ProBlogger: How to Create Your Guest Blogging Strategy [with a 5 step template]

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How to Create Your Guest Blogging Strategy [with a 5 step template] Posted: 17 Feb 2015 06:20 AM PST This is a guest contribution from My business partner Adam Franklin attended the ProBlogger Event on the Gold Coast in 2014, and returned fired up and with a whole heap of take-homes.  At the ProBlogger Event, Darren spoke of success being a matter of doing the ordinary things. Specifically, to start, put readers first, be useful, find your rhythm, create meaning, and persist! This has inspired me to share this recent guest blogging story. We're not talking about guest blogging that Google frowns upon, but high-value blogging via influencer outreach. Guest blogging is a hot topic we’ve been asked a ton of questions about lately and with good reason. If creating great content is the first step, then promoting your content is the crucial second step. Guest blogging is a powerful way to do just that as you get to write for a whole new audience! As well as helping you dodge some of the key mistakes, planning your guest blogging strategy will help you find, evaluate and target the best blogging opportunities. When I blogged for fellow Aussie blogger Jeff Bullas Jeff Bullas was ranked #11 on Forbes list of "Social Media Power Influencers" and he accepted my post called 6 Critical Types of Social Media You Must Plan For. Here are some of the exciting results: > Record Month This post helped us hit a record month in website traffic. > Landing page visits skyrocketed I had a call to action in the article and linked to our Negative Comments Response Template (for Social Media) landing page. Visits to this page skyrocketed and so too did email opt-ins. > 4000+ Social Shares Jeff's huge social media community, and particularly his Twitter following, meant that the post received a ton of social shares too: > 50 National Media Mentions It caught the attention of Fairfax Media.  Finally, when we sent this post to our Bluewire News subscribers, a journalist replied and asked if I was interested in writing an op-ed piece for Fairfax Media (one of the largest media companies in Australia). Of course I agreed!  So I wrote a more concise op-ed piece called "He's been questioned by police" and it was published on the Sydney Morning Herald homepage two days later, and syndicated across all 50 online Fairfax publications and three blogs: For the SEO geeks, these 50 backlinks were from news websites with domain authorities ranging from DA38 to DA92 and I was fortunate to have a follow backlink in my bio. Building backlinks, watching traffic spike and getting qualified subscribers are all exciting outcomes. I was genuinely surprised (and stoked of course!) that this article had struck a chord.  You can see why guest blogging can be a powerful tool. Why did we approach Jeff Bullas?  Aside from being a Forbes Social Media Power Influencer, there were a number of strategic reasons why we asked Jeff. In short, he has a hugely popular social media marketing blog, followers in excess of 250,000 and we had built a strong relationship with him over the years. We also knew he accepted high quality guest posts.  I'd aspired to write for Jeff's blog for a long time so I'll use it as an example as we go. How to create your Guest Blogging Strategy  For the rest of this post I'm going to take you step by step through the Guest Blogging Strategy Template. (If you're really keen you might like to download our free Guest Blogging Strategy Template and fill it out as you work your way through this post – if not, then just read on!).  1. Brainstorm Your Targets This doesn't need to be a long, drawn out process. Take 15 minutes to brainstorm and list some of the blogs you'd like to write for. An easy way is to simply google blogs in your niche; for example "social media blogs" or "gardening blogs". Large or small, seemingly impossible or really easy, just get them down. Sometimes this can feel like you have waaay too many options. That's ok – the next steps will help you prioritise your target blogs. 2. Research Your Numbers > Domain Authority: One of the fastest free ways to check domain authority is to use Moz's Open Site Explorer tool: Jeffbullas.com has a Domain Authority of 71/100 which is really strong. To put this in context, Google.com is 100/100, Forbes.com is 97/100, and Bluewiremedia.com.au is currently 46/100. From an SEO standpoint alone, a backlink from Jeff's website would be really valuable to us. The Mozbar plugin makes this step really easy by showing the Open Site Explorer info on any blog you visit: > Traffic Rank: For this use Alexa's free traffic rank analytics tool: Result: Jeff's website gets a ton of traffic which means that the article would be seen by lots of relevant people. > Number of email subscribers in their list: Jeff doesn't actually publish his email subscriber numbers, but many others do: Problogger: [or just look to right hand side of your screen :-) ] BufferApp: Convince and Convert: Email lists are a great indicator that the time you spend writing your content will be rewarded when it is seen by a large relevant audience. > Blog subscribers: Searching through Feedly will allow you to get blog subscriber numbers: > Twitter Followers: Twitter followers are easy to find for Jeff. He has 246,000! > Facebook fans: Facebook fan numbers are easy to find too: As you can see getting these numbers isn't a long process. In fact it could be a piece of research that you ask an assistant to help you with. 3. People and outreach As a part of your research, find out the contact person for each blog and their email address. > Strength of relationship Jeff has built an incredible audience, following and reputation. We've deliberately got to know him over the last few years by interviewing him in person and on our podcast, following his work on social media and inviting him to speak at our Social Media Down Under conference. Because we've known him for a long time and nurtured a relationship, Jeff was much more likely to trust our content and therefore to post it and share it with his audience. > Outreach Then it's outreach time.  