2012 is the special year because that’s when we are starting our official guest blogging contest!

That’s the easiest contest you’ve ever seen: you get great content, extra traffic and engagement to your blog and free money!

No strings attached: you don’t need to do anything special to participate: no extra links or responsibilities.

All you need to do is to use the Articles Gallery to offer your blog for relevant articles, then (once your offer is approved) publish your guest post on your blog and share the link here.

(Here’s a quick video intro into how the gallery works)

>>> Grand Prize: $1000 to the winner. We’ll also have a few other prizes for most active participants which will come as sweet surprises

>>> All the articles should be from the Articles Gallery: please share the username of the author each time you link to the guest post (you can find all guest posts which were approved for your blogs here).

>>> The contest will end on February, 20 – the earlier you nominate your post, the better!

>>> The guest post must be published between January,1 and Feb,15 to qualify!

>>> You can nominate as many guest posts as you want (provided they qualify to enter)!

How will the winner be chosen?

• We’ll use social media activity (Tweets and Likes) and comments at your guest post as the major factor

• We’ll get help from our moderators to judge the contest (your own engagement will be evaluated: your ratings and activity in our community as well as your active participation in the discussion at the post at your own blog)

Are there any requirements to join?

Yes:

• Your blog home page must have Google PR of 2 (at least)
• You must be a registered user of MyBlogGuest with the verified blog
• You need Twitter and Facebook count buttons installed at the post level
• You need to have comment option available (with no registration required)

What you are allowed to do:

• Feel free to use our Help Needed forum to promote your guest post (and help promote other guest posts as well of course: don’t expect to get without giving!)

• Feel free to let the author of the guest post know that you are participating in the contest and ask to help

What you are NOT allowed to do:

• Buy social media votes (trust me, this is very easy to tell when the Tweets, Likes or Comments are paid for. Your money will be wasted: we’ll exclude you from the contest if you try to fake it)

• Promise anyone to share the prize in case you win (Trust me, we’ll find out!)

• Change the publication date of your current post for it to qualify (we have plenty of tools to tell when the post was actually published for the first time)

Featured on Sweepstakesmania.com

There was once a time when getting your writing published was a difficult affair. While you could always hand it out on the streets, to actually be published in a real book, magazine, or newspaper required a submission process, approval, editing, and eventual publication.

In the 21st century, anyone can publish anything relatively easily. Self-publishing, especially online, is quite popular. Millions of people publish their writing on blogs, social networking sites, and other websites, and a good number of them never receive a penny for their work.

Plenty of people write for free because they love writing. They may not have ever even imagined making money from their work. Web writing for them may be a hobby, a canvas for self expression, or an outlet for their anger, grief, joy, or other emotion. For others, however, writing may be enjoyable, but they have taken their writing to the web with the hopes of making money, reaching a wider audience, or building a writing portfolio.

The question in the title of this article is geared toward the second category of writers, those I call the hopefuls. If you are one of them, or rather one of us, you have around four options to start your writing career:

• Start your own blog, build an audience base from scratch, and then monetize it.
• Find companies and individuals willing to pay you to write on other blogs and sites.
• Write for a content farm such as Demand Media or Associated Content.
• Guest post for a major blog or company website for free.

Far be it for me to limit you, of course. You can do all four, and some people do so very successfully. But ultimately, one must be more important to you that the others. If writing is to be your source of income or the platform for your future career, the choice is very important.

Why Write for Free?

Number four on the list works like this. Numerous media websites offer free content creation for their members. Unlike blogging platforms like WordPress or Google Blogs, these websites promote the work of their writers and often include it among the regular news and editorial content of their sites.

There is no agreement for compensation and no promise of any permanent position. The writers are under no obligation to keep writing. What the sites offer is only the potential for recognition, the glimmer of hope that writing for a major online news source might jump-start a budding journalism career.

As someone who has never done this and never known anyone who has, I can only speculate if anyone has or has not achieved success using this method. But the amount of time and effort many people put into this type of free journalism is often astounding.

