This is the first part of the two part mini series on how to leave a mark on another persons blog through guest posting. Stay tuned for Part II.
Guest posting is a great way to get social with other bloggers. It allows you to write your own opinions, thoughts and ideas on another person’s blog in front of a totally different community than your own.
We guest post for a number of reasons. Some people are just interested in getting a few links back to their blog, others want to share information with another community and get feedback on their ideas. There are numerous reasons why we want to guest post, but how do we leave our mark in our post so all of those good things happen for you?
Keep the content quality
Just as you would on your own blog, make sure you make all of your guest posts as great as you can. You can stick to your regular writing style on your blog, or you can switch things up a little bit. It doesn’t hurt to try something different every once in a while, but just make sure you keep your content amazing and enhance it some if you can.
Ideas for post enhancement
- Add links that will be beneficial to your readers. Keep linking back to anywhere in your article to a bare minimum. You will usually get your link in the author bio at either the top of bottom of the page anyways, so only link to your blog in your post if what you’re linking to is exceptional.
- Use an excellent image. Find or create a beautiful image and use it to your advantage. Take extra time to make sure the image you pick can relate greatly to the post. If possible, find an image that has a metaphor related to the post. Images don’t always have to have a literal meaning.
- Add quotes (using the <blockquote> tags) to your posts. Quotes are excellent ways to support some information you write, and there is never anything wrong with a little reassurance!
- Keep an orderly structure. Make sure all of your information is divided up and neat, but try to avoid adding specific formatting. I will go over why later on in this post. You can take some information from a past article, Stellar tips for styling your content area, and apply them to your guest post.
Writing about the right stuff
In a guest post, you are trying to bring about a NEW idea to a NEW community. You should definitely take some time and figure out what you want to write about specifically. If you can come up with somewhat of a unique post idea then you should see a fairly good response at the blog you post on.
Writing articles like “Your X favorite WordPress plugins” wouldn’t make a great post because it has been done thousands of times already. You can however take that idea, and come up with something like “X best articles for creating WordPress plugins”. It can be difficult to take an idea and make something better out of it. But if you try a technique like Mind Mapping, you can literally discover hundreds of post ideas based off of just one idea.
Keeping information clear & straight to the point
Don’t go off topic too much in the post. It’s easy to do so with parenthesis, but keep all of that stuff to a minimal. Also, try to avoid using those humongous words that no one knows the meaning of. Not that I’m saying you will be writing to illiterate people, I just think it’s best to always use simple words in your posts.
Reply to every comment
Just as you would on your own blog, reply to all of the comments you get on your guest post. It’s important to do so on your blog, and equally important on somebody else’s blog. Show them you’re a friendly person, get involved.
Handling negative comments
One thing you have to be careful about is getting negative comments. I always say that negative comments are good for you. But because you are a different person, people won’t be afraid to strike you down. You’re basically the “newbie” of the community, and if someone doesn’t like you then they may be less intimated to throw some negativity your way.
Never ever lose your cool though. Take what they say and find a way to bring out something positive of it. The comment could be totally hateful, but as long as you stay positive and “thank them for sharing their opinion”, you will look like the bigger person in the situation.
Write more than just a “Thank You”
While you should always thank what someone says about your article, it doesn’t make for much of a comment discussion wise by itself.
Some things you can do to make your reply great:
1. Add onto your article
Someone may bring up that you are missing something from your article and start to write their insights on it. That’s great, and you can either keep adding on, or analyze what they have said and write a response to it.
2. Have a friendly debate
If someone doesn’t agree with you, a debate could happen. No problem, but remember that you have to stay friendly about it at all times. There is a difference between an “argument” and “debate”. Remember that.
3. Link to something
If someone needs an expansion, or a link for further information then you better provide it! Hopefully the person you are blogging for doesn’t mind links being posted in their comments, but as long as it is relevant then there should be no problems.
Final Thoughts
With guest posts being as important as they are, it’s only a sane idea to make sure the posts you do come up with are excellent. Have these tips helped you, or have you thought of ways to improve your guest posting habits? Do you have anything to add even?
