A guest post. On guest posting.

Welcome to guest poster Ray Woltman. I’d like to add a couple of points of my own to Ray’s post:

1/ When you guest post it really has to be your very best stuff. Anything mediocre will either be rejected, or it won’t succeed in getting people back to your own blog.

2/ Be brave! Aim high! Try to get guest posts on much bigger blogs – if you succeed, you’ll really see a big benefit in your own traffic. And the mere act of writing something, with say, Copyblogger’s audience in mind, will sharpen your own writing skills no end.

And now Ray:

Ahhh guest posting.  Ask any blogger trying to grow their blog and they'll tell you that placed on the right blog, a guest post can get you more new readers than almost any other technique.  That's a big reason to do guest posts. 

There are other reasons though, too.  Sometimes you just have something to say on a subject and it doesn't really fit the niche your own blog is in, but you really have a need to say it.  The answer is guest posting.  Write the piece and then search out blogs that cover that niche.  You might just gain some readers in the exchange anyway, but the main reason remains that you had something to say and needed an outlet. 

Sometimes you may want to give a guest post to a site because you have enjoyed reading their blog, and you feel a way to give back beyond commenting is to offer a guest post to them.  Most bloggers that I have been in contact with treat each other with respect and courtesy, and it's nice to be able to offer them something useful.  It saves them time too.  It's a post that they don't have to write, and that frees them up to write the kind of posts that you go to their site to read anyway. 

I think that pretty well covers the reasons for guest posting.  If you can think of more or would like to expand on what I've already said, then please comment.  Moving on...

How To Guest Post

Want to get a guest post rejected in a hurry?  The best way to do that is to make it a blatantly self-promotional piece.  The owner of the site that you're offering your guest post to doesn't necessarily feel a need to help you run what amounts to an ad for you on their site.  Don't ask them to.  It's rude.

A guest post should be related to the main focus of that blog, and should contribute to it.  You are trying to add some value to the site you're offering it to.  Try to write a piece that will be useful to the people that come to that site.  Tell them something new, or write in an entertaining style...well...really you should be trying to do that anyway.  It's a bad thing to bore your readers.  Make them want to read more.

Never offer a guest post that's already been published somewhere else first.  Don't write a piece for your own blog and then offer it to be published on another site as well.  If you're going to write a piece for another blog, then write for that blog, not both.  If it's rejected, then you can either offer it to another blog, or you can publish it on your own blog.  One offer at a time too.  Don't offer the same piece to multiple publishers at the same time.  As each blog rejects it, only then should you offer it to another blog.

Ray Woltman is the owner and sole contributor to his new blog The blog-log.  A blog devoted to what else?  Blogging!

You may also enjoy:

1/ What happens when you guest post on John Chow?

2/ How to launch your first digital product

3/ A blogger’s day

Travis Morgan said:

I haven’t finished reading Beyond Blogging  just yet. But there’s a perfectly legitimate reason for it!!

This book is so jam packed full of amazing content that when I read over it, I go slow to make sure I get every little bit! I know this sounds so cheesy right now, but I’m serious. There are many parts I have to read over and over. Just a few of the quotes in this thing will change your mind.

Besides the above, Beyond Blogging is a legitimate, No-BS, no filler book, focusing less on simply mimicking another “Pro-Blogger” and more on how to take your own route and do it YOUR way. After reading only 20 pages of this baby, I was already chomping at the bit to get my blog started which in the past I had put down because I was afraid it wouldn’t be “monetizable.” After months of trying other people’s ideas, money blogging, blogging about blogging, internet tech blogging, I discovered it wasn’t who I was!! Beyond Blogging broke me out of that mindset and I’m well on my way to pursuing my passions through blogging, no matter what “niche” it may fall under.

Sorry for the length, but I feel it’s earned. I didn’t have to write this.