How a guest post on the right blog can your brand the right boost.
Previously
Last year, I gave you 5 ideas about successfully using guest blogging as part of your personal branding strategy.
They were:
- Location of the guest post
- Topic of the guest post
- Quality of the guest post
- Byline of the guest post
- Success of the guest post
(If you’d like a better reminder, go read 5 Ways Guest Blog Posts Build Your Personal Brand and then come back here.)
3 more ideas
6. Get your request seen
As guest blogging (or guest posting; it’s the same thing) has become more popular and targeted bloggers get more and more requests – many of poor quality – you want your request to get through the spam and be seen.
If you’re reaching out to a popular blogger, don’t use the conventional route. For example, use your LinkedIn profile to see if you have any common connections and try to get introduced. People check their LinkedIn messages because they’ve (usually) already vetted their contacts as not being spammers.
7. Choose the right blogger
Not only do you want your request to get through the spam and be seen, you also want it to be accepted. For that to happen, your guest post idea needs to first impress the targeted blogger before it can impress their audience.
Targeting a blogger means:
- Understanding what they like by checking what they’ve shared on social media
- Understanding what their audience likes by looking for which articles are most popular
- Understanding how people discover the blog by analyzing Alexa.com’s Search Analytics tab for the blog’s url
Using these 3 pointers, come up with a guest post idea that the blogger and their audience will appreciate, and will help the blogger attract new readers. Better yet, TELL the blogger how you came up with the idea. Just that alone should impress them.
8. Follow all reactions to the guest post
If you targeted an active blog where people comment regularly and published a thought-provoking guest post, people are going to react, either both by commenting or sharing.
Join the conversation as well by responding to all comments on the guest blog post itself, by watching for feedback in all the places you promoted the post, and by searching the Web for some of the key phrases in your post to see if anyone has quoted you, and leave a comment there too.
This mini-PR campaign might even lead to guest post offers, saving you all the research effort of targeting.
Now that you’re pumped, take action
This past Monday, July 18th, I announced my 5th annual summer guest blogging contest over on JobMob and I’m proud to say that for the 3rd year in a row, Dan Schawbel is among my sponsors.
This year’s participants will get a chance to win well over US$3500 in prizes, including the largest cash prize I’ve ever offered.
Only 25 participants will get a chance to win, and it is first come, first served. In fact, by the time you read this, there might no longer be any more spots, so get your entry in ASAP.
Ready, set, guest post!
Author:
Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.
