“What you do after you create your content is what truly counts.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

Guest blogging is the process of writing content on another website. Ideally, guest blogging is done by bloggers who share the same knowledge in a particular field. For instance, say if your brand is from a Saas industry, you would write blogs for other brands who are also from the Saas industry.

Guest blogging is a unique way of exhibiting a brand’s name and recognition amongst a huge audience and hence guest blogging isn’t being treated as one a one time job, it is a continuous process of contributing knowledge to users who can benefit from your content.

Let’s get the data in front.

1. DRIVES MORE TRAFFIC

The number one reason why your brand needs to conduct guest blogging activities is that in one way your brand will witness a high rise in traffic views on your website. What happens here is say if you write a blog for a website or some guest blogger writes for your brand, in the end, there is a benefit being achieved by both sides.

When you write content for a website, you are sharing your knowledge and expertise with their audience and when this act is conducted frequently, the audience will want to click on your website to learn more about how you have such insights to share. On the other hand, when a guest blogger writes for your brand, they receive the recognition they need in the field of writing as well as establish connections with well-known brand names in the industry.

2. INCREASES BRAND’S AWARENESS

Your brand might be new or would have a good number of prospects, with regular guest blogging activities, there are high chances that you can receive good prospects on your website or the list of prospects can be added to your lead capture list. Either way, your brand will receive the recognition it needs to grow better.

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As a brand you are doing everything in your power to make your brand a well-known name and hence conducting it in your techniques will give you the desired recognition but that isn't enough. Hence it is wiser to invest your time and energy on platforms such as guest blogging where the recognition of your brand increases and the other audience who were not aware of a brand like yours, come to terms with it. 

3. FORMS BETTER RELATIONSHIPS

To grow healthier in an industry like yours, the number one reason why many brands fail to succeed is that they treat all their peers as tough competitors who they need to break down. What did you say that you could grow better with the help of such tough competitors?

Forming a good relationship with your peers is important because it will help you to sell your brand better. For instance, when you indulge in guest blogging, you would be writing for a peer of yours. When that blog content gets published, the audience of that peer will be curious to explore more about it and will land up on your website. On the other hand, your peers will garner more traffic on their website. Hence both the parties are achieving no loss right?

Hence when you conduct this action regularly, you are framing a good bond with your peers and tomorrow if you share your blog and tag them, there are chances where that same peer will reshare your action. This will only impact your brand growth and isn’t this what you wanted? 

4. ENHANCES YOUR MINDSET TO SELL BETTER

This is one of the most important reasons which guest blogging needs to take credit for. Many times it happens that when a brand frames content, due to the regular action, the team conducts it out of pure repetitive tasks and hence the value of the essence in the content lacks the selling factor needed. Hence with guest blogging, this issue is eliminated.

With guest blogging, the ideas and the content is new. There are no repetitive tasks taking place since the main agenda of writing a blog is to add value to each of the content being delivered. Guest blogging doesn’t need to take place daily, it can happen whenever required which is why no one gets bored of it. The role of guest blogging is to add content that adds value so that by the time a reader finishes it, it knows exactly what the next action should be. This is exactly how selling should be.

You now have an idea of what it looks like and what would happen when guest blogging is being conducted by you or for you. Hence whatever may be the reason for your choice to conduct guest blogging, having some handy tips in hand, can benefit your journey with it better.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

1. SELECT THE RIGHT AUDIENCE AND CHANNEL

When you are writing guest blogs, the first tip you need to keep in mind is that you need to find the right audience and channel that will read your blog. For instance, say if you are writing on the Saas industry, you cannot expect an audience such as an actor or a doctor to read what you have written. It’s not at all relevant to them at all.

Hence your first guest blogging tip would be to first identify who is the audience you want to target? When you understand that, that's when your content framework will be done in the right way. Once you have identified who is your right audience, your next step would be to choose a platform to post it.

