to type the headline or the URL into the Twitter search bar:
And see who has tweeted out a link to your guest post to all their followers:
Follow each person who has shared a line, then send them a tweet to thank them for doing so. Remember to keep checking back regularly for a week or two.
STEP 12: RESPOND TO COMMENTERS
This is hugely important. Not only is it good manners, you also build up a reputation for being interested in what readers have to say. It’s also tells your host that how much you respect them and their readers and are pleased to have had the chance to write for them.
Regularly check for comments and respond to each commenter with a thank-you and a thoughtful response. Subscribe to your guest post so that you can get emails letting you know whenever someone comments.
STEP 13: FOLLOW COMMENTERS
Whenever a reader leave a comment go to Twitter and use the search bar to see if they have a Twitter account. If they have, follow them. Send them a tweet thanking them for their comment.
Your purpose in doing this is to stay front-of-mind in their heads and exchange regular tweets. Eventually, you can let them know about what else you’ve written, or are about to have published.
STEP 14: REGULARLY TWEET LINKS TO YOUR GUEST POST
Be careful not to go overboard. Use a tool like TweetDeck or Buffer to schedule tweeted links say every five hours apart for the first day. Then a tweet every day for five days is good. After that you can follow with a tweet about your guest post every now and then. The trick is to tweet links that are informative, not annoying.
STEP 15: LET YOUR OWN SUBSCRIBERS KNOW
Send an autoresponder message to your email list to tell them about your guest post and include a link. Ask them to share the link to their Twitter fans.
THE POWER OF GUEST POSTING TO GET TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG
If you want to leverage the power guest posting has to grow your blog it’s not enough just to get your guest posts accepted and expect them to drive traffic to your blog. That’s only the beginning.
You need to promote your guest posts with a clear plan of action. A checklist of steps that you follow through and that guides you through the process of maximising your hard work.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW
#1. Be ready to promote your guest posts.
#2. Create your “hit list” and follow them on Twitter.
#3. Start watching for patterns in what they are tweeting about.
#4. Plan and write up 3 guest posts (to start) based on what you discover in #2 and #3.
