As I’ve been chiseling out my voice on the Sustainable Marketing Blog, guest posting has proven to be an effective and fun way to progress as a blogger. I’ve posted a few entries as a guest (see the lists here and here) and have hosted a few guest posts here, too. Today and tomorrow I’ll summarize my experience with guest posting and offer a few tips about using guest posting to promote your blog.
Why guest post?
- Exposure. Posting your entry on another blog or hosting another blogger’s entry on your blog is a very effective way to promote your blog and, by extension, your expertise or thought leadership (this series’ alternate title should read, How to promote your ideas…). Guest posting elsewhere will bring you exposure to the host blog audience. If the host blog readers like your post, they may tweet it or share it in some other way, which will allow their connections to discover you as well. If they really like your post, they’ll click through to your blog and share content they find there. Hosting a guest post has similar benefits, as the guest poster will probably point his/her readers to the guest post.
- Discovery. I’ve discovered many blogs via their writer’s guest posts on the blogs I read. The more guest posts I hosted or wrote, the more I paid attention to guest posts elsewhere, and the more good stuff I’ve discovered.
- Community. As people discover your blog and post comments to engage in a conversation with your and other commenters, your blog’s (micro)community will grow (humans being herd animals, the more comments your blog has, the more additional comments it’ll attract). In turn, you’ll learn more about your commenters and their blogs or websites, expanding their (micro)community. Guest posting also helps strengthen the larger blogger community; guest posting is a result of a conversation with another blogger, and making guest posts happen entails a conversation as well.
- Cred. When a blogger agrees to host your content on her blog or when she posts on yours, she’s implying she endorses you, your blog, and your content. Guest posts thus serve as implicit third-party endorsements.
- Logistics. Guest posts on your blog can fill gaps in your calendar when you’re unable to blog, as Beth Kanter has recently done during her relocation. Of course, guest posts shouldn’t replace your own content; it’s your blog, write it.
Why think twice about guest posting?
- Brand. As a side effect to exposure and discovery, blogging elsewhere points your readers to other online locations and away from your blog. Having guest content on your blog may, in turn, dilute your own content as you rely on the guest blogger to match your blog’s tone, content, or language.
- Time. Writing content for other blogs takes away time from producing your own content.
- Diplomacy. Guest posting, like any collaboration, entails dealing with people. In addition, people communicate differently online and are also likely to be strangers. Guest posting, in either direction, requires assertive and empathic communication for it to be a positive experience for everyone.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to go about guest posting. Meanwhile, please use the comments section to share your experiences with guest blogging. How has guest blogging worked (or not) for you and your blog? What additional advantages or disadvantages would you add to the above?
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How to promote your blog with guest posting, pt. 2
Image credit: Howdy, I’m H. Michael Karshis
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This look interesting,so far.
If there are any real people here looking to network, leave me a post.
Oh, and yes I’m a real person LOL.
Bye,