Guest posting is a powerful strategy for growing your blog’s traffic, increasing your social media followers, and getting your work into more people’s hands. But if you don’t do it right, it can be a huge waste of time. This post will help you avoid the most common mistakes people make when guest blogging. It has five simple, actionable tips to help you get the most out of your guest post.
The 5 Mistakes That Ruin Guest Blogging
If you’ve ever had the urge to guest post, but haven’t done it yet, here are the top five mistakes that make guest posting a total waste of time. 1. You Write Your Post in List Form When you write your guest post, try to approach it as if you’re looking for a published piece of content. As in, if someone sends you a well-written piece of content, do you wish you had written it? This is a way to approach guest posting with a purpose. You want to make it as professional and thorough as possible, and you should approach the process with the mindset of “If I was a publisher, this is what I would want.” Remember, it’s more important that you don’t get bored than it is to impress the editors.
Not researching the blog
This is the single most common mistake made by writers who get frustrated by guest posting. You start writing a guest post and then completely forget about it. Then, the blog owner publishes an article with your content, and no one reads it. You don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to share your writing. So before you write a guest post, be sure to investigate the blog, or at least follow its author. You can do this by: reading its recent articles. reading a list of recent guest posts. reading its editorial calendar. checking out its Google+ community. By doing these things, you’ll get a better understanding of the blog’s editorial strategy, goals, and audience. You’ll also be able to write a guest post that is directly aligned with the blog’s content and goals.
Sending the Wrong Content
You could be perfectly happy with your content, but if you send it to the wrong audience, they might not even read it! How you write can make all the difference. The wrong audience receives more blogs than any other — and by that I mean the site that has the highest percentage of automated visitors. These automated visitors won’t necessarily click on the link and read the article. A terrible headline and/or boring copy will do just that. In fact, these users aren’t looking for quality content anyway. There are a few common mistakes people make when guest posting: They do it to gain followers — which is wrong. These visitors aren’t your target audience anyway. These are people who already know and trust you. They copy and pasted a post someone else wrote.
Not Following The Instructions
There’s no need to be vague about your guest posting instructions. If you go into detail about exactly how to use the post and make sure you provide good links, people are more likely to contact you to do it again. Don’t assume anyone will know how to use your post or how to contact you in the first place. Mistake 4Not Using The Right Keywords You have one chance to get the right keyword in front of the right people, so make sure you do your research and get your content in front of the right people. To get more authority and search traffic, you have to use keywords that people are searching for. These are the most popular keywords that people are searching for. Use these keywords in your headlines and in the content of your post. Here are the most popular keyword searches right now.
Not Following Up
There are a lot of ways to email your guest post submission after you’ve submitted it. It can be super tempting to wait a few days, and then let the weeks pass without following up. But if you don’t do that, you’ll be embarrassed when you discover it’s been so long since you submitted your guest post that the site has forgotten about it. So what’s the right way to do it? Let me tell you. First, just be honest. If you don’t have the resources to follow up, you can say so, but the site needs to know that. Mistake 5Not Answering Back When you reply to guest blogging site emails, make sure to address the question. If they ask you for guest posts, don’t say, “Thanks! I’ll let you know if I have any good opportunities.” Answer them, “Sure! Let’s talk about it!
Posting Without Permission
Guest posting is a social practice. By posting your guest post on someone else’s blog, you’re implicitly asking that other blog owner for permission to publish their content on your blog. Without that permission, your post will likely disappear down a black hole of naughtiness. Don’t do that. You should aim to pitch a great guest post idea, get permission to publish it on their blog, and then post it. Whether or not it becomes popular, that’s ultimately the best you can ask for. Why? Because your post is going to be seen by someone, who is going to like it. And if the post doesn’t get traction on the other blog’s site, there is always going to be a chance that someone will publish it on your own blog.
Conclusion
By now you’ve hopefully seen some of the most common mistakes I see over and over when it comes to guest blogging. If you follow my advice, you’ll do a better job guest posting in the future. You’ll avoid these common mistakes and find success with guest posting: Not writing an offer or mention before you post. Not listing the best keywords for the blog post you want to write. Not providing a resource before your post. Not getting results when you guest post. Avoid these common mistakes, and you’ll be racking up the traffic, social media followers, and direct sales from your guest posts. I hope you found this post useful. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
