This is a guest post by Nat.
If you have a blog or a website, one of the best ways to gain traffic and exposure is through guest blogging. In essence, guest blogging is the trade of content and knowledge for exposure. But in addition to being able to showcase your knowledge in front of a group of targeted readers, it also – if you don’t make too many guest blogging mistakes – has the added bonus of being great for search engine optimization. After all, how often do you get a real, editorial link from a respected blog in your industry?
Although the idea of guest blogging is fairly simple, the actual process of getting your content published on a respected blog is not that easy. Sure, you could get your guest post published on a blog that will accept anything that’s submitted, but that defeats the purpose of guest blogging. The types of blogs you’ll want to guest post on will have high editorial standards. Popular bloggers are frequently inundated with guest posting requests – so many that you’ll have to make an effort to stand out from the pack if you want any chance of having your guest post published.
Luckily, many other would-be guest bloggers hurt their chances of getting published by making simple, fundamental mistakes. As long as you can avoid these common mistakes yourself, you’ll have an advantage over most other guest bloggers. You’ll be able to get your content and links on highly authoritative, relevant blogs in your niche. Here are 5 common guest blogging mistakes you’ll want to avoid if you want to land those coveted guest posting spots:
1. Failing To Follow Guidelines
In order to handle the influx of guest post requests, many bloggers will explicitly set out guidelines for anyone interested in submitting a guest post. While it should be a straight forward matter to follow these guidelines, many would-be guest posters still manage to violate the guidelines. This is a sure-fire way to get your proposal tossed into the junkbox. Why would a busy blog owner take the time to review your guest post if you can’t even follow some simple instructions?
Most of the time, would-be guest bloggers make this mistake because they’re also committing another common guest blogging mistake – failing to personalize guest blogging requests.
2. Failing To Personalize Guest Blogging Requests
When it comes to guest blogging, quality is much more important than quantity. Many would-be guest bloggers make the mistake of thinking it’s the other way around. Instead of taking the time to tailor their emails for a specific blog, they’ll simply send out bulk emails requesting a guest post and hope to get a reply back.
The problem with this method is that most blog owners are overwhelmed with these types of generic proposals every day, and your email will find its way into the junkbox faster than you can hit “send”. Your approach should be focused on tailoring each pitch to stand out from the rest. You can base your emails on a template, but do actually take the time to browse through the blog you’re pitching to. Come up with guest post ideas that fit the tone of the blog and explain exactly why you think that your guest post ideas would be good for their readers. While you won’t be able to contact as many bloggers doing things this way, the higher response rate will make it worth your while.
3. Failing To Pitch Your Blog Ideas Beforehand
Many guest bloggers make the mistake of simply emailing their completed guest post without talking to the blog owner first. There are numerous problems with this approach:
· The blog owner might not like the article topic
· The blog owner might have similar content already planned
· The blog owner may be inactive
· The blog owner might not be taking guest posts anymore
If you actually take the time to write up a blog post, you’ll want to ensure that the blog owner is happy with the article idea first. Maybe the topic has already been covered, or maybe the blog owner doesn’t like the angle, or maybe he is already writing a similar piece – there are many reasons why your post idea might get rejected. By making contact with the blog owner first, you can ensure that you have a topic that the owner will be happy with, and that they’re actively responding to guest post requests.
Note: In some cases, extremely busy bloggers may simply request that you send in an article directly, rather than pitching an article first. While this is rare, if it’s requested explicitly, you should comply if you want a chance of posting on the blog.
4. Sending Pitches To The Busiest Blogs In Your Industry
While everyone wants to get published on the “A-list” blogs in their industry – for example, SeoMOZ if you’re in the search marketing industry, TechCrunch or Mashable if you’re in the startup or gadget space – these blogs have extremely strict editorial standards. Everybody in the industry wants to get published on these blogs, and that makes the environment extremely competitive. Usually, you won’t get a guest post on these blogs unless you either have a one-in-a-lifetime experience to share, or you already have a name in the industry.
While there’s no harm in aspiring to be published on an A-list blog, don’t waste all of your efforts pitching blogs that are unlikely to offer you a guest post. Instead, take the time to identify respected blogs in your industry that have a strong readership, but don’t have the A-list status of a TechCrunch or SeoMOZ. You’ll have a much higher success rate, and you’ll be able to build your reputation and authority. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll be in a position to land a guest post on the A-list blog of your choice.
5. Failing To Deliver Exceptional Content
When you break it down to basics, a guest post is an exchange; you the guest blogger offer your knowledge and skill in crafting engaging content, and in return you get reader exposure and a strong backlink. If you want exposure and a backlink on a high quality, well-respected blog, than you had better deliver on your end of the bargain.
Producing exceptional content is not only important for getting published, but it’s important if you want to maximize the value out of your guest post as well. After all, why would a reader click through to your website/blog if the content they read on your guest post is less than exceptional?
Aim to produce content that is not only relevant and engaging, but that is helpful and/or entertaining as well. Create content that you would be proud to host on your own blog. Remember, the foundation of successful guest blogging is exceptional content. Deliver value to the blog owner’s visitors, and you’ll reap the benefits in terms of more readers, a stronger brand, and better search engine rankings.
