It’s easy to think that anyone who is doing well online with their content and business must be a “pro” or have “natural talent” that somehow God neglected to bless you with.
The funny thing is that I have read Glen claim that he doesn’t think he’s that great of a writer, yet month after month, year after year, he releases some of the most useful content on the web.
But that’s not where it all started for him: he has also done plenty of guest posts, impressing new audiences and demanding their attention.
A measly Google search will show you the variety of guest posts he has released.
You also have someone like Onibalusi who went on a guest posting spree and caught the attention of a client.
The guy now makes around $3000-$4000 per month working for clients who wouldn’t have picked up on his writing skills, if Onibalusi wouldn’t have put himself out there.
Pat caught Yaro Starak’s attention and managed to get interviewed by one of the most well-known bloggers on the scene. Not quite a guest post, but the idea is the same: he positioned himself in front of a new and much bigger audience.
Not that I’d ever compare myself to these slick web entrepreneurs, but here I am: being featured on another guest post.
I have only begun my guest posting strategy and I’m already seeing my numbers grow: RSS, Twitter, e-mail subscribers and daily visitors have all increased.
This hasn’t happened on an epic scale yet, but results like these are encouraging to see after a good year of not getting anywhere:
Even though a lot of successful bloggers tout the benefits of guest blogging, most of us fail to actually go through with it.
Why?
Because we are lazy and we think that we will get “there” by quicker and faster means.
Hopefully, after these three hugely successful examples, you are catching on the fact that although guest posting requires major effort, it’s one of the best ways to grow the readership for your blog.
I’m about to share 12 steps to creating worthwhile, jaw-droppingly awesome posts that will help spread your flare all over the internet:
Step 1: Write Down Any & All Ideas You Have
Any guest post begins with a small idea.
In fact, this guest post came to me not on some creative whim, but solely because I wanted to share my journey of growing my audience.
Even though there are plenty of people around the web doing it, I know I can bring my own personal experience to this post.
More on that later.
However, there are days when I am absolutely stumped about guest post ideas.
Those days, I fire up my laptop and spend an hour writing down the slickest or dumbest post ideas I can whip up.
The quality doesn’t matter here. The fact that you are exercising your brain does!
But here’s why this is important: usually one of these ten crappy ideas later yields a solid guest post.
It’s funny that when you return to your ideas on another day, the same “lame idea” can be polished into a golden goose egg.
Don’t be hard on yourself and “just write”.
Step 2: Which Ideas Do You Have Experience With & Can Bring a Personal Angle To?
Would I love to do a guest post about earning $100k from one of my product launches? You bet!
But if I did that, it wouldn’t be true to my personal experiences!
Look over your guest post ideas and see which ones you can bring your personal experience and angle to.
Better yet, what is your expertise?
Stay cautious of what you are putting out there and be honest.
You can create killer content even if you aren’t where you would like to be!
I know this because I have been crafting guest posts for the last couple of months and have been receiving positive signals (e-mails with questions, increased downloads and visits) indicating that they are being appreciated by quite a number of people.
There’s no reason that can’t be you.
Step 3: Accept the Fact That 95% of Your Ideas Will Be Mediocre Duds
I cannot emphasize this enough: you need to accept that your initial ideas may be nothing more than polished crap.
Just to give you an idea, on one of my off days, this was one of my guest post ideas: “Copywriting Skills Are Necessary to Make it Online”.
If boring titles had a ‘Most Boring Title of the Year’ award, then this one would have taken it home for sure.
There isn’t one of you who wouldn’t agree with me that the idea behind the guest post seems pretty generic.
However, within the next few days, I was able to create a mighty guest post around this idea with a sweet title.
Step 4: Save Editing for the End & Just Write!
I have this nagging habit: I edit as I write.
Trying things the other way, I can tell you that it is far more effective to write in the moment and edit your work later than to critique yourself as you go.
Not only does the latter break your concentration, but it can also put you in a frustrating mood.