You cannot just post it on anyone’s website. You need to conduct your research. Invest in a platform that is well established in your industry, someone whose blogs are shared commented or viewed and even liked on a high scale. Remember it’s not about just selling, it’s about adding value and letting the blog speak on behalf of your expertise. 

2. GO ORIGINAL OR GO HOME

If you think that in guest blogging, you're going to walk away by just placing some duplicate content, then you are absolutely wrong. There is no place for duplicate content and if the brand that your writing for is alerted about it, chances are you can be eliminated sooner. 

Stick to the original content. In guest blogging it isn’t just about receiving traffic in return, you are serving the purpose of helping your brand and your peers brand to grow while simultaneously helping the audience to find the answers of their doubts in your content. Website plain original content that holds value is easy to understand and helps the reader to take away something from it after they read. 

Original content is new and unique and that is exactly what will capture your reader’s attention the longest.

3. RESEARCH AND WRITE BETTER

Guest blogging isn’t a one-time thing as mentioned earlier, it takes a lot of guest blogging to even be considered as an expert in your field. Whenever you conduct guest blogging, ensure that you are bringing quality content to the table. Don’t write it as a purpose of just plainly receiving some benefits in return, write in a manner where your prospects can learn from it and apply the practices stated in the blog content.

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Before you start writing, conduct multiple research for the topic, prepare a framework of how you want the blog layout to be, research on every category and heading and finally start writing the information in a manner where once a reader completes it, it knows what to do thereafter.

4. FOLLOW THE RULES

Source:BlogTyrant

Not every guest blogger needs to understand this pointer very well. Many brands have imposed a set of guidelines that need to be accommodated when a blogger writes for them. This can be the way the brand conducts its content process which is why you need to do the same as well.

Read through the guidelines, get in touch with the brand to understand what they are expecting from you, ask questions so that you have all the clarity needed before you begin the blog. Remember always that following the guidelines is important otherwise the brand can simply reject your blog due to such circumstances. 

5. DON’T OVER-PROMOTE YOURSELF

Yes, this happens quite often and that is one of the reasons why guest blogs get rejected. The main purpose of the blog is to help readers and if you are going to just place your website or brand’s link in every word, that is simply not going to be published. Remember the main agenda of the guest blogging is for you to benefit as well as the brand whom you are writing for.

You can promote your brand, just use it on a minimal basis, for instance, mentioning it once in the entire article it’s fine. You can also have a word with the brand whom you are writing guest blogs for and ask them if you can mention your brand links and if yes, how many times? That way you’ll be promoting your brand links in the right order.

Try to capture traffic with the insights you write rather than placing links. If your guest's blog has the information that readers want to read, then them landing up on your website shouldn't really be a struggle. 

6. WRITE FROM THE READER’S POINT OF VIEW

Another important aspect of guest blogging as mentioned earlier which deserves a dedicated pointer is that when you write or plan guest blogging, keep in mind that whatever you do is from a reader's point of view. When you write the blog content, you need to focus on the below factors:

1 . Why should a reader clock on the blog?

2. How can a reader benefit from what you’ve written?
3. What should the reader take away after reading your blog?

When you are able to write from a reader’s or rather your audience's point of view, it becomes easier for you to continue writing in the correct flow as well as help you to cover all the factors required which can enhance the way your audience reads your blog content.

7. GET INVOLVED IN A BLOGGING COMMUNITY

In guest blogging, you have learned now that the number one way to get accepted and published is to write content that connects with your audience. This means that eliminating anything that showcases your gain of promoting your brand loudly via this channel. Hence guest blogging isn’t always conducted by an experienced person, there are a few who are still growing and want to learn how it should be done.

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The best way to write a better guest blog is to join hands with the blogging community or your peers who have experience in writing such blogs. They will be able to train you better, give you examples for you to practice on and will constantly crave you to write better. When you have constant practice, it becomes easier for you to get your blogs accepted from a brand.

