Guest post writing – business blogging tip 6

Getting a good guest post for your blog

Finding someone else to write you a guest post requires a bit of thinking. It’s not an easy win situation but the work you put in can produce a great return on investment if you plan it correctly.

My partner, Judy, who produced the very popular Work from Home Wisdom blog once had a guest post from Barbara Winter, the well-loved American author of Making a Living Without a Job. 

Judy got a spike of over 200% more visitors from that one guest post.

What do you need to think about for a guest post on your blog?

It’s useful to write down some criteria for choosing someone to approach for a guest post:

1. Do you have a relationship with them already? If not, do you know someone who has a connection with them who could get you a warm introduction?
2. Do they have a similar audience?
3. Are they writing about the same or related subject matter?
4. Social proof – are they on social media and do they have a good active following?
5. Can they write well?
6. Are they interesting?
7. Are they a thought leader? That is someone who has influence and people take notice of what they say and write.
8. Look for someone who has a moderately bigger following than you.
9. What’s in it for them? You may need to persuade them about the value of posting their material on your blog.
10. Timing is important e.g. you’re more likely to get a positive response if they are launching something new and want exposure to your audience.

Why would they write a guest post for you?

Now that you have some criteria to qualify who might be best to write a guest post you need to have a way to approach them. I get lots of requests to do guest posts on my blog and to be honest the way they approach me is often shoddy. Sending out an unsolicited email with no contact details and no sign-posting to their work doesn’t do it for me.

So be professional about your approach. It’s better to develop a relationship online with them first by sharing their content, commenting on their blog and liking their posts on social media.

• There has to be something in it for them. For instance new readers, increased traffic and potential customers.
• Make it easy for them and do it in an interview format and send them the questions you want answered for your post. It’s much quicker for them to complete.
• Write a post for them first and they may suggest writing one for you!

Be sure to check out my post on sponsored posts.