Debbie LevenHurrah, you did it! The blogger has said “yes” to a guest blog and you did your happy dance.
Then you put your head down and sweated blood and tears to deliver awesome content. You look forward to ‘publish’ day with a nervous knot in your stomach and then when it goes live you click back to it every few minutes waiting for the comments and shares. You put it out there and wait, and wait, and wait…
But it just doesn’t happen. There’s not much interest and you can’t work out why. You’ve created fantastic content and it’s on an established website that has credibility amongst your target audience. Yet you aren’t getting the interest in the article you’ve written or much traffic as a result and as far as helping list building your effort has drawn a great big zero. Sound familiar?
Where are you going wrong?
Of course, getting a guest blog opportunity is fantastic and you should pat yourself on the back about that. But that is where the hard work starts. The blogger whose site your content appears on may well push it out there. But, these opportunities don’t come up every day and you need to put much more effort into promoting your guest blog than writing it.
Let’s assume that the content you’ve produced is a good fit for the website where it appears otherwise it wouldn’t have been accepted or published. And, hopefully, you’ve got a decent bio, call to action and a natural step from your guest blog to people wanting to click on the link to your website. So, let’s focus on promoting your guest blog post. And, in honesty, it’s not that you don’t know how to promote it, it’s just that it’s not part of a checklist or plan and it just all happens knee jerk the instant it goes live – you hit share on your various networks, ask contacts to support, post links in groups and cross your fingers and sprinkle some fairy dust.
Put it in your schedule
The key is to have a checklist or a plan, schedule time to take the action and repeat. Yes, repeat. I say that because promoting a guest blog the minute it appears is important but you have to keep doing it, keep breathing life into what you have created. It’s good for you and good for the blog owner. But, when other things are going on it’s all too easy to get distracted. And, if you’re anything like me you prefer creating the guest posts but pumping it out on social networks and scheduling those tweets and posts can all feel like a bit of a drag. But, what a shame if you can’t help people find your fantastic content, don’t you think?
Your guest blog checklist
So, here’s a checklist to help you in promoting your guest blog – free methods you can use. The idea is that this will help you develop your own checklist of activity that will work for you. There’s no one size fits all and don’t get hung up on whether you’re doing it right or not. Just get on pick out what activity you’re going to focus on. So, here you go – 25 ideas to help you promote your guest blog post.
In advance of your guest blog post going live
1. Compile a list of your ‘warm’ contacts who you will email about your guest blog and encourage them to comment and share. This isn’t just anybody in your contacts book. I’m talking about the people you’ve connected with and then taken that contact one stage further and chatted to via phone and Skype.
2. Read the blog you are writing for and comment on other relevant articles that are in, or cross over, with your niche. Hopefully, you will have been doing this a bit in the lead up to pitching your guest blog. But, it’s even more important to do it in the lead up to your guest blog going live. This is about visibility and name recognition.
3. Email those other bloggers whose content you have been commenting on and tell them what you thought about it. Imagine if someone did that to you – emailed you on the back of your guest blog, wouldn’t that just send you over the moon? It would certainly get you noticed.
4. Make a list of anybody who has commented on a past blog and make a note of their email address.
5. Compile a list for each of your social networks of your ‘warm’ supporters – those people who pop up time and again promoting your posts and tweets.
6. Check out the relevant hashtags to use when promoting your guest post on Twitter.
7. Write template emails/tweets/posts ready to send for the different groups you have identified to ask for their views on your guest blog. For those bloggers where you commented on their guest blog post then you may want to remind them of that.
8. Research and make a list of those influencers in your niche, and beyond, who would have an interest in your blog post topic. Find out where they hang out on social networks and engage them there. And, track down their email addresses. You’re going to be sending them an email to highlight your guest blog.
9. Write a new blog post for your website that builds on, or relates to, the theme of your guest blog – time that to go live when your guest post does so that visitors to your website get fresh content. Ideally, add in the link to the guest blog too.
10. Draft an email to go out to your subscriber list about your guest blog.
11. Research other blog posts and articles out there related to your theme or topic. Make a list with the relevant links because you’ll be coming back to post a comment mentioning your guest post and linking to it.
12. Look for roundup post opportunities that are relevant. Just use a search engine and type in your keyword and ’roundup’. Make a list so that you can come back and ask the roundup owner if they will include your guest blog in their roundup.
13. Create other content using the key points from your guest blog – visual representations, checklists etc. And, get ready to post on document sharing websites.
14. Schedule your tweets and posts promoting your guest blog on your different social networks. The frequency will vary for promoting your guest blog but you need to think about promotion on the day and the days that follow too. Use a tracking url so that you can see the impact on traffic. And, you can also ‘pin’ the tweet for your guest blog to your Twitter wall to help get more visibility.
On publication day
15. Follow through on your preparation in advance and take action:
- Email your contacts on the different lists you have pulled together – ‘warm’ contacts, other bloggers, commenters, supporters on social networks, influencers
- Go live with your own blog post
- Hit send on the email to your subscribers
- Leave comments on other relevant blogs and articles
- Approach roundup owners about your guest blog
- Post re-purposed content, linking to your guest blog, on document sharing networks and promote it
- Finalise your scheduling for promoting your guest blog in updates on your social networks
16. Post reference to your guest blog in your different social communities’ groups – Facebook and LinkedIn etc.
17. Ensure you copy the blog owner into your promotional activity so that they know what you are doing.
18. Share your guest post on StumbleUpon to help spread the word.
19. Add a link to your latest guest post in your email signature
20. Share your guest post on curation sites like Scoopit.
In a nutshell: There are many ways to promote your guest blog post. The key is to focus on ideas that you will do and do well. Don’t get overwhelmed with all the things you ‘could’ do. Just focus on what you ‘will’ do, make a plan, schedule your work and get cracking.
What methods do you favour for promoting your guest blog?
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Image credit: Debbie Leven
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