Focus on the immediate task: writing the first draft of your content.
Step 5: “Craft” Your Guest Post with Juicy, Specific Details
The best posts I have ever read online are the ones that are full of juicy details.
The bloggers that I mentioned earlier not only include their own experiences, but also make it easy for their readers to follow along by breaking things down.
You’re reading this because you want to know how I create my guest posts, right?
You want the details. Juicy. Luscious. Details.
Proof like statistics, charts and graphs can take your content from “boring” general content to a great, personal case study.
Step 6: Screw the “Process”, Go With The Flow
After a month and a half of crafting these guest posts, I can tell you that I don’t have a set process.
There are days when I “feel like” writing headline ideas first.
Then there are days when the body of the post flows out of me and the headline is secondary.
Then there are days when only stinkers are produced.
What I’m trying to drill into you is that only you know yourself best. Don’t get hung up on how it’s suppose to be done, but rather how your brain works.
And if this is your first time crafting a set of guest posts, then you’re about to learn what makes you tick and how you can refine your writing skills.
Not to sound like a nerd, but this self-discovery process has been the best part of going on a guest posting binge.
Step 7: Accept That It Could Take You Several Days to Come Up With a Worthy Post
When you look at how the pros do it, it is jaw dropping. Look at what Jon Morrow said on Twitter recently:
Jon Morrow has incredible writing skills.
In fact, he is so good with his writing that he inspired me to take what I’m doing and to do it 100 times better. Or at least die trying.
So here I am.
Let me ask you this: Is it better to write 2-3 mediocre guest posts that take you 4-5 hours to compose or is it better for you to craft a pretty fine guest post that has the potential to go viral (and increased chances of being accepted by the big bloggers)?
I’ll take my chances with the latter.
So should you.
Even if your content doesn’t go viral, you will receive a nice influx of subscribers to your e-mail list and you will position yourself as an authority in front of these new comers.
Step 8: If Post Doesn’t Feel Incredible, Scrap It & Start Over
About a month ago, I received a request for a guest post for a blog that wasn’t necessarily big, but has the sense of a tight knit community.
As excited as I was, I accepted the opportunity and a few days later, sent my guest post.
But the content of the guest post never felt “right”.
Lo and behold, I received a response back which critiqued quite a few parts of the post. I agreed with this blogger whole-heartedly.
Which is why when I came up with close to 500 words for another post that didn’t feel right, I decided to scrap it entirely.
No “salvaging”; I gutted it entirely.
I started fresh, with a much better flow and angle and I don’t regret getting rid of those initial 500 words.
Want to be the best?
Work like the best. Don’t be afraid to discard what’s not working.
Step 9: Spend Few Hours Editing the Heck Out of Your Post
If you take barely 15-30 minutes editing your content, you are doing it wrong.
Editing should be done a day or two later as it helps to look at your content with a set of fresh eyes.
Trying to focus on one task for hours leaves me with what I call the “cloud head” syndrome where everything starts melding together.
At that point, my brain is so tired I can’t decipher anything for the life of me.
Chances are, your brain goes through the same overwhelm and won’t produce the same quality of results as it would another day after a grand break.
Step 10: Go Over Your Checklist
Think you’re done? Think again.
A superb guest post will have a title that snags the reader right in.
People love case studies, numbers and personal content so make sure to capture their attention the best way possible: catchy headlines!
Next, please check your grammar and spelling.
As obvious as this is, nothing turns me off more than reading content on some of the seemingly better blogs only to see missing periods and broken sentences all over the place.
I’m sorry, but if you can’t get the basics right, I can’t see you as an authority figure.
I see you as someone who is sloppy and someone who I can definitely do better than.
[Note: there is a big difference between content that has a minor misspelling versus a whole post that is full of broken English. No thank you!]
Never forget to double check your guest post to make sure that you have included proper links back to your own content.
Also, make sure to include a witty author blurb (with a call-to-action) and to make sure that your content is well done.
Like a fine chili that has been marinating and cooking for days.
