Guest Blogging 101: What You’re Doing Wrong?

It usually takes a while to make your guest blogging efforts lead you somewhere and bring rewarding results. But this process takes even longer if you make some dreadful mistakes along the way. How to recognize those mistakes and fix them before you desperately claim guest blogging to be useless as a lot of people who failed at it did? Read on to see what you might be doing wrong.

Targeting Blogs in the Same Niche as Yours

When you decide to write guest posts on blogs that are in the same niche as your own, chances are you will suggest topics that have already been covered by the author or that they are still planning to cover them in the future. And in addition, if you’re writing similar content, the audience will most likely to stay loyal to the blog you’re guest posting on and won’t follow you to your website.

Tip to Fix It:

Think how you can target same audiences but with different products. Blog owner doesn’t have to see you as a competitor. For example, if your main expertise is infographic development, you might target content marketing blogs and write about an extra exposure that graphic content brings to a business. As you can see, you target the same readership but offer a different product to them. This will make readers feel free to go to your website and consume your information too.

Failing to Investigate

The worst possible mistake you can make is not researching a blog you’re willing to guest post on or not researching it well enough. Imagine you’ll write an amazing, well thought out article and it’ll turn out that the same topic was already covered? By not studying the blog for a potential guest posting first, you might encounter some minor disagreements with the editors: your style of your writing might not appropriate, the pictures won’t be right, the article might be too long or too short, you might not use enough references etc. A blog is like a home for bloggers, so try not to intrude in their space if you don’t know the rules.

Tip to Fix It:

Take some time to read the posting guidelines created by the author. If no guidelines are provided, investigate the posts that have already been published. Pay attention to what is popular. You need to understand what their audience likes the most and what tactics the blog owner uses to encourage commenting and sharing the content. This way, you can adapt an effective approach to share your story. Don’t try to sound better than the blog owner though. Remember, you’re a guest and have to behave like one.

Leaving Too Much Work to Be Done

Bloggers are extremely busy people, especially when they own huge blogs and receive more guest posts than they are able to publish. If they see your guest post is missing some vital elements, it is easier for them to reject it straight away. If your final article is missing, a proper introduction, meta description, meta titles, etc. you’re putting your opportunity to be published in danger. One more common thing is that some guest bloggers don’t pay enough attention to the proofreading of their posts knowing the editor is going to look through them anyway. Well, sometimes they won’t bother and reject your work so have some respect.

Tip to Fix It:

Write guest posts that are ready for immediate publishing. If the blog owner usually starts the posts with a small description of all the points outlined, always add images to your posts, because otherwise someone will have to do it for you. Don’t use copyright protected images you can quickly find on Google. You’d better use stock photos, illustrations, or even create custom graphics yourself. If you have at least some basic design skills and your posts include some small infographics with figures, stats, and facts, they will be much more valuable.

Writing Generalized Pitches

Some bloggers create pitches they typically send out to multiple blog owners. And you are probably making the same mistake if you look for guest blogging opportunities with this generalized approach. What you might not think about is that it’s all too obvious for people who receive dozens of identical emails every day and it can be quite refreshing to read something different from time to time.

Tip to Fix It:

Stand out from the crowd and you’ll be rewarded. Start with writing about a blog you wish to contribute to. Explain why you found it worthy, what things you like the most and which articles you are fond of. Based on a detailed website research, suggest a few topics that you would like to cover. When you actually show some interest in their content and are not there for the sole purpose of getting traffic back, you’ll have more chances to get your piece published.

Messing up Links

It’s understandable why you want to invite as many readers to your blog as possible. You desperately insert links all over the post. But unfortunately, such posts have more chances to get rejected by the editors. Even if they get published, such articles are extremely likely to scare readership away.

Tip to Fix It:

You’ve heard it many times – the links have to be used naturally in the text. Don’t deceive your readers with over-promising links. It’s usually mentioned in guest posting guidelines that you can have a link back to your blog, so use that. Another thing to remember is that everyone loves appreciation, so make sure to add internal links to relevant content on the blog, this will raise your chances a lot.

You have to decide on your guest blogging goals first – whether it’s building authority in your niche, increasing your readership or probably promoting your affiliate products. Depending on your goals, the nature and number of your links will vary. For example, if you wish to build your authority, it’s important to add your links at the end of the post and thus let readers finish the article first. People who enjoyed your work will follow.

Still Concerned?

A list of guest blogging mistakes may go on and on. While we covered some of the most common and dreadful of them, you might still stumble upon some more, big or small, but they can be quite destructive for your guest blogging efforts. Share your fears and concerns in the comments and we will try to give you some good advice.