How to Not Ruin a Perfectly Good Guest Blogging Opportunity
Guest blogging on another business’s site is a great deal all around. You get an entirely new audience to expose your business to and the host gets new content for his site, it really is a win-win. That being said, it can be tempting to slip in a hefty amount of links about your products or service leading your new readers back to your website.
That is the point of guest blogging: to expose your brand to a new audience, but I can guarantee that most blogs won’t be thrilled to receive a post from you that reads more like a press release than an interesting article (which is, of course, what they were hoping for).
Plus, as a reader, no one wants to sit down and read a post written by a company about why they think they’re so great. Not only is it not credible, it’s not interesting.
So how do you make sure your new readers learn about your business and maintain a good relationship with your guest blog? Here are three tips on how to make your business look good in your guest post without being too showy:
Never make an entire article directly about your business.
Make the overall topic of your post about something other than your business and what it does. Say you own a bakery, write about how to decide on the perfect dessert for an upcoming birthday party. That way you are writing to a broader audience about something lots of people will actually want to read and then you can slip your name in there as a suggestion of where those desserts can be purchased- but only once or twice. Link-overload can be a big turn off to readers and blog owners alike.
Don’t be redundant with internal links.
When you do include an internal link or two, you don’t even need to mention your business name to get some traffic to your site. Some blogging sites frown upon the use of your business name in a post. No problem! Mention a service your business does without writing that it’s your business providing that service, highlight the text, and link that sucker back to your home page- as long as linking back is ok with the editor. This is something that varies from blog relationship to blog relationship.
Include an ‘About the Author’ paragraph.
Worst case scenario, if you are blogging with someone who frowns upon both mentioning your business and internal links, simply ask to end the piece with an ‘About the Author’ paragraph. These are pretty standard in guest blogging so getting a paragraph to write whatever you’d like at the end shouldn’t be a problem. Though, use the space wisely. Instead of listing your hobbies or how you got your business started, write about your products or services and why someone should give you their business. Be sure to link the paragraph to your website and include a couple social outlets where readers can find you online.
