Since August last year I’ve written “Blogging impressions” posts regularly to keep track of my progress in blogging. I regularly share tips on how to overcome issues many bloggers must run into.
Today my first guest post was published. For that reason this post is about (first time) guest blogging.
Why it’s important to guest blog
I’m not going to give you “get a bigger audience through guest blogging” talk. Plenty of blogs will tell you that, and then they’ll try to sell you their e-books for ‘free’ after which they spam you with 400 Dollar webinars until you unsubscribe or block them to keep them from clogging up your mailbox.
Guest blogging is important as a learning method: it offers you a new writing experience. You get to write for an audience you’re not familiar with, so you only have the blog owner’s advice to go on – that and having a quick look at previous posts, and possibly comments from readers.
For that reason I view guest blogging as a thinking exercise. You’ll consider how you’ll gently tweak your blogging habits to suit the audience you’re writing for. In my case, I’d started tweaking before I guest blogged.
Don’ts in guest blogging
- Don’t even consider writing a sloppy guest post. If you’re lucky you’ll get turned down. If you’re not so lucky, you’ll get published and a lot of potential readers will have a chance to enjoy poor writing or a post with an unfinished feel to it.
- Don’t write 5 times better than you would on your own blog. If you can’t put in enough time to produce good posts, anyone who finds your excellent guest post and then visits your blog will turn away disappointed.
Tips to make (first-time) guest blogging work
- Find a blog to guest post on that is as similar in style and/or topics to your own as possible.
- Make sure you meet the blog owner’s criteria: word count, picture, the lot.
- Make sure you meet your own criteria for publishing before you submit your guest blog. If you’re not sure if your post is good enough, consider drafting and previewing it on your own blog. If you have doubts about publishing it on your own territory, don’t submit it yet.
Whatever else you do, try to match your own blog’s best posts.
Why guest blogging isn’t a must-do for everyone
If you’re happy on your own blog and you have enough readers to keep you blogging along, that’s fine. It may take you longer to assemble a crowd of readers – but then again, it may not, if you’re able to connect with casual visitors. Which happens a lot on ‘private’ blogs because there’s so much we recognize in each others’ lives.
Getting a personal connection by talking about businessy topics is harder, and tends to happen (at first?) when you blog about something you feel strongly about. You’re only human – people get that.
What are your thoughts on – or experiences and tips from – guest blogging?
Content Rambler 
Great tips – and you’re right about being spammed about webinars etc etc. Ugh.
I didn’t understand what guest blogging was. I thought it was simply “I’m going away next week, can you do some posts for me while I’m away, keep my blog warm?” I thought that’s all it was. Didn’t see it as a big opportunity or anything.
Enjoyed this a lot. Cheers 🙂
“Keep my blog warm” – great idea. That is actually one of the advantages of having other people guest blog on your own blog. Plus getting in a different voice, or having a post or two on a topic you’re not really into but that your readers would appreciate.
Nice to hear from you 🙂