What Guest Blogging Is NOT: Getting It Right
I’ve mentioned quite a few times how guest posting may help your business grow. I also shared why in my opinion this is the ideal marketing strategy – where quality matters and everyone wins.
Unfortunately, not everyone can get this right. So are three things guest blogging is NOT:
1. Guest blogging is NOT link building in the first place
I know I have emphasized link building benefits of guest posting quite a few times: but if link building aspect is the first in your list of reasons why you start guest blogging, you are getting it WRONG from the very start.
This way you have good chances to sacrifice on the quality of your content (and the strategy overall) by attempting to get as much link love as you can. Don’t think about building links at all (they will come naturally). Think about other (much more important!) aims you are going to achieve: brand awareness, fans and supporters, reputation, etc!
If you only need link, don’t even start guest blogging. Period
2. Guest blogging is NOT article distribution!
Fellow marketers, I know you feel tempted to find a leak here: “Why would I spend 2 or more hours creating a great article and then post it to only one blog? Why not publish it on several blogs?”
Now, here’s my advice: DON’T do it. You’ll just screw the relationships with powerful bloggers and influencers in your niche and achieve nothing.
Try playing by the rules and you will be amazed how much more effective it is!
3. A guest post is NOT the same as product/tool review
I’ve seen enough of that. Plenty of guest posts I’ve seen focus on the by-line: just a couple of paragraphs of mediocre content and then dozen of sentences describing who the author is, what he does and how awesome his product is.
Before submitting this useless stuff, try to imagine why would a blogger want to publish it. Remember a blogger doesn’t require anything in return for linking to your site. All he needs is some good content his readers would appreciate.
Don’t waste your time doing blogger outreach if you have nothing of value to offer.
Now, to conclude, I am a marketer myself and I’ve dealt with many people who need fast, cheap results. If you are one of them, just don’t try guest blogging. This tactic is only effective if you do it right. Just don’t waste your time.
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These are simple, common sense things to know, yet I’ll bet you see this constantly. I used to submit article queries for publication in paper. It was a no-brainer, follow the rules or get a ruthless rejection slip. We all make mistakes, but I get tired of all the chest-beating and self-serving sites posts and tweets.
Jeeze, can I use anymore hyphenated words in this comment?
I believe that guest blogging is not a link building method, it’s more than a way of gaining more readers from different blog communities!
Recently, I have received a few guest posts for my blog, and I found so many of them has lake in the information, maybe the writers of these posts was thinking of it as a link building more than giving real value for readers so I had to reject some of the posts.
You know?! I want to contribute some guest posts to publish them on other blogs, but when ever I write something I feel it’s not good enough to be published elsewhere than my own blog, because what I publish on other blogs should be more useful and have higher value because it’s talking about me, so I change my mind so many times.
Amen on #3, although I would also expand it to finding ways to market a product you are associated with. I recently got an offer to guest blog on my mommy blog for a product I would stay away from as a mother. I was really upset…and yes, it was from here, but in no way the site’s fault. I really had to refrain from laying into the person about how to go about guest blogging correctly. Save the plugging for side comments on podcasts or for banner advertising, or sign up for PPP or SocialSpark as an advertiser.
Oh well… *sighs*
Thanks for this info. I recently started writing on my blog on a more consistent basis and want to start writing some guest blog posts. I completely agree with number 1 regarding link building. I understand the value in it but isn’t the goal here to share your knowledge, brand yourself as an expert, and put out killer content? It almost seems counter productive; if you don’t have great content but a million links coming to your site, your visitors will never come back!
Thanks for the insights.
Well said, Ann.
The product review element is something that particularly irritates me. And also people who don’t take the time to read through the blog in the first instance to get the type of material that the blog’s readers like to read!
Spot-On Ann! I think that more folks who do blog on a guest basis should be required to read this one post!
Especially the #2 item…and that should be paramount in any guest bloggers “marketing” mindset, eh!
Jim
Great article. I do think it’s possible to write an effective article and still gain one link. It’s the people that want 30 links within a 500 word blog contribution. If your blog doesn’t engage your readers than the odds of them visiting your site is about zero.
I blame this thinking on the article marketing crowd. Back in 2005 and 2006 I leveraged article marketing which was effective for a time. Since then, I discovered that this was wasteful. It is simply better to write unique content and posting that once on a good site than having it littered all over the internet on a bunch of Adsense income generating sites.
Agree with you Ann. I’m doing guest blogging not for link but for get the new audience and give the blog my personal touch
To your excellent list I would add: don’t submit articles that are a mismatch.
For instance, my blog is funny – or at least, it’s meant to be. Sometimes, I don’t feel so funny. But, mostly, if you want to submit something to me, you’re going to have the best luck if you’re not being really serious. You’d be amazed at what people send me sometimes.
Their work agenda is placed before my “be funny” one – publish my post about my work or my business please. What ever happened to the concept of “good fit”? If it doesn’t fit, I can’t and I won’t publish. I’m happy to accept posts that people can relate to and enjoy a smile over.