Who needs a guest post anyway?

1. Blog gets fresh content.

Search engines love that. If you ever heard anything useful about authority on the web (and the web is all about the authority, content only comes second), you already know blogs with frequent updates rank higher than blogs with similar authority but without fresh content. The owner of the blog should be always happy when somebody offers free original content although I wouldn't recommend to accept every offer.

Sometimes a blogger just can't refresh his/her blog for some reason (life happens, you know) and few guest posts can help to keep the positions and steady traffic. If content is good (and possibly related with other content on the blog), owner should use it to interlink guest posts with already existing posts.

2. A guest post is a promotion for guest blogger.

It brings him/her fresh eyes from already established blog in (hopefully) related niche, what of course means new visitors for his/her blog. Even if the number of new visitors is not significant, a guest blogger gets backlinks and they bring authority. Authority on the web always translates in higher ranking positions.

3. Guest blogging is essentially an interaction between real people.

This can (not always, but sometimes) result in more cooperation on- and off-line. We all know interaction between real human beings is something search engines (check first point about fresh content and check second point about authority) should eventually reward.

5. Know the rules.

As an owner of the blog you have all the power. It is good to write them down and publish them if you intend to accept guests on regular basis. You should write them and send through email to your guest at least before you accept his/her first guest post.

In general (but not always) owner reserves the rights to unpublish the guest post for any reason but guest also reserves some rights (authorship is a must, but also the right to move the content somewhere else if there is a good reason to do that). It is pretty clear the owner should demand original content, understandable language and reasonable number of words.

As a guest you should know and follow the rules of the owner. But you should also have clear demands. In general you want at least one dofollow link to your blog. If the owner starts messing with nofollow tags, just go away.

Some people suggest to make a guest post for nofollow link if the traffic on the blog is huge. I don't recommend that if the numbers are not in millions. All really good blogs use nofollow tags only for commercials and affiliate links. Don't waste your time with blogger who doesn't understand the basics of SEO.

6. Find a perfect match!

The owner of the blog which accepts guest posts and guest blogger are in the same niche. They both have blogs which are more than one year old (older is better). They both publish fresh original content on a regular basis.

They both promote content through the blogosphere and social media and they both know each other (if not in person at least through on-line work). In this case we get ideal cooperation with measurable results.

Of course this is only ideal case. In reality you take what you can get.

7. Great cooperation. (Slovenia)

I have a blog about children books where I accept guests. They can become my guest only by my invitation. This blog has huge authority and well defined audience. This is example where my guest was a translator specialized in fantasy genre (he translated works of George R. R. Martin for instance). He made a post and a single tweet which brought almost three hundred visitors in approximatelly 24 hours.

There is also a blog about e-stores in our country. I used the opportunity to promote our store with picture books. As you can see there is some problem with formatting and the blog is not updated very often, but this link helped us to improve our rankings and I am still very satisfied with the result.

8. Not so great cooperation. (USA and Slovenia)

About one year ago I made a deal with lensmaster on Squidoo. She has several blogs about Squidoo, all dusty, all in need for fresh content, so I made a post with tips on using one specific module to gain maximum SEO impact.

I explained importance of PageRank and nofollow tags and draw original graphics to make it really understandable. This 1.300 words post took whole day of my life but she never published it. After many questions sent on her e-mail and lensmaster profile after three months I only got an answer 'she didn't get my post'.

I knew this wasn't true, because she had already implied all my tips in her lenses, but I sent my material again. After that she completely stopped answering on my mails. I really don't mind because my content is still mine but I had to write that warning for every aspiring guest blogger.

I also have a guest on my blog who after full year still didn't manage to make a 200 hundred word post and another who tried to sneak a duplicated content on my major site.

Let' face it. All ideas will not be fruitful, all guest posts will not be published and all bloggers don't understand how important is a promise. Accept that simple fact and move on.

9. Another great cooperation. (International)

This is another lensmaster's blog. He is from Slovenia, just like me, but blog is written in English. As you can see, the owner didn't only publish links to my pages. He used my content to interlink it with his own, so the authority of the blog flows as deep as possible. This is really good example of win win situation and this brings us to my final point.

10. My top tip on guest blogging.

No matter if you are owner or guest, you should always promote a guest post through social media (I admit, this is my weak point) AND with at least one external link coming from another site (as I already did in three cases above). This will help to keep the post in index and attract more visitors what means more opportunities for new partnerships for blog owners and guest bloggers.

If you want to invite me to be a guest on your blog, send me a private note;)