Writing your first guest post can be quite the intimidating task! Guest Posting can be extremely beneficial to you as a new blogger trying to get your name out there and grow a new audience. That’s why I’ve put together this article on how to write a guest post. It’ll take some of the fear out of guest posting because you’ll know some of the expectations and you can write a guest post that will WOW!
How to Write a Guest Post
Have you been following along with the How to Build a Successful Blog series?
I’m at a point now where I feel like Serendipity and Spice officially qualifies as a successful blog. I started this cute little blog about 3 years ago as an outlet for becoming a new stay at home mom. Although I LOVED being able to stay at home and spending all of my time with Little Man I was beginning to go a bit stir crazy not having anything else to focus on….so Serendipity and Spice was born. I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning….I just started writing and clicking publish. In 2012 I went from having about 100 page views a month (probably all spam bots) to averaging ONE MILLION PAGE VIEWS A MONTH by the end of 2014. I also went from making nothing to averaging about $2000 a month in blog income and steadily increasing.
Over the past few months I’ve been asked over and over again from friends, family, and readers “how do I start a blog?”. Well, over the next few weeks I’m going to show you how to build a successful blog.
A guest post is a chance to share your ideas with a whole new set of readers. When you write a guest post you want it to be AMAZING- not only as a respectful gesture to your hostess but to gain new readers. A guest post is by far the BEST promotion you can do for your blog– so I’ve compiled some tips so you can ROCK IT!
1. Make sure the content is original.
Your guest post should not be something that has already been posted on your site- it should be new and fresh. No one is going to come visit you if you’re content is something they’ve already read…. plus it’s disrespectful to your hostess to give her a used post— plus, Google will punish both of you for duplicate content thus killing your SEO!
2. Make sure your post is relevant to the readers of the blog you’re posting on.
Research the blog that you’re posting on…. what does the hostess usually blog about? Does she focus on family life or single life? Are her followers younger or older? Are her blog posts family oriented? You want to gear your post so that it’s something that you’re hostess’ readers will find interesting. Let’s face it, YOU WANT PEOPLE TO READ YOUR POST, if they don’t find it relevant they’re not going to read it.
You wouldn’t want to post about Lady Gaga’s current fashion faux pas on a family values and faith blog.
3. Ask your host before reposting content on your own site.
This is just a nice respectful gesture to your hostess. And don’t repost it verbatim! Rule of thumb is to change it at least 20% or else you and the site you guest post at will be dinged by Google and that’s no good! Refreshing pictures is also a good idea too.
4. Write a Teaser Post
On the day that your guest post goes live on the host’s site you should write a quick post letting your readers know where you are guest posting for the day and direct them to the host site. Guest posting should be mutually beneficial with your sending traffic to your host while your host gives you exposure to a whole new audience.
5. Thank Your Host
Start of by Thanking you’re hostess and gushing about her site and readers. Tell the readers how honored you are that ______ is allowing you to entertain them for the day.
6. Introduce Yourself
Always double check with your host about how they would prefer you to link to yourself. Most sites will let you link in the beginning and again at the end…but always be respectful and ask first. Once you get the okay from your host it’s time for some self promotion!
Brag a little about what your site is about. Include a picture- it helps when people can put a face to the writer.
It is perfectly okay to add links to your site here. I usually write a quick intro like:
“I’m Melissa from Serendipity and Spice. It’s all about happy accidents making the spice of life over there! I’m constantly on a quest to survive motherhood one recipe, craft, and adventure at time!! 🙂 I hope you’ll stop by and say Hi! You can also find me sharing cute pics of the kids on Instagram, doing some wishful thinking on Pinterest, and sharing funny memes on Facebook….come check it out!”
I’ve quickly covered what they can expect from my blog and given a few links to the pages that may interest them. But I didn’t overdo it- keep it short and sweet.
7. Write the BEST Post EVER!
This is your chance to SHINE and gain a new audience…don’t waste it with a half-hearted guest post! Include photos (take good ones) – triple check your spelling – make sure the post you submit is one of the best you’ve ever done! Remember, this post is a first impression to hundreds of potential new followers. If they like you they will follow you!
8. Thank Your Host AGAIN!
At the end of your post thank your host again for the opportunity to guest post on their site. Thank the readers as well.
9. Make it EASY to Follow You!
Don’t copy verbatim what you said in the beginning when you introduced yourself but close with a reiteration to come visit and follow along…this is how you gain new followers. Write something like:
See how I didn’t obliterate them with all of my social media again…I snuck in my lead magnet to get them to sign up for my newsletter. 🙂
10. Send the Host Your Post in HTML Format
What I do is type it up in my WP post screen (the same way I would write a post that I was going to publish) and upload all of my photos to Photobucket. When you insert a photo on the blogger screen you have the choice to upload a photo and several other options- choose the “From a URL”. Go to Photobucket and copy the URL for your photo and insert it by URL- make sense?
That way your photos are hosted by PhotoBucket and you don’t have to worry about your bandwidth. Then I switch over to view the post in HTML- I copy and paste it into a Word Document and save as RichText. This should keep your post from becoming distorted and your hostess will be able to easily open it and paste it into her post screen. Make sense? I know it can get complicated.
