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7 Ways Guest Posting Can Boost Your Reputation

Posted By Guest Blogger 2nd of May 2011 Blog Promotion 0 Comments

This guest post is by Mathew Carpenter of Sofa Moolah.

I’m an avid blog reader. My Google Reader is packed with hundreds of different blogs, each one covering a subject that I may or may not be directly involved in. There’s the work and marketing category, the finance blogs, and then the blogs that deal with subjects I really don’t know anything about, nor do I have any interaction with in my work or personal life.

Every time I scan over these blogs, I’m reminded of how I came into contact with them in the first place. It wasn’t through search, or even social media. It was because the authors of these blogs—ones that I would never have found on my own—went out of their way to pen a guest post for another blog I followed.

There’s a slight stigma attached to guest posting, at least in the field I work in. When most people see a guest post their immediate reaction turns to working out what the writer is promoting. Sure, it’s not entirely commercial—most guest posts have great content and an interesting take that you might never otherwise see—but the assumption that guest posts are commercially motivated is a pretty tough one to shake.

Part of the reason for it is that throughout the last few years, or at least up until the most recent line or Google search shake-ups, posting on other blogs was a great way to provide link diversity for your website. It was the solution of choice for SEOs and bloggers alike, with both eyeing up blogs not as sources of information or worthwhile outlets, but as link resources waiting to be exploited.

Today, I’m going to look at a different side of guest posting, one that’s completely unrelated to search engine benefits or PageRank juice. Today, we’re going to look at the brand and reputation that can be created through smart guest blogging. From building an audience for your own blog to increasing awareness of your product, here’s why you should guest blog for reputation alone.

1.Fresh faces often become the best readers.

Amongst bloggers, there’s a belief that the longer someone continues to read your website, the more they’re worth, at least from a purely business standpoint. The idea is that by building trust with your readers, they become more likely to view your future projects as a serious possibility.

For some bloggers, this could mean more ebooks sold, more opt-in leads generated, or a greater amount of referred readers. But amongst experts in online advertising, the opposite belief is true. Online ad experts value fresh visitors significantly higher than they do returners, largely because they’re more responsive to new content, and more likely to be interested in advertising.

You don’t need to sell advertising space on your blog, nor do you need to have something to sell in order to understand the value here. Fresh faces may not have a deep level of trust with you, but they have a newness to them that can often lead to valuable action. From selling products to converting a clickthrough reader to a subscriber, gaining fresh readers from guest posting really does work.

2. Guest posting improves your search visibility.

In the earlier days of search engine optimization, bloggers desperately sought out other high-traffic blogs in order to gain link juice from their websites. The assumption was that by linking to their own websites from a more influential source, they would gain approval from Google, in turn increasing their own website’s search visibility.

That may still be true, but the benefit of guest posting appears to be decreasing somewhat over time, particularly as content farms and other search exploiters milk the strategy. However, the real strength of guest posting isn’t just its ability to increase your website’s search visibility, but your own.

When you have an archive of guest posts, perhaps five published on five different blogs, a search for your name reveals multiple angles of your online publishing, multiple resources that a reader can learn about you from, and an entire results page of content. That’s definitely worth more than a single, solitary result for your own website in the first position.

3. Purely business? Take an opportunity to share your interests.

One of the blogs I find myself reading most often, and one that I’ve gained a lot of information from, is Tim Ferriss’ blog. Equal parts business blog, travel guidebook, and sports nutrition cheat sheet, it’s an eclectic mix of different subjects joined to create a very popular, very acclaimed blog.

But what makes it so great isn’t necessarily the mix of styles, nor the quality of the content, but the fact that despite technically being one man’s blog, it’s been opened up to a range of high quality, no-nonsense guest posters. For every post by Tim there’s generally another from a guest poster, often one with little to do with the previous post.

It’s tempting to be purely business online, often in an attempt to promote the suit-and-tie image that so many people think is essential in a “professional” role. But online readers aren’t interested in just the business side of you. Every successful business blog I can point to has used guest posts and an assortment of other smart techniques to be just as much personal content as it is pure business.

4. Great guest posts can quickly open doors.

I’ve noticed that many bloggers have started offering consultancy services, often with a portfolio or order page linked to in the sidebar of their own blogs. It’s a great idea, and one that can produce a useful form of income for full-time bloggers and professionals alike. But why stop at using your blog as a promotional outlet? Why not indirectly advertise your services using another blog?