The perfect example of this is The Huffington Post. At one point, this news site counted over 9,000 bloggers in its volunteer army. These people wrote for a cause and a purpose. Its founder, Arianna Huffington, however, also wrote for money. In February 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million, making her a very rich woman. To my knowledge, none of those 9,000 bloggers received a penny.

Shortly after the acquisition, some organized unions began to boycott the site, and one former blogger, Jonathan Tasini, filed a class-action lawsuit, demanding a cut of the sales revenue. These writers felt like they had put their long hours into The Huffington Post only to make other people rich. Unfortunately for them, they agreed to work for free, under no compulsion, and that means they will most likely not see any of that money.

Money and Respect

Whenever you provide a service for someone, you expect compensation and respect. A waiter expects a tip, and he also expects you to show him a degree of respect. When you write for someone else, for their website, you should at least aim for the former, the latter, or both.

Content farms pay because they make a lot of money from their writers, and they know the writers have no other incentive to write for them. You will not get much respect writing for them. You are expendable, and those who pay you probably do not even know your name.

Writing for major media sites for free may get you some respect, but that is doubtful. If you are one of 9,000, you are not much different than the content farm writer, except at least he got paid. You may write fantastic content that is worthy of respect, but that does not mean the site owners will value your contribution as much as they should.

If you write for third parties on their websites, you can negotiate your fee and get the amount you feel you deserve for your writing. Moreover, if they are willing to hire you over the many others they could have chosen, they obviously respect you and your work.

Finally, you can always write for your own blog. Actually, as a web writer myself, I strongly recommend you do this no matter what other kind of writing you also do. Do not neglect your own blog. If nothing else, it is the one outlet where you can be yourself. There, you always get the respect you deserve, and if you work at it, you might even make some money.

Tavis J. Hampton is a librarian and writer for WordPress web hosting company 34SP.com. You can read his blog at TavisOnline.com.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Search Engine People Blog

I have always been looking for more and more ways to explain to our guest authors how to create a really great guest post which will receive a lot of placement offers to choose from.

One of my recent attempts was a “Articles Gallery Checklist” that requires a guest author to check all the items before publishing a guest post to the Articles Gallery.

Here’s the copy of the checklist:

☑ My article as well as my author byline is unique. My article contains original ideas. Please read how original content is much more than unpublished content)

☐ The title of the article is properly capitalized (e.g. “We Сapitalize Titles to Make Them Stand out.” Read how to capitalize here)

☐ The HTML code is clean (Extra “dirty” code makes the article hard to publish and may result in the article rejection)

☐ My article is broken into parts using subheadings (Please read how to do that here)

☐ My self serving links are put in the byline (if there are links in the body, I properly describe them in NOTES after the article goes live)

☐ I am using NO more than 2 anchor-text self-serving links

☐ I am using Royalty-free or CC-attributed images and screenshots to make my article more attractive

☐ I have selected the best category for my article (better if it is NOT “General” category)

☐ My article is so good that I would gladly publish it at my own site! I like reading it myself

Then it occurred to me that there should a better way to visualize that checklist, and I created this flow chart using my office whiteboard:

You can download the larger photo here and use it to create your own flowchart to use at home (or send to your copywriting and content production team).

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Kev Gilmour

We are launching a new season of guest blogging contests! Now that everyone is back from the summer holidays and spent a month figuring things out after them, we are here to bring you some fun.

And we are happy to start the season with our long-time partner: Famous Bloggers:

Introducing the “Best Selling Affiliate Products”

If you are into affiliate marketing, go ahead and share your favorite products (which should be somehow related to blogging, social media, Internet marketing, etc: educational courses, guides, ebooks, WordPress plugins or themes, etc.)!

*This contest is brought to you by FamousBloggers.net and BloggersNetwork.net and MyBlogGuest.com*

To take part, monitor FamousBloggers.net for updates on when the contest launches.

The “Best Selling Affiliate Products” contest will start at the beginning of October 2011 and last for one month.

For now, apply to be a cash sponsor here.

cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by Photo Extremist

Gerald Weber, one of my oldest friends and a power Twitter user, has been helping me build our guest blogging platform for ages. He was our moderator from the very start and has always been very helpful no matter how busy he was.

