The Anatomy of a Great Guest Post
Writing guests posts for blogs is steadily rising in popularity. It’s a great way for writers to expand their readership and it’s also excellent exposure for blogs. While the writer is promoting their new blog post and the website is gaining traffic, the writer is also getting attention from the website’s regular viewers. It’s not as easy as you may think to write guests blogs, though. Many website owners are extremely picky when it comes to the quality of work that they’ll allow on their pages. Plus, since this is becoming a popular way to earn money, a lot of writers are competing with each other. The trick to getting a spot on a popular blog is to write an amazing blog post that will impress any website owner.
Writing for Their Target Audience
One thing to keep in mind when writing a guest post is that you’re writing for the blog’s audience, not your usual audience. That means you may have to tweak your style a bit. You also have to learn who the audience is, especially since the blog owner may not tell you. Many bloggers feel that if you want to contribute to their website, you should be familiar with the style of writing, blog topics and readers that the blog usually has. Another reason why it’s important to know your audience is because they’re the ones who are going to judge your writing – without them, you won’t gain the following you’re hoping for.
How to Gear a Post to the Right Audience
The best way to figure out who your audience is and how to impress them is to read the blog’s top ten most popular posts. Most blogs will have a list of the most popular posts on the right-hand sidebar – browse these pieces, along with the comments, to get a feel for how you should write your guest post. Don’t skip reading the comments; they’ll give you great insight into what readers like and what they don’t like.
Choosing a Topic
There are two main parts to choosing a great blog topic:
1. Note the topics that people are writing about. These are the general topics that the blog’s readers are going to be interested in.
2. Note the specific topic gaps that haven’t been written about yet.
This is the same approach that people take when starting a business. You have to find out what people want and then figure out what information they aren’t getting yet. You have to fill a need within a certain niche and you can do this by writing about a specific subject that hasn’t been touched on yet.
Have Something Unique to Say
If you truly want to write a great guest post, you have to be somewhat passionate about your topic or at least have something relevant to say about the subject. While your primary reason for writing a guest post may be to get more exposure for your own writing, you should also want to create valuable, quality content. After all, one piece of high-quality content goes farther than several pieces of poorly-researched, poorly-written content.
Writing Tips for Guest Blogs
• Write simply, even if you want to still be clever. You can be cute, witty and funny even if you use simplistic verbiage. Remember, everyone has to understand your blog post. Keep language at a fifth grade level to appeal to every reader, not just a small segment of them.
• Add links to your blog post. Both readers and whoever you’re linking to love this tactic. It creates a widespread web of information all stemming from your one blog post.
• Part of writing a blog post is getting people involved. Ask questions and encourage reader feedback to get people participating in your blog post. Website owners love to see this, too.
• Always write an interesting, appealing headline. The headline is your first – and sometimes only – opportunity to get people interested in reading what you wrote. Without a strong headline, most readers won’t even make it to the rest of your post. The blog owner will probably also reject or accept your topic based on the headline.
This post was written by Kyle Sanders, an internet marketing veteran who runs eCommerce businesses and provides small business seo services for local businesses in Denver as well as national clients. When he doesn’t have 30 tabs open, you can find him enjoying craft beers, live music, and the outdoors.
The Anatomy Of A Great Guest Post
