Welcome to LiveHacked.com, ProBlogger readers! If you’re new here, this is a great post to start with! This site is all about blogging, writing well, and living better!
Most of you have been reading this blog long enough to know I’m a huge fan of guest posting. (If you haven’t been reading this blog for awhile, well then THANKS for starting!)
Guest posting as a growth strategy is a funny thing, though:
Many people have heard of it, most of them have tried it, but few of them actually gain the traction they’re looking for from it.
Why is that?
My guess? Three things:
- They’re not doing it enough. This is the biggest problem with the strategy–it takes a lot of great content, on a lot of great sites, to gain momentum. Just check out where I’ve “guested” for an example.
- They’re not doing it in the right places. Bloggers read other blogs because they’re interested in the subject matter to some extent. The problem is that these bloggers shouldn’t try to guest post on all of these blogs–they’re not going to be relevant for their readers. Choose the blogs that matter to your audience, not just you, and focus your efforts there.
- They’re not prepared for success. What I mean by this is that their blog is ugly, outdated (their last post was last week, last month, last year?!?), or just not set up well to grab the visitors’ attention and capture email addresses.
There are more reasons than this, to be sure, but you get the gist of it. Do these things well, and do them a lot, and you’re going to experience growth. I absolutely guarantee it.
Don’t believe me?
Fine. I challenge you start right here, right now.
Write up a great guest post on something that our audiences are interested in. LiveHacked.com is about writing better, building blogs and platforms, and promoting your art. If you’ve got something that would line up with that target, send it over.
First, though, be sure you’ve read and re-read the guidelines, and then done these things to set up your own site for success:
- Make sure you have a blog or website. Guest posting is about promoting your work while getting your name out there–what work are you promoting?
- Capture email addresses. If at all possible, start a newsletter signup. If you don’t know how, or don’t know what to write about, email me. We’ll figure it out together.
- Update your site. At least let us know you’re alive (and don’t do it by posting, “whew–it’s been awhile since I’ve posted!”). Write a cool blog post that’ll appear on the front page of your site the day your guest post goes live, welcoming your new visitors.
Got it?
Good–these things aren’t hard to do, but they’re often forgotten. So spend some time getting your site set up for success, and then write a guest post. And then another. And another.
We’d love to post it here, if it fits, but there are literally millions of blogs out there–think you can find any that would want your posts?
Have you tried guest posting as a growth strategy before? How did it work out? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and we’ll discuss!
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