I think everyone reading this blog will agree: famous bloggers are busy, actually most bloggers are very, very busy people. Writing interesting posts, networking and building connections with other bloggers, searching for post ideas – all this takes much time. And on top of all you need to be consistent and update your blog regularly, religiously and as often as you can to give your readers a good reason to follow you and check your blog feed daily.
But here’s the greatest advice you’ve ever heard: start accepting (and encouraging) guest contributions. Look at most powerful blogs: they all feature guest contributions for a reason (well, for many reasons to be more precise):
- Guest contributors will provide your blog with good content for free. In exchange you will let your readers know who they are and share their blogs. Sounds like a win-win, doesn’t it? This way you will get some free time without interrupting your daily blogging;
- A guest blogger will offer a new perspective and a fresh insight. We all have different unique styles (especially those who have blogged for a while). The style may be really good and catchy (that’s why you have loyal readers), but even very good writing may seem boring and even great tips may sound dull if the reader sees one and the same style every single day. A guest blogger will contribute something fresh and unique; you will likely even get inspired!
- Guest bloggers will share and promote their content hosted on your blog (this means more traffic and readers for you as well). The beauty of the whole concept is that if your guest blogger’s post does very well, both you and the blogger win: you both will get more links, traffic and exposure. That’s why guest bloggers most often help promoting their content by sharing with friends and social contacts (this can also be discussed prior to the publication by the way).
- Guest bloggers will introduce you to a new community. There’s no secret that bloggers network in hubs. The more hubs know about you, the more people you know (hence the more links, the more Tweets, the more votes, etc). Here’s a great post explaining why you should build relationship with bloggers by Edward Khoo.
So I guess it is pretty clear why you should look for guest posters, right? Now, let me share with you how. Top 3 most effective ways to find great guest bloggers:
1. Encourage guest contributions on the blog
Look at famous bloggers: they feature very evident “Write for us” badge on the site. And consequently they have plenty really great contributions from guests weekly: each one contains fresh ideas and unique opinions – that’s what makes the site so exciting.
The page inviting the guests should contain the following information (or look at this blog’s one as a sample):
- The reasons why people might want to contribute (the blog stats and details);
- Requirements for the post (don’t overdo this one);
- How the posts should be delivered (via email, form or submitted directly to the blog admin panel).
I am biased here because the community was started by me but here are the facts: MyBlogGuest is free, new and growing fast. Every day new bloggers join the site looking for blogs to guest post on. Creating a profile is easy: besides usual info (like username and email) you will need to provide:
- Your account name at major social networks (like Twitter and Digg). This info will be used to calculate your “power” which reflects your ability to share the guest post and get more exposure for the contributor;
- Your tags (or topics your blogs are about). These will be used to find you via the forum’s user search;
- Your blogs: some basic info about the bogs that the forum members may want to contribute for.
3. Look within your post comments
All bloggers know that their most precious visitors are those that comment: only people who are really passionate / knowledgeable abut the topic will take time to share their opinion. Some of my best post ideas were found in my blog comments and my most valuable contacts are those who comment at my posts regularly.
So once you look through your blog comments daily, take some time to see if there are some really good ideas. Then contact the ones that you liked most of all and offer them to elaborate further on the topic. Here’s what you should look for:
- People that sounded really professional / knowledgeable;
- People that tackled some close but different topic / approach;
- People that offered some different perspective / insight.
Of course, a good idea is to check the person’s site before offering him to guest blog.
Hopefully, you’ll feature more guest contributions after this post!