I’m not suggesting you take over someone else’s blog with a purely promotional post, nor am I suggesting that you buy advertising space on other blogs. What I am suggesting is that you view each guest post as an opportunity to extend your brand onto other people, and as a change to add another knot into your online net. Even a non-promotional post can work wonders when it comes to helping other readers remember both you, your blog, and your services.

5. It can take several encounters for a reader to start listening to you.

It’s always disheartening to see a great blog that’s been given about a week’s worth of attention. It’s not an uncommon sight online – blogs that have received a week of consistent content are left to die by their authors. The reason? They didn’t receive the “instant hit” status that far too many bloggers expect to experience.

There’s an old ad industry saying, that it takes anywhere from six to ten impressions for any single advertisement to have an effect on you. If your first guest post doesn’t hit home, relax. It’s the first of many chances to capture the reader’s attention. Write consistent content, not just for your blog, but for others too, and eventually you will build an audience that’s interested in listening to you.

6. Yes, there are SEO benefits to writing guest blog posts.

While guest posts, published articles, and other content-driven SEO strategies may have lost a little bit of their search influence in recent months, they’re still an effective strategy for driving your blog or website up the search results. However, there’s a catch—one that may not have been around in the earlier days of search engine optimization.

Instead of posting your articles anywhere and everywhere, it’s now more important than ever for you to pick outlets that are authoritative, reliable, and trusted by Google. Aim for blogs with high quality audiences. Not only will these produce the best search-related benefits, they’ll also bring in significantly better short-term results from your post’s readers.

7. Guest posting builds long-term online connections.

If there’s one true benefit of guest posting, it’s this. While guest posting is great for getting a leg-up in the search engines, boosting traffic, and expanding your online influence, it has one benefit that outweighs all of its others: the connections it can create with other bloggers, online publishers, and influential people.

Not all bloggers are based in their bedrooms. Many have offices, businesses, and connections with very important people. Guest posting opens this world up to you, at least in the small slice you can gain by interacting with other bloggers. It also opens up long-term terms connections, ones that are capable of producing guest posts on your blog, and a publishing network that’s second to none.

Recommended resources

ProBlogger’s own guide to guest posting may be a year old, but it’s every bit as relevant today as it was when it came out. Read this to get your guest posts polished, professional, and reader-friendly.

Copyblogger shares ten simple tips for getting “in” with A-list bloggers and networking your way to great guest posting opportunities.

My Blog Guest is a great way to network with other bloggers and find guest posting opportunities.

Have you written a guest post recently? Did it boost your reputation? I’d love to hear how it went in the comments.

Mathew Carpenter is an 18-year-old-business owner and entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. Mathew is currently working on Sofa Moolah, a website that teaches you how to make money online. Follow Mathew on Twitter: @matcarpenter. Follow Sofa Moolah on Twitter: @sofamoolah.

About Guest Blogger
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Comments
  1. Guest posting is my prefered method of promoting my blog. You get really high quality traffic and links as well as creating the relationships with other bloggers. I’ve had people offering me various jobs after having seen some of my guest posts.

    • When you are first starting out, nothing beats guest posting in terms of marketing your blog. Over time however, things like social media and sites like youtube will actually eclipse it. But for starting out, nothing beats it.

      • But I am wondering where I could start to be a guest post / writer? Any ideas or suggestions?

        • You have set your standard first,have to write few post in your personal website.Then you go for guest posting.Obviously it will open the door from different angle.It can increase search engine visibility too.Thanks for share Mathew.

  2. Guest Posting is pretty much similar to an Interview. If you are able to produce quality content on top notch blogs consistently, then you may receive a mail soon from the owner of the blog & they’ll hire you.

  3. The best and perfect way to gain a lot of traffic aside form giving your site a great presentation, this will also create a good relationship to fellow bloggers.

  4. Would you suggest go straight for the A list blogs or start off in smaller blogs?

    • I would say it doesn’t matter as long as your blog posts are relevant to the blog’s topic and provide great quality content. What the A list blogs are looking for are fresh perspectives on the topics they cover since nearly everything on the internet has been discussed to death. Fresh perspectives paired with quality useful content are what provide the uniqueness that the top bloggers are looking for!