Always remember that even though your blogs don't get accepted, that shouldn’t push you down, continue to practice and research and better the way your guest's blogs are written. Taking a supporting hand from your peers will be really helpful. 

8. TAKE SUBMISSION DATES SERIOUSLY

Do you know what would make a brand like you as a guest blogger? The fact that you are punctual in your submissions. A one day or two delays is fine but more than that can make the brand doubt your existence. Ensure that whenever you write a guest blog, you submit according to the dates mentioned. 

Any changes that need to be made can be conducted easily and the blog can be published without any time wasted. It is understandable that being distracted with other work can slow down your guest blog write-ups, hence ensure that when you have the blog submission dates in hand, you have planned your guest blog process to be conducted according to that schedule.

9. DON’T BE ANNOYING WITH SUGGESTIONS

When you have the guidelines listed, the reason for its existence is because the brand knows exactly what they want the guest blogger to be writing about and in which format. If you are going to be annoying about it and placing your suggestions everywhere, that may not go down so well with the brand at all.

Hence if you have a suggestion, it’s always great to speak it out and see if the brand agrees to do so, but if that’s not the case, you can trust the brand guidelines to continue further. See it in this way, when you are going to guest blog for a brand, you are going to do it for a well-established brand, so don’t worry about their no’s. Focus on making your mark with the content you use. 

10. GET ENGAGING

Now your guest blogs have been published, what next? Your work isn’t over at all. Remember when this article mentioned that the benefit is not just for one person alone? Here is your chance to get engaging with your audience.

Your content is unique and that is why you’ll find many comments reverting to you with doubts, debates, questions and more. Use this as an opportunity to understand them and clear their queries so that the relationship development can take place. When the audience realizes that you have the expertise and know exactly how you can help them find their needs, them landing up on your website will not make your brand so surprised. 

11. SHARE A BRIEF ABOUT YOURSELF

Source: Jeffbullas

Let your audience know who you are. It’s better to share a small description of who you are, what you do so that your audience knows what you do and why you do it. It doesn’t have to be a long detailed introduction of you. Just a few words which help your audience understand why you are writing about such a topic.

12. PROMOTE YOUR BLOG

Once you have written and have published your blog, the brand you’ve written for will exhibit the blog but it would be great if you could do the same. The more outreach your blogs get, the brand you write guest blogs for will come back asking for you and simultaneously your audience outreach will be extended. 

Well, that was a great educational guide for you to get started, isn’t it?

But do you know that apart from these tips there is also another way where you can conduct efficient guest blogging content one step higher?

Yup, it is possible with web scraping and proxy servers.

Let’s break down the terms first.

Web scraping is the process of extracting any information online whether it is from a source or a website. It scrapes the relevant information needed and saves it in your system in the format you want to view it in such as CSV file and more.

A proxy server acts as a middleman between a user and the information it wants to access. For instance, say you want to access a website that is restricted, you can use a proxy server to access that website without having any risks attached.

Interesting Read : An Ultimate guide to content curation with web scraping in 2019

The main reason why users or brands get blocked is that their IP address gives away their location. With a proxy server, this issue is eliminated and hence it allows any users to access any information online anonymously. 

So, how can it help in guest blogging?

Well with guest blogging, it isn’t just about writing anything and everything. You need to find the right topics and content which the audience from your industry will want to read. Secondly, if you are being a guest blogger, you need to find only the best websites to write for so that your recognition is well established and thirdly if you want to have guest bloggers reach out and write for your brand, you need to establish your brand in such a way where you get more offers.

Hence all these actions can be conducted with the help of web scraping and proxy servers. 

With a web scraping solution, you can scrape all the information you need which is listed above and since you’ll be using web scraping more frequently when it comes to capturing relevant data to conduct your guest blogging activities, frequent use can put you at risk of being considered as spam. 

Hence it is wiser to use a proxy server to conduct such actions. It will act as an extra protective shield so that when you are on the ongoing process of guest blogging, you can do so with ease and convenience and eliminate any risks being attached.