Guest blogging is a simple concept that some bloggers have been able to leverage to generate vast amounts of income. Guest bloggers write articles that appear on another blog and are paid for their services. Getting started is the most difficult part as you try to establish a market presence, but a few simple tips will help.
#1 Build a following first
The most popular guest bloggers (who can therefore charge the highest fees) are those with big follower counts. The reasons for this are clear. A big blog enjoys traffic, and the blogger has proven themselves to be an effective marketer and an adept writer. You won’t have much success trying to source clients if you’ve only just started blogging, don’t have many articles online, and only a small pool of readers.
It can be frustrating, but you need to work on building your follower count before you diversify into guest blogging. Gaining followers isn’t easy, but a basic strategy involves frequently blogging (multiple times per week), implementing effective SEO, including a healthy link profile, and integrating social media with your blog. The latter might be the most important tip of all, as a strong social media following invariably translates into more readers.
#2 Work with an agency
Content agencies like clickintelligence.co.uk offer guest blogging services as standard, and working with these is a fantastic way to kickstart your career. Professional guest blogging services do more than just guarantee the quality of your work. They integrate proper SEO, build a good link profile, drive higher traffic levels, and are fully scalable to accommodate your needs.
Better still, these services allow you to place bulk orders of multiple guest posts, each unique. Search engines penalize plagiarized or recycled content, but it’s time-consuming and difficult to produce a huge range of new blog posts. Agencies help you generate guest posts and drive traffic to your own blog, boosting your profile.
#3 Don’t be afraid to pitch
Pitching in any form is a scary prospect, and cold pitches are even more daunting. Reaching out to popular blogs and offering your services as a guest blogger seems like a massive hurdle, and it’s one that many bloggers find themselves unable to overcome. Cold pitching is, though, the only way that you’ll be able to launch your guest blogging career in the early days, so, as frightening as it might seem, it is essential. After all, the worst the other blog can say is no, and then you can move on to the next.
Getting the tone of the cold pitch right is difficult. Too many bloggers focus on themselves, their qualifications, portfolio, and ability as writers. While this is important (and you absolutely should sell yourself in the cold pitch) more focus should be placed upon how you can help the other blog. Why should they choose you? What advantages will you give them? How will you help them to grow their audience? Focussing on these questions gives your cold pitch the best chance of success.
