If you have a blog, and I’m guessing you do since you are reading this article, one of the best options for you to gain readership and backlinks is by doing guest posting. There are a number of guest posting options for you to choose from, and we’ll outline those below and give you some additional resources that you can follow through on.
If you listen to Google, they’ll have you believe guest posting is dead. Just take a read through Matt Cutts (Google’s head of web spam) latest on guest posting. It’s actually a very good read.
I’m of the opinion that guest posting will be around for a long time, and it will still prove valuable for gaining backlinks as well as readership. However, as with anything on the Internet, you’ll need to be careful regarding the services you choose for your guest posting options. Pick the wrong ones, and it could impact you site.
Guest Posting
So before we get into the various guest posting options that exist, lets talk a little about what exactly guest posting is. In its easiest form, guest posting allows you to post an article or story that you’ve written on someone else’s blog. Why would you do this? There are two very big benefits when you take advantage of guest posting:
Readership
When you post an article on someone else’s blog, you are taking advantage of that blog’s subscribers and getting their loyal readers to see you work. Typically when you have a guest post opportunity, you are also allowed to put an “author bio” at the end of your post. In this bio you have the opportunity to tell a little about yourself, and link back to your blog. Which leads us to the next point, getting that backlink.
Back Links
A big advantage of guest posting is getting a backlink to your blog. This not only helps the reader of the guest post find your blog by clicking on the link, you also get an authority link from another blog. This will help with your off page search engine optimization (SEO).
Guest Posting Options
So let’s take a look at the various guest posting options that exist. There are two primary examples of guest posting.
Guest Posting
We talked about what guest posting was in the previous section, but what different guest posting options do you have if you are running a blog. There are actually quite a few guest posting options available:
- Network with other bloggers and once you’ve built a relationship, ask them if they would be willing to post an article on their site. You’ll need to ensure this article will provide value to their readers, and be able to explain how this will help their blog.
- Look for sites that advertise guest posting opportunities. Again, it helps to network with these other bloggers beforehand, as that will only give you an advantage when it comes to getting you post published.
- Leverage a site like Fiverr, and look for gigs that allow you to post an article to their site. This will cost you $5 for the service, but you need to be a little careful to ensure you are getting something of value for your $5. I’ve written an in-depth review of Fiverr backlinks on my Blogging Flail blog.
- Leverage a guest posting service. This is a little more pricey, but in theory you get what you pay for. With a guest posting service, you pay approximately $50 – $60 to have someone write a guest post and market it to another blog for publication. Typically this other blog will have a higher page rank, which will help with the SEO of your site.
Reverse Guest Posting
Reverse guest posting is the opposite of guest posting. Instead of you posting an article on someone else’s blog, you get them to post an article on your blog. Huh? Think of it this way, this gives you another option to build content on your site – a free option. Now while you may not get a direct backlink from the other blog with this option, rest assured you will certainly get some readers to your blog. How’s that you may be asking?
Well don’t think the person you solicit to write a post from you bog isn’t going to advertise it via their blog or social networks. They are most certainly going to want to promote the work they’ve done, and from that you will get some valuable readers.
These are just some of the various guest posting options that you can use to help increase the readership of your blog. What services have you used, and what kind of results have you experienced? Would love to hear your feedback in the comments.