What is Guest-Blogging?
Guest-Blogging means authoring a post or a blog-entry at someone else’s blog without involving monetary issues. When paid for writing a post, it is then called a paid-post or a sponsored post rather than a guest post.
Here are,
7 ultimate reasons, why you should guest author at a blog:
- Vent your thoughts outside your niche:
Packing yourself tightly in your own niche, for life, is not very healthy and not cent per cent comfortably possible even! You can restrict your writing to your blog’s niche but can not restrict your thoughts that keep coming to your mind all the time. Sometimes you may have as much of such off-(your)-topic stuff in your head that you might make a brilliant post out of it. You may not want to disturb the theme of your own blog for posting it and here’s where guest authoring at a blog themed in sync to your thoughts can help you vent out your ideas and creativity. Opportunities for guest-blogging are not limited in your own niche as well. - Get opinion and feedback on your other side:
As I cleared out in the previous point, you can comfortably go off your blog’s niche as a guest blogger from where you can gather opinion and feedback on your other side. You can know how well you can do in unexplored dimensions. You get comments on your story and realize the positives and negatives in your style of writing and way of communicating your ideas to the readers. - Get Noticed:
Guest blogging is one of the fastest ways to reach a new audience. Get exposure to a wider audience than just your own readership base. You are noticed and even rated by this foreign audience. Your writing skills, thoughts and ideas get recognition and may even be promoted by the host and the new readers alike. - Drive traffic and readers to your own blog:
With all the exposure your guest-posts can get you, you can drive a considerable amount of traffic to your own blog through the host blog. Generally, a link back to your blog is a gift of gratitude by the host in your guest post. But of course, the traffic and readership you get depends on the popularity of the blog you are writing on, your style of writing, your communication skills, your language and tone as the prime factors. - Social Networking:
Guest blogging nicely helps you to connect with a wide audience and also the host you are writing for. Guest blogging helps you to better-up communication with new people, helps you to know them and understand their tastes and also help them to know more about you as a blogger. You are likely to make new friends at social networks like Blog Engage, BlogCatalog, Digg, MyBlogLog and probably many more depending on what you are using for promotion purposes. This can be of great utility in blog branding and promotion in the long run. - Improve yourself:
You learn with every reaction you get to a guest post, and always try to improve with every post you write after that, whether on your own blog or at someone else’s. You may not take anything seriously when said about you on your own blog (ok! you do… cool) but when something is said at some other place that can have a different and mighty effect. - It is fun:
If you are too free some time, then guest blogging can help you get busy and dock your mind. An idle mind, we all know, is a devil’s workshop. Besides, there’s nothing like experimenting with new things (if you haven’t tried it yet!) Having fun & adventure is the key to enjoy blogging- whether you are doing it at your blog or someone else’s.
Personally, I found early recognition for myself as a blogger by guest authoring at RT’s Untwisted Vortex. I did it for the sake of trying out a new thing for fun and adventure, but it turned out to be a great learning experience. It also drove a good deal of his readership to my blog and helped me getting noticed. It helped me improve myself in a great way. You see me writing here, the way I can because I was exposed to a different atmosphere than the small world I was living in.
Amanda Nicole, of from Ink to Ether, guest authors Inspirit and the two posts that she has made have made quite a mark on Inspirit readership and continue to get good deal of traffic everyday. I have also wanted myself to get into Guest-Blogging again, but some personal problems like long college timings and other stuff keep me occupied day and night. I am trying to manage my time as effectively as I can, and I hope to just make it soon.
I have just explained to you some great reasons why you should be guest blogging. Do you have any more? Have you been guest blogging for someone? Or have any guest bloggers for yourself? Feel free to drop a comment and share your experiences.
Hello Abhinav Sood,
Well I am very pleased that perhaps my question to the members of the Blog Engage Forum might have inspired this wonderful guide on Guest Blogging. You have given me lots of things to ponder here, thanks so much.
See you on the forum
Sue
Very inspirational post for me. This is something I’ve actually been wanting to try out for sometime, just haven’t gotten the courage up to actually ask other bloggers if they would mind some guest posts…
and if you care, you can come post at iwah whenever you want 😀
As long as the content is similar to me, any guest bloggers are welcomed 😀
I’m not a big fan of the guest blogging but if done right I bet it could build an amazing community of friends and bloggers!
Sweet ideals! Thanks for sharing 🙂
@SusanneUK:
Yes this post was inspired from the discussion you started at Blog Engage forums.
@Daniel B:
Thanks for commenting and registering. I have upgraded your role to an Author, so you can login anytime and write your heart out.
@BlogEngage:
Yes, Guest Blogging is a great way to build a community. It is quite an effective form of social networking.
@Firewalker:
You talk about design. So, if I ever have anything relevant up in my head, I’ll get to you. I have a post pending to be published at a similar themed Graphic Identity. By the way, added your blog to my to-be-reviewed list. Thanks for taking interest and dropping a comment.
Thanks, I’m gonna think of a good one today or tomorrow 😀
You’ve also been made an author over at iwah.org.
All good reasons. Personally I think backlinks/pagerank are the most compelling reasons for guest blogging.
There are certainly benefits to guest blogging, but the most important of all must be that the blogger enjoys it. Meaning that the blogger does it even if he or she is not expecting to be rewarded.