Five Reasons to Consider Guest Blogging

There are many reasons why people blog, but for businesses it’s mostly to increase revenue and gain credibility while reaching new customers. One way to do this is to lend your expertise to other sites as a guest blogger. Now, you may question the benefits of guest blogging and wonder, “Why help somebody else get new content on their sites when I can be focusing on getting fresh content on my own sites?” Well, that’s a valid question worth exploring so here are a few reasons why you should consider guest blogging:

1. Increase Quality Traffic To Your Site – If you put out quality work as a guest blogger, you’re apt to get quality followers.  This alone can drive traffic to your site and grow your network. The goal is to get people interested in what you’re saying and create credibility so they become curious about your body of work. It’s customary to provide a link to your sites when agreeing to write for someone else; therefore readers can follow the link and see what you have to offer.  If you happen to get a guest blog posting on an extremely popular site, you may even attract thousands of visitors in just one day, hopefully gaining admirers who will seek you out.
2. Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – In addition to credibility in your area of expertise, you’ll want “cyber cred.” The most effective way to gain this is to acquire quality back links to boost your ranking in search listings. But what exactly are backlinks? They are ways to expand the comments section of your blog through another blogger (for example) posting a comment on their blog about your original message. It’s an excellent way to add viewers and drives your search engine rankings up.  So the more guest blogging you do, the better chance you have of a higher ranking in search engines. Also worth noting, is that having your blog posts or articles on well-known websites will help you gain top spots on search listings, meaning you may not have to put in as much effort on complicated SEO activities.
3. Build Recognition In The Blogosphere – Writing for yourself is great, but it will keep you virtually unknown in cyberspace. To establish yourself as a subject matter expert, you need to reach out to other bloggers and websites so you can get exposure via as many channels as possible. Through guest blogging you can reach additional people in your targeted audience as they begin to recognize you as an authority on your subject matter. This will also help brand awareness within your industry.
4. Create A Portfolio – Not unlike a resume, your guest blogging can actually produce an impressive body of work that can easily become a portfolio for future opportunities.  Having a comprehensive collection of your best columns will make it much easier to acquire leads and secure future jobs.  Keeping track of the blog sites where your writing appears is important when people ask about your previous assignments. Keeping a list of URLS will enable you to quickly direct them to where your writing has appeared online.
5. Develop Your Writing – These days, there are probably as many novice bloggers as professional writers online. Not everyone has a journalism degree or will win prestigious awards for their compositions, but that doesn’t mean readers can’t learn something from you. Keep in mind that if you write frequently your skills will improve.  Doing a high volume of writing through guest blogging is ultimately your best teacher and can develop your abilities. Combine that with your knowledge and it’s a noteworthy union that brings with it the reputation for being a source of relevant information.

Partnering with others to broaden your recognition and build relationships online through guest blogging is an excellent way to create an audience. Ensuring you have factual and pertinent content is imperative, but the informal atmosphere of online writing gives you some room to be creative and have some fun with it.

As for me, I’m looking forward to introducing another guest blogger on Sneeze.it in the coming weeks.   Leonie Bulman of WaveMetrix will discuss her company’s findings about Twitter and offer suggestions on how to get your return on investment using that social media site.

Are you an expert in the field of social media marketing? We’d love to have you guest blog for us too. Please contact Terri Stanton, Public Relations and Marketing Manager at: tstanton@thesteelmethod.com.


David Steel
http://blog.thesteelmethod.com/