You want all the bits and pieces of your post to come together in a way that sets it apart from everyone else’s and entices people all over to read it.
Step 11: Let a Friend Read Over Your Post
I am lucky to have a small network of bloggers who I call my friends.
To make sure that my content is useful and not boring, I’ll have a friend or two read my content to give me any tips.
If they report back to me that my content is lame, it’s a no-go.
If they find it to be interesting, heck yeah, it’s on it’s way to a major blog.
Time to reap some goodness.
Step 12: Submit Guest Post to Suitable Blog
After submitting five guest posts last month, I’m now getting a better feel for which blogger might appreciate a certain guest post.
You definitely want to match a suitable guest post for the proper audience.
This is something that you will pick up in time.
I received at least two rejections for two different guest posts; I had two choices: feel bummed and watch my blog die a slow death or just keep going.
I chose to keep going.
It’s all about what the blogger feels their audience may be interested in, so don’t feel bad about any rejections.
Use rejections to improve your writing.
Ask what didn’t work about the post. You can always improve it and re-submit it or start from scratch.
An Extra Step for the Truly Ambitious
Want this to be a breakout year for you?
Want to gain 200-300 e-mail subscribers to get your list started?
For small bloggers, this may seem like a daunting task. So did it for me.
However, once you do it and experience the results firsthand, you’ll stay inspired to work your tushy off!
Now that you know how to create witty and useful guest posts, you have much more ahead of you.
What you need to plan isn’t just a random guest post here or there.
Rather, you need to aim for multiple guest posts in one week.
You need to bombard the internet with your ingenious guest posts so people see your name over and over all around the web.
“They” say that people need to see your brand/name around 7-8 times for them to remember it.
Also, when people see multiple guest posts by you on big blogs, it gives the impression that you are an authority.
How freakin’ cool is that?
The bad news is that most of you will read this, move on and do nothing.
The good news is by putting an effective strategy like this into play, you’re already ahead of 90% of bloggers and you’re taking your success into your own hands.
I know you need more good news so here: if you implement this strategy even halfway, you’ll still end up with good results.
Bottom line is that if you want to grow your e-mail list or your readership in general, then you should plan on taking the biggest and most effective strategies you can.
Guest posting happens to be one of them. I’m in the process of doing this myself.
Which one of you will join me? Who out of all of you will take your future into your own hands?
What I like in guest posting is the guest can write anything he/she wants within his or her niche topic. Aside from the link itself, doing guest posting can help a guest to become popular especially if the blog already gained a name. New friends will surely be discover because of this process.
I think Moon hit it on the head when he mentions the amount of work and it being easy to put off.
I think the problem is that we are programed to work hard and with passion when we are doing something for personal gain and the perception I think is that guest posting would be for someone elses gain.
I have done a few guest posts recently and I am actually amazed that I tend to spend more time and care more about the guest posts then I might on my own post. Not that I am not OCD about my own work. I think it might be because someone else will be judging it and nobody wants to get rejected.
The thing to remember is that a guest post on another blog will often be much more beneficial than just adding that as another post on your own blog. Once that is accepted then bloggers, especially knew bloggers should actually put out just as many guest posts as they are adding to their own blog in my opinion.
I actively seek guest posts for my site and it’s actually hard to get them. And even then, about 33% of the guest posts submitted are pure crap with nonsensical text and full of typos and bad spelling.
If you are interesting in writing and contributing guest posts my advice is just focus on the details and think about what the websites have to deal with every day. If you make their job easier to say yes to your post, you’ll have a much easier chance of getting your guest post approved.
About 90% of all guest posts that are submitted to TGC are a disgrace, Steve; I completely agree.
Hi Moon, thanks for sharing the Tips.
Guest Posting is indeed a Great tool to get your blog out there, am currently working on this technique and Probably I will be guest Posting Here soon.
I’ve done the 8th tip for several times. When I think that my work is not good enough I start over.