Don’t miss his interview for JobMob where he talks about guest blogging in general and MyBlogGuest in particular. Listen to the interview to find out how MyBlogGuest helps build high-quality connections with niche bloggers.

To listen to the podcast, press the Play button here or else right-click the Download link and choose “Save as…” or “Save link as…”.

Gerald is president of Search Engine Marketing Group, active Twitter user (@the_gman) and a knowledgeable link building and SEO expert.

I have been (guest) blogging on guest blogging (I do know it sounds funny) quite a lot, so I decided to compile the most useful advice I have ever given into an eBook.

It’s the first draft – I plan to update it regularly with more useful tips and resources, so please subscribe to this blog (or to comments to this post), to keep track of new versions going live.

It was initially planned as a separate product but I never had time to develop it. However I will make sure to create updates and regular improvements.

The eBook is free and you do not need to register or subscribe to anything to get it. Just download it here and enjoy!

I am looking for your feedback as I’d really to turn this ebook into something truly useful. I also hope to foster our *high-quality* approach to guest blogging with it, so help me by spreading the word!

Thanks for checking it out!

*Download Your Free Copy of Guest Blogging eBook Here*

There are quite some instructions available for those who are looking to write a guest post, for example, the post must be unique, the content should be of good quality, the wannabe guest authors should get in touch with ideas, and get his/her outline approved before jotting down the article, the guest posts must have more than 500, 600 or even 700 words, and once the post gets published, the guest authors must follow up by responding to the comments, and so on.

Do I have an issue with any of these instructions? Not really.

Except for … so many guidelines for the guest authors, but what about the bloggers who get to publish these articles on their blogs? There must be some decorum that they should follow; after all, they are getting some free and unique content for their blogs?

And even though they have every right to dictate the guest authors, it’s only ethical to return the favor by being gracious instead of acting like a high and mighty editor-in-chief of some magazine. True that you are providing an opportunity to the guest authors to gain exposure and more importantly back links, but you are getting some excellent content in return. To be honest, when we put it all together, some of the best content in blog sphere is made up of guest posts.

Avoiding the following hiccups will make guest blogging a more delightful experience for authors who are looking to contribute and they will be coming back with more guest posts. There’s no reason why the wannabe guest bloggers should feel like a high school kid waiting for his result sheet, when they have sent a guest post and are waiting for an answer.

So here’s (with all due respect) a list of what you should Not do as a blog owner…

1. Not acknowledging the submission and responding:

If nothing, you can at least have an automated response that confirms the submission or receipt of the email while informing the contributor that you will be reviewing the article and getting back soon. At times, it happens that you send a post to some reputable blog and then you are made to wait for ages to get even the acknowledgement. At times, one has to send another email to ask if they have got the first one. Some might state excessive submissions and all that as the reason, but then there are some very popular blogs accepting guest posts where you will get the first response in a jiffy.

2. Not reviewing in a timely manner and letting the author’s know:

When someone writes and send an article for your blog, they at least deserve a quick approval or rejection so that they can try at another Blog. Nobody minds waiting for 3 – 4 weeks or more for their turn to get published but when you are made to wait for weeks even before you can get a nod of approval, it can become quite irritating. It doesn’t take much to scan through a post and decide if it is a good fit for your blog. The author will gladly wait for weeks after you’ve given them the nod of approval, but you shouldn’t make them wait for weeks and then tell them to take their post elsewhere.

Also, you must give them a date when you are planning to publish. Most bloggers do, but a couple of times, when I ask for an estimated date, I get a stern reply like “you will know when it goes live” … now, how congenial is that?

3. Editing to the extent of spoiling their individuality:

A guest post is meant to be an outsider’s opinion, and just because it’s going live on your blog, doesn’t mean it should be in tune with your own style, views, likes, or dislikes. A guest post is actually a welcome change in the overall tone of your Blog, that otherwise can get a little too dull. But some blog owners would do the editing to the extent that the original post loses its zest. You can’t obviously allow someone to use profane language or ignite a controversy, but there’s nothing wrong in allowing a unique opinion or dialect, especially when you’ve clearly mentioned that it is a guest post.

