Business and Marketing Observations

As I work to gain readership for my own blog, I recognized the need to gain exposure by writing for other blogs. Guest blogging is the perfect opportunity to capture new readers. I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it, but I knew I had to try.

I often read other marketing blogs. You never know when someone or something will spark your creativity or address something that you hadn’t considered. In my research I came across a blogger, Kelly Kautz, who writes a blog titled One Woman Marketing. Kelly has a great blog targeted to marketing savvy solo entrepreneurs. Perfect.

I sent a note to Kelly asking if she would be interested in my twitter experiment on ‘buying Twitter followers.’ Before long, I was off writing my first guest blog entry. Boy, was I excited when my post appeared on Kelly’s blog in late January. I felt good about it. It really wasn’t hard.

If you are considering guest blogging as an option to promote your business, I’ve gathered a few tips to help you jump into guest blogging.

Blog owners who are willing to allow guest bloggers to write for them will want valuable, well-written, original content written by a knowledgeable source. As a guest blogger, you are representing the blog through your own words.

To be an expert in anything, you have to know a bit about the subject. Just saying. I don’t know much about a lot, but I do know about marketing. I’ve been doing it for 18 years and it still excites me. The problem lies in that I write my own blog on marketing, so coming up with something original that I am willing to give to someone else to publish was difficult for me. I have enough problems coming up with my own content.

Coming up with my content ideas was just the beginning of the journey. I also needed to find a blog that was not only willing to take a guest blog article, but also interested in the same topic that I write about. At this point, I hope you are wondering how to get started with your own guest blogging opportunity.

Guest Blogging Tips

• Find blogs that up your alley. Start with the blogs you read often and find valuable for your business. Do they accept guest bloggers and would your expertise fit along their themes. Also look at the writing style. Would your writing fit into their style?

• If you are struggling to find blogs related to your particular topic, try this little Google search trick: ‘your niche’ + guest post or ‘your niche’ + inurl:”guest post”

• Before you send a note to the blog owner, read through their blog. Look at recent and archive articles. Take note on what and how the blog positions certain topics. Identify if you can add additional value and what might be an interest to the blogger. In my case, I chose something that hadn’t been written about specifically.

• Subscribe to the blog, if you haven’t already. Feel free to add valuable comments as it relates to the posts and don’t be pushy by adding a sales pitch. No one likes that.

• Once you feel comfortable with the blog, send the blogger a personal note. To break the ice, I try to compliment the blogger on something I liked about their blog.

• Just like any sales pitch, don’t talk about yourself right away. It isn’t about you; it is about the blogger and his/her readers.

• Once you get to the point of what you can offer, be sure to explain your idea in a way that won’t offend the blogger, but show how you can add value. Then ask if this might be an interest to the blog’s readers.

• Don’t forget to share links to sample writings. This is completely appropriate when you are trying to sell your writing.

• Once you have identified interest, be sure to identify specifics such as deadlines, content review options, and your bio preferences. Most bloggers will allow the author to write two or three sentences about themselves or business and a link to their own website or blog. This is important because this is what drives traffic back to your own site.

• Keep in mind that the blogger ultimately has the right to edit your copy and if you’re not comfortable with that, then this may not be a good option for you. I believe most bloggers will work with you and not step on your toes.

• Be sure to do exactly what you say you’re going to do on time. This is without saying, but thought I should mention it.

• Once your blog posting is accepted and posted, follow the comments and jump in when you can answer a question. Also, make sure you share the blog with your followers by using the sharing tools on the blog site. This will help drive traffic to the blog where your article appears.

• I probably don’t have to tell you this, but I will anyway. If the blogger chooses to accept and publish your work, that work cannot be published elsewhere. It needs to stay an original piece of work.

Guest blogging is great for a number of reasons. If you are toying with the idea of blogging, guest blogging is a great opportunity to get your toes wet without jumping completely in.