7.2 FREE: Guest Blogging

Objectives: Learn what guest blogging is and why it’s a great source of quality free traffic.

What You’ll Accomplish: By the end of this lesson, you’ll have a better understanding of how to become a guest blogger to grow your list.

Estimated Time of Completion: 15 minutes (not including blogging time)

Before You Begin: Find and open some blogs in your niche. Get a pen and paper or open a Word/text file to take notes.

Time vs. Money

Like I discussed in the introduction, there are two ways to effectively grow any kind of business. You can choose to either put in time or money. That means either driving traffic using free but time-intensive methods, or buying traffic using paid ads.

We will go over the “money-paid” aspects later in this step. First I will show you methods to grow the visitors to your opt-in page using free methods. These take a little time, but the quality of the traffic is usually very high.

Free Traffic from Other People’s Blogs

One of the bet sources of high quality traffic is Guest Blogging.

If you haven’t heard of blogging yet, you have been living under a rock! Blogs are websites on which experts discuss topics in a casual, essay-like format. Guest blogging is when another expert (like YOU) writes a post on someone else’s blog.

Let me give you an example… Jim has a blog on classic cars. He loves going over different models and how they’ve been updated and chopped. Phil is looking to grow his own list on classic car mods and shows. So he asks Jim if he can write a blog for him. After reviewing Phil’s work, Jim agrees and posts it on his blog. This post creates traffic for both Jim and Phil’s opt-in page.

 
In this case, you want to be Phil. Being a guest blogger is like most free traffic methods: it’s all about scratching someone’s back so they scratch yours.

Here is how to maximize your ability to drive traffic through a guest blog:

Establish Yourself as an Expert

This can be done in a variety of ways. The easiest is to have your own blog, with valuable content and good writing.

If you aren’t a great writer yourself, consider hiring someone to write the blogs for you. There are plenty of websites to find good freelancers for low prices. You’ll learn more about that in the Advanced Bonus Step.

Of course the other way of establishing yourself as an expert is with an amazing opt-in page and a newsletter with great content. 

Contact the Blog Owner

Now that you have quality content, it’s time to find someone with a blog.

Search for blogs in your niche. It’s easy: google {your niche] + blog, and see if the owners of other lists have a blog online. Look for the blogs with the most traffic and comments. If they are already taking guest bloggers, those will probably be the easiest to break into.

Contact the blog owner and send a small portfolio of your best writing. Offer to write him a guest blog FOR FREE. Let him know you will direct traffic to his blog to view the guest blog you have written, because you’ll send a link to the post to YOUR list.

How Does This Help You?

First, it helps with your credibility in your niche. You have now been established as an expert in your field.

Second, you can mention your own blog or Opt-In in the guest blog you have sent over. This will drive immediate traffic from people already interested in your niche.

Third, this will build a relationship with the blogger, which you may leverage into more traffic. They may pay you back by writing a blog post for YOUR blog or newsletter. They may mention you in their newsletter.

Recap:

1. If you don’t know what a blog is by now, you should!
2. Establish yourself as an expert.
3. Contact bloggers who get lots of comments and traffic.
4. Work with them.
5. Leverage your post – and the relationship – into subscribers!

EXERCISE

1. Review the blogs you pulled up while doing this lesson.
2. Read around, looking for posts that get a lot of comments. Make a note of the titles.
3. Come up with a list of at least 5 blogs which you could write for, along with some ideas for titles for each one.
4. Try to find the contact information for the owners of those blogs. Often there will be a contact form right on the site.
5. Plan to contact the owners with your ideas.                          

THE WISE MARKETER KNOWS… Everyone likes someone helping them for free. What appears as “free labor” to them, though, may be a valuable opportunity for you! Become an expert in your niche and showcase this through writing guest blogs. This will increase your online presence and will drive people to your list, which will convert into SALES!