In the next post of this “mini series”, I am going to go over how to leave a mark on the blogger who you guest post for so they will want to have you back again.
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?@Alex: I am sure inserting images helps a lot. But you might get into attribution issue. Some blogs simply don’t like giving out backlinks (even for attribution).
Otherwise a well written post
Not all blog themes have cool blockquotes like yours does. 
Jeet’s last blog post..Free Directory List
On Flickr you can search for amazing images, and you can sort them by their license type suggested by the Creative Commons Licenses. It’s really helpful, and that’s where I get a lot of my images from (always linking to the author). I don’t know why people wouldn’t give out a link for attribution. Why do you think that is? I’m curious to know now Jeet!
Hmm..an uncourteous blogger? Won’t make it far in my opinion..
If your using someone else work, the LEAST you can do is link to their site/source. That’s just being nice, nothing to be with blogging
In this case, there is nothing wrong in using free stock photos.
No link is required and you do not need to pay a cent!
WPThemeKid – Daniel’s last blog post..Eating Out WP Theme Release!
The only thing I hate about free stock photos is they are often too cheesy. I prefer to go to Flickr, because the photos are just better than Stocks.
I don’t know, it’s hard to explain my feelings but I just don’t like using stock photos except as a last resort.
I have to agree with the friendly debate comment. I’m always up for trying to convey my point as best possible, whilst considering the thoughts of others. On top of this, whilst I know that this blog is based around the principle of blogging, I also think that there are opportunities to create debate using other Web 2.0 techniques.
I find myself answering questions posed on various social networking sites, particularly LinkedIn, and quite often, my views differ from other answers. I think its important to answer such questions with as much evidence to support your case as possible, but be receptive to contrary evidence also. With any luck, you’ll come out of the whole experience with a much more thorough understanding of the discussion point, and you can then go on to share this info with others in the future.
Zulu Internet Marketing’s last blog post..Would you search Kumo?
That’s great you think that, because I have talked to a few bloggers on Twitter before regarding their comments and I was surprised to see that they leave out “debates” on their “community interaction” list. I always wondered why this was. Maybe they’re afraid of things getting too serious?
“Reply to every comment” THANK YOU! Jeezaloo I’ve had to track down a guest or two and practically walk them back to my blog to respond to comments ON THEIR POSTS!.
Aye Curumba. They don’t realize they are hurting themselves as bad if not worse then not responding on their own blogs.
Btw, still looking for guests.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Do You Charge For Blog Reviews?
Woah, that’s not very nice on their part
Dennis, we are always looking for guest posts
We would love our blog readers to participate in any way possible and we believe guest posting is the best way.
Actually I meant I’m still looking for guests. lol
I will come by here with a post or two once I complete some current work though.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Do You Charge For Blog Reviews?
Once we’re done with out whole “Update”, we’re really going to be looking for blogs to guest post at as well. You’re on the list so far.
Is there a list anywhere of blogs that are looking for guest posters?
I doubt there is a specific list, but if you find a blog you want to guest post on, you can contact them and ask.
I’ve made a few guest posts now (and featured a few on my blog as well) and so far haven’t gotten any negative feedback. People should know there is a possibility of negative comments and how to handle them but it shouldn’t scare them off making guest posts either.
- Dot Com Dud
Online Income’s last blog post..Link Building Checklist
right, negative comments are not a big deal and the potential for positive comments is so much higher.
.-= Seth´s last blog ..The Content Debate: Finally Put Out Once and For All =-.
Ask and you shall receive! Eventually lol…..
http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/do-you-accept-guest-posts-blog-list/
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Do You Accept Guest Posts? Get Your Name On The List
Do keep me updated when your list comes together. Will definitely be an invaluable resource I would love to share with other readers of Blogussion.
Will do! You can start sharing it if you like, via that post. Who ever comments per the instructions, will be the first on the finished list.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Do You Accept Guest Posts? Get Your Name On The List
Guest posting is so powerful!
.-= Seth´s last blog ..Blogging Resources Improve Search Engine Traffic =-.
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