Writing Guest Posts for Relevant Blogs

One technique I use for promoting my specialized nonfiction e-books, such as my Blogger’s Guides series, is writing guest posts for large, related blogs. A guest post is free content that a writer adds to someone else’s website. If you write a guest post, you might add your name to your bio, describe your e-book, and add a link to your Amazon page or your own website.

You don’t have to wait until your e-book is published to start guest posting, though. Writing guest posts is quite an effective way to build the readership of your blog or e-mail newsletter — before you launch your e-book. Writing guest posts can also boost your credibility and reputation, especially if your field is one with a strong online presence.

Authors sometimes worry that they need large online followings in order to secure guest-post slots. The truth is that most blog editors don’t care how many readers you have — they’re interested in the quality of your content. In fact, when I started out guest posting to promote the first e-book in my Blogger’s Guide series, I had no active blog or mailing list of my own. I had only a website with a sales page for the e-book. (I had stepped back from the two blogs I had run in the past, to focus on my freelancing work on larger blog sites.) But despite not having a blog of my own, I was able to promote the first Blogger’s Guide effectively by guest posting.

Crafting your guest post carefully

When writing a guest post, follow all the usual guidelines for writing outstanding online material. (You can use many of the tips for sales pages in Chapter 10, such as having short paragraphs and lots of subheadings and using bold text to highlight key points.) Keep these tips in mind, too:

Choose a target blog before writing your guest post. Don’t write an article and then look for a blog that would be a good fit — you’re more likely to succeed with a piece that you’ve specifically planned and written for a particular site. You can usually tell whether a blog accepts guest posts by looking for lots of different authors’ names. (Good clues are sentences that begin with the words This is a guest post from. . . .)

Read any guest-post guidelines that are provided. Many large blogs have pages known as guest post guidelines or guest postings. These pages often include details on the preferred word count and format, and on how to submit your post. If you can’t find guidelines, read several recent posts, and work out the standard length and any common features in the writing style.

Consider several topics for your post before settling on one. Ideally, your topic should fall within the domain of your target blog — but it should also be one that the blog hasn’t yet covered (or at least not recently). The topic you choose should also relate to your e-book or to your own blog’s subject. Otherwise, readers won’t have much incentive to check out your material.

Allow plenty of time for writing your guest post. Even if you’re already an experienced blogger, guest posts can be tough to get right. You want to show off the best work you can do, and you may also need to alter your usual style slightly to fit well with the target blog. Edit carefully — not only for typos and spelling mistakes, but also for overall flow and structure.

Using your bio effectively

Include a link to your e-book or a specific resource in your bio. Don’t link only to your website — it isn’t enough of an incentive to encourage people to check it out. Your bio is a mini sales pitch, so make it good!

You might choose to promote an in-depth post on your website or a free resource you’ve created for your readers. I’ve had great success in promoting my free e-books (available only to my newsletter subscribers) and linking to the opt-in page on my newsletter.

If you want to promote your e-book directly, include a couple of phrases from reviews, especially if you’re guest-posting to promote your fiction work, where a short book description alone might not be enough to sell readers on your e-book. I wrote the following bio to promote my novel, Lycopolis:

Ali Luke is currently on a virtual book tour for her novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller centered on a group of online role players who summon a demon into their game … and into the world. Described by readers as “a fast and furious, addictive piece of escapism” and “absolutely gripping”, Lycopolis is available in print and e-Book form. Find out more at www.lycopolis.co.uk.

You can do the same with nonfiction, though a description of your e-book’s content should let readers know that it’s a good fit for them:

Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach. Her e-book The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing helps with every stage of the blogging process, from idea-generation to editing and polishing. It also includes templates to help you build solid posts, step by step. Click here to find out all about it.

A well-established blog that links to your site can help your site appear higher on a list of search engine results. For maximum effect, you may want to use keywords — phrases that members of your target audience are likely to search for — for the link that you put in your bio. This suggestion applies more to nonfiction writers than to novelists, though if you write fiction, try keywords such as cheap paranormal romance or technothriller. Keep in mind, though, that overoptimizing is frowned on by Google, so vary your links, perhaps sometimes using the name of your e-book or your blog instead. You may also draw more responses when you use a phrase such as Click here as the link.

Responding to comments on your guest post

Even if your own blog receives few comments, your guest posts will almost certainly receive a few more — perhaps even a few dozen. Some of these comments will be simple (“Great post!”), but others may include questions or discussion points you’ve raised.

Your host blog will probably expect you to respond to comments. Its hosts may even set up your post so that you receive an e-mail every time a reader leaves a comment, which helps you reply in a timely fashion. Whether or not you receive e-mails about comments, you should try to check in on your post a couple of times on the day of publication and during the next day. Respond to any questions, and thank readers for adding to the conversation.

The only time you might not want to reply is if a reader posts a negative comment. Perhaps the person disagrees with your post. Your subject matter, your writing style, and even the formatting of your post can all come under attack. Even if you feel upset and angry at this type of comment, never write a reply in the heat of the moment. If you’re unsure how to respond, or if the comment is addressed to the host blogger, contact your host, alert that person to the comment, and ask what you should do.

The vast majority of the comments you receive will be positive, though. You can be confident that a blog editor who has accepted and published your post will consider it of high quality. Any nasty, unkind comments you receive say more about the person writing them than they say about you.

Some bloggers like to reply to every single comment, even if that reply is a simple “Thanks!” Others prefer to respond only when their replies are meaningful. Unless you’ve had specific instructions or guidance from your host blog, it’s up to you how you choose to respond.