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Srikar Srinivasula is a tech enthusiast and loves to keep himself up-to-date by reading blogs on all things tech. Professionally he is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of www.shopsmart.online & eflairwebtech.com. You can reach him on Twitter @srikar115.

Guest post blogging is an excellent way for a writer or a website owner to get his or her material out there to the masses. Writing guest blog posts can also pay quite a bit more than writing for content mills where you would only make single digits for lengthy posts. Another advantage of having a guest post published is that you will usually be allowed to include a byline with your name and link. This allows you to get proper credit for your work and can be an excellent way to direct traffic to your own personal blog, increasing its credibility with the search engines. You will probably also gain some new readers.

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Bloggers will often pay generously for good content and usually welcome guest posts. However, a green guest blogger must use a strategy if that person expects the posts to be approved by the webmaster. The following are five tips that can help to secure approval for guest posts:

1. Ensure That You Write in Your Niche

The most important tip for creating successful guest posts is to post in your niche, at least your first few times. Not everyone’s material carries over with the same effectiveness across genres. For example, the voice of a finance writer is not the same as the voice of a travel writer. The reviewer who reads your entry will quickly recognize your passion about a subject. Since they’re going to let you link back to your own site, you’ll seem like more of an expert to their readers if your own blog is along the same lines as your guest post. Another reason to write about what you know is that your guest post could turn into a series. You will want to be able to come up with plenty of more material on the same subject in case you are asked back. Exploring and experimenting are healthy, but you may have a disaster on your hands if you wander outside of your niche for a guest post. Be sure to only pitch to blogs that are accepting posts on your niche topic since most blogs are limited to certain subjects.

2. Deliver Fresh Content

Internet readers do not want to read the same dry material with the same dry style day in and day out. Fresh material means a fresh voice, a new look, and a cool personality. Avoid closely paraphrasing other people’s work, which is unlikely to showcase your true creativity. A creative writer can take a boring blog about a bump on a log and electrify it with life. Tell them something they don’t already know. Shock them with little-known facts. Impress them with a clever pun or make them laugh. All readers desire a jolt of some kind, and daily blogs are like daily cups of coffee. A guest post should be more like a double shot of espresso.

3. Create Quality Content

In the blogosphere, content is king. A surefire way to get your guest blog post approved is to create quality content. You will want to ensure that the piece is free of grammatical errors and spelling errors. You should seek perfection even if such is not possible within the realm of writing. This is your one chance to make a first impression with your exemplary writing skills, and you will save the editors time and aggravation by performing several grammar and spelling checks. Read your post out loud to see how it sounds, and perhaps have a friend proofread it. There is no substitute for a second set of eyes for noticing something you may have missed. Conducting your own proofreading tasks can keep your guest blog from ending up in the recycle bin.

When you read over your post, it’s not just for the purpose of correcting grammar and spelling. Ideally, you will brutally edit the post until the wording is just right. The true art of writing isn’t in what you produce in that first draft. The art is in choosing what to remove. Think of writing as chiseling away at a huge chunk of rock until you are left with a beautiful sculpture.

4. Pick a Hot Topic, or Twist and Blaze a Not-So-Hot Topic

Choosing a hot topic is the key to getting a guest blog approved. Modern society is grossly trendy, which means that people follow whatever is popular. If you choose a hot topic, then the site owner is likely to flip your article like it’s hotcakes. Timing is everything, so posting about a trending subject can be your ticket to success. Alternatively, you can gain publishing on a not-so-hot topic by “putting some hot sauce on it.” You can add a sizzling element to it that makes it stand out so much that readers will not be able to resist reading it. Put a new and relevant spin on a tried and true subject that people always enjoy reading about.

Many guest blog opportunities require that you first write a pitch, and you’ll need to make your pitch stand out. In this situation, you won’t be selling an entire post just yet; you are selling an idea for a post, so make it a good one. Be sure to read all instructions regarding blog submissions. You may be able to somehow tie your own niche topic in with another subject they are asking people to write about.

5. Evoke Emotional Responses and Intellectual Stimulation

Finally, your blog should aim to evoke either emotional responses or intellectual stimulation. You may find your blog reviewer falling asleep if you do not hit at least one of those two targets. An intellectual blog should be heavy on the research and light on the storytelling. An emotional blog should be friendly, down-to-earth and personal. There is something inspiring about a blog post where the writer has let down his or her guard a little. Avoid being too sterile with your writing. Let people in on your true feelings, which are probably very relatable to others. Have an idea who your audience is. An emotional blog post should read as if you are a real person speaking to another real person. Emotional blogs are best written in casual attire. Mess your hair up a bit and relax. Trying to sound too formal with your wording can stifle creativity.

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The above-mentioned tips should greatly boost your publishing probability. Always save your work. A post may not work in one venue but would be perfect for another. If you write quality posts and keep submitting samples to different sites, the sheer volume of your efforts will get you results. Embrace the challenge, and keep a positive outlook.

Learn how to use guest blogging to move your business or blog to the next level: “Write. Publish. Grow. The Ultimate Guide To Guest Blogging!”

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