7 Steps to Guest Blogging Your Way to More Traffic and Greater Online Visibility

One traffic generation strategy that I'm started to explore is that of guest blogging. Guest blogging is the process of looking for other blogs read by your target market where you can submit your content for publication. This strategy is a natural fit for anyone who is using content marketing as a traffic generation strategy, as it provides yet another opportunity to syndicate your content to a hungry market looking for the information that you provide.

However, there's more to becoming a guest blogger than just throwing blog posts here and there in a haphazard fashion. How do you go about finding guest blogging opportunities that will really pay off for your business?

Here are 7 steps to guest blogging your way to more traffic and increased online visibility:

1. Find possible guest blogs. Create a list of blogs that you read where you would like your content to appear. You can also search for blogs in Technorati, Google Blog Search, or at two sites that list blog owners seeking guest bloggers, MyBlogGuest.com and BloggerLinkUp.com.

2. Research the blogs. Use a tool like Search Status for Firefox to ensure that the blog is getting some regular traffic. Take a look at the blog, as well, to make sure that the owner is updating the blog with new posts weekly. Read several of the blog posts to get a feel for how the blog owner writes, and look through the categories and posts to see if your content would be a good fit, as well as to determine if your content would fill a missing gap in that blog.

3. Research submission criteria. Many blog owners will note on a page in the blog what they require for guest posting, like only taking original articles, restricting the re-posting of submitted content to other online sources, requiring a set word count, etc. Be sure that you can live with the criteria outlined on the blog before taking any additional steps. If there is no submission criteria, contact the blog owner and ask.

4. Prepare post. Now that you have found a blog or two that will accept your guest post, it's time to get your content ready for submission. Make sure that you have created a compelling headline, have your resource box ready with a call to action that will drive traffic back to your site, and determine the anchor text in your blog that you want to use to create backlinks to your site. Anchor text are hyperlinked keywords that link back to your web site. So, for example, if you wanted to rank for "marketing consultant," you would need to use some variation of that term in your resource box and in your content, with that term hyperlinked back to a page on your web site.

5. Contact blog owner. If you are "cold calling" a blog owner to guest post, prepare a short introductory email that explains who you are; why you'd like to be a guest blogger (remember your research in step #2); information about your credentials, writing experience, and your own blog traffic; as well as your post idea. Go ahead and attach your post, as well, so that the blog owner can gauge its appropriateness for his blog.

6. Promote the post. If your post is accepted for the guest blog, show your appreciation by helping promote the posts. Make a mention of the post in your ezine or blog, or post a status update on your social networks to drive your friends and followers to that post.

7. Followup for future posts. If all goes well in your initial guest blogging gig, ask the blog owner about returning as a blog guest, or even about blogging on a regular basis. Determine the conditions of your followup posts, and then follow through on those conditions. You've created the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

If you love to create content in your area of expertise, take some time to explore being a guest blogger. Guest blogging can bring you more traffic, more subscribers, and greater online visibility for your business and your brand.