Advice on Guest Posting

If you have been following me for a while you should have noticed that guest posts are becoming more and more regular in my blogging schedule.

What is guest posting?

You know, those posts which aren’t written by me, but by someone else – and at the end of the post I place a short bio to credit them? This is a guest post.

You own a blog, and you write most of the articles, then one day, a mail comes in telling you that she/he wants to write for you. Well that’s fine. Less work for me and more exposure for the person, which is then called a guest poster. (I guess)

Okay fine, it’s called a guest blogger.

How do I get people to guest post for my blog?

I think that’s the easiest part. What I did was simply add a page called ‘Contact Me’ (which can be placed either on the sidebar or on top just below your banner, like I did) and write your email add and a short note like, if you have any requests or questions, or if you wish to write a guest post for this blog, contact me …

Just click on ‘Contact Me’ on top of this post and you’ll get the exact example. (By the way I wrote the short note at the very beginning of my blogging journey so I don’t think it sounds professional but well… YOU write it properly for your website.)

That’s it – that’s the only thing I did. And one day someone asked me if he/she could write a guest post for me 🙂

Someone wants to write a guest post for my website. What then?

Usually you decide on the subject the guest blogger shall write about and on the number of words too sometimes – the length of the post depending on your audience. Deadline? If you have a very strict schedule or if you want the guest post to be for a particular day, for example, Valentine’s Day, yes you should impose a deadline. Be direct on what you want. Don’t be shy or feel that he/she might get hurt – if she/he wants to promote his/her website he/she will abide by your rules without complaining.

If ever the person doesn’t want to keep on working with you anymore, that’s fine. Don’t worry about that. If you got one guest blogger, you’ll get more and at least one of them just won’t get published. Either the writer doesn’t want to write for you in the end or it was spam so you never heard of him/her again…

It happened to me. So don’t worry. Just leave it and move on.

What if I don’t like the article?

Simple. You tell him/her. Well not rudely or directly. Just tell him/her what you want him/her to change in the article, what you wish to keep but what you haven’t appreciated about it. Be nice but don’t beat around the bush. He/she’ll re-write it for you. Most guest bloggers have years of experience so I guess it happened to them a lot. They’re used to it. And you should learn to be critical too from time to time. You wouldn’t like to publish a post that you, the author, the boss! don’t like on your dear website.

If the writer isn’t capable to write an article that suits your requirements, decline the post gently, telling him you have an overflowing fountain of ideas for posts and you’re not accepting guest posts at the moment. Or there are some people that simply don’t reply to the mail, they ignore the guest blogger completely. I won’t recommend that though because it’s irritating to wonder whether the host has gone on vacation, or their computer crashed or they simply want to stop working with you.

Anyway, it all depends on you.

How to publish the guest post now? Format??

Read the article, correct any grammatical mistakes if any, add some pictures, and copy paste to your blog’s editor ‘Add new post’. As the title, it’s best to put it as: “Guest post: …” You’re not obliged to put the author’s name in the title itself if you think it’s too long, because anyway you’ll be crediting him/her by a short bio and a photo of him/her that you’ll have to ask for after you’ve officially agreed to publish the post.

I have a category of posts called ‘Guest Posts’ on the sidebar. You can check them out if you’re still unsure about the format.

What if I want to write a guest post?

I rarely do that – I think I wrote a guest post only once? – but it’s indeed a very good tool to spread your blog’s name around the net. You can sign up at MyBlogGuest or simply look for blogs/websites that you’re used to and you love and that’s related to what you write (yes the last point is highly recommended for a better chance to increase your blog’s traffic afterwards although not many guest bloggers do this. This is because most of them just want to write for others and don’t worry about the stats of their website anymore. It’s just for fun), search for their ‘Contact me’ page (not necessarily labelled ‘Contact me’) and write a nice and professional e-mail request for guest posting.

In the mail you’re going to send you should have the following:

– Greetings (Hi, Hello…)

– Name and website

– A short bio about your guest post/writing career… not about your whole life!

– What you want to write on which blog/website (if ever the person has more than one blog/website… you never know), ideas…

– Guarantee that the content you’ll produce will be original – and keep your promise.

– If you’re not a new guest blogger, you should add some of your best guest posts.

Yet the title is much more important. Many people use: “Awesome Copywriting for [name of website]” It’s very common but I like it because it’s direct – the receiver immediately knows it’s about guest posting and on which website the sender wants to write. Because, really guys, sometimes I get emails telling me they want to guest post on my blog… but which one?? Fortunately it’s often obvious because my two blogs tackle much different things. And anyway I can tell him/her that I prefer him/her to write for the other blog because it’ll be more appropriate… depending on the subject they want to write on.

In brief the title should consist of ‘Guest post’ and the blog/website for which you wish to write.

Writing the guest post itself, advice??

A catching title, adequate paragraphing with subtitles for each paragraph if possible, and add a short bio of yourself with the website you want to promote (YOUR website ^^) and a photo of you because then the readers feel closer to you. After all you’ll be a complete stranger on this person’s blog/website. So be nice and try to make some fans 😀

Check your grammatical mistakes and use an easy-to-read language. Decent and focused.

Then send it and wish yourself good luck!

What do I gain from guest posting?

There are only 2 most probable prizes for guest posting:

1. Getting your blog/website to be exposed to a wider new audience and see the benefits in your stats page. This is called promoting your site. That’s what I usually do give and receive, as both of my blogs are non-profit and just for fun.

2. Money. I’ve had many guest bloggers contacting me – which were mainly companies/businesses – and asking for money in returning of a guest post, or offering me money in exchange of whatever publicity they’ll do with my website. But I always refuse both. Firstly because I don’t want my blogs to become profit-makers and secondly because I’m still a minor, 16-years-old, I don’t yet have full control over my bank account, and I don’t have paypal so… But mostly it’s because of the first reason. I have specific objectives for my blogs and I don’t want to derive away from them simple because of money/greed.
Of course, if you own a professional website, whose domain you pay regularly etc, this is what you should be striving for. Don’t be afraid to ask for money, many professional writers would accept your offer. Again, don’t mourn over rejections. It’s life.

Some additional advice:

– Don’t send your reply too late. At least 2-3 days of difference. In my mailbox it’s just marked as ‘important’ (yay Gmail! you rock!) so I can come back to it at any time with one click. If you’re really busy and you can’t answer until after a week, please apologise! and give an explanation if possible.

– When you are the one waiting for the other person to answer your mail, don’t get impatient. WAIT. If you are the guest blogger, you’d think that he/she doesn’t want to work with you, but how can you know?? Just don’t give up and don’t share your already written article to another blog/website.

– Of course you can write to multiple websites at the same time. But every article should be original. No copy pasting or telling yourself that only one will accept your offer so you send them all the same article. Don’t do that. Even though it’s on the same subject, be unique in every guest post.

Did I miss anything?

I did this very long post (sorry guys!) on guest posting because for the following days, I will be publishing a two-parts guest post from a lovely girl who will share her dating experience to us all. It’s beautifully written, you should totally stay tuned although I’m not the author. Okay? 🙂

An Evil Nymph.

PS: I will write an advice post on ‘link exchange’ next week. Never heard of it? But it’s very effective to increase traffic to your blog! Haha so don’t forget to subscribe! See ya!

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