Saturday Project Update - Why Guest Posting Works (and Happy Halloween!)

31 Oct 2009

halloween and guest posting It has been a great week here in Webrepreneur land, thanks to the help of Sonia Simone and Lara Kulpa. In case you missed them, I had a couple guest posts published this week.

The first at Copyblogger being about 3 fatal conditions that are killing good blogs and the 2nd on Twitip about how to build influence with Twitter.

If you haven’t noticed already, one of my favorite blog marketing tactics is guest posting, and I try to write at least 2-3 guest posts per week for a variety of blogs.

Not all will be published, but as I’ve learned to craft my message for the individual blog’s audience, my success rate is getting much higher.

A lot of bloggers that I talk to mention that they don’t have time for guest posts and to be honest, I really don’t understand that philosophy.

A guest post on a popular blog, like Copyblogger in my case, can get your material in front of hundreds of thousands of new readers. You also get a high PR backlink, which is also extremely valuable.

For those of you that say you don’t have time, let me ask you this…would you turn down 60 minutes if they asked for an interview? What about the NY Times…would you turn them down if they asked you to write a feature? If no, then what makes guest posting for a blog any different.

In fact, if you ask any A-list blogger, they’ll tell you that they receive much more exposure from guest posts than they do from old media outlets. That’s huge!

Now, if you are simply too afraid to ask for a guest posting opportunity, then let me tell you a story about how you might be missing out.

My First Experience with Guest Posting

Early this spring, while I was deployed to Afghanistan, I created a Twitter course called Twitter Rockstar. It was also around that time that Darren Rowse launched his Twitter blog, called Twitip. Trying to get a post listed there seemed like common sense, so I just sent out an unsolicited inquiry via the contact form and waited to hear back. Shortly thereafter, I heard from Lara Kulpa, Assistant Editor for Twitip, who offered to take a look at my ideas.

From there, I was able to get 3 or 4 posts published over the course of a few months, which not only improved my credibility and traffic, but also built my confidence level up to the point where I send the same sort of request to David Risley and Brian Clark. In nearly identical situations, both gentlemen offered me the same opportunity and I was able to do more of the same.

More than Just Web Copy

But it doesn’t stop there. When attending Blogworld Expo earlier this month, I hung out with all of these awesome people on a daily basis, and now relationships that started with guests posts have turned into friendships. In fact, I was humbled when Brian recognized me and asked for even more Copyblogger content, which is how the Blog Killers post began.

So you see, it’s not so much about guest posts as it is about expanding your network, building infleunce, gaining friends, and trying to bring value to the table. Besides, you never know if you’ll get asked to become a paid contributer for that blog on a permanent basis. This is why I have a problem with “I don’t have time,” and “I’m too nervous to do it” excuses.

Re-Launch of Making it Social

As part of the my guest posting salvo this week, I relaunched my social media blog, which I plan to use as a platform for new media consulting and my Rockstar branded products. In an effort to segment what I do here (at the urge of several friends and consultants), I started posting content on a daily basis over there to prepare for the upcoming guest posts.

Using that strategy, I was able to nearly quadruple the daily traffic and pageviews in less than a week. Subscribers are up, and inquiries are at an all time high.

So, I guess the point of this long ass post is to tell you that those strategies, you know the ones that they say work? Well, they really do work. We just need to step out of our comfort zones and do something that for us, is remarkable. Keep pushing yourself, keep doing what you do. Eventually, you’ll have the confidence and expertise to own your game. When that happens…guess what? It’s time to stretch that comfort zone one more