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There is a reason why some of the best bloggers and online marketers out there even after years of bein successful still write one guest post after the other. And the truth is that done right, guest blogging is one of the most effective marketing strategies – and it is accessible to everyone who can put together a decent piece of written content.

You may not instantly be able to land a gig with one of the biggest blogs out there, you may not even be able to write for your favorite blog. But you don’t need to. Starting small even with guest blogging and working your way up is totally legitimate. You will still see a ton of success if you follow some basic guest posting best practices and keep in mind that like every other online marketing strategy guest posting success needs some time and persistence to grow and mature.

Before you jump right into creating your first guest post, sit back and think about what you want to achieve, mistakes, you should avoid and what you need to keep in mind to make guest posting a successful strategy.

Here are 5 great reasons to start guest blogging. Decide why you are going to create awesome guest posts and optimize your posts and everything around them for your goals.

1. SEO

There has been a lot of talk about if guest posting for SEO would be dead or alive. The truth is if you don’t try to take a shortcut and game Google with crappy content guest posting still offers a great opportunity to earn backlinks. And these earned backlinks will count in search engines.

There still are the case studies and success stories that guest blogging has a positive impact on search traffic. And certainly, you can use this strategy, too.

Simply keep in mind:

• choose quality sites for your guest post, that regularly update their content with good quality content
• create awesome content that offers value to the audience of the blog
• don’t „buy“ guest posts – bought links still can result in down ranking from Google

Image Source Ahrefs Blog

2. Email Subscribers

One of the ost effective strategies to use guest posting that is not SEO traffic is growing email subscribers.

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing assets but when you are starting out that list is probably small. To grow this list fast you may want to consider guest blogging (you would not be the first to do so).

There are many examples of people who grew their email list with guest blogging, Gregory Ciotti is one of them. He managed to earn over 36 k email subscribers for the help scout blog with guest posting.

Often the trick to get more subscribers from guest posting is a call-to-action in combination with a freebie offered in exchange for the email address. If you place that either in the post, the author bio, or in an additional, highlighted space you will instantly see the results.

Image Source Copyblogger

3. Social Media Followers

When I first started guest posting a couple of years ago my Twitter account had a meager 400 followers, and I had not much of a clue on how to grow it. And then one of my first guest posts on Jeff Bullas Blog brought me a couple of hundred new followers. With one simple blog post, I had easily doubled my followers on Twitter.

And all that while I had no clue about guest blogging, my author bio was far from optimal, it totally lacked a call to action.

Just imagine what my results could have been had I know about Call-To-Actions or even thought about adding a freebie to the bio.

4. Traffic

When we first started with guest blogging, we were looking for quick results. Today, after doing online marketing for a couple of years, I would say that is rather short sighted.

True, a post on a huge blog can give you a little traffic if you place a link at the right spot and get people to click. But regarding traffic, the real power of guest blogging is in SEO – and credibility, trust, and recognition that you can build.

Focusing on short term traffic can easily result in missing out on the huge impact a consistent and ongoing guest posting strategy could give you if you just had the patience.

Image Source Ahrefs Blog

4. Credibility and Trust

When you are new to the game, the most important factor that you probably lack and desperately need is trust! Trust is one of the most important triggers of sales. If people don’t trust you, they are not going to buy from you.

And one way to earn credibility at least for your content is to get published on other people’s blogs. After all the minimum you need to getting a guest post published is that the blog host likes your article and deems it good enough to present it to his audience.

Guest posting helps you get your name in front of a much larger and new audience. And featuring your post works like a tiny endorsement or recommendation from your blog host.

5. Community

One key to blogging and content marketing success is your network. I am not talking about link networks or something other rather shady. I am talking about a blogger community of which you are a part.

I don’t know to how many blogs you are subscribed – I am subscribed to a fair number of marketing blogs. And one thing I noticed a short time into getting a couple of marketing newsletters was that all these bloggers are interlinked. They help each other promote their offers whether it be webinars or ebooks, free stuff or new products. They help each other – and they all profit from it.

And a first step towards building your own network of blogging friends and colleagues is getting in touch – and what better way to connect than over an outstanding guest post.

Final Words On Guest Blogging

Before you jump on the guest blogging hype and start guest blogging, make sure that you know exactly what your goals are. Guest blogging can be a time-consuming task. Optimizing everything around your guest blog for your goals will, in the end, provide you with much better results. Starting your guest blogging without a clear perspective can easily result in frustration and failure.

Guest blogging is a huge opportunity – but it can also be a huge waste of time. If you want to go for it, make sure that you get it right. Your blog or business will thank you for it!

We have used guest blogging to grow two businesses.

We have published guest posts on major blogs like Social Media Examiner and Jeff Bullas’ Blog.

We have used guest blogging to grow traffic, followers and even email subscribers.

Learn how to find the best blogs, create the optimal content and get more out of your guest blogging efforts with our ebook “Read. Write. Grow. The Ultimate Guide To Guest Blogging!”

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