So, you considered guest blogging on another site that was well known and could possibly bring you both some link love and some traffic. However, your site is still new and you are unsure if you might be welcomed in that community. While some of your worries might seem bad to you, they are not. They have simple solutions.
Guest blogging is the same as writing on your site. Most site owners will not allow you to write on their site unless you can either meet their requirements or show an aptitude for the subjects covered on the website.
You might think:
- My site design looks terrible.
- My content does not reflect where I want to be.
- Will I be able to handle the influx of visitors once I have started guest writing at other sites?
- Am I going to be taken seriously?
It is okay to go ahead and guest post at another site, but if you are concerned about your site as it is now, you really should consider re-branding your site to something that you are satisfied with before considering on posting elsewhere. It takes careful planning to make sure you have a fully functional site that reflects you. A site that looks unfinished makes visitors hesitant to come back even if you have made a lot of changes later on.
If you are not happy with your posts, dig for good information and write articles that you can present confidently to your site’s readers. If you are guest posting, you need to somehow show the same passion there as you have in your own site. Any less and not only will you fail to entice readers into other parts of your site, they will also not bother to read your guest article at the other site. Give is more than 100% and you will get back just as much, and sometimes even more.
As for being prepared to receive more visitors to your website because of your guest post, you should be able to handle visitors on your blog. A lot of webhosts give huge amounts of diskspace and bandwidth. You need to watch your database usages (resource usage) and make sure that you do not have too many plugins or components to bog down your site’s speed.
Some users can check their resource usage with their webhosting account. In cPanel, users can check server status. You might even email your webhost and ask them how you are doing on resources so you can avoid downtime. While you might even have unlimited bandwidth and diskspace, even on a Shared hosting account, you are not limited on database resource usage.
What other advise might you have for anyone considering or about to start guest posting?
I don't know what advice I'd give: I've only guest-posted at places that had considerably less traffic than my blog, save one. I would say if I had to guest-post again, I would pick a place that's worth all the effort. It's not just a place getting massive traffic. It's a place where the webmaster is committed to promoting your article which he approved for your site, and where the link back does have some PR weight.
Otherwise, like you say – there's lots that can be done to keep one's house in order that'll improve traffic.
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I think that it is nice to blog at high traffic sites as equally as ones that are still starting up. The reason- it is all link juice and personally, I hope to reach people with my message no matter if they are in my normal niche circle.
You would know better than me – is it really all link juice?
The place I really worked hard guest-blogging for changed their permalinks constantly: he messed with the template for goodness knows how long, I don't even know if the posts are still up. Another place I guest-blogged was packed with so many ads the browser would crash at times, and I'm pretty sure he used some practices Google frowned upon, like those services which "guarantee" traffic by creating a browser within a browser.
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Thanks for the great article! I've recently started a blog and have considered doing some guest posting on other's sites to get my message and my name out there. All of the concerns you addressed were concerns I have had, your post has really eased my mind about getting out there and contributing to others' sites. Thanks again for the great post, keep the awesome content coming.
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It is a bit scary considering whether or not you want to guest blog. However, if you know your subject and open to talking about it, why not share it at places that might reach more people? 😀
Ah, perfect timing for this subject! I’ve been meaning to jump into guest blogging for months and finally put together my little plan. Picked out a few key sites in my niche and have been regularly commenting to get to know the community and am now working on my first couple of guest posts. Also in the process of revamping my early blog posts. I have plenty of content, but I realized that when I first started out my posts were really timid, even my photos were tiny. So I’ve been updating, polishing and adding internal links, etc. I can already see it’s working because my analytics show time on site is up 50% and there are a lot of new subscribers … always good to periodically take a look at the BIG picture!
Hi Nile,
I’ve never really considered guest blogging, but if I did I was wondering about the etiquette of “re-posting” what you had written for someone else on your own blog. Is that not cool or is it expected.
Just wondering when you get a chance?
Thanks,
Nathan
Hi Nathan!
You might not want to cross-post. You may want to re-write the article instead, and that would include re-writing the article title slightly. However, you can post a blog post with a summary of the article you posted elsewhere and put the link to where it was published.
I receive a lot of spam in my comments with backlinks back to their site. Of course I never approve them. But if I know they are a real person, actually contributing to the article, then I don’t mind them leaving a backlink on my site.
I know most people would not allow any backlinks because it “loses juice” with too much out bound links. I never had a problem ranking my inner pages though when I allow backlinks.
