One of the things I’ve mentioned in this blog is utilizing guest blogging as a business building strategy and the benefits of it on many different levels.
What are some of the benefits of guest blogging?
1. Get yourself in front of other blogging communities.
2. Exposing your brand to more people.
3. Potentially acquiring followers due to guest blogging.
4. Backlinks to your site from high traffic blogs.
5. Help fellow bloggers out thus creating long-term relationships.
6. Blogger may reciprocate the “favor”.
7. Did I mention exposure, exposure, exposure! I did? Well, had to mention it again.
What if you don’t have a blog per say? What if your website involves selling physical products? How can guest blogging still benefit you?
Let just say, you sell baby booties on your website. However, you are a regular visitor of a mommy blog that talks all about baby clothes and accessories. Well, this would be a great opportunity for you to write about baby booties; how to size them out, occasions to buy them, materials to look for, etc., you get the idea.
Someone reading this fabulous article you have written, may be inclined to click on your bio link and see that you happen to sell booties. They were so impressed with your knowledge on baby booties they’ve decided to buy some from you!
Win-Win. You get the business; the blogger you wrote for gets some free, great-quality content for their readers.
But here’s the dilemma. You can’t just decide one day you are going to start guest blogging and people will flock to you. You have to go out and look for guest blogging opportunities.
Where to start with finding guest blogging opportunities:
Start by first approaching blog owners of blogs you already frequently visit. If you’ve been commenting on this blog for some time and have built a relationship with the owner, then your chances of getting a post request accepted is that much higher.
What happens if you don’t have that relationship? Getting a blog owner to take notice of your request is going to be a bit harder, especially if it’s a very popular blog, for sure, but not impossible. The key here I think is to be persistent (not pushy) and show the blog owner that you can truly make a great contribution with your article.
Another way is to check out MyBlogGuest.com. Funny story here and this is why I say guest blogging is such a power tool.
I was reading an article on a very popular blog I frequently visit and noticed that the article was written by a guest blogger. I was so impressed with the quality of the article that I felt inclined to click on her bio link which led me to her site, MyBlogGuest.com.
MyBlogGuest is a forum-based site that allows people to post requests to do guest blogging for blog owners. As well, blog owners can come to this site and seek out writers to write for their blogs. The forum is free to join, although you have the option to subscribe to the premium membership for $10 per month.
After signing up, I immediately felt at ease. I felt the forum to be very inviting and was excited to get started. I’m still fairly new in this forum, as of this posting, so I have not posted any guest blogging requests yet, but will be doing so very soon.
It is definitely something worth looking into. The person who runs the site, Ann Smarty is very active in the forum and knowledgeable in her industry. This can be an invaluable resource to help you along your way with your online business success.
Whether you sign up for the forum or approach blogs directly, I encourage you to do something! Put yourself out there, show off your best stuff and start building more traffic to your site.
Start by looking for blogs that actually request guest blogging. However, even if they don’t make this request, it’s still doesn’t hurt to contact the blog owner and request to be a guest blogger.