This is great food for thought for those looking to get into guest posting. I will take heed to these tips, they definitely got me to thinking about a few things.
Thanks!
You’re welcome, Dewane.
Agreed, Peggy. Rather check than be greedy. LOL
LOVE this article. I’m slowly learing how to grow my blog, and guest posting is something I haven’t done much of myself, and when I have it hasn’t been very successful.
Your post has inspired me to get myself into gear and do better posts to submit elsewhere, more of them and basically work harder at it!!
I have smaller bloggers guest posting on my own blog - and I love that mine is now big enough to gain them extra exposure and get them noticed, but sadly I haven’t made use of this opportunity myself to guest post elsewhere enough! - YET!
Thank you for the inspiration!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/
You’re welcome, Jill. We have some other posts about guest posting. It is great for gaining exposure.
Moon: This is a really good article! You went over some really good points here. This is going to be a big help for me as I write my guest posts. I know the benefits of guest posting first hand, because I went on a little spree and it was really showing awesome benefits, and then I burned myself out.
I’ back at it again, but I have to find the right pace for me and try not to over due what I can handle.
Does that make sense?
God bless,
William Veasley
In a very short period of time Onibalusi has attracted many clients. He has also mentioned in one of his post that you can not earn such a huge money from freelancing sites. The technique is to build your own blog and write too many guest post.
I think your point 3 - 95% of your ideas are duds is important - if people read the whole section where you describe how a good idea, but with a boring title is refined into this excellent post.
I reckon at least 80% of the 95% duds can be refined, as you describe, into something useful - maybe not a guest post - but certainly a post or failing that posted onto a free article site - which may not have the power of a guest post but should still pull visitors.
Hi Moon,
This is great advice. I haven’t written many guest posts, but I am going to change that. I get a lot of requests for my blog though, and to me, one of the most important reasons why people get published on my blog is not just the quality of the post, but my relationships to them. If they have never commented on my blog, or I have never heard anything about them (or read their name of any of the blogs I am currently reading), the chances that they are going to get published on my blog is fairly small. But if the content is awesome, then I guess I’ll publish it 🙂
I am testing OmniOutliner in order to outline my blog posts (and I am actually testing it for my novel), and it seems like a great way to structure posts.
Jens
Hi Mark,
I’m not sure what you meant by keyword research not being all that it’s cracked up to be?
You can always write about what you want and do the related keyword research. However, always keep the readers in mind. Stuffing in your keywords excessively will turn off your the readers.
This is the first impression you’ll be making on new readers. Always remember that.
Another great tip would be “Improve your copy writing skills”. Most people who work in this industry will develop an intuitive grasp of what it takes to write content that tickles the imagination of readers and draws them interested. But this is a learning process that can be significantly improved by reading the right books or even staying tuned to the right blogs. It can be a simple as looking at successful posts such as this one and trying to understand the secret ingredients.
What an informative and encouraging post Moon.
I especially like the comments about writing needing practice to perfect! I’ve seen a number of bloggers write how you can bang out a post in a matter or minutes and I always felt a little ‘behind the eight-ball’ because I take hours to write my posts! Now I no longer feel ‘odd’ or guilty!
Thanks!
Kisane
Yeah it’s nice to know that everybody has the same struggle…it’s like a diet…consistency and for sure get the mind and motivation to do it. Aida please post and be my guest at facebook.com/MAYOPublicRelations
Hi Kisane,
I doubt that the best guest posts get written within the hour. Perhaps if you’re an expert writer with years of experience…?
Definitely I have days where the content flows & days, like I described, feel wasted. Either way, the effort takes hours.
Don’t sweat it, keep plugging away Kisane.
Great tips Moon! Loved your tips, i am sure it will help a lot of aspiring bloggers out there, to not to give up and continuing with what they have been doing!
I’m finding that once I realized that there are a lot better writers out there than me, and overcame the feeling that outsourcing my guest posts was somehow “bad”, (it’s not - it’s my idea, my research etc, I just pay someone smarter than me to put it together properly) I’ve been able to get quite a few guest posts up.
