Guest Posting - are they worth it?

To put it simply a guest post is usually an article or blog entry on someone’s blog that is writing by a guest author. You can write guest posts for other quality websites, or invite owners of quality websites to write guest posts on your own blog.

There are several important factors that you need to consider when writing and targeting guest posts:

• The site must have similar content to yours. There’s no point writing a guest post on an Apple Mac website if your blog is aimed at PC gamers. Find sites that mirror your thought.
• Select only high quality sites. If you guest post on a site that is full of spam or low quality writing then you are probably going to lower your reputation rather than gain quality followers. You MUST find sites that at least equal your site – if you can find superior sites, getting a guest post on an ‘experts’ site is validating your skills.
• Try and select sites that have ‘do-follow’ links – usually a blog that accepts guest posts will Tallow the writer to post a small bio that may contain a link – if the site has a great reputation, then a do-follow link from a trusted website will benefit your own article or blog.

 There are many advantages of writing guest posts on other people’s blogs:

• Improved reputation – if the website you guest post on is well established and known for its expertise then you immediately gain validation and improve your reputation – the site risks its own reputations by allowing guest posts, therefore if you are approved as a guest writer, then it’s a good sign that you are doing something right.
• Valuable Traffic – not only are you going to get some decent traffic and hopefully followers from the bio link, but if the link is a do-follow link then your site will benefit. Even if the link isn’t do-follow, the extra visibility from an established site can only enhance your own website.
• Portfolio – as you delve into the world of online writing, and begin to aim for more guest posts and perhaps some freelance work you can build up a decent portfolio that will only enhance your reputation and help you get published as a guest writer on other sites. As your reputation builds you will be able to ask for them to include your Google Adsense code, or even ask for a flat fee for a guest post.

Yes – if you can get a quality writer from an established website to write a quality guest post on your site then you not only add value to your own readers, but you may also find that the writer will add a link in his/her blog to the guest entry. Having a guest writer on your blog also validates your own blog – you must be doing something write if an established writer will risk placing a guest post on your blog.

There’s no doubt that after the Google Pandemic hit, writers across the web began to look into SEO more closely. Even the tried and tested methods of back-linking, long tail etc don’t seem as effective these days, so diversification and looking into different methods to gain reputation and traffic are very important.

Quality content is always going to help, but if you can’t attract readership then you will ultimately fail no matter how good your writing is. Guest posting is a superb way of getting traffic while building a reputation for quality writing.