Want to land more guest posts? – A strategy that will boost your results

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while”

– Steve Jobs

Guest blogging is something that we all as bloggers should do, if done correctly; it is the only strategy that you will ever need to gain your way into the top ten rankings in the search engines results.

The simplicity of this method is what makes it brilliant and at the same time a little hard to use, but the truth is that you can improve your site’s performance if you build some high quality backlinks. And it is precisely that what I want to tell you; I am about to nail not only the importance of guest blogging but also, I will tell you a strategy that will boost your results as a guest blogger, help you get more traffic to your site and ultimately increase your conversions.

It is quite common that bloggers think about guest blogging as another way of building backlinks, but in fact it is bigger than that. A guest post is a huge opportunity to build a win/win situation; not only you are building inbound links to your site, but also the site that receives the content has the opportunity to show a different point of view to its readers and thus enrich the website. You as a guest blogger also get exposure and recognition for your job; which in the end works both with the search engines and the humans that click on those links that you placed in your post.

Having said that it is very important to recognize that guest blogging should be understood as something that works both ways for the guest writer and for the hosting site. If done properly the inbound links that you get as a guest blogger will increase your online presence and thus help you convert more visitors into customers or subscribers.

Guest Blogging is all about Giving and Giving Value

You know the saying “giving is receiving” and fortunately for us as bloggers the big search engines think the same way; it is not about the links that you receive for your guest post, but about the value that you provide to the readers of the site that you are approaching to; that is the number one factor why a guest post could or couldn’t be accepted, any serious webmaster wants to provide value to their readers because gaining readers is hard work, and if you don’t provide good quality content I can bet you 100 USD that no one will give you anything back.

If you are serious about your website and want to gain real visitors, real subscribers and real money with the products and services that you market keep reading. I will tell you a strategy that will make your job easier and more effective; it may take a little more time in a daily basis, but in the long run you will see the results; and again, it is all about giving and giving real value for real people. That is what the law of income says: You will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver according to the marketplace, and if you are distributing guest posts you are in the marketplace of information, so your host and ultimately his or her readers are the ones who should say if you deliver value or not.

Find out what Matt Cutts from Google says about guest blogging:

Learn a Strategy to Increase your Results as a Guest Blogger

There is gentleman by the name of T. Harv Eker who is an author and speaker. Many of the things that I am sharing here are in his book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, I’ve studied the principles in the book and applied them as a guest blogger; I have found that they work and now I would like to share those with you and hopefully provide some value to my fellow bloggers out there.

With this in mind I know that having a clear strategy is critical; this may seem obvious but the reality is that many bloggers out there just pitch a bunch of sites without thinking about it. That is like throwing a bunch of flyers from the highest building you can find; in the end you will have a very low response rate and even some of those who respond will say: No thank you. So having a clear strategy is a must. Luckily that is what you are reading right now.

1. Join a guest blogging network: The best thing you can do to maximize your efforts as a guest blogger is to reach people that are looking for guest posts. Many websites have a guest posts guidelines page, and even when that seems to be a clear sign that these sites are accepting guest posts, the truth is that this is not enough. Many bloggers have that section to refer a person for when they seek guest posts, but this not necessarily means that they accept guest posts all the time. Thus, joining a guest blogging network is great because you can reach people who are actually looking for guest posts, this increases a lot your chances to get a positive response or at least a “no thanks email” so you can hit the next button without wasting time.
2. High Quality Content: This is critical, as a blogger it is your duty to share only the best of the best, you want to provide an article that will help the other webmaster to increase the value of her or his site; in the end that is what is all about, remember, we as bloggers are in the business of information, our product is information, so sharing the best information possible with a website is all that matters. I still don’t know of one serious webmaster (and I know a lot) that is willing to share low quality content with their readership; it is their business, that is why they have a website in the first place, so make sure your articles are an eleven out of ten.
3. The Pitching moment: If this step it’s not done properly could send your high quality content as well as your good defined strategy right to the spam box. When you are approaching to a site you want to send a targeted email, very short and clearly stating your intention of sharing an article with that webmaster. There are a lot of ways to detect spammy emails and if you send a letter with a lot of words you could be pressing a spam filter’s red buttons; this is another advantage of sending an email to someone who posted a message in a blogging network, chances are that this person will even check the spam box to see if someone answered his message .
4. Sharing the content: When you share the content it is all about  simplicity; some webmasters will tell you how to share the content with them, this is great because you just follow instructions with the intention of facilitating both the reviewing and the publishing processes. If you have no instructions about how to share the content, then it is a good idea to send the article as a notepad file in HTML format; if you share images (which will increase the value of your post) these must be attached in the email as well; make sure those images are royalty free and are good to use for that webmaster, the last thing you want to do is to get you and the other webmaster in trouble for the copyrights of an image.
5. Generate conversation: It is always a great idea to end your article with one or two questions; ask the reader her or his opinion about the article and what other tips and tricks can be added, this makes your article shine because if your post get comments it means that it is performing well. Also and very important, make sure to answer the questions and comments that you see in your article, this will position yourself as someone who is not only interested in guest posting but actually is willing to pay attention to other people’s mind.
6. Social Networks: I am not a fan of exchanging links, but it is always a great idea to share your article in your social networks with intelligence. An example here: Follow the person who is hosting your article on twitter; now mention that person in a tweet with a question or an opinion about the article; this will increase your chances to land another article in that site as well as to generate conversation about post.

So there you go, be creative, use your imagination, and remember that it is not the cards you are dealt, but how you play those cards. Give value and give it all.

I recently started to use this same strategy and my landed articles started to grow, you can try this in less than a week and see if this is good for you as well. What other things do you consider that would skyrocket your results as a guest blogger? Are you willing to give this a try? Share with all of us your experience leaving a comment.

To your Success!