We live in an era of immense competition. It seems as if everybody wants a piece of the same pie.For any business, attracting the attention of their audience is of utmost importance.They are tirelessly spending days and nights to come up with new ways of attracting customer attention.Over the past few years, online content has gained a lot of popularity as a technique to attract customer attention. According to Wikipedia, “In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people to be online worldwide by the end of the year”. Given that almost half of the world population is using the internet, online content as a marketing tool was bound to gain popularity.
The idea behind it is quite simple: Create a content that interests your target audience and share it with them. If they like your content, chances are they would also make purchases from you.Content creation and content sharing both are very important.Content should be produced in a way that is fresh and unique as well as extremely engaging. But with good quality content, choosing the right sharing platform is also very vital.
Content Sharing Platform
Which content sharing platforms are available to you?
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Your own Blog
Share as much content as you can on your blog. It helps you create an authority as well as connect with your target audience.
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Social Media
Social media is a great place to share content.Leverage all social media platforms to share your content. It provides you with an opportunity to constantly nudge your target audiences for conversion.
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Guest Blog
Another effective and extremely popular content sharing platform is Guest blogs. Guest blog, in very simple terms, means that you are sharing your content on someone else’s blog as a guest writer.
You might ask, what could be the possible benefits of blogging on someone else’s blog? What are the criteria that need to be kept in mind while choosing your guest blog?
Let’s answer all these questions one by one.
Why Guest Blogging
So, What are the Benefits of Guest Blogging?
1. Credibility
When you are new in the market and not many people know you, you can use guest blogging to create some credibility. When you write on a well-established blog, people start trusting you.
2. Authority
A well-written piece on a popular blog would help you establish your authority on that subject.A popular and trusted blog will never publish an article that is poorly-constructed or poor in quality.The very fact that your article has appeared on that blog increases your perceived authority on that subject.
3. Increased traffic on your website
If your content strikes a chord with the audience of your guest blogs, chances are that they would visit your website for more content. As a result, you can increase your own website’s traffic.
4. Building Backlinks to boost SEO
Posting articles on guest blogs will help you to build backlinks to your own website.Building backlinks naturally boost your website’s SEO,thus improving your Google Ranking.
Criteria to Choose a Guest Blog
We have established how guest blogs can be beneficial to your business, now it is the time to discuss the criteria you need to consider while choosing a guest blog. So, what makes a guest blog ideal for you?
- The most important thing to consider while choosing a website to write a guest blog is that it should be related to your industry or your niche.If you are into construction, then posting a guest blog on a Fashion blogging website would not yield you any results.
- The next thing is to choose a well-known, well-established website that holds some authority in your industry.Whether you want to create your own credibility or just build backlinks to your website, choosing a reputed website would help you in both.
- The blog should have a strong viewership. If you guest blog on a website that hardly anyone knows, your goals cannot be accomplished.To be able to leverage on that website’s viewership, the website should have huge viewership.
- Choose such a website for your guest blog whose audience fits the criteria of your target audience. What is the point of guest blogging on such a website whose audience can never need or be interested in your products?
Guest Blog Pitch
On the basis of all the above criteria, you would be able to create a list of websites for your guest blog. But, here the question arises, why should they allow you to guest blog on their website?
This is where blog pitch comes into the picture. A blog pitch is basically a statement explaining “why should a blogger allow you to blog on his/her website”. A pitch is your chance to convince the blogger to allow you to guest blog on their website. You need to tell them the value they can derive from your guest blog. After all, everyone is concerned about their own benefits.
So, for the blog owner, the benefits that you are going to derive from this guest blog won’t matter.They are more concerned about what they would get.Do you even know anything about their website and content?Would your content be able to match the content quality of their website?Would your post be able to generate additional traffic to their website? These are some of the things they are concerned with.
And your pitch should contain all this. It should be personalized using the blog owner’s name. It should introduce you; your blogging expertise should be mentioned. You should express a few blog ideas that you could write about. So, they have a wider choice. You should be clear about the value you can bring to the website.
Blog owners do not accept all the guest blogging requests they get.In fact, many do not even bother to read all the requests they get. Remember that they are extremely busy people and they receive hundreds of pitches every day. Getting your pitch accepted by a reputed blogger is not a cakewalk.So, if you really want the blogger to accept your proposal, you should put extra efforts in your guest blog pitch.
Things to do before submitting a Guest blog Pitch
That is why there are a few things that you should absolutely do before submitting your Guest blog pitch.
What Goals do you want to Achieve?
- Before even writing your pitch, it is important to be clear about your goals.
- What do you want to achieve from the guest post?
- Do you want to build backlinks?
- Or are you trying to establish your credibility and authority?
- Is your goal to generate more traffic by leveraging the website’s traffic?
Knowing exactly what you want to achieve from your guest blog would help you to create a good pitch.
Guest Post Guidelines of the Websites
Not all websites allow guest blogging.Those websites which allow guest blogging have their own Guest Blogging guidelines.Nothing can be a bigger blunder than submitting a pitch without checking their guest blog guidelines. Thoroughly read all the guidelines given by the website for guest blogs. Make sure your pitch is in accordance with all the guidelines.
Go through the Content of the Blog
Go through the content of the blog once before submitting your pitch.It would give you a clear idea of the type of content the blog caters to. It would also help you get a better picture of the type and level of the audience the blog caters to.
- What kind of headlines they use?
- Does the content cater to specific or general topics?
- This will help you create a better pitch for your guest blog.
Get to know the guest bloggers
It is also important to know who the other guest bloggers on the website are. Go through their bio.Find out what is their expertise?Which industry do they belong to? Are they professional bloggers or freelancers or entrepreneurs? This information would help you understand that whether the website favours a particular type of guest bloggers over others.
Analyse how other Guest Blogs are doing
You should also see how the other guest blogs are working on the website.How many people are commenting on the guest blogs?How many people are sharing them?Are the guest blogs getting an equal response as the owner’s blog? These things will give you a perspective of would you be able to fulfill your goals.
Compare and Contrast to find out which blogs are doing better than others
Another important thing to consider is what kind of blogs do better on the website.Which topics are the most shared ones?Which have the highest number of comments on them? Which blogs have the most views?
Do the audience prefer longer articles or the shorter one?
What type of headlines works better?
Knowing all this will help you understand the type of blog ideas you should pitch for your guest blog.
Try to get Acquainted with the Blog Owner
Bloggers are more likely to accept the pitches of somewhat known people than total strangers. So, it is advisable to develop some acquaintance with the blog owner before submitting your pitch. This does not mean you have to find his address and phone number and meet his personally. No, just comment on some of his/her recent blogs. Share his/her blogs on your social network. Make sure to tag the blog owner when you share their blogs. Follow them on the social network.The point is you should be noticed by the blog owner. So that, when you submit your pitch, you are not a complete stranger.
Your pitch has to be great.It has to have the ability to stand out. It should be clear and precise.Your idea and purpose should be clearly understood by the blog owner.It also needs to be creative and unique.Before submitting your pitch, make sure you go through all the above-mentioned steps.
