Remember back in grade school, when you weren\u2019t one of the cool kids? You\u2019d do anything to sit at their table\u2014<\/span>even give away your pudding for free<\/span><\/i>. To some, guest posting seems like a similarly desperate attempt to get noticed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Instead of working hard to build up your brand\u2019s visibility, you\u2019re providing valuable content to a bigger brand for free. Even worse\u2014there\u2019s no guarantee that it will get published on your target site.<\/span><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s where guest posting is different from grade school. As an adult, <\/span>giving away your pudding for free actually works<\/span><\/i>. Guest posting on high traffic sites is one of the most powerful and turnkey ways to gain new visitors, generate new leads, strengthen SEO, and lift your brand out of obscurity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why? Because you get to sit at the cool kids\u2019 table. You\u2019re borrowing <\/span>their <\/span><\/i>traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Target high-profile sites to gain exposure<\/span><\/h3>\n

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What\u2019s that? You want an affordable way to drive more visitors to your website? Well, why didn\u2019t you just say so?<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: Find the most popular websites for your target buyers<\/b><\/p>\n

And we do mean the <\/span>most<\/span><\/i> popular. Don\u2019t settle for less. If your website traffic is nonexistent, you need as much help as you can get. Do some research and find out which sites <\/span>your buyers<\/span><\/i> are visiting\u2014not which sites you like the most.<\/span><\/p>\n

And remember, not all blogs are created equal. Some blog receive hundreds of views each month,\u00a0<\/span>while others get millions<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2: Write a post for that website\u2019s blog, with their style and tone of voice in mind<\/b><\/p>\n

Take a look at their blog. Chances are, they already accept guest contributors. Read recent posts, paying special attention to the ones that are shared the most. Determine what those writers are doing, and why their pieces were the most engaging. Pay attention to headlines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then start brainstorming. What makes their readers tick, and how can you offer something even better? Don\u2019t focus on your brand or service\u2014that\u2019s what the byline is for. Instead, ask yourself how you can help solve their problems. Once you have the right angle, start writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3: Find out who the editor is and pitch your piece<\/b><\/p>\n

When you have a polished draft, head over to the contact page. Typically, big websites will list editors by email or have a contact form.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can, email your piece directly. Let them know you wrote it with their readers in mind. If you only have a contact form, just give them the standard pitch instead of the entire draft.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then be patient. These are the cool kids, after all, so it might take them a while to get back to you. If your writing is good, and your message suited to their readers, they <\/span>will<\/span><\/i> respond. Once you\u2019re in, you\u2019re in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worst-case scenario: they don\u2019t like your piece. You can always shop it around to publications with a similar readership. Or you could put it on your own blog\u2014it\u2019ll probably be better than the last few posts anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Build credibility with great content <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>great links<\/span><\/h3>\n

Finding the right publications to contribute to is important, but posting the proper content is just as essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure you’re positioning yourself as an authority on your topic of choice. Do more research than you need to. Write more drafts than you normally would. Every sentence must ooze credibility. Otherwise, you’ll be torn apart in the comments. No one will take you seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

First impressions, as I\u2019m sure you know, are extremely important. The last thing you want is for 100,000 readers who have no idea who you are to read your debut post and write you off as a fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n

A good rule of thumb for beginner contributors is to always rely on content better than your own. \u00a0Link to a lot of great content on high-traffic sites. These supporting pieces verify the information you provide and please Google Penguin (which loves<\/span> good, relevant links<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Track your results, please<\/span><\/h3>\n

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We guarantee you\u2019ll be surprised by the amount of engagement you receive. Clients of ours have reported up to <\/span>1,000x more engagement<\/span><\/i> from guest posts than their native blog posts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, if you aren\u2019t tracking the performance of your guest posts, you wouldn\u2019t know that. Shares tend to accumulate over a period of months. Some of the best, most-shared content we\u2019ve written still gets shared <\/span>years later.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Always make sure you are tracking engagement. Google Analytics will help you measure everything from views to sources to click-through rates, but simpler tools like<\/span> Buzzsumo<\/span><\/a> and even <\/span>SharedCount<\/span><\/a> are fine if you just want to take a pulse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which topics scored the most shares? What posts gave you the most visitors overall? How does the length of the post affect readership and click-through rates? All very important things to think about.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget why you guest-posted in the first place<\/span><\/h3>\n

Headlines are incredibly important<\/span><\/a>. David Ogilvy once said that, based on his research, 5x more people read headlines than body copy. Once you\u2019ve decided on the headline, you\u2019ve already spent 80 cents of your marketing dollar.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to guest posts, headlines are still the most important element of your piece\u2014but bylines are just as important. The little blurb at the bottom that explains who you are and what you do is the real reason you\u2019re guest posting in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

You want as many of your readers to click on your website or landing page as possible. So if you haven\u2019t put enough thought into your byline, you might as well stop while you\u2019re ahead. Polish those few lines of autobiography until they\u2019re squeaky clean.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you tap into the secret power of guest posting, there\u2019s nothing stopping you from getting the kind of traffic you always wanted. So give away your pudding more often. Enjoy the perks of sitting at the cool kids\u2019 table.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember back in grade school, when you weren\u2019t one of the cool kids? You\u2019d do anything to sit at their table\u2014even give away your pudding for free. To some, guest posting seems like a similarly desperate attempt to get noticed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,35,40],"tags":[107,132,167,171,172,267],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/demo.thewebsitedev.com\/tailoredink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}