The Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging: 5 Steps to Double Your Website Traffic

Almost every person with basic writing skills has a blog these days. But are all these blogs getting enough traffic to survive in the chaotic online world?

Of course they aren’t. The audience is always open for new blogs, but the competition is ruthless.

You have to play some tricks to get as much traffic as possible. One of the proven tactics for boosting your website traffic is guest blogging.

By submitting high-quality guest posts to famous online sources like Forbes, Lifehacker, and Huffington Post, you’ll get your content through to a large audience.

If you impress them enough, people will visit your site. If the content at your site is impressive enough, they will continue visiting it over an extended period of time. Sooner or later, you’ll notice the traffic statistics are booming.

• How exactly do you get there?
• How do you write the perfect guest post?
• What sites do you submit it to?

We have all tips you need for successful guest blogging.

1. Identify Your Goals. What Do You Want to Achieve through Guest Blogging?

Many writers make a common mistake: they start crafting posts as soon as someone tells them how awesome guest blogging is. That’s not the right way to do it.

First, it’s important to include guest blogging into your overall content strategy. How often can you write guest posts? What niche will you focus on? These questions are important for the stages that follow.

The typical guest blogger has few goals to achieve:

• Attracting the audience and driving it towards their own website;
• Writing for a prestigious blog or website, so they will position themselves as an authority;
• Promoting their products or services;
• Building high-quality backlinks to their website.

You can choose few of these goals, but you can also achieve them all with the right approach.

When you want to attract your target audience, you have to choose popular blogs from your own category.

If your posts get featured by the most reputable sites in the niche, you will gain the image of an authoritative blogger.

Guest posts allow you to insert few links here and there, but you mustn’t make the content overly promotional.

Remember: affiliate links are a bad thing.

When a webmaster reviews your submission, they want to make sure it’s valuable for their audience.

They don’t want to help you sell products or services.

2. Find the Right Blogs for Your Guest Posts

When you’re looking for the best opportunities, it’s important to focus on popular sites that feature content from your niche.

We already mentioned Huffington Post and Lifehack as sites that are pretty universal, so they can fit different topics and present them to a large audience.

Consider including them in your guest posting strategy. However, the main point of guest posting is finding blogs whose audience is particularly interested in what you can offer.

That’s how you get engaged readership, which leads to comments, shares, and clicks towards your own website.

The worst thing you could do is start guest posting for blogs that don’t deserve your content.

You need to set some standards. Aim for blogs that are authoritative and active on social media.

• You already have favorite blogs you follow, right? Check to see if they accept guest posts.
• Google! Search for authoritative posts in your niche and start sending your pitches.
• Join MyBlogGuest – a community of guest bloggers that will help you understand the concept and start guest blogging like a pro.

3. Shine through That Pitch

Here’s a rule for you to remember: never write that guest post before you find a website to blog for. You have to send focused content that meets the conditions of the host.

Most blogs have guest posting guidelines, so pay close attention to them and craft your pitch.

The pitch usually comes in the form of an outline accompanied with your message to the host. Some bloggers only ask you to send few suggestions for a topic. Whatever the case is, make sure to follow the recommendations.

Before you think of a topic and craft an outline for your post, it’s important to go through the content at the site.

Is there a specific style you notice? Is the content funny or serious? Amusing or educational?

Follow the pattern and think of a topic that fits in, but doesn’t repeat something that’s already there.

If an outline is required, keep it short and classy. It should give hints on how cool your content is going to be, so the host will definitely want to feature you on their site.

The email message should be unique and personalized.

Find the name of the person you’re contacting and write as you’re having a conversation with them.

Introduce yourself and your idea in the body of the message. If you’re attaching an outline, remind the webmaster to check it out.

4. Write a Brilliant Post

You already know how to write. You’ve been writing great content for your own blog. But, this time, it’s not about you.

Make sure to follow the guidelines and check the content on the blog.

They will give you hints about the style, word count, use of images and screenshots, and everything else you need to know for making the guest post as suitable as possible.

Maintain the format you see at the site. Do they use short paragraphs and tons of headers? Maybe some quotes?

Infuse similar elements in your content, so it will fit right in.

Don’t forget to include a bio. That’s where you present yourself as the author of the guest post, and you include a link to your site. That’s the link that gets you the traffic.

5. Pay Attention to the Results

Finally, your submission gets approval and you see it featured at an authoritative blog. But, you’re not done yet.

You have to measure the success you achieve through guest blogging.

How much traffic do you get from a particular site?

If the statistics are great, you can continue making submissions there. If not, you should search for other guest blogging opportunities.

Don’t forget to respond to the comments and questions you get. Engage in the discussion just as you would do at your own blog.

There you have it; the ultimate guide to proper guest blogging. Now that you have the tips you need, you can start outlining your strategy!