3 Ways To Become A Guest Blogger

Guest blogging is another forgotten method that’s great for driving traffic to your blog by showcasing your talents elsewhere.

In particular, if you can find a way to demonstrate to others that you are capable of providing high-quality blog posts, there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back to your blog.

It’s obvious, then, that a good way to get more visitors, commenters, and newsletter subscribers for your blog is to borrow someone else’s blog audience.

In the past, this wasn’t easy to do, but today other bloggers welcome this concept because it allows them to add fresh content without having to come up with it themselves.

No matter how much you know about a niche, there may come a time when you run out of content ideas.

Related Article: 7 Ways To Generate Blog Post Ideas

If you’re looking for additional ways to generate traffic to your blog, then I suggest that you use the following 3 ways to become a guest blogger sooner rather than later…

1)) Pitch to High-Profile Bloggers

Many site owners and bloggers alike want good content. The problem is that good content is usually either time-consuming or expensive to produce.

Thus, they face a trade-off when it comes to providing high-quality content: they can either update the blog less frequently; or they can update it regularly, but do so at a cost (perhaps either not doing other things or paying someone to update it).

This is where YOU come in.

You can offer to provide a completely free blog entry, as long as you are able to list yourself as the “guest blogger.”

Additionally, if possible, see if you can include a link to your normal blog at the end of your entry.

Of course, you will need to make an exceptionally compelling case for why the blogger should allow you to do this.

If you already have a high-quality blog and have spent time following and commenting on the blog whose owner you are attempting to solicit, then your chances of success are significantly higher.

Additionally, if you are flexible and are willing to accept whatever terms the blogger offers you, your chances of acceptance will also improve.

2)) Look for “Guest Blogger” Opportunities

Occasionally, bloggers will attempt to actively solicit guest bloggers. For this reason, it is always a good idea to follow dozens of blogs through your RSS feed reader (and occasionally by visiting them), even if you have no plan to comment on 80% of them.

If you’re simply following the blogs, you’re already half-finished with the task.

To find blogs in your niche simply use the following template in your favorite search engine:

Niche + Blogs

Example: Tennis Blogs

Example: Dog Training Blogs

Example: Golf Blogs

Example: Organic Gardening Blogs

Example: Video Marketing Blogs

Tip: Target blogs that have the most traffic and comments, because this confirms that there’s a high level of engagement.

It’s now just a matter of capturing guest blogging opportunities as soon as they are presented.

So, next time you see a blogger mention that a new “guest blogger” position is open, email him or her and be sure to do the following:

Casually mention things about the blog, so that he or she understands that you follow it regularly.

This can be as simple as mentioning that you have followed it for months. You may also want to reference one of the previous posts to reinforce this point.

Explain that you are an experienced blogger; and that you have a past record of success.

Offer to provide additional samples of your work or to complete trial projects if required.

Overall, if you are polite and thoughtful with your letter and you make it a point to communicate that you have experience, that you understand the blog’s subject matter, and that you will do good work, you have a decent chance of being selected.

3)) Offer to Do a One-Time Blog Exchange

If you’re having a hard time finding guest blogging opportunities, it may be a good idea to consider a guest blogging exchange instead.

Here, you would allow someone else to post on your blog in exchange for being able to post on theirs.

When using this approach, there are two rules to keep in mind:

If you make this offer to a competing blog, only offer it if they have a larger readership.

You don’t want to directly expose your blog visitors and commenters to a competing blog unless they can offer you something equal or better in exchange (i.e. access to a larger audience).

Explicitly seek out blogs that complement your own.

Example: If your blog is about website design, but not search engine optimization, then consider seeking out an exchange with a SEO blogger.

You could provide useful entries for each other’s blogs and possibly encourage visitors to come to both blogs without picking one over the other.

If you keep these two rules in mind, the only challenge you will face is finding bloggers willing to participate in the exchange.

However, if you look hard enough and send out enough emails, you should be successful.

Conclusion

One of the better ways to drive traffic to your blog is to post as a “guest blogger” on someone else’s blog.

While this may initially seem like it might be difficult to do, there are many viable strategies for tackling this challenge.

At least one of the three I covered in this article should work for you.

In the beginning, finding and getting bloggers that have a decent size audience will take time, but the results in terms of increased traffic could be well worth the effort.

If guest blogging is of interest to you, just do it!