Hi Bruce,
Interesting strategy. If I had to, I’d outsource the editing portion of my guest post but no more than that.
The reason being is that you are putting yourself and your style out there. Can the readers differentiate your writing (on your site) vs. the guest post?
I’d like to think the writing style is indistinguishable, but that may be wishful thinking. However, any writer I hire has full access to my site & is instructed to emulate the style, but minus the typos and punctuation mistakes!
Hi! Moon.
Thanks for the guest post encouragement.
This is actually my new month resolution.
Hope to see you around soon.
I’ve been doing the very same thing Moon and getting some great results. Although you do have some tips here that I hadn’t considered before. Like doing the multiple posts in one week. I think I’ve had 3 in one week but not more than that yet.
I find free writing is a great way of generating ideas. Just pick a topic an go. Write down whatever comes to mind for a minimum of 20 minutes (or 10 or 30) and set it aside for a couple days. Come back to it and you might be surprised with what comes out of it!
Danielle-arranging three guest posts to go live in one week? That’s really impressive!
Thanks Moon. I’ve had a few good guest posts, but have been fitting them in here and there. I hadn’t thought of bombarding the web with several posts in one week. I’m going to try that.
Hugs,
Melody
What a TON of great ideas, Moon - thanks! I, too, plan on putting some structure around a guest posting strategy so I can begin to really build some credibility. And a list.
I’ve long had questions about guest posting, and you’ve listed some extremely actionable items that I can implement straight away.
My only question for you would be this: How established should a blog be before a blogger begins a guest posting campaign?
I’m relatively new to the blogging world and as such, don’t have many posts on my website, yet (truth be told, I’ve been really busy working on client projects).
Would it be better to wait until I have more posted, so newly interested readers will have more to sink their teeth into, or would you recommend just getting out there?
Again, thanks for a truly inspirational post-
Leah
Leah-it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I encourage that you post some “pillar” content… tutorial style (or equally important) posts that will hook the visitors in.
I would recommend you build your content so you have higher chances to build your readership (& repeat visitors). Visitors are finicky 😉
Hi Moon,
Great post and you are right we often say we will gp and then never take action on this resolution.
I am the first one to say that I should GP more and your post just reminded WHY.
Thanks Moon.
John, I’m one of those people 😉 It takes the simple matter of taking the time out to doing it and to be ready to give away your best articles instead of posting them on your own site.
In fact, I’m not perfect at it and still have to work on a couple of mine that were suppose to be finished a while back…
Moon -
Thanks for these tips!! I haven’t had the chance to do a guest post myself just yet, but I think with these step-by-step instructions it will probably be a lot easier. Really appreciate the help!
-Natasha
Great article Moon! Oni (Onibalusi) is a great inspiration and an extremely hard-working person. Even the greatest bloggers get rejected, my advice to other bloggers is to not despair if they get turned down they should just look for another blog where their posting could be a better fit. Happy blogging!
Karla, great tip. Rejection is something that can be really hard to deal with but think of it as an opportunity to learn and improve your writing skills. Work with bloggers and ask for constructive criticism.
Terrific intro Moon, the three examples made me hungry to read more. I do hope when you say discard the post that is not working you don’t mean delete it. If something is not working in my writing I put it in a folder and then on a rainy day I put my feet up on the desk and read all the stuff I put in that folder. I’m always able to pull something out for a re-do. I never delete work not even a sentence if I see promise in it. Thanks for sharing these 12 steps.
Hi Craig,
There are times when I do leave a piece for another day when I feel like it has potential. However, there are fewer times when a post doesn’t seem to have that natural flow for me. I’ve learned to let those articles go (delete them) and start fresh from a new angle.
Going with the flow is what I do and never think about what others will say. I write for the people because I was once where they were..trying to become someone online.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Hey Traffic Guy 😉
As long as you write from the heart & connect with people, you can’t go wrong.