Guest post blogging is one of the easiest ways to get your name and your company name out there—while attracting vital new customers in the process. You likely have a company blog that integrates with your social networking and SEO efforts, but now comes the next logical step: guest posting.
But why guest posting if I have my own blog? We’ve put together 5 reasons why guest posting on blogs will be the strongest online promotional tool you have in your arsenal:
1. You Build your Network
These days networking is as important online as it is offline. By participating in your industry’s blogging community—by writing guest posts and commenting on other like-minded blog posts—you build healthy relationships that go far beyond Facebook-friend-status type relationships. You can later leverage these relationships into higher-level blogs to post on (the better the blog the better your exposure) and reap the benefits of inter-vertical networking.
How To: Submit guest bog posts regularly (the hit-it-and-quit-it approach won’t work here) to blogs within your vertical. Participate regularly in comment posts and discussions to help foster your blogging network relationships.
2. You Build your Brand
Every brand hopes to rise to the top of their field by achieving an expert status that has your name become synonymous with your vertical. Think Cisco for networking, Siemens for…well, almost everything, and McDonalds for fast food. They built their brands on being the best at what they do. Now you need to do the same. Guest post blogging alone isn’t enough for a branding strategy of course—but its a damned good start. Guest post blogging shows people what you, your company, and your brand is all about.
How To: Post on as many high-quality blogs as you can. At the same time ensure that your message is consistent across your various blog posts, your own blog and your website. Your blogging topics should be directly relevant to your current marketing plans and website content and you should link to “further reading” materials available on your own blog/website.
3. You Generate Traffic
Posting on guest blogs draws traffic to your blog, your website and your products—if your content is interesting enough.
How To: The most critical way to generate traffic is to write high-quality, information-driven content that is engaging—and above all ACCURATE. The worst thing you can do to your traffic and brand is to write something inaccurate, so do your research to fill any gaps in knowledge.
4. You Build Inbound Links
Inbound linking from guest post blogging works in two ways—one, it drives traffic by increasing the amount of links on the internet directed at your site, and two, those links build your page rank with Google. The reason guest post blogs have such a great impact is that they are generally high-quality, trusted sites with large traffic volumes and high page-rank value.
How To: Insert relevant a couple links into your blog post (one or two should do it—three if it is a long post) and another into your author bio. Work on building up your posting to include the leading online news sources in your industry (this will take time though, you don’t get to post on the best sites first time around).
5. You Build your Expert Status
You’re an expert in something. So show it off. These days reaffirming your expert status is easier than ever with the advent of the social web. With Facebook posting, LinkedIn Answers and blogging it is easy to establish yourself as an expert within your field (for a status-building how-to on using LinkedIn Answers to boost your industry expert status click here). The only problem is that owning and operating your own blog doesn’t qualify you as an expert—after all you could write a blog all about how you are not only next in line for the Liberian throne but also the reincarnation of both Elvis and Cleopatra. Nope, to legitimize your expert status online you need to be featured on multiple impartial blog sites—aka blogs not owned by you or your company. The best part about building your status is that it builds not just your company’s reputation but your personal reputation as well—should you need to look for a job in the future or create another venture.
How To: Write blog posts on impartial blogs and news sites. You need incredible accuracy so double check your facts and triple edit your writing. Also,–and this is critical—do not write sales and marketing material. Write posts that are objective to the general public, instead of topics intended to sell consumers on your services—that’s what your website is for.
In my opinion, for what its worth, guest posting on an industry-leading, impartial blog will earn you so much more street cred than posting on your own blog. It builds your brand, opens you up to new customers, builds your network and generates traffic. It is critical then to guest post on high-quality blogs, regularly and for the long term.
Robin Wilding is a professionally trained Canadian journalist striving to bring journalistic-era intergity to online media. She has a second degree in Political Science--with a focus on International Relations and the developing world. Currently Robin is a contributor to several technology publications, including Brajeshwar.com, SocialTechnologyReview.com, HostingIndustryWatch.com, AnimationCareerReview.com and CompareBusinessProducts.com. She also works for several web developers; and does ghost writing for several high level executives within the technology sector. Robin's work is showcased in her portfolio: http://shownd.com/robinwilding
