5 Reasons Why Guest Posting is Essential for a Blogger’s Success

by Level343 Team on August 27, 2012

Let The Fun Begin

Blogging is fun, but it’s also hard work. A lot of things need to be considered if you want to be successful. For someone who is new to blogging or wants to start their own blog, the initial concerns include:

the design,
what platform to use,
which social plug-ins to utilize,
what type of content to write and
the voice to use.

Now all you have to do is start writing and the readers will come, right? Well, not quite. Once your blog site is set up and the first article is written, most bloggers experience the frustration of not getting traffic to their site. It’s understandable; you’re putting a lot of hard work into your writing. Of course you want people to read and engage with your content.

Guest Blogging Is a 30% Time Investment

However, getting traffic takes a lot of time and even more work. One thing we always recommend new bloggers do is start off by writing guest posts. Here are five reasons why you should invest 30 percent of your time doing so:

Make Your Decisions Wisely

1. Valuable exposure

For new bloggers, guest posting is similar to getting free promotion, especially if you are given the chance to write articles for well established websites. Personal promotion is expensive and time consuming. Some bloggers make the mistake of spamming people with their content and, instead of gaining loyal readers, they are blocked or create a negative first impression.

TIP: Always make sure the content you write is a good fit for the site you’ll be writing for.

2. Quality traffic to your site

If you provide good information and write good content, most readers from the site you write for will be curious to read more about what you write. Most sites will allow guest bloggers to include a bio with links to their personal sites.

TIP: Write a compelling bio to include information where people can find you.

3. Develop relationships with other bloggers

The biggest reward any blogger can get from guest posting is the opportunity to develop relationships with other bloggers, widen their personal networks and learn insider tips. If your work is truly exceptional, you may even gain valuable recommendations from well-established authors.

TIP: Reciprocity is important. Give and you will receive.

4. Wider audience reach

Writing for well-established sites is important because they already have a substantial following, allowing you the opportunity to share your knowledge with a wider audience. While you can write for bigger sites or sites that are more niched, we recommend that you take a balanced approach and write for both. This will allow you to sample both types of writing. After month or so, check which is more effective for you.

TIP: Research is key, check which type of site will benefit you in the long run.

5. Opportunity to share your passion

If you love writing and want to share different types of information, guest posting is a great way to share your passion. Sometimes as a blogger you’ll want to write about topics that are very different from what you publish on your personal or business site. Guest blogging will allow you to extend your thought leadership to other topics.

TIP: Practice makes perfect. Write and write often to perfect your craft.

Is Guest Posting the Right Strategy?

Blow Your Mind

The biggest question to ask yourself is if guest posting is the right strategy for you. The answer is “yes” if you want to be a successful blogger. Guest posting will mean a lot of hard work for you, but it will be very rewarding in the long run. Never use short cuts. If we have convinced you to try out guest posting, your next question will be: How do I start?

If you read a lot of blogs, which you already should be doing, you can contact the owners of the sites you feel will be relevant fit for what you write about. Another method is to do a Google Blog search link http://www.google.com/blogsearch. This will allow you to see which blogs allow and welcome guest postings. Most importantly, write awesome content and articles that are useful and worth sharing.

Did we miss anything? Are there other good reasons for guest posting? Please share them with us. We love hearing from our readers.

Level343 Team

This account is where everyone involved with Level343 content marketing efforts show up. You can say there is no "I" in this team. Sometimes we will chat about a certain topic with a variation of ideas, suggestions, even opinions. Then one of us will start writing the post, hand it over to someone else who will continue the diatribe. Eventually it ends up on our editors desk who either chops the hell out of it, or you're reading it right now.

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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

Justin Twitter: seojus1 December 27, 2012 at 11:33 am

I realize this post is from August, but I was browsing around and found it. SO when I see a post I like, I try and comment.
I think blogging is essential for many reasons, some stated above. First, to get your site known, besides social medial and links, you have to blog. Next, to build online relationships which are priceless, you have to put yourself out there and write. I have become close friends with people I have met online through commenting, and it has payed off ten fold. Also, besides those benefits, it obviously help with ranking if done right. Not spamming your link anywhere and everywhere (specially the name field), but it is becoming essential to have your brand . company as anchor text. Anyways, I know this is a older post, but I liked it, great job level343!!
Justin recently posted.. Florida SEO

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Michael September 4, 2012 at 5:28 am

Excellent. I love these ideas. You have given me a good reading today. Thanks for sharing blogging stuff here. Keep sharing more.
Michael recently posted.. Parenting Skills: 5 Ways to Develop Effective Parenting Skills

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James August 27, 2012 at 11:49 pm

I’m in the process of preparing a blog. One of it’s categories will be about the orchestra I’m in: if I understand your post correct, it could be a good idea to have other members of the orchestra occasionally blog on my blog. I didn’t think of that yet, but expect quite a few of them to love the idea. Thanks!

