12 Powerful Guest Blogging Tips to Help You Reach a New Audience

This post was originally published on PixoLabo

What You Need to Know About Guest Blogging

It is 2020, and by now, you should be aware of the benefits of maintaining an active blog. Numerous studies have shown that companies and individuals who write and maintain a regular blog have much higher rates of organic engagement. Blogging is also an effective way to create fresh, relevant content as required by Google and other search engines.

But did you know that guest blogging has many of the same benefits? Our guest blogging tips will show you what to do to become an active guest blogger and get your content in front of new audiences in no time!

96% of readers perceive blogs with multiple authors to be more credible. OptinMonster

Guest blogging is a little different from writing your blog. On your blog, you can write more or less what you want to or what your brand guidelines specify. But writing for someone else presents both new opportunities and new challenges for the guest blogger. To help you get a great start to your guest blogging career, our team of bloggers and content strategists have come up with 12 powerful guest blogging tips.

Only 6% of bloggers publish the majority of their original content as guest posts. BlogTyrant

Before we go any further, you need to understand that guest blogging is not merely rehashing existing content and posting it on a different blog. Google hates scraped content! For our guest blogging tips to help, you have to do one thing: create fresh, original content. Sorry, no shortcuts! Got it? OK, let's get started!

12 Powerful Guest Blogging Tips

1 - Form relationships, not just target lists

It is not a bad idea to get to know blog owners before you contact them about a guest submission. Having this information makes things more natural and paves the way for multiple guest posts, rather than single submissions.

2 - Read a blog before you submit to it

You should be familiar with key topics and themes, as well as whether the blog tends towards long or short articles or a particular style.

3 - Only choose blogs you want to be associated with

This tip is familiar to us, but we wanted to make a note of it in our guest blogging tips because many guest bloggers often overlook this. A blog has lots of readers, or a higher page rank than your site, It doesn't necessarily mean that you want your ideas to appear.

4 - Remember the three significant benefits of guest blogging

When you write guest blog posts, you should be looking for exposure to the right audience. You want links back to your website, and the credibility of being published in the right places.

5 - Keep to a regular guest blogging schedule

Just like any other form of blogging, consistency is crucial. Stick to a maintainable schedule, like one guest post per week, to make the most significant possible impact.

6 - Track your submissions

Tracking your submissions is another of our guest blogging tips! Once you start blogging regularly, you might find it challenging to keep track of which posts and ideas you sent to particular blogs. This reason is why editorial calendars can be extremely helpful. If you don't have one, you can download an editorial calendar here.

7 - Take feedback from blog owners and readers

Sometimes blog owners will reject the post you submitted but ask for something different in the future. If you can accommodate them, that's an excellent way to keep the relationship and conversation moving forward.

8 - Be persistent, but not annoying

If a blog doesn't like your first couple of submissions, try sending them to another blog. But don't forget about the initial contact! Persistence is another of our crucial guest blogging tips: the best marketing opportunities require time to develop fully.

9 - Engage with the commenters on your guest blog submissions

Pay attention to the comments provided by actual readers. Engagement sharpens your pen, opens new discussions, and helps you see the potential for future posts.

10 - Submit articles that make you stand out

Sending posts with humor, statistics, or those based on personal experiences make your content much more memorable, unique, and, most importantly, more credible!

11 - Pay attention to the blog guidelines

Lots of blogs have very tight rules about what kinds of links you can include, photos you can provide, and even the length of your author bio. Your goal should be to stay within these guidelines while maximizing the marketing value of your post.

12 - Don't forget to feed your blog regularly

The last of our guest blogging tips is also one of the most important. Yes, guest blogging can be much fun and can pay off pretty quickly in terms of marketing impact. Even so, please don't get so focused on it that you forget your blog!

Implementing These Guest Blogging Tips

As you can see from the above guest blogging tips, this is not exactly rocket science. Some of you are already guest blogging, so this is just a helpful reminder. Even if you are new to blogging or guest blogging, this is still straight forward enough for you to do on your own if you feel out of your comfort zone to ask a fellow blogger for help.

59.8% of bloggers guest-post at least occasionally. GrowthBadger

If you are looking for guest bloggers to write posts for your blog, you also have several options. Maybe you know an expert in your field who happens to blog. If not, check with your local college or university to see if they offer writing or blogging courses. Be aware that students are not as experienced as professionals, so be sure to check that their post meets your criteria. If you are interested in a more authoritative voice, you may need to find a professional copywriter.

If you are still unsure about these guest blogging tips and how they apply to you or your content marketing, I am here to help. 

By Gregor Schmidt

Gregor is Co-Founder of PixoLabo, a multilingual WordPress web design studio based in Japan, and has over 25 years of experience in web, UX and information design. Gregor consults and mentors startups in Asia and the US, and is an adjunct professor of design and user experience, as well as a foreign language editor at the Tohoku University School of Medicine. He lives with his wife, an award-winning Japanese designer, and photographer, in Sendai, Japan. When he is not working, he enjoys writing, traveling, gardening, and sampling new street food. You can connect with Gregor on LinkedIn or Twitter