    • It depends on what stage your blog is . If you get an opportunity to write at A list blog don’t miss out on it as you know A list blogs have much more traffic and get you much more traffic. The better reputation of blog the better traffic you get from your guest post.

  5. To make your blog more varied, guest posts may be something interesting to write in the blog. with traffic bound traffic and add to the reader to make their faith grow.

  6. After a while you can probably also run a high traffic blog purely on guest posts. I am a regular reader of Problogger and I hardly ever see posts by Darren these days. Not that I am complaining. The guest posts are all good.

    • Ya I totally agree with you as most of the top blogs run on this technique. Guest blogs get them daily fresh, unique and quality content which indeed brings up and binds the traffic . And about Darren he”s a busy person busy in other blogs and whats the need to post when the site is getting daily good content from guest blogs. Why should he overflood the blog ? :D

  7. I feel you contradict yourself a bit. You say that new readers are better, but then say that it takes eight times for a reader to be affected by an ad. That suggests return visitors are more important than you first explained. Just curious about that.

    • A new reader can read up to eight posts in a short amount of time, even in a single setting if they have the time and your blog is full of great posts. You can also benefit greatly if you’re About Me pages and your initial impact impression make a good first connection with people. Not only will you have an effect on them from providing a different take on subjects giving them a better perspective, they will be more inclined to spread the word. People tend to be more excited in the initial parts of discovering something new!

  8. Matthew, I enjoyed this article very much. I guest posted on a blog called Problogger recently. That is, two days before this post. The response was great and I think it boosted my reputation because I didn’t really have one prior to it (my blog is 1.5 months old). It was an ideal start to my blogging career. :-)

    • Good read Matthew. I’m trying to add more content to my blog before I begin the guest blog method. That way when the audience visits my blog, they’ll have plenty to do and read, like they’re at Disneyland.

      Until then, I’ll just guest post on my own blog.

      • Ohhhh, Forgot to mention, Stephen’s blog is funny as hell. If hell is funny anyway.

      • Thats a good statergy as most of the readers or visitors want is loads of content. Readers love pile of content. So I think so its better to add some quality content first and then start with the promotion like guest blogging , article writing, etc.

  9. What really impressed me (because I hadn’t thought of it) is your point that guest posting really does improve – not only your blog’s authority – but your own visibility online. Great article.

  10. Guest blogging is something I intend to do in the future.
    However, one needs time to create a great guest post.

  11. Finally, a post that actually has all the info about guest posts I’ve always needed. I never liked the idea of it because I thought it would hurt me, as I wanted to keep my blog personal and stick to my own way of writing. Over the past few months, I’ve definitely changed my view on it. I guess I’ll have to do that soon :)

  12. I think every blogger should write Guest Post because Guest Post benefits everyone. The blog owner gets some fresh and new content with some great insights. Readers get a new voice to hear. And the Guest blogger gets backlinks, traffic and some new readers added to their mailing list…….

  13. I use word press, where do you find a plug in for a guest post to make? I looked but haven’t found one. Is the above mentioned what that is, like my blog guest?

  14. Matthew,
    I haven’t guest posted yet and I am also considering letting others guest-post on my blog. It’s a win-win situation in my book as far as guest-posting goes.

  15. This is an awesome post, I am just getting into the guest posting thing myself and was unsure about some things. I think you cleared most of it up thank you Matthew.

  16. You used the term: Went out of your way to pen a guest post.

    This is a great concept and one I never thought of yet. Imagine getting over 100 or more regular Blog Visitors from one single guest post?

    This concept sounds so good.

  17. Thanks for sharing this useful post. I’ll guest post on one blog soon and build enough reputation as you said, thanks.

  18. You’ve missed one of the most important reputation building tool – Twitter. The “Follow & Follower” mechanism builds a true reputation and that’s different from any other social media tool.

  19. Well I do certainly believe that every content deserves its respect, and this post has certainly earned my. Great writing here! But I do have a concern when it comes to excessive guest posting where all links are tagged with a NoFollow, doesn’t that hurt a website in some way? To my belief I always thought it did, but perhaps not, can anyone clear me up a little.

