Ok, you have a blog, that’s great. But, just like in real life, if you want to form a stronger relationship with other bloggers and readers out there, not only should you host evens at your humble abode, but also visit other people’s homes from time to time.
In the blogosphere, this sort of virtual socializing is known as guest blogging. Guest blogging is a perfect opportunity to engage with wider audiences, flaunt your resource and, perhaps, make a friend or two.
Are you a GUESS blogger?
If done improperly, guest blogging is like trying to crash a random party in the neighborhood – you are likely to show up under/overdressed, not know most of the guests and have no idea who the host is.
What would be the use of such party-crashing? Little to none, I’d say. Not only are you going to waste your time and annoy other merry-makers, but also get a crappy reputation that will be hard to get rid of in the future.
When the same ‘strategy’ is applied to guest blogging, it means you are doing GUESS blogging – not really knowing what you are doing on a particular online resource and why you’re doing it.
The opposite of GUESS blogging is – what a surprise – guest blogging, which lies in adequately contributing to someone else’s blog and creating good karma for yourself as a blogger.
You will know a guest blogger by…
How does one tell a guest blogger from a GUESS blogger? Guest bloggers:
- Know why they want to contribute to a particular resource. They know they have something relevant to say to one of the topics covered on the blog.
- Give the host blog a thorough read before they write anything for it. It’s not the best practice to first write a post, and then look for a resource to publish it on.
- Don’t approach the editor asking her/him to suggest a topic. If you have a mind that can produce a killer blog post, you should be able to come up with a topic, too.
- Don’t spam dozens of host blogs with irrelevant/off-topic/likely-to-be-rejected posts, hoping that at least one of them will publish their ‘works’.
- Have a ready-to-go post in HTML prepared, formatted in accordance with the formatting standards on the host blog.
What are the wins from targeted blogging?
Even though it’s been said many times, let me say it again: picking quality over quantity is almost always a win. Same is true of blogging. It is better to write 1 smash-hit blog post and get it published on a stellar resource than be dashing out 2 posts a day and submitting them to low-quality resources.
In addition, the ‘spray-and-pray’ approach increases your chance of spraying large areas of fruitless soil and submitting to blogs, on which your target audiences are nowhere to be found. This way you will be doing quite a lot of spraying with more than mediocre results.
The opposite approach (choosing quality over quantity) is, on the contrary, rewarding. When you get familiar with the resource before writing for it, this increases your chances of getting the attention of just the right people. Not to mention that a well-tailored post that’s been written for a specific blog stands a better chance of being published.
So, are you a guest blogger or a GUESS blogger? Take my word, guessing will lead you nowhere. So, do not guess, know what you’re doing. Here is a great resource (SEO Blog) to start out with.
Happy blogging!
Post image credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikedefiant/4366147903/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikomatic/5610683006/