4. Not having a write for us page:

Having a detailed write for us page will save you and wannabe guest authors a lot of time, that otherwise will be wasted in sending and replying the basic queries like “do you accept guest posts”. Apart from mentioning that you do, you can use this page to note down basic requirements to let others know exactly what is accepted and what’s not. Also remember to link this page from your homepage so that the interested guest contributors (and the search engines) can easily find it.

5. Not giving any reason for the rejection:

At times, you might receive articles, which are good but still you won’t be able to use them for various reasons, maybe because you’ve already covered the topic in a recent post, or maybe because you aren’t accepting guest posts at the moment. It’s your blog and you can choose not to post any article for whatever reason, but it is only gracious if you can give a reason, and more importantly a little encouragement, especially if the post was good (you can thrash the spammers for all you want). Even worse is, when you accept a guest post and later refuse while giving a reason that doesn’t make any sense.

These are all problems that I have personally faced, but I am sure there must be many more issues that others guest bloggers have faced. Let’s give blog owners a taste of their own medicine , and share some “dos and don’ts” for those who are looking for guest authors.

Natasha is an Internet Marketing expert by profession, and currently, she’s working for sell my timeshare and cancel my timeshare.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by jonathan.youngblood

Tradition is a great thing and, while our guest blogging family is growing, we are now able to feature our guest post round-ups on a more regular basis – monthly, hopefully.

So our very best administrator, Sana, has picked and described the most interesting posts shared by our members.

How, just go through the list and let us know your thoughts!

1. Black-out Labels (on Florist SEO): Adam Conner of My1Stop.com shares his opinion on using black out labels to streamline product handling approach.

2. 6 Best Sites for Virtual Tour (on IdaConcpts.com): Katie of Timeshare Secrets makes a list of online resources where you can get and exciting virtual journey.

3. Tasty Treats for the Diabetic Eater (on American Diabetic Diet): Tom Stansfield of LifeStrength balance wristbands gives some joy for diabetics who suffer not only from this disease but from boring diets as well.

4. Baby Proofing Your Home and Yard (on How To Wean From Breastfeeding): Quebec resident Jenny Morgan of Kanetix.ca helps moms to be aware of so many important things to care about when their baby is growing.

5. Bi fold Doors – Can They Work in My Home? (on In-Your-Garden.com): some ideas of using this kind of doors in your home and their advantages from clearspan.co.uk.

6. How to Set Up a Freelance Website in 5 Easy Steps (on OpportunitiesPlanet.com): Julie Anne Eason from FatWallet.com gives explication for each of these 5 steps.

7. 5 Proven Tactics To Get More Views on YouTube (on IdaConcpts.com): Nitin Aggarwal from OffShoReally.com shares his ideas with those who are interested in their ‘video promotion’ via YouTube.

8. Burn Fat While You Sleep Easily (on LoseTheMoobs.net): Joel Mark from ProventTherapy.com proves that if try hard it is really possible to lose weight while sleeping.

9. The Power of QR Codes (on WindowsLifestyle.com): more information from Adam Conner of my1stop.com about QR codes that keep getting more and more power.

10. How to Keep Yourself Going When You Just Feel Like Quitting (on RichGrad.com): all of us get into such situations from time to time. Michele Allen from cnacareer.org knows what to do – it’s simple and everyone can handle it.

11. What to Put on Your Business Card (on floristseo.com): several important business card solutions from Adam Conner of my1stop.com

12. Direct Mail versus Social Media Marketing (on techlunatic.com): Liz Straws of OneResult.co.uk gives you pros and cons, which one to use is up to you.

13. The Wedding Band in Ancient Cultures (on herbestdeal.blogspot.com): exciting things you would probably never find out without Tom Moore from travelfire.blogspot.com

14. HTC EVO View Tablet Review (on gadget400.com): great review from Cool Gizmo Toys lover Jack Kieffer

15. Four Reasons Montreal is a Must-See Vacation Destination (on travelfire.blogspot.com) from Sara Woods of Coupon Croc for those who are still planning their vacation tour.

