You may have heard about guest blogging as a great way of promoting your profile online, getting more targeted web traffic and even some valuable links to your site and are keen to get started.
But it is worth thinking about how you can get the very most from your guest blogs.
First - it is really worth planning your guest blog as part of a series.
Think about your guest post as a introduction or overview of a topic. You really do need to offer great information or tips in this first article so both your blog host and their readers get access to really high value content.
But make sure that you also publish follow up articles or resources on your website.
Your follow up articles may go into more detail on an aspect of the topic you’ve covered in your guest post, they may give more tips or further resources or a different way of solving a problem or issue. Your free download may be written, audio or video. The important thing is that your follow up materials should be relevant to your guest post, offer really high value content and be really attractive to those people who have read your guest post.
Second – ensure there is a call to action
In your guest post, ensure that your bio slug (the short biography at the end of your article) offers readers the opportunity to visit your site to get further resources, or read your follow up articles, or download a free resource. Express this offer as a clear and simple call to action, for example, for my free guide How to Plan your Book in 90 Minutes click here.
What should your bio slug include?
Apart from a call to action, a good bio slug should also have:
- Your photo
- A statement of the results you achieve for customers (the benefits you bring)
- Your name, title and website address
- If there is some space – a few words demonstrating your credibility e.g. Author of Toilet Training Made Easy
Next - as soon as your guest post has been published, you can start to share the news
Some ways you can do this:
- Tell people through your mailing list
- Tell people through Twitter
- Post an update via Facebook
- Put a post on your blog with a link to the guest post
- Post an update via LinkedinPost an update via Google+ – using your profile and your business page
- If you have been published by a site or organisation with a high profile, list this on your website with the organisation’s logo
Finally – remember to connect and respond!
- Set up a Google alert for any references to you article – visit the relevant sites and respond to any comments and references to your article
- If you are using wordpress – do the same with any pingbacks
- Respond and engage with any comments on your guest post
- Respond to any comments you get through social media and keep the conversation going!
This will help you get a lot more value from the time you take to guest post and to develop new relationships and more interest in you and what you do.
By Sonia Thomas
The post How to Get More from Guest Blogging appeared first on Business Coach London | Small Business Coaching and Mentoring.
