Last week I had a guest post from my good friend, TheDailyBlonde. That day, I more than doubled my usual traffic, doubled the number of Twitter followers I typically get on a 
given day, and tripled my email subscribers. The same thing happened when I guest posted on Grant Griffith’s blog. And back in November, I wrote a guest post for Darren Rowes’s Twitip.com blog which quadrupled the number of new Twitter followers for that week!
Today’s guest post on Problogger’s Twitip.com, called “Measuring Your Twitter Network’s Health“, should get a big bump as well.
In addition to increasing traffic, subscribers and followers, guest posting is also a sure-fire way to influence your blog’s SEO.
Simple but powerful
The reason that guest posts are so powerful is because they leverage another blogger’s traffic, authority and effort. In effect, you instantly double your resources! And your partner benefits as well from the fresh exposure to a your readers. It’s a win, win, win situation.
But what if you have a new blog, very little traffic, and don’t know many other bloggers?
Here’s the guest post strategy I’ve used:
- Read the blog of the person who you want partner with. Get to know their readers and their content.
- Be sincere and genuine with your interest. A long term partnership will not blossom if you lead with a hidden, personal agenda.
- Add valuable comments to their blog – and not “Great post, here’s a cool link.”
- After a couple of months, a relationship will have sprouted. Email the blogger directly. Let them know how valuable their blog has been to you and ask them if they’d like to do a guest post on your blog. If it makes sense to write a post for their blog, provide links to a few example posts.
- Have a guest post topic in mind when you make the pitch. Each time I’ve contacted Darren Rowse about writing a post on Twitip, I’ve had a clear topic in mind AND have stated why this topic might be valuable to his readers. This has made it easy for him to say, “Cool. Yes.”
- Give them your best content. A kick ass post is the only way to go – for both parties. See Rebecca’s post for an example of “kick ass“
- Focus on a long term relationship. Keep the personal interests of the guest blogger foremost in mind.
- If you’re an orange, partner with an apple. You want to partner with bloggers that can add value for your readers – but from a different angle. This will enable both bloggers to be exposed to a fresh audience. This was the case with TheDailyBlonde.
- Have fun for Christmas sake! It’s only a friggin’ blog. When Grant Griffiths asked me to write for his blog, he had no idea that I would introduce the guest post with “Grant Griffiths Shoots Dorothy, Sells Toto On Ebay“. We both had a laugh and now have a couple of projects brewing.
Promote The F**k Out Of The Guest Post
You’ve made considerable effort to develop a relationship with another blogger. So make sure that your first guest post is successful by going full guns on promoting it:
- Tweet about your guest post by asking a question. For example, a guest post about how the National Wildlife Federation uses social media could be tweeted by asking: “What can you learn about social media from National Wildlife Federation?” On Twitter, questions beg for answers – and visitors.
- Use social bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon, Mixx and Digg. The more votes the guest post receives, the bigger the traffic flood (and they will love you for it).
- Direct message a few Twitter friends to visit and make a comment. Only ask the folks that you know will add value or a unique perspective. In most cases, you only need to ask about 10 folks in order to start a swell of comments.
- Get more subscribers for the guest blogger. At the end of the guest post, embed a subscriber form or ask your readers to subscribe to the guest’s blog.
Bonus: Chris Garrett has written a valuable ebook on guest posting as a blog strategy.
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I love having guest posts because it changes things up a bit and gives a different perspective. The traffic is awesome as well. I’ve done it a few times and it’s worked out great!
Perfect timing for this post. I invited my first guest poster/blogger last week and she said yes!
@TheDailyBlonde – Plus it’s a great way to begin partnerships with other bloggers.
@Sidney – Great news! Hopefully this post can help make your first one successful.
Worth Reading: “How To Use Guest Posting To Double Your Your Blog Traffic and Subscribers” ( http://tinyurl.com/alqkmv )
This is really solid advice John. I’ve been inviting guest bloggers onto my “patch” for the last 2-3 months now and as you say it’s been a win-win. I’ve benefited from the new perspectives that they bring to my blog, and I’d like to think that I’ve given them a new audience that they might not have had otherwise.
Which makes me think – I should really be asking you over sometime…
Just as @timjahn has a great guest post http://tinyurl.com/azxygl , I read @johnhaydon ‘s guest post tips http://tinyurl.com/alqkmv
never thought this is useful tool as well, quick learn from it.
Thank you so much!
Agus
This is timely for me, too. I was just invited to do my first guest post. In fact, it will publish on Monday, Mar.9.
Thanks for these very helpful tips, particularly in the promotion department.
Guest Posting Doubles Blog Traffic and Subscribers http://tinyurl.com/alqkmv
Excellent site http://www.corporatedollar.org and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. It’s taken me literally 1 hours and 10 minutes of searching the web to find you (just kidding!) so I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor
Excellent post.
I’m a fairly new blogger (three months, now) and can get so hung up on stats. Just yesterday I told myself, “Lynn, build the blog; stop staring at the stats!” Your post gives me some solid ideas.
I especially like your apple/orange point; what a great way to increase the value readers get out of a blog. Social media networking makes mixing things up in this way so easy, and everyone wins.
Thanks much.
This is a must read: How To Use Guest Posting To Double Your Your Blog Traffic and Subscribers from @johnhaydon http://is.gd/mhub
Another point, when I guest post I closely monitor the comments and reply to questions if any are raised by commentors.
@Neil – Great point – thanks!
You just were bluffed like I was!
The “Keyslesee” post is written by a spammer or robot. Please check it’s IP here : stopforumspam.com/ and/or look at my guestbook at :
Search Google on a critical portion of the message to find 285 other spammed forums, guestbooks, blogs, reader comments.
You may remove my message after having cleaned your files.
@Sacha – Thanks. I removed the links just to be safe.
I find that guest posting is the best way to drop your anchor text link of your choice to your site. Besides using Ezinearticles, I try to guest post as much as I can. Also, I e-mail the authors every now and then to stay in touch even just to say “hi”.
Number One On Google’s last blog post..How To Rank Number One On Google
How To Use Guest Posting To Double Your Your Blog Traffic and Subscribers http://tinyurl.com/alqkmv
hi everybody
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Reading : http://tinyurl.com/kvcxxl How To Use Guest Posting To Double Your Your Blog Traffic and Subscribers
Many of these tactics are ones that I never even thought of – this entire series has been a revelation to me, John, all new content, all cut-to-the-chase and easily implementable stuff that even a novice like me can put into action. Thanks so much for all the valuable info!
Thanks, Pamela. I'd love to hear what you're implementing with your biz…
Another great post, John. I haven't done the guest posting bit much, but when I did I did enjoy how it strengthened the connection to the blogger. I'm definitely going to aim to be more active/participatory in guest blogging and hopefully getting other bloggers to guest blog on my site as well.
It's been one of the few strategies that consistently increase traffic and subscribers.
[...] are some guest post strategies I’ve [...]
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@Danny – Same here!
@Agus – You’re welcome. Glad it’s been helpful to you!
@Judy - Congrats on your first guest post. Ping me when it’s up!