I wrote him a short email: He accepted it, tweaked the title and posted it the next day. The point worth emphasising here is that Jeff is a high-value, power blogger so without our long 'getting to know you' process our chances of acceptance would've been much slimmer. You'll see it took years of proactively getting to know Jeff and this email was the final stage of following a deliberate process.  I've outlined all the steps in our Blogger Outreach Email Template.  If you do get knocked back, don't let it get you down, just read How to Handle Guest Post Rejection and get back on the horse. You can tweak the post and try again or submit it to a new blog. 4. Content and SEO > How interesting is your content going to be to their audience? Once you've determined that it's definitely an audience you'd like to reach, then it's crucial that you tailor your content for them.  I thought my article on handling social media comments had a very good chance of being interesting to Jeff's audience. Please note: Ultimately making your content interesting to their audience is the single biggest factor in the success of your guest blogging. Understanding the different angles of your story that will enable you to tell it to different audiences is a deal maker and breaker.  There are lots of ways you can craft your experiences and stories to fit different audiences. For example, I wrote for a cloud accounting software business called Saasu and aligned our marketing content with financial reviews to make it more relevant: How To Use Your Financial Reviews To Improve Your Marketing. And another one I wrote for outsourcing giant oDesk discussed managing remote marketing projects: 10 Minutes Can Transform Your Remote Projects. In order to make sure the post would be interesting to Jeff's audience, I also reviewed what other articles had been written on comment handling on his blog to make sure it would add to their points and not just rehash them. I found an earlier post and linked to it in my article to demonstrate that I had done my homework.  I also reviewed other guest blog posts to make sure my article would match the style. > SEO From an SEO standpoint, I made sure I had my bio linking back to our website, specifically where people can download our 33 free marketing templates and I had a call to action to download the Negative Comments Response Template.  I'd decided to target the keyword phrase 'negative comments handling' using the free Keyword Tool. 5. Activity Then it's a matter of getting in, writing the article, hitting your deadlines and making sure you give yourself the best chance of success. Hopefully this Guest Blogging Strategy Template can help you focus on the opportunities that will get you the best results, fastest. The little bit of research upfront will really prepare and help you to make the most of the effort you put into the guest blog post itself. Comments? What else do you look for when assessing guest blog opportunities? I'll see you in the comments and the most informative commenter wins a copy of my book! Toby Jenkins is an Olympic Water Polo player and co-author of Web Marketing That Works. You can download his 33 free marketing templates. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How to Create Your Guest Blogging Strategy [with a 5 step template]

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4 Game-Changing Lessons from Losing My Guest Blogging Virginity - DailyBlogTips

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4 Game-Changing Lessons from Losing My Guest Blogging Virginity Posted: 16 Feb 2015 03:03 AM PST A couple of years ago I started my blog. I didn’t know much about blogging and traffic at first. I started reading popular blogs like Copyblogger, Dailyblogtips and Problogger. I was amazed at how other bloggers were getting avalanches of traffic and shooting up their subscriber counts by the motherload. And from everything I'd read, guest posting seemed to be the right way to go. Motivated by the challenge of guest posting, I submitted a few pitches and wrote a few posts, but guess what? Nothing happened. My pitches weren’t responded too and my posts were rejected. I felt depressed.I took action, but why didn’t I see results? I started to think guest posting was too hard. That it was for the "big guys" in the blogosphere, and resorted to binging on even more information and advice. Meanwhile, my blog continued to stay silent. But last November, things changed. I decided to do whatever it took to grow my blog and enrolled in Jon Morrow's guest blogging class. After finishing the program, I finally started to land guest posts. It felt amazing. Getting my words read, my posts commented on, and my blog viewed changed everything for me. My love for blogging grew, and a confident euphoria crept up from within as I realized… I could do this. Since then, I went from nothing to being featured on sites like Problogger, DailyBlogtips and Firepole Marketing. Now, I'm not going to sit here and boast about the sky high traffic and jaw dropping numbers of shares and subscribers I had, because the truth is, I didn’t experience any special results. But, I did lose my guest blogging virginity (and land my first client). And that's what this post is for. To help those of you who are still a little intimidated by guest blogging or just want to improve your results with it. Because If I can do it, so can you. Let's