Got a blog? Over at Web123, I recently wrote about how guest blogging is the #1 way to boost website traffic. Point in case is this wonderful ABN blog. Of course, I don’t just do it for the traffic. I really love what Suzi does here, and I love helping people. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling when I hear how you’re putting my website and online marketing advice into practice. But let’s talk about your blogging pains for a minute. You have a business. You have a great website. You know your industry back to front and you have your own point of view. You write pretty well, so you have a blog. But… who’s reading it? Seriously, if you’re spending your precious time giving out nuggets of industry gold then you deserve more eyeballs.
Do you want to know how to boost website traffic and get those adoring eyeballs?
Wait! Before you groan, no, this isn’t another article about the black arts of SEO, I have a different solution for you. It’s about leveraging off someone else’s authority and accessing a new audience. I’m talking about getting yourself a guest blogging expert to write on your site.
A guest blogger can bring you a lot of traffic just by writing a great post (about something relevant) on your blog.
Now when I say ‘expert’, it’s got to be someone who is already in your industry (or closely aligned to it) and is already fairly well known for writing about your industry topics, and just as importantly, they’ll already have their own blog audience. The only thing is… that they shouldn’t be a direct competitor… obviously! Why? There are a few great things you get when having an influential guest blogger write for your site:
- Variety: Your blog gets fresh content and a new perspective on your industry issues.
- Efficiency: You COULD write one less blog this week (but seriously, crank it out anyway ABN’er!)
- More traffic: Your guest blogger will push their blog link (that’s on your site) to their own social network; it might be re-shared over and over again. Your traffic can really spike with this one.
- Social proof for SEO: more links coming from twitter or FB from your guest blog to your site shows Google your site has more authority.
- A new audience: Like I always say to my Web123 clients, ‘Traffic is for today, but a fan is forever’. If your expert blogger already writes about your industry, chances are high that some of his audience will have a look around your site and they’ll be interested in what you do… And this is where this technique can really pay off.
- Relationship building pays in unexpected ways: as you start building a relationship with this influential blogger, you don’t know where it could lead. For example, I was recently awarded ABN’s 2012 Member of the Year; it was so unexpected and I was stoked!
What does the guest blogger get?
- Access to your audience (if you have any!).
- A back-link to their site (probably).
- More authority.
- Money (sometimes).
Yep, there are quite a few professional and influential bloggers that are happy to write about a topic they’re passionate about on someone else’s blog, and they’ll offer you access to their audience… for a fee. This might start at $200 and, depending on how high up the blogging food chain you go, it could be in the several thousands. Seriously though, if your expert blogger has thousands of active readers (you can see this in the comments of their blog) and they have lots of social media followers (easy to check that too), and then if you’re confident in your own website (it’s attractive, easy to use, conversion friendly) and that your blog is full of good readable stuff and you update it at least weekly… then go for it!
How to find a great guest blogger
If you aren’t already reading the best of your industry blogs, get to it my friend! Read enough blog sites and you’ll soon start noticing some blogs say ‘guest post by’. You might even start seeing a pattern of familiar names. Write a list. Who are the prolific bloggers in your industry? Start following them on Twitter and Facebook. See what they have to say for themselves. If they’re writing guest blogs somewhere else, maybe they’ll write for yours…. If you like their point of view of course! Then, when you know who you like… start making the occasional blog comment, a social reply, retweet their stuff. They’ll eventually notice you (assuming they do their own content!). Then, when the time is right, send them a message. Be nice, be authentic, but be confident. Introduce yourself, tell them what you like about THEIR writing and how it relates to your point of view (this tells them you really do read). Then ask the question, ‘is there any way I could convince you to write something for my blog?’. The worst they can say is ‘sorry I’m too busy right now’… then jump onto the next blogger of influence until you get a yes! And seriously, don’t take it personally if you get a lot of ‘no’s’. Just keep keeping on. Every single one just means you’re closer to a ‘yes’! So, that’s the beginning of how to get a guest blogger of influence to write for you. And the end? Well, who knows, maybe that next blogger of influence will be YOU and I’ll be asking you to write for Web123! Seriously, whether you write for someone else’s site, or they write for yours… blogging is a massively worthwhile endeavour. You’ll get website traffic, an audience and hopefully, a real boost to your bottom line. Please drop me a comment below if you want to know more, I’d love to help you blog like a pro!
