How to Guest Blog to Get More Traffic

When you first start out, you are nobody because no one knows you or very few people know you.  It doesn’t matter how much you know (or think you know).  The idea that the cream rises to the top, while not necessarily being a myth, is hardly the truth since you, as a nobody are competing against thousands of other similar sites.

Most bloggers go about the process of getting known by commenting on other people’s blogs and submitting their stuff on the social sites.  The problem is that there is no difference between you “marketing” yourself and the thousands of others doing the exact same thing.  It is time to break out of the same old same old.  It is time to become known for what you do best.  In this case, if you are like me, that is from writing.

The first step to getting known is to start networking with other bloggers.  Since most other bloggers are just as self absorbed as you are, this can prove to be a bit challenging.  Personally, barring the organic search as a way to build a following,  the best way to do this is to offer yourself as a guest poster.

5 Steps to Get Yourself a Posting Gig on someone else’s site:

1. You can Reach for the Stars but be realistic-  If you are a home repair site, then chances are landing a guest spot on Bob Villa’s website could prove to be very challenging.  Same goes for ProBlogger or ShoeMoney.  Baby Steps my friend….baby steps.  Find other’s that are slightly above you in traffic and then contact them.
2. Check the blogger’s website stats-  There are a couple ways you can do this.  The first way is to check the RSS feed to see how many readers the blogger has.  The second way (which is what I do), is to go to compete.com and check out the US traffic they are recieving.  Once again, this is just an estimate but you can see if they are getting enough traffic to warrant your effort (which will be great..but we will get into that in a moment…)
3. Get to know the Website-  Watch the website for a while.  Get to know the posts.  Become a part of the community.  Being an active member of the site’s community will help out when you actually contact him/her.  Also, be getting the general vibe of the blog’s community, you can easily get a good handle on what their visitor’s like and dislike.
4. Contact the owner-  Now that you “know” the author a little bit and they in the very least recognize you, contact them.  Be polite.  If you already have a story, you could submit the story, explaining to them how you think that the story may be of interest to their readers.  Let them know what they can expect from you and offer some examples of your writing.  If you need to, offer a reciprocal story from them.
5. Repeat the process over and over and over.

3 Things to Do Today to Get (and keep) Traffic as a Guest Blogger

The key of course, is to show the blogger why they should take a chance and make you a guest poster.  The best way to do this is to reiterate what is in it for them….free content for their blog.  They essentially have to do nothing.

The reward for your site is of course, a backlink with the appropriate anchor and (hopefully) some residual traffic from the site itself.  Here are some keys to really making a splash as a guest blogger:

1. Make the content really good…and unique-Same old same old is boring.  Create a link bait post for them.  Make it so good that they could possibly get traffic from it organically or through social sites.  Write it as though you were writing for yourself.
2. Use the same traffic generation methods that you would use for your own site-  Most guest bloggers don’t think of promoting other people’s sites and rarely will put in the effort to promote other people’s content (aside from the very boring weekend links posts that are nothing more than lazy cannon fodder).  If you are a twitter head, promote it.  If you are a bookmarking crazy person, bookmark it.  RSS the b*tch.  Submit to all the directories.  Throw up an ezine article and link it to the person’s site. Share it on your google reader.  You know the game.
3. Make a welcome page for the visitors that make it to your site from that page-  No one expects a hearty welcome.  Make the page a “best of the best” of what you have to offer. Give links to your best content.  Invite them to RSS your site and if you are using other social platforms, links to those platforms.  The bottom line is if you really want to make a splash, you may not want them to see your latest post.  Instead give them your best posts that you think they will want to read.

Being a Guest Writer is an absolute win-win situation for both the blog you are a guest of, but also to you.  The key is to make it so you get the most bang for your buck.  After all, if your guest blog post winds up on several “top 10″ lists, then you will not only become more credible in your niche but also can use that post as a funnel for future traffic.

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