go. 1. Slash Your Stresses by Getting Help Whether it's from a coaching program, a course, or an eBook, getting help from someone who is more experienced than you can be pivotal to your success. By being proactive and getting help, you: Gain access to someone who has years of experience and success doing what you want to do Get support and motivation along your journey Have someone who you can share your pains and problems with because they’ve been there before Allow yourself to make decisive manoeuvres without doubt, because you can bounce ideas off someone and come to a decision quicker Now, despite their being tons of free information on guest posting, actually getting published can still feel a little daunting. I know that's how I felt anyway. So I saved up and enrolled myself in Jon Morrow's guest blogging program. It was a tremendous help. The program highlighted the steps that I needed to take and supercharged my guest posting education; but most importantly, it gave constant support and feedback, leaving me primed to cannonball my way into the blogging world. I honestly don't think I'd have started guest posting if it wasn’t for the program. The most powerful thing you can do right now, (if you haven't already) is get help. Find a coach or a course and get started. If you're not sure about which one to choose, I personally recommend Jon Morrows guest blogging program. You can also check out Danny Inny's Write Like Freddy and  Mary Jaksch's  A- List Blogging masterclass. 2. Slap Your Doubts Right In the Kisser "My writing sucks." "Those bloggers don't know me" "I’ve never wrote a guest post before" Those were some of the poisonous doubts and fears swirling in my head before guest posting. I never started landing posts until I stomped those doubts to dust. But what if some of them seem to be true? What if your writing does suck, or you aren’t connected in the blogging world? What then? Easy. Work on the thing that you're worried about. If you feel like your writing could improve, focus on getting a little better each day. If you feel like you could make more connections, start regularly commenting and emailing people. Consistency is key. Now this doesn’t mean spending a year commenting and making connections; or vanishing into a secret cave to practice for years until you become a great writer. It means taking small, concrete steps that bring you closer to squashing your doubts and fears every day. The above step will have two main benefits. You'll actually start to get better at thing you doubt yourself at. Because you’re making progress and you’re working on the thing that you've been worried about; it'll no longer worry you. You’ll know that you're getting better and your confidence will improve significantly. And once you’re confident in your abilities…you’ll find that you'll be sending pitches and posts with a smile on your face instead of a butterflies in your belly. 3. The More You Write The Easier It Gets "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." (Hemingway) That's exactly what writing my first "proper"guest post felt like it. After the excitement from getting my pitch accepted wore off, it dawned on me that there was a lot of writing to be done. I sat down for what felt like hours at a time and had to take regular breaks because my back was aching. My eyes felt dry from scanning the same screen for the hundredth time, and my brain begged for mercy. I don't know how long it took to write; I stopped counting at 30 hours. After that initial haul, I started writing regularly and I realized something. My typing speed was increasing. My sentences flowed better . My choice of words was stronger and I snapped on to errors and bad sentences quicker. I went from writing 1000 word posts in 6 hours, to writing them in 3 hours. This may seem slow to some, but for a beginner like me, it felt like I just stepped into the blogging equivalent of the hyperbolic time chamber. All because I decided to write regularly. If you want to quickly leapfrog your writing skills, set a writing goal everyday. 500-1000 words is a good starting point. It could be anything, a blog post, a random story, or a sales letter. Stick to what you like to write about and just write. You're guaranteed to see improvements within just a few weeks. 4. Research Your Way to Success One of my most fatal mistakes (that led to my rejections) early on was a lack of research. Thorough research can make the difference between an insanely viral post that leaves readers exploding with energy, and a weak post that draws no more attention than a pin drop in the Sahara desert. For your posts to be popular on another blog, you have to know the audience. What makes them tick? What are their biggest pains and problems? Why do they visit the blog that you want to guest post on? To get a better understanding of the audience you're writing for: Read the blog you want to post on to get a feel for the content Read their about page and find out who the blog is for Check out the shares and comments to see the most popular posts Look at the questions readers seem to be asking Bottom line is, the more you research… the more your chances of landing a well-received guest post increase. If you’ve been putting of guest posting, I hope this post helps you out. If you have any problems with guest posting please let me know in the comment section below so we can all help you out! Hassan Ud-deen is a freelance blogger and email copywriter (who likes to be called "The Wordslinger"). He helps businesses use content to grow. You can find out more about him on his blog www.f-bombmarketing.com or if you need help with your blog posts or copy, shoot him an email or connect with him oFacebook. Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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