  20. Guest posting is a good way to boost your online image. That is a well known fact now. I agree with all your points.

    Thanks and regards,
    Ashvini

  21. Much thanks for sharing such a good post, i think guest posting is a great way to get yourself ‘out there’ in the blogosphere. Thanks once again.

  22. Hey Matt,

    Being a passionate guest blogger myself I truly agree with the points you have mentioned above. In particular the ones that turn out to be my favourites are #4 and #7.

    I got seriously big traffic (I mean loyal readers and not the spike for a day) and got hired by a couple of cool clients after my guest posts on Problogger.

    As you say, the more places you offer (quality) content the more visible you are and you hit people from various places so that they can’t miss you that easily.

    Of course, I couldn’t deny the fact that guest posts build long term super relationships, both with the host blogger and the numerous commenters.

    Great post.

    Cheers,
    Jane.

  23. Hi Matthew,

    Great blog post! Yeah, it’s true indeed that guest posting can help you boost your reputation around the blogosphere, and it is a great way to promote your blog! =)

    I really agree with #4. Guest posting helps you build relationships with the blogger and his readers, and gives you new opportunities. :)

    Cheers,
    Gloson

  24. There are many advantages to guest posting but I find it a little difficult to find blogs that allow guest posting. Do you have any tips on finding such blogs?

  25. Another thing to think about is when a guest post doesn’t get accepted the first few times around… like maybe you aren’t providing the type of topic coverage, or the quality may be slightly under par. It’s important to realize that you have no limit to how many times you can try, how many topics/perspectives are available to write about, and the only way it won’t work is if you give up or never try.

    Sticking to this strategy is, in my opinion, the most efficient way of delivering what you have to offer to people that are already established blog readers. I liked this post, it was really refreshing!

  26. Your google reader is packed with hundreds of different blogs? Wow, how do you keep up! Hah. Nice Post. I was thinking of mixing up my blog actually this morning. Its a good idea to have a little humor and not SO SERIOUS all the time. Yea

  27. I am still considering whether to open my blog for guest postings.. I had a few interests but so far I rejected them. I guess I’m just not ready to open my blog for guest postings yet..dunno why? Perhaps too scared of the quality, or perhaps I just want my blog to be taken care by myself

  28. Great tips! I am going to be guest blogging at a couple of places soon and needed some great tips! Thanks.

  29. Yes, I agree with you that it’s is difficult to change the notion that guest posts is another form of promotion for the writer, because in one way or another, it definitely is. It helps you to establish your credibility in the said field and you knowledge on how certain things work in a specific industry.

    I also agree that guest posts usually help in giving a fresher perspective on certain topics. When ideas start to get old, chances are nobody would want to read them anymore. In my case, whenever I see a guest post, I easily get magnetized into reading it because I know that this writer has something fresh to offer — well, just like your post here.

    Great stuff! Congratulations!

  30. Hey,
    I am a new bloger. I don’t understand what the topic to write for gust post is. In this blog i read many advices by famous blogers like Darren Rowse: How to be a successful bloger etc?

    To be honest i have little idea for blog improvement. Then i am writing in my blog about how to lead a happy life etc. My question is: am I doing a right thing to be a successful bloger? Or do I have to write something as Darren doing for his blog?

    Wishing your kind reply
    Thank you
    Amor

  31. I tried to visit your blog by clicking on: This guest post is by Mathew Carpenter of Sofa Moolah. and it says the account has been suspended? I want to see your posts, I enjoyed this one immensely. I’m an avid blog reader too.

    Sarah

  32. Nice info, sounds like great way to get more exposure and even backlinks .

  33. Guest posting is a phenomenon!
    It is a true symbiosis in the blogging ‘wild life’.
    An excellent way for a blogger to promote himself and to create connections, and an amazing source of solid and quality posts for famous blogs, cause if someone wants to show their self in the best light, there is no doubt they are bringing their A game.

  34. Great Post Mathew.

    You are absolutely right that guest posting builds your reputation, but one should be consistent in writing a guest post not like me where I’ve posted one but disappear after that due to topic. And, I think SEO people are also considering to have a guest post in their to do list or optimizing for client site.

    Thanks.

  35. thanks for your plug in recommendation…

  36. Good thought about guest posting ! All 7 ways are very effective for guest posting. And I agree with Hyderali about SEO people are considering to have a guest post.
    Thanks for good sharing !

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