Guest posting is a common practice in which you write a blog post for another blog. It’s typically a marketing tactic used to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and invite engagement from a specific group. Blogs that accept guest posts usually have guidelines on their website.
The Benefits of Guest Posting
While guest posting for SEO (backlinks) has lost its punch, people seem to have forgotten the other reason for guest posting – exposure – which is every bit as valuable. Guest posts on niche blogs on a topic that compliments your own blog, can be much more valuable than guest posting on high traffic blogs that have little in common with your business or blog. You can also select local or Canadian blogs if that’s where your market is.
The majority of bloggers allow a link in the author bio and that’s where the value is for you. If you want to feature a link within the article itself, you may have to pay a nominal fee. Some bloggers have very creative options for advertisers. For example, a few will write a guest post for you featuring your website or product and include the link for a fee.
Another benefit is establishing your expertise on a topic, which is a proven way to increase conversions. Becoming known as an authority on a topic can lead to trust-based sales, “online authority” ranking, inbound links, media interview requests, or even book deals.
Increasing Holiday Traffic and Conversions
Your goal is to be helpful and/or entertaining so you attract readers, be it clicks through the host’s social media promotion of your post, or through the searches of people seeking help through Google. Ultimately, you’ll somehow relate the holidays to your business.
Virtually any product, service or business can be tied to the holidays with a little creative thought, even in business-to-business (B2B) scenarios. For instance, if you have a marketing info-product you could write about online holiday marketing for businesses. A warehouse machinery supplier could write about increasing the efficiency of holiday order fulfillment using high-tech equipment.
Holiday topics may include:
- Finding the perfect gift for…
- Creating gifts (crafts, recipes, etc.)
- Specific gift feature comparisons, such as the best software for amateur photographers.
- Holiday activities & events, such as finding a dress for a Christmas party or selecting a gift for your boss.
- Holiday problems, like coping with house guests or keeping pets out of gifts.
- Topical tips for an economical holiday, such as finding the best deal on holiday items or making your own decorations.
- Holiday humor, such as family Christmas shenanigans or office party fails.
- Writing a post around branded, festive infographics, memes, or DIY videos increases both traffic and social sharing.
- Relate a charity topic to the holidays, such as food bank drives or shelter pet pictures with Santa.
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For more ideas, try a keyword research tool. For example, Semrush tracks many different keyword metrics including volume, competition score, top 20 organic results, and monthly trends. Long Tail Pro Keyword Research Software quickly generates thousands of keywords at once. Enter your business and product keywords to see what people are searching for this time of year, as well as what your competitors are doing.
It’s important to remember that a guest post is not a press release or an opportunity to directly promote your products. It’s also not a job for your average marketer. Even a Masters in Marketing does not mean a marketer can write effectively for blogs and social media, because both require talent as much as knowledge. If you or your staff have the talent you can write the guest post yourself, or have a freelance writer research, compose and illustrate useful content for exclusive submission. It is critical that you and your writer check the blog for guest post guidelines and follow them to the letter if you want the post to be published.
Have you been doing some holiday guest posting? Please share your experience in the comments below or join us in the Online Business Canada Facebook group.
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Melody McKinnon is an internet entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in a wide range of online business models, backed by a formal business/marketing education and enhanced by training and mentorship. She has owned or managed both educational and ecommerce websites. Her book, 7 Recession Proof Online Businesses to Start From Home, is available from all major ebook retailers.
Melody has worked with many businesses in a multitude of capacities. She can often be found on CanadianDigitalMedia.com, CanadiansInternet.com, CanadianFamily.net, and AllNaturalPetCare.com, as well as other quality digital publications. Her content has earned reference links from highly-respected websites, magazines and university textbooks.
I really enjoyed this post. Your clear and detailed explanations, combined with the practical advice you’ve shared, make this a great resource for anyone interested in the topic. I look forward to reading more of your work!
Excellent post! It captivated me from start to finish. I’m always on the lookout for such informative and well-structured content.
How do you get people to take your guest post submissions seriously when there are so many SEO scammers doing it? I personalize the pitches but I know most are ignored because people think it’s SEO spam. There’s always people who ruin it 4 everybody else! 🙁
I think I’m going to have to hire blog writers next year because I just can’t produce enough on my own. Not high quality anyway and I hate AI writing so that’s out.
……and when you DO get a do follow link it’s even better because you chose the site because it’s similar to your own. Links on random sites don’t do as much good for SEO. Market like it says here FOR THE PERSON DOING THE SEARCHING. Everything else will fall into place if you do that and your marketing will be successful in many ways instead of just one.
Awesome! It’s a really impressive post, and I now have a very clear understanding of the subject.
I was astounded by the response I received from my first guest post and I’ve never looked back!!
I write guest posts for other companies and the opportunities have exploded in the past couple of years. Some agencies will do you more harm than good because their writing is just so bad…stay away from them! It’s better to buy fewer posts than to buy cheap crappy writing.
I just submitted my first guest post! It’s positively thrilling! I can’t wait to see how much traffic I get.
The ideas are inspiring so I’ll give it a try this morning. Wish me luck!
I have to do better at guest posting. I don’t try hard enough to find time for it and I’m thinking scheduling it might help. Maybe one day a month just for writing guest posts?