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Chris Twitter: bloghandsseo August 27, 2012 at 9:59 pm

2012 definitley feels like the year that Guest Blogging has really taken off. I think a lot of SEO agencies new it’s potential but where still getting results with cheaper link building methods. In a post penguin world where quality is much much greater than quantity. Guest posting seems to be a very effective strategy. I think the fact that it has the added benefit of referral traffic makes it even more valuable. I think that’s the type of link building you need to do to be successful now and in the future. You’re links have to have another benefit besides SEO.
Chris recently posted.. Turning Readers into Regulars: Driving Traffic Towards Greatness

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doug_eike Twitter: doug_eike August 27, 2012 at 11:09 am

Writing guest posts too early is putting the cart before the horse. First, you need to develop a body of work that provides value to the visitors generated by your guest articles. Even if they like your guest posts, they won’t return to your site, if you have nothing further for them to see or do.

The best practice is to spend a chunk of time developing your content so that visitors will return. If your niche is narrow, that probably means at least 20 good articles. A blog that covers a broad range of topics should be even bigger before guest posting. Thanks for your insights!
doug_eike recently posted.. Twelve Surefire Tips For Writing Killer Dialogue

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Jonathan Bird August 28, 2012 at 6:03 am: I’ve got to agree with Doug here. You can’t just begin guest posting on a topic if a) your blog has one post and b) you’re not established enough to have multiple posts in the same area of expertise.

tl;dr – don’t guest post until you have an established blog
Jonathan Bird recently posted.. Social Media For Business: The Legal Implications

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Gabriella August 29, 2012 at 1:03 pm: Hello Doug, I couldn’t agree with you more… Maybe we should have prefaced the post by adding a few links to previous articles about blogging. Thanks for reminding us we shouldn’t take our readers for granted. Just because we have veteran readers that are familiar with our articles and know that blogging for the sake of blogging will die a slow death. We are reaching out to new players and readers in order to let them know it’s okay to start kicking the tires on the idea of blogging.
Here are three great examples that come to mind…
Beautiful Blogging: 5 Ways to Sharpen Your Writing Skills
Content Development and Marketing: Why Are You Guest Blogging?
Company Blogging Do’s and Don’ts
Thanks for your input, it’s appreciated! :)

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Adam Justice Twitter: etelligence August 27, 2012 at 6:17 am

Sarah,

These are some good points about guest blogging. I’ve attracted a pretty big following without doing it, but it’s something that I’m going to get more involved in over the winter. Right now I’m selectively submitting an extra post to blogs that are bigger than mine, but I’m hoping to do posts for all my friends, Tribe, and sites that are even half the size of SMS in the future. Google’s latest changes (They only display 7 results in the SERPS now) hurt us some. Guest Blogging fills my most pressing needs right now. I would love to hire it out, but I have high standards, too much ethics, and I wouldn’t post half the stuff guests send me under my name (the ones looking for backlinks ya know?).

Very timely piece for me Sarah. Thanks for this!
Adam
Adam Justice recently posted.. Kentucky Colleges Make Social Media Monitoring Mandatory

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Gabriella August 27, 2012 at 7:11 pm: Hey Adam, Thanks for your input but, I’m wondering who is Sarah? LOL I’ll admit we’ve been selective with the process of accepting guest blogging, but I’ve noticed because we’re picky it’s paid off.

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Robin Jennings Twitter: explainafide August 27, 2012 at 3:37 am

There’s nothing like guest blogging for spreading your network. Most bloggers are as overworked as you are so they will probably enjoy the break you give them by writing a post or two.
Robin Jennings recently posted.. Email Safety Precautions

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Pajek Twitter: DanijelaCerovak August 27, 2012 at 2:18 am

I don´t trust guest posting because the ordinary readers is looking for value information on page and I doubt that he would look at who wrote the article and consequently visited his website. This is relevant for bloggers who know what is looking but for simple people who are not so skilled value page is page where article was written.
Pajek recently posted.. Opekline

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Is Guest Posting the Right Strategy?

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