16. Get Started with SEO: 5 Tips (on brooger.com): SEO tips can never be too many; the more you know the more you succeed. 5 more from Darren of FinderMind.com

17. Skin Health All Depends on Sun Exposure (on Natural-Skin-Treatment.org): summer is still here, so let’s not forget about UV protection for our skin. Some tips from Dave of appatureinc.com/blog

18. Five tips for Choosing a Wedding Guest Outfit (on TidBitsFromAMom.blogspot.com): wedding is important not only for just married, but for you being a guest as well. Professional advice from Mother of the Bride Outfits

19. Top Three E-Book Readers (on vredvoice.com): post about Smashwords, Lulu, and Amazon by Natalie Clive of MyCollegeSandCareers.com

20. 5 Effective Ways to Make Money from Banner Advertising (on GeekBusiness.com): Dhruv Kapoor of OffshoReally.com shares ideas to approach banner ads effectively.

21. SEO Tips for Bloggers: Developing and Implementing your Keyword Strategy (on webologist.co.uk): key points on the basic of your SEO by Gez Hebburn from FreshEgg.com

22. Ten Cheap Date Ideas That Won’t Make You Look Like a Cheapskate (on mojosavings.com): creative approach may save you some money and leave an incredible impression to your date. Ideas by Andrew Kardon from JoeShopping.com

23. How to Write Three Great Posts in One Day (on homebiz.bukiki.com): not sure if Anthony Benedict from inetzeal.com wrote it as advice for guest bloggers, but it surely is useful for those who need to write a lot everyday.

24. Designer Swimwear For Women On Vacation – Expert Advice 2011 (on direct-passportvisas.com): Susan Bodack is an expert on swim wear from instyleswimwear.com and knows for sure what women need this season.

25. 7 Android Apps To Manage Your Health (on techwench.com): expert opinion of Jon Wade from motleyhealth.com on how to get the most out of android apps for your health.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by CarbonNYC

Rejection hurts. We all know the feeling. It’s especially painful when your overtures are not only rejected, but don’t even merit acknowledgement. Such is the painful reality of guest posting sometimes.

Recently though, the painful sting of rejection was turned to elation when the blogger who seemed to ignore the e-mail with my guest post ended up tweeting a link to the post after I put it up on my own blog.

In the end, this might be the best result. When I think about it, I got the SEO benefit of hosting the content on my blog, a social signal from a powerful Twitter account (which can help me rank in search) and I got the blogger in question to endorse my post and share it with his audience.

This gives me more motivation to put myself out there, as scary as rejection might be. But to keep my chances of rejection lower, here are some things I try to keep in mind.

1. I need to choose an appropriate target. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/ has some ca-ray-zee link juice. But check out their author requirements:

Writing for us: We are always looking for fresh original social media articles.  Our editorial requirements require you be an established authority to contribute content and provide original content to our site.

Established authority? I wasn’t sure what that meant so I checked out some of their author bios. The first author I found could be my twin. Her blog has just about the same Page Authority and Domain Authority as mine, and she has about the same number of Twitter followers. The second author’s blog has a PA of 1, but he’s CRUSHING it on Twitter.

The third author has about the same level of blog authority as me. But she’s somewhere between me and second author on Twitter. It looks like – surprise, surprise – socialmediaexaminer.com wants its authors to be big deals on Twitter. I’m not a total slouch at 332 followers of @CathyReisenwitz, but I’m probably not going to impress these people.

2. I need to follow directions. Speaking of author requirements, I found those by searching around the site. Before you submit a guest post, BE SURE you search for any guest post submission guidelines. Sometimes bloggers bother to write them, sometimes they don’t. But if they bother to write them and you don’t bother to find them and follow them, you are probably buying your guest post a one-way ticket to file 13.

3. I need to be flexible. I scored a guest post on http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/ one time but I had to spend hours on a guest post, submit it, then completely rewrite it before she’d accept it. Then, before she published it, Penelope completely rewrote it by combining my first and second drafts together. If you are submitting your content, you have to let go of editorial control, because it’s their blog, and they’re in charge of what ultimately lives on it.

