The 3 Essential “Don’ts” of Guest Blogging – Make it Work for You

This is a guest post by Ann Smarty who is an Internet entrepreneur and blogger and expresses her love for guest blogging at My Blog Guest

Guest blogging is becoming a mainstream tactic to promote your resource and reach out to the targeted audience. The more people talk about guest blogging, the more misinterpretations of the concept occur.

This is why it is so important to keep reminding people what guest blogging is really about and how to do that to get the maximum benefit.

Let me share my own list of important things you must not do when guest blogging.

1. Don’t Treat Guest Blogging as Link Building

If you view guest posting as link building, the quality of your posts suffers. Trying to stuff your guest post with links to your own properties you are unable to focus on the post itself and other (much more important) benefits of guest posting:

• Networking: think about valuable connections that you build. People who are involved in the Internet marketing long enough realize that traffic and rankings are unstable. Networking with people is what really matters. Your friends and partners will be the foundation of your future online success and guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to build those connections and strengthen them.
• Reaching out to (and influencing) the influencers. A-lister bloggers are those who have authority and voice. It is not easy to get into contact with them. What they really value is your unique perspective and sincere opinion – and a good thoroughly-thought-over guest post is the best way to reach out to them.
• Recognition and authority. Guest posting positions you as expert, builds your brand awareness and authority.

2. Don’t Focus on Yourself

While building your personal brand is an essential benefit of guest posting, don’t overdo. By focusing on yourself and your by-line you risk:

• Being rejected – remember bloggers agree to publish your work and give you recognition and all they want is just your unique and quality content. They don’t need you telling everyone how good you really are.
• Screwing relationships with bloggers – the moment the blogger realizes you are using him to self-advertise, he stops appreciating you as contact. No one likes being used.
• Sounding pathetic – even if the blogger feels uneasy to reject and publishes your post, your readers will notice and laugh at your attempt to advertise yourself.

3. Don’t Focus on A-List Bloggers

Your wish to make the most of your efforts and only guest post for high-authority and high-traffic blogs is easy to understand. However consider the following benefits of the active guest blogging strategy (which means sharing your work on various blogs of various topics and power):

• You have time and platform to learn: Guest blogging (like anything else under the sun) requires some skills and experience. Lower-authority blogs are easier to contact and are more eager to accept the post – this means you are able to guest post frequently enough to get the experience adapting to new audiences and styles.
• You build more contacts. Let’s face it, A-list bloggers are not easy to stick with. That’s bloggers “of your level” who are most likely to become your closest friends and people you can rely on. (Besides that, don’t forget, chances are, some of those blogs will eventually grow into “A-list” resources as well).
• You broaden your outlook. Think of plenty of various blogs, topics, styles, etc you come by while guest blogging. That’s an awesome post of inspiration.

Discussion

Any other really bad things to do when guest blogging to add to the list? Check my list of what guest blogging is NOT and also add yours in the comments!

Post image by radiant guy

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1. The Ultimate Guide To Guest Blogging – Massive Techniques for Achieving Success
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3. 12 Easy Ideas For Making Money Online Through Blogging
4. Job Board Roundup: 10 Awesome Blogging Jobs To Launch Your Online Career
5. 24 Deadly Signs of a Failing Blog

Tagged as: Ann Smarty, blogging tips, Guest posting