As time has elapsed and blog posts have gained popularity through their various topics and discussions (read comments), Savvy marketers saw this as a great opportunity and jumped aboard the bandwagon. At the same time search engines had changed their algorithms in a manner wherein importance was given to updates. Thus, staying in the news was a useful way of ranking on the SERPs. What better way, than to write meaningful subject matter that readers find relevant enough to share with their fellow peers.
Bloggers as well as small business enterprises who had some web presence found it to their advantage to allow other bloggers to write about subject matter that catered to their niche audiences. For bloggers it was a welcome respite when they allowed other writers to voice an opinion with a different perspective on the same topic. This enabled the readers a 360 degree perspective thus leading to further discussion and shares.
A cycle of sharing and writing was created which in the internet terms means quality link juice that search engines take into consideration thus contributing to it figuring still higher on SERPs. And so the cycle continues.
What is Guest Posting?
Simply put, Guest posting means writing articles or blog posts for other websites. There are innumerable websites that require authentic and originally written posts on topics which are relevant to their website. At the same time the guest writer might have a website that has some relevance to the blogging site, thus allowing for a mutual benefit. Blogging site permits for back links in the author’s bio to ensure that the writer is an authentic one and at the same time the links ensure that the guest blogger can take advantage of the traffic that the blogging site attracts.
For instance an e-commerce website that offers high end kitchen appliances would love blog posts on categories such as cooking using their appliances, recipes for diet conscious persons, baking, restaurants that offer different cuisine, recipes as per the season etc. This will help the site to attract potential customers who are searching for the keywords listed within the topic.
Advantages Of Guest Posting
A detailed discussion on how guest posts are advantageous for the guest bloggers and the blog site is presented here:
1. Establish Authority
Quality of blog posts is of great importance for making a website popular and relevant. By encouraging well written and authoritative blog posts and articles, a website stands to establish itself as an authority on the subject. The search bots love sites that have authentic information to offer. The guest blogger benefits from posting on sites that promote authentic articles by way of exposure to the readers of a niche category who are genuinely looking for information. Thus the guest blogger establishes His/Her authority as a quality writer.
2. More Link Juice
A website is of no use if it does not earn a single dime. It’s a fact that no one can afford to ignore. Hosting a website entails utilizing resources – time, efforts as well as money. Why waste the efforts? By guest posting you will earn not only money, but will also figure on the higher pages of the search engine results.
How? Well, one of the many criteria for search engines is the quality of links that point towards a website. These are called off page links. The more links you have from relevant websites that point towards your site, the greater your chances are in making it to the the top ten or so list on the search results page. By guest posting on websites that are related to or are similar to your website you are increasing the level of ranking via quality back links.
3. Improves Writing Skills
There are great writers and then there are Great Writers. No one is perfect in writing great stuff from the go. Great writers have one thing in common. They practiced to arrive at their masterpiece. Write and blog about topics that really interest you and have a genuine readership. By combining these magical ingredients, you will certainly succeed in creating a niche readership. Blogging sites are always on the lookout for genuine and authoritatively written articles. Your writing skills will ensure them legitimate traffic thus improving their rankings and traffic conversion ratio. Hence, practice and practice even more.
4. Social Networking Benefits
In the Web 2.0 age, it is only logical to link your content and become part of the ‘inner circle’. Guest posts are shared by readers and discussed about on a variety of social networking sites and forums. This allows a writer to understand different perspectives on the same subject thus adding to his/her knowledge base which in turn makes him/her a better writer.
5. Website Financer
Though making only money is frowned upon by the blogging community, it is beneficial if you are paid for writing authentic guest blogs, directly or indirectly. Writing guest blogs should be mutually beneficial. As mentioned earlier, hosting site costs money. An e-commerce blog is based on the profitability module; it makes no sense for it to not earn money! Of course, by encouraging guest blogging a site offers a quality value added service to its audiences. But if the audiences do not convert, the website might as well shut down and save upon the resources or put them to more profitable uses.
For the guest blogger, writing for websites that are based on profitability would mean earning a steady income to run the site he/she hosts. It also attracts potential customers if it is a site that offers complementary products to the blogging site it has guest posted on. E.g. A guest blogger whose site caters to servicing of electronic items would benefit by writing about How to Keep Your Air Conditioners in Working Order during Summer and posting it on an e-commerce site that sells air conditioners!
6. Branding
Guest Posting is a great way of building your own brand name. You have the idea. You have the content. You just have no way of telling others about it. Guest posting will ensure that you share your ideas with readers who are genuinely interested in the information you have to offer. Your niche writing establishes you as a brand. Many websites publish the author’s picture to lend authenticity to the posts. Thus you have the guest blogger as a brand by itself!
7. Encourages Reciprocal Writing
A community of writers is born due to guest blogging. A guest blogger more or less gives another blogger a break by writing on his/her blog! It helps to offer a different perspective to the bloggers site. And a long term relation is established which in future would mean that the blogger would be more than happy to offer you his/her guest post.
8. Awareness
For people, who feel sour at the mention of ‘money’, we have a reason to make you smile – guest blogging is also not about only making money. It is also about making readers aware about various issues that affect them in real life. Many web revolutions have been spawned due to heartfelt write ups written by bloggers only with the intention of creating awareness.
Guest posting is an excellent means of communicating with the right people for the right reasons. Its advantages cannot be ignored by a writer/blogger. It offers budding writers an opportunity to express themselves via guest blogs which otherwise they would not have a chance to do so. It encourages good writers to voice their opinions on various subject matters to kick start a healthy discussion. Authority writers cannot ignore guest posting as it allows them a chance to increase their brand awareness and reaching out to the ever growing community of internet users.
Divya has written various guest articles on various topics such as social media optimization, logo designing, web design, website content writing to name a few under the tutelage of a website marketing company that has been offering internet marketing services for the past six years.
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