Guest blogging is one of the most frequently used methods for drastically improving your online presence.
Looking at it from the perspective of the hard-working writers, it presents the perfect opportunity for gaining more traffic, acquiring new users to your website, and increasing awareness about your brand.
Building domain authority, increasing organic traffic as well as ranking up in search engine results will all come once you adopt the practice of doing guest posts. Combine that with a few more factors such as great writing opportunities, better outreach, a new audience, more credibility and it becomes a flawless strategy for drastically improving your chances of getting worldwide online recognition.
What was just said, is only one side of the story, the writer’s side. But what about the people who put the work of those writers on their blogs? What do they gain from guest posts?
Well, here are the numerous benefits behind hosting guest posts on your blog that could help you achieve exceptional results, some of those results being:
A reduced urge for content producing
If you are the only writer on your blog, you’ve probably encountered a writer’s block or a creative shutdown which makes you want to pull all your hair out from stress because the well-oiled machine that your creativity is, has completely let you down when you needed it the most.
That’s where guest posts save the day!
By accepting guest posts, not only do you get things done in a faster manner but you also save a hefty amount of time that you would otherwise spend trying to cover a particular topic. Sure you’ll have to do some proofreading and adjusting, but when that rainy Monday comes along and butchers your inspiration, it’s a much easier task to patch something up from a guest post than to try and write something of your own when you simply aren’t able to.
Bringing in a new community
Alongside the new content that will get introduced to your blog, a new wave of visitors will be brought to the table as well.
The writer has the same goal as you – getting as much recognition as possible, so you can be sure that he/she will share all their work, guest posts or not, with their audience. For you, as the host of the guest post, this means, that the link of the article will get passed around much further than the links of your usual non-guest posts and in turn, give your blog more exposure.
Social media shares, emails, mentions on forums and online communities, everything gets doubled, and by pumping up those numbers your profits also might get bigger.
Mix things up with different content
Every content creator has their signature style of writing and expressing his/her thoughts, a style the audience is well aware of.
Most of the time having a signature style is a good thing since that is in fact what got the audience to subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social media accounts, and so on. But from time to time. your audience will appreciate a breath of fresh air.
Overused phrases and the same ideas being presented repeatedly can become a bit repetitive so you might find yourself wondering how to get out of that loop. By introducing guest posts on your blog, you will also introduce new ideas and a different approach to digital storytelling. That right there could be a saving grace and a blow of new inspiration for you, and for your readers, it can be an exciting new addition.
Increased credibility
Over 60% of readers agree that a blog that has multiple writers gives off a sense of credibility, thus making it more reliable and appealing.
Having guest authors shows that you mean serious business with your team of hotshot writers that know how to produce quality content. That leverage can boost your traffic, search engine visibility, and encourage you to post even more frequently which will result in a much faster expansion of your blog.
Tips on getting the most out of your guest posts
Everything we mentioned thus far, were benefits of having guest authors, but how can one be sure he/she is using guest posts in the most optimal way? To guide you on that journey and also to help you reap all the benefits of guest posting here are the top 4 tips on getting the most out of your guest posts.
1. Promote the content
Content promoting is one of the crucial parts of digital success and just like you would promote the content written by your own hands, the same goes for guest posts. In fact, your writers will be counting on it!
Well promoted content could serve as the perfect motivation for guest authors to work with you again because they can be sure that the content they produce for you will be shared across the internet and in that way give them a decent amount of exposure.
2. Give your authors the credit they deserve – an author box
There are thousands of blogs that offer guest posting opportunities and if you want to stand out from the crowd and make sure that you are the one that will attract the most exceptional content writers, you must prove that you are worthy.
How can you do that? By giving credit where credit is due, and the author his/her own dedicated author box.
Including only the author’s name is honestly not nearly enough since it tells the readers very little. On the other hand, an author box is something that looks much more professional and provides the readers with all of the info they could ask for.
To successfully complete the task of creating an author box, you’ll need the help of a plugin, a plugin like Simple Author Box.
With this plugin, you can add a responsive author box in only a few steps, an author box that can be customized, and that will look perfect on a desktop, or a mobile device.
Some of the features provided to you by this plugin include:
- Showing the author’s name, gravatar, website, personal info, and social media icons
- Full customizations to match the theme design
- Option to manually insert the author box in your template file (single.php or author.php)
- RTL and AMP support
In addition, if you crave even more features and customizations, you can always purchase the PRO version which will give you access to:
- Including multiple guest authors
- Link control
- Displaying different author boxes for different post types
- Typography control
- Color scheme control
- and much more…
3. Make clear guidelines on your expectations
Guest writers have plenty of offers so they will not want to waste time and reach out to anyone who doesn’t have all of the guest post guidelines neatly prepared for them to examine.
That’s why you need to follow this example and set up a guidelines page/note with clear instructions on your expectations.
The page/note should consist of instructions for the topics the author should write about, the length of the article, post type, whether to include images, and also a clear message that you want only original and authentic content.
4. Get seen on the market
There are plenty of guest writers on the market for you to hire but that won’t be easy if you don’t get out there and spread that information.
One thing you can do is simply reach out to writers that you find fitting for your blog and present them with the job opportunity or even better, you can advertise the job opportunity through social media and even include it in your newsletter.
This way you will not only reach the writers you already had in mind but possibly even better ones you didn’t even know about before.
Conclusion
Taking into consideration all the benefits it could bring you, including guest posts in your blog is one of the best decisions you can make.
But like with everything online, even with guest posts you need to be careful. That is why you should thoroughly proofread every received document, do quality control, and make a proper business model for collaborating with writers.
Set the ground rules, install the proper plugins, and use guest posts as a gateway for a new chapter of your digital success.
With all of the traffic, increased credibility, new users, and the fresh ideas that’ll start coming to your blog, using guest posts will undoubtedly be worth a shot.