Nile,
Since this post is about Guest Blogging or Posting, maybe you can answer a question for me? I would love to guest post sometime, but at this time I only really do blog posts that are built around my videos. I spend a lot of hours arranging, shooting, converting, uploading these videos. So here’s my question: if I use a new video tutorial on on a Guest Post, can I use the same video tutorial on my own blog post or will the owner of the other blog (that I’m guest posting on) feel that I am duplicating content and be concerned it’s hurting their SEO or something? I’ve always wondered the answer to that question, so if you could share your advice, I’d appreciate it. BTW, look for a Shout Out on minute 3 of the video in the blog post below my comment, in the CommentLuv link!
Thanks again!
— Jupiter Jim
Here is what I believe on videos in guest posts. If you want to use it in a guest post, and then you want to use it on your own website, your articles should be different. You can keep the same link embed in each, but the words of the post must be re-written so that it is not exactly the same. Also, the title must also vary too. I would say that if you put it on your website to make sure your article has a little more meat and potatoes to the content because it is your site and you want to give more goodies. 😀
If the blog owner does not know the difference between re-written material and actual duplicate content, then they have no idea what duplicate content really is.
Guest blogging is an interesting concept. How are people finding these sites to blog on?
Hey Nile, some great advice there! As I tell many people, guest blogging is such an important aspect of blogging or any internet marketing, but too many people dismiss it’s importance, thinking its a waste of time.
Hi Nile, checking your blog design is also an important factor. Make sure that people can navigate your blog easily and include the appropriate sharing options. Be sure to include your Twitter name in the settings for any sharing plugins too.
Hi Ileane! I covered the design aspect in my article. However, I have a lot of indepth articles on each of the points covered that will be published soon. This is a repurposing of a post I did back in early 2010. Thanks for coming by and commenting.
As for me, it would be better not to do guest blog if your site is not yet established. Also for newbie blogger, should consider building organic traffic first before doing a guest post. For me instead of making post for other blogs, they should consider making a lot of articles on their blog first.
In the starting stage we have to established us by these factors by doing guest posting and all other things.
Hi, Guest blogging or blog commenting is an excellent way to get some good backlinks. It is organic traffic as long as you are not commenting 5,000 in one day. Do it slowly, perhaps 1 or 2 blog comments a day would suffice. Aim for high PR blog comments. This does make a difference, because not all blogs are created equal. So higher PR, means less commenting. And everyone’s time is valuable, yes?
Thank you!
Nile, Awesome post 🙂
I am sure that you are post is going to help a lot of new and upcoming bloggers out there.
I also thank you for including various specific techniques like thanking them via Twitter. I used to do that, but stopped it since I realized that it would take too much time (and maybe annoy some people – because I do get a lot of consistent commentators in lot of my guest posts). What do you think?
Nile, I like your post 🙂 Maybe you can write an article about “how to contact blog owners” (guest posting)? I’m kinda curious about guest posting. How can I contact a blog owner? What should I say? Things along those lines.
I recently started blogging but as i have read your post, it proves that before ending up as a guest blogger, we must have an reputation in the internet for us not to have a problem soon. we must be more creative , open minded, and motivated before we can start guest blogging. well thank you so much this is worth a read.
If you want to use it in a guest post, and then you want to use it on your own website, your articles should be different. You can keep the same link embed in each, but the words of the post must be re-written so that it is not exactly the same. Also, the title must also vary too.
I would say choose the host site carefully. Make sure it is relevant to your niche, but a little bit different (you don’t want to look like a copycat).
You have brought out good ways to become good and expert in guest blogging. This article is valuable. Thanks
Thank you for sharing this contain…your post has really eased my mind about getting out there and contributing to others’ sites.
http://www.findghar.com
I want to start guest blogging for my site?what to do for that?plz do reply
Guest blog posting is important for new concept of other blogger and also get more blog posts. It is important to include some concepts for guest blog posting for effective results.
I have got really good amount of visits from Guest Blogging as it is the most easy and best way to build authorship and relationship with other bloggers
Nile I believe that when wanted to guestpost, a great reputation is necessary. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for sharing some excellent food for thought Niles!
Certainly several of the excellent points you have shared, never
even occurred to me!LOL!
So often we think, it’s simply a matter of landing a few guest blogging
opportunities and then all we do is write a few posts!
Thanks for pointing out, there’s a little more to it than than!LOL!