Editor
There’s absolutely no doubt that content is king. No matter what kind of products or services you offer through your online business, it’s crucial that the content on your site educates, entertains, and informs. But did you know that creating content can be its own form of networking?
Why you shouldn’t exclude Guest Posting from your strategy
If you’ve had a blog on your business’s website for awhile, you are no doubt aware of how sharing that content via email and social media can help draw in prospective leads who might otherwise not have considered visiting your website.
In fact, in many cases, it works so well, you might wish you could share your content with even more people: an even wider audience of folks who might not know of your site, but could certainly benefit from your product or services.
In fact, guest posting is one way to do exactly this! By writing a guest post for another site, you can enjoy many benefits: both immediate and long-lasting.
Read also: how to find the right target audience for your business.
What Does Guest Posting Entail?
In the plainest of terms, you’re writing an article or post for another person’s site. Typically, this will be about a topic that relates to both your site and the other individual’s site. The goal is to post within your niche, or adjacent niches.
This can take many forms, however. The relationship between your business and the site upon which your post appears can be direct or indirect.
For example, let’s say you sell vitamins and health products. An example of a site that would directly relate to your product would be a site that promotes health and wellness, such as a fitness blog. An indirect relationship might be writing a guest post on a beauty blog to promote how your vitamins can be helpful for those looking for clear skin or shiny hair. You could even connect with a site that sells workout clothing.
Ultimately, you will create a post that will be read by the audience of the other site. This means that your content will need to be attractive to the readers of that site, so before you even get started, make sure you have a similar type of customer and a similar enough style that you will not offend, bore, or otherwise prevent readers from wanting to engage with your content.
A successful guest post can have many positive results, however, making the effort of finding an appropriate outlet and crafting the article well worth it.
What Are the Benefits of Guest Posting?
Some of the benefits of guest posting will be felt immediately, but the process is really a long-term investment in your website and your overall business.
Consider the following opportunities that can come from guest posting.
1.Instantly Connect with a Larger Target Audience
When you contribute to other sites or blogs, you are typically invited to include your name, your position, and/or a link to your website. This may come in the form of a brief author bio: “J. Person is the founder of (site) and has been in the (product) business since 1988”, for example. Alternately, the owner of the site upon which you’re posting may choose to introduce you. “Today’s post comes from J. Person. Check out his products at (site)”.
Regardless of how your name, product, and site are mentioned, anyone who reads your guest post will know exactly who you are, what you do, and where to find you. And this, in turn, can generate leads.
2. Improve Your Reputation
Another side effect of a wider audience knowing who you are and what you do is that you will become recognized as an expert in your niche.
For this reason, it is extremely important that your guest posts are of impeccable quality, and relevant to the site upon which you’re posting. As your name is more and more widely associated with your niche, you’ll gain authority.
As you gain authority, you’ll gain site visitor, and in turn, fresh new customers.
3. Building Backlinks
We’ve discussed backlinks before, and how they can benefit your business. A backlink is basically a link to your website that appears on another website in some form: either listed as a recommendation, a contributor, a sponsor, or more.
When you guest post, you might be included in that site owner’s list of links. You can agree to add their site to your list of links, as well. Having a variety of relevant and trusted backlinks can quickly improve your search engine ranking, as well as boost your reputation as a trusted resource in your niche.
4. Increased Social Media Presence
This can take several different shapes. First, if your content is truly amazing, readers will want to share the link to your post on their own social media outlets. This helps spread the word on who you are and lend you instant credentials, as well as helping attract many new potential customers.
These readers will also look towards your site and your social media for more content or information. This means more followers, more potential subscribers, and an increase in shares of existing posts. Altogether, this can greatly increase your overall social media presence.
Learn more, watch our video on how to get people to share your content.
5. Establish Branding
When you write guest posts, you’re spreading the news about your business to a captive audience who may have never heard of your brand. In this moment, you are the voice, the experience, and the presence of your business. Everything these new readers know about your business will be established in your guest post.
While this may seem like undue pressure to exceed expectations, the truth is that you’ll want to be very honest to your brand in your guest post.
You want the audience to have a genuine interest in your product or services, and you want them to appreciate the value of what you sell. Connect with readers meaningfully, and give them the opportunity to understand what your brand actually stands for.
6. Become Involved in the Community
This can be especially important if you are new to e-commerce, or exploring a new indirect niche. Your goal as a guest poster is to engage a new audience. One of the best ways to do so is to involve them in conversation about your topic, product, services, or niche.
Consider adding a call-to-action to your post to encourage the audience to share with you. This can help you learn more about what they value, and how your product or services can solve their problems.
How Do I Get Started?
Before you even consider guest posting, make sure your website and blog are ready for the influx of attention you will receive. Review all of your content to make sure it’s error-free and on-brand. Make sure all of your links work, and that all of your images load quickly and correctly.
Read more: learn how to start a blog.
When you reach out to other site owners about guest posting opportunities, they’ll surely look at your site and review your content to make sure you’re a good fit for their brand, as well.
You may be asked to submit additional samples to prove that your content is consistent and your style is appropriate for their audience.
But how do you even find people to reach out to? Research! Continuously review sites and blogs in your niche, or related to your niche. Many have requests for guest posts. Even if they don’t consider reaching out directly via the contact information on the site. Introduce yourself, include a link to your site, and ask if they’re interested in networking.
The idea of guest posting may be a little bit nerve-wracking; however, the benefits of writing an article for another website are far-reaching. Consider how your contributions to another site might help spread the word- and the value- for your own site.
Would you like to submit a Guest Post to our Blog? Learn more here.
