9 Reasons Why You Should Be Guest Blogging

As a blogger, you may think that your primary and only focus should be creating compelling and unique content for your own blog. Have you ever considered shifting some of that focus to developing guest posts for other blogs in your niche and/or industry? Believe it or not, some statistics claim that content you write for other blogs is 5x more valuable than content that you write for your own blog (if a back link to your blog is included in the post). There are a variety of reasons why you should try to reach out for guest blogging opportunities within your industry.

Below I will share 9 reasons why you should be guest blogging:

1) Improve your own blog and writing career in the long run.

Although it will take some time to see benefits and results, contributing to other blogs will help build readership for our own blog as well as improve your writing skills. The more you write, the better your writing will become. Having fellow bloggers edit and critique your writing will inherently strengthen your writing skills. Guest blogging is great practice for writing your own high quality posts.

2) Develop and grow the popularity of your own blog.

If you have a newer blog and want it to get noticed, guest blogging can help you leverage the readers/followers of the blog you are guest posting on. If it is a popular blog, the chances are good that the blog has an established community of readers that will read your post. Even if you have been blogging for some time, exposure to new potential followers and readers is always a positive!

3) Take advantage of the search engine benefits.

Ensure that there is a back link to your website and/or blog in your guest post. This will count as a relevant, incoming link to your blog from a reputable source within the same industry. Building back links should be a goal on websites with a strong root domain authority. (Keep in mind, Google frowns upon guest blogging as a link-building technique, so keep the back links to a minimum!)

4) Become an expert/influencer in your industry niche.

By focusing your guest blogging efforts on sites within your industry, you will boost your online reputation as an expert in that particular field. Become the authority by writing about what you know best; don’t stray from what you know. It is also very important to add value to the blog’s readers and don’t try to sell your products and/or services.

5) Generate new traffic to your blog and gain exposure to your desired readers.

If your primary goal is to grow the traffic to your blog, focus on other sites that have a large and engaged audience. The more traffic to the blog you’re guest posting on, the better. More eyes = a greater chance that these users will click through to your blog and develop an interest in the posts there. 

6) Build relationships with other bloggers.

Most successful and established bloggers have a strong presence on social media networks since they use these channels to promote their content. Guest posting opens these doors for you as well. As they link out to your content, their network will be exposed to your work. The greater their social media influence, the better chance for increased subscribers and visitors to your blog.

7) Extend the reach of your thoughts and ideas.

Guest blogging is one of the easier ways to get your ideas to a greater number of people. If you restrict yourself to your own blog, you will miss out on the chance to influence readers that don’t yet know about your blog.

8) Broaden your digital network.

Even in this digital age, networking is still extremely important. While networking may have changed in the last few years and moved online, building these relationships are invaluable to your business’s success both online and off. These connections can potentially lead to co-marketing opportunities, new leads, referrals, etc.

9) Enjoy the process and reap the rewards!

At the beginning, guest blogging may seem like a chore, just another item on your to-do list. But once you make this a priority and start to reap the benefits, you will find that you look forward to writing these guest posts in addition to keeping up with writing for your own blog.

This only begins to outline the many benefits that one can reap from taking the time and initiative to guest blog. Have you had great success with guest blogging? We’d love to hear about your experiences, successes, or failures in the comments below.

Read another post by Jenn:
Email Marketing is Alive! 10 Tips for How to Make it Work for Your Company

Image credit: Working on the Toolstop blog by Mark Hunter via Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0