Even following these steps, I’ve gotten rejected, and you will too. It’s a part of life. If you’re never getting rejected, you’re probably not shooting high enough. Just remember as you go along, shoot for the moon, and you’ll get your post tweeted out. Or something along those lines.

How do you deal with rejection, or have you had to? I want to hear your stories in the comments.

Cathy Reisenwitz helps small businesses increase their qualified traffic through organic and local search. Check out her Birmingham SEO Blog.

cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by HikingArtist.com

From an Internet marketing and SEO perspective, the concept of guest blogging truly is ideal for any small to medium size organization to succeed. It’s a common headache for many webmasters to achieve the same search engine rankings enjoyed by large, wealthy organizations whom are backed by media campaigns and other viral marketing strategies.

Search engine visibility strategies are evolving constantly. If you’re relying on organic search as your primary source of traffic, you’ll need to keep abreast of the Internet search technologies handed down by Google and Bing – for which you, me and everyone else simply must conform to.

The message of Google is not a new one and the recent panda update simply rams home the message for those who refused to listen. As of late, I have been receiving various spam emails containing numerous case studies from article spinning services and public blog syndicating networks claiming that their networks have not been affected by panda. Who are we to believe (or trust), the OFFICIAL word of Google or a bunch of case studies hashed together from slightly worried, low quality blog network owners?

If we take a look at all the SEO and link building strategies being utilized, it’s fair to say that most have become rather ineffective. Does a website deserve to be on the front page of Google simply because it has (mindlessly) built thousands of back links to forum profiles and directories? Certainly not. And what about syndicating hundreds or thousands of the exact same rehashed spun article to a blog network with the sole purpose of increasing in-bound-links? These kinds of practices do nothing more than pollute the Internet rather than BENEFIT SEARCH ENGINE VISITORS.

A website deserves credit for taking the time to undertake in-depth analysis and research about its given niche. Whether or not you’ve decided to conform to this process, you’ll have no choice if you’re to be a serious contender in a competitive niche.

The principle behind guest blogging goes hand in hand with the philosophy of Google itself. The concept is totally white hat, attracts real and genuine targeted visitors based on a unique search query and offers the author an authentic and permanent backlink for which the major search engines will give due and deserving credit.

Given that effective current SEO strategies are fairly limited compared to what previous or outdated algorithms would allow, finding ways to continually publish guest blog articles requires authors to think out of the box somewhat.

We are all well aware how relevancy weighs in on our content from a search engine perspective. Maintaining relevancy and composing relevant content worthy of publishing day-after-day becomes slightly cumbersome before too long.

Guest Blogging in a Difficult Niche – It’s all About The Angle!

If you’re into guest blogging and can see the tremendous potential by publishing or creating absolute unique content for killer back links or for search engine friendly content that’s exclusive to your website, there are many ways to keep publishers and search engines happy simply by expanding your angle.

Coming up with new ideas to write about that are still relevant is the trick. You could start this process by taking a pen and paper and draw yourself a basic web diagram and start to expand your thoughts into other related elements within your niche.

If you’re selling cushions, for example, the main topic is obviously cushions. However, you can start adding to your web diagram topics with cushion fabrics, colours, styles, trends, home furnishings, carpet, furniture, tiles – anything at all that might compliment a cushion – this could be the first layer of the web diagram, next, start working on a second layer that relates to your first layer and so on. Before you know it you’ll have many topics to write about that are still relevant to the main item – cushions.

For me personally, my niche is frequently depicted as somewhat controversial, so you might be able to appreciate the scepticism shared by site owners who are looking for content when they come across online dating articles in the articles gallery.

Articles relating to dating sites have seriously been done to death across the Internet. “Oh great, another online dating tips article, who cares” – delete – next! During the past three years, I can’t remember the last time I wrote an article about online dating sites tips.

Generally, I lean towards topics like social networking, dating applications, health and fitness to improve self image, dating cultures, press releases, dating statistics and news, online etiquette, relationships etc. These mentioned topics still relate to online dating indirectly (but without the repetition) and even though my bio links are pointing at an online dating site, if the content is creative and original, it will get published.

Thanks for taking the time to read my insights into guest blogging. You can follow more of my updates here – Matt Fuller.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by d.loop