7 Crucial Tactics For Writing A Successful Guest Post

A guest post is an article that is written for a blog that you do not own.

To make it simple, when you are writing on your own blog, it is a post, but write for someone else’s blog and it becomes a guest post.

Why put in the effort and resources to write a thousand words that you won’t get paid for? That is because it is one of the rare ways to obtain bona fide high-quality backlinks.

A guest post comes with a byline, and that links back to your site. If you contribute to a well-known blogging site, that is a lot of link juice.

In this article, we discuss how to write a guest post that gets you acclaim.

7 Pro Tips For Guest Posting You Must Know

1. Research The Audience

Blogs in the same niche might not cater to the same exact demographic.

In fact, they usually won’t because every blog likes to have a slightly unique stance.

Engadget is not the same as Gizmodo, which differs totally from Wired.

That does not mean there is no overlap, but one has to be careful.

When writing for a blog, read at least a dozen posts published there. As important as reading the content is reading the comments.

That gets you in touch with the audience.

It is advisable that before you make a pitch, you follow a particular blog for a month. Not read all the articles they publish from end to end, but find if you can recognize the tonality.

Confused?

Simply put, try to address the particular audience of a blog. A blog that aims at senior executives and CEOs would read differently than one that is directed at gamers.

But both cohorts might be equally interested in knowing why NVMe SSDs are better than SATA SSDs, but for entirely separate reasons.

2. Write About Familiar Topics

A guest post is not where you experiment with your thoughts.

You must have an absolute grasp of the topic and be able to fortify your content with a lot of insight and expertise.

That is why stick to your repertoire and do not go foraging.

A guest post is meant to establish you to a wider audience. Unless you are able to speak as a thought leader and someone who has a complete grasp of the topic, the audience would bounce away.

The result would be no further opportunity from that publication, at least in the near future.

You also have to be aware of the discourse surrounding the topic. Your content has to fill in what has been absent rather than bolster one side or the other of an existing debate with another argument that others have read elsewhere.

You need to contribute or else you will never grow your tribe.

Some might find that hard, but no one said that guest posts (of value) are easy to write.

3. Experiment With Titles

If the title has not been provided, experiment with a few.

We do not mean that you write a clickbait title, but it definitely has to be attractive.

A bland post, e.g. “How to lose weight with intermittent fasting” will draw very few eyeballs.

A more vigorous H1 that reads something like “10 essential tips to shed weight with intermittent fasting” is bound to get more attention.

Everyone wants to know if they are missing out on a secret. Maybe they know 9 of those 10 but not all!

Get a hook in right away. And that is not clickbait since you are actually delivering 10 tips.

4. Provide rich Content

Readers like content that is full of information.

They want to know what works and what does not with facts, and anecdotes to back it up.

Be focused on offering new information or a fantastic summary of already available information.

Either way, a reader must feel that the five minutes they spent were worth it.

They have to be curious enough to click on the byline and read more about you in your blog.

If they read and leave, that does not help you at all.

After all, you would spend at least several hours writing the pitch and generating the content. Though you are not paid up-front, you expect the benefit to accrue to you through backlinks and visitors.

The problem with many guest posts is that they offer a bird’s-eye view.

Readers like to know about the nitty-gritty. Give them details and share stories.

5. Bond with Emotion

At the outset, we state that not every topic can be written emotionally.

A discussion about why the cryptocurrency market is going through a bearish phase does not lend itself to emotion but cold, hard facts.

But apart from finance and economics and, of course, the hard sciences, most subjects have scope for a bit of emotion.

What Do We Mean By Emotion?

The content must seem to have been written by someone who has a lot of empathy for the reader and his/her problems.

A clinical approach that is hands-off and distant appears cold and detached.

The audience might not refute what you say but won’t like to connect with you. Without developing this connection with your audience, there is no reason for you to guest blog.

Be Captain Kirk and not Spock.

Speak from the heart and give advice that is genuine, yet warmly delivered.

6. Pay Attention To Formatting

Every publication has guidelines for writing.

These include guidelines for linking, keywords, paragraph length, font, images, and much more.

The editorial team would tell you the probable topics (unless they have worked with you before and know that you generate blockbuster content on your own), the length, and if it is a pillar post (Complete Guide to Intermittent Fasting) or a list based article (Top 8 Tips About Intermittent Fasting) or any other type they suggest.

They might also have preferences about paragraph length and use of bullets, bold font, etc.

The more strictly you adhere to it, the easier it is for them.

The easier it is for them, the more the number of guest posts you can write and the more the backlinks and traffic.

7. Create A Landing Page

What to do with the traffic you generate?

You could guide them to the Home Page or About Page.

Why not a specialized landing page that showcases your top content?

Maybe round it up with a pop-up that offers a course or a newsletter. For some niches, a free e-book does the trick. People love free information and an e-book frees you from the constraints of the guest post. you could promote your services and point out why you are better than others in no uncertain terms.

It’s all about being creative with how you want to interact with your audience.

Do You Have To Do All The Heavy Lifting?

Should you write the guest post yourself? It takes hours to research a topic and write a meaningful blog post. Then you have to format it and add the keywords.

If it all sounds like a chore, why not try out white label guest posting? You buy the solution off the shelf and alter it to your liking.

No headaches and no hassles. You present the idea and what you want. Someone else writes up the bulk of the content for you.

Last Words…

Guest writing remains one of the best ways to reach out to a new audience and gain the badge of trust that every expert craves.

You may write the content yourself or perhaps get someone else to share your burden. Whatever you choose, as long as you offer value, readers would absolutely love to hear from you.