Entering Guest Blogging SEO Land
Remember, way back before Christmas, when we introduced you to guest blogging as a way to develop backlink creds to your SEO services? To review, take a quick peek and you can get back to speed quickly. Sip on the leftover eggnog and we’ll wait for you.
Okay now, ready to go? Let’s get into it! Here’s how to land guest blogging gigs!
Define your customers
In this case, it’s useful to go back to basic digital marketing strategies in regard to your target audience. Whom do you want to attract to your site? Who exactly are your existing internet marketing customers (easy to figure out if you’re on social media, right?)? Do you have ideas for an article they’d enjoy reading?
Some marketers advise creating a profile of your ideal customer. For instance, your custom designed baby clothes would be bought by young moms or grandmas. So you’d actually have 2 persona examples. Give them names.
Find out what blogs they read
The first rule of fishing is to go where the fish are. Well, that’s a duh, right? To figure out what your customers are reading, there are a few ways to do that.
First, you could just ask them. What are their favored news sites? Where do they get information that can be related to your niche market? Do they have a favorite blog? What search engines do they use?
You may be wondering how to get access to people willing to talk to you. Start with the most obvious: Your friends and family. You may already have some idea of how they’ll answer, but ask them anyway. They may surprise you.
Check your LinkedIn groups. Ask for referrals but make sure your contacts know your intent. Tell them up front. People hate it when they find out they’ve been lied to. The same goes for social media contacts. If you pay attention to the posts and comments, usually you can make a good guess at what you want to know.
Trade favors with other bloggers
Hopefully you’re open to two-way relationships. By that I mean that you can do a favor, and ask a favor. Once you’ve identified what your audience reads, pick out a few sites and offer to give those bloggers a guest spot on your own site. But make sure their posts will complement yours.
Let them know you’re interested in additional resources for your readers. After all, there’s no sense in pretending you know everything, right? First off, it’s not true. Admit it. And secondly, everyone needs a second or third opinion to make good choices.
After you’ve been successful in a few trading posts (yuk yuk, couldn’t resist), guest blogging will become easier to negotiate. You’ll already have examples of your work when you make future proposals. And you’ll be on the way to increased credibility in your SEO service.
Don’t be a weirdo
There are other ways to scout guest blogging opportunities, but frankly, most of them border on stalking. Reminds me of things desperate people did in direct marketing groups. Like go to Starbucks and wait for someone to walk past your table. Start chatting them up like a long lost friend. Then offer to show them this awesome business plan. Yeah, don’t do that. And resist joining a group just to snag a blog invite. Relax and go with the flow.
Anything worth blogging is worth doing well
Cultivating gigs for guest blogging is not an automated process. There are no apps for it, sorry. This is one of those things you’re going to have to do for yourself. You’ll make mistakes but they’re not usually fatal. Progress will seem slow on a new SEO campaign, but stick with it. Do something in your business every day – make a contact, work on a new post, update an old post, touch base with existing contacts.
Stuck for a new topic? Please stay away from apps that make transcripts from someone else’s videos. True, you get ‘content’ in record time, but you run the risk of being found out as a plagiarist. Google will lower the boom on you. There are sources of unbranded content, though, and you can purchase packets on select subjects. As a matter of fact, I know a few sources, myself. In a crunch, it could be a temporary bridge to get you through a dry spell.
On the other hand, if you crank out a blog post of high quality content every day, you might consider becoming a blog source, yourself. Comment that you might be interested, and let’s see where that might lead.
Want to know more about how to get guest blogging invitations to boost your search ranking? Got questions? Drop me a line and let’s talk!