FAQ
1. What if I’m blogging about accounting, my town’s real estate, or arts and crafts? There are lots of people interested in the topic, but there aren’t any big blogs. Will guest blogging still work?
Yes, it can.
Sure, it would be hard if you confined yourself exclusively to your topic, but the beautiful part about the blogosphere is that it’s so interconnected. You can find readers by writing about topics close to yours.
Let’s take a blog about accounting, for example:
- You could write a guest post on a personal finance blog about, "How to Use Your IRA to Save for Retirement — The Ultimate Guide"
- You could write a guest post for a productivity blog about, "7 Steps to Finishing Your Tax Return in Only Two Hours"
- You could write a guest post for a technology blog about, "Which Tax Software Is the Best? A CPA Breaks down the Pros and Cons of Each"
We could go on and on. The fact is, you can find a way to overlap your blogs topic with almost any other topic, giving you access to a huge range of popular blogs.
In Video 2, I actually gave an example about how somebody with a gardening blog could write a guest post for a big personal finance blog. If you haven’t watched the video, check it out here.
2. How long should you wait before you write your first guest post? Is it something you can do, even if you’re a new blogger?
Some people might disagree with this, but my personal opinion is you should get started guest blogging as soon as you’ve written 5-10 blog posts.
When you ask to do a guest post, popular bloggers might check out your site, and you want to have at least a few posts for them to read. Five is probably enough, but ten is better. It gives them a good sample of your work, and it also gives visitors something to read when they come to your blog after publishing your guest post.
But otherwise, you should get started right away. Here’s why: your ideas aren’t doing anyone any good if no one reads them.
A seven Yes, it’s tempting to take a few weeks or even months building up the content on your blog before you start promoting it, but I can tell you that, more than likely, no one will ever read them. Blogs are chronological, and any post that goes off the top of the page tends to be forgotten. It’s really sad to publish some of your best posts in the beginning of your blog, and then you get absolutely no reaction because you don’t have any readers.
It’s far better to get traffic flowing, and then work hard to build up your content. And, you might say I’m biased, but in my opinion there is no better way to get traffic to a new blog than guest blogging.
I explained why in this post on Copyblogger.
3. I don’t have time to publish a post every day on my own blog, much less write a post for someone else’s. Sure, guest blogging sounds like a great strategy, but where do you find the time to do it?
In an ideal world, you could quit your job, work on your blog full-time, publish an awesome post every day, and still have plenty of time left over to write several guest posts a week. Some bloggers (who aren’t human, I swear) even manage to do it while working a job and spending time with their family, although I don’t have the slightest idea how.
But what if you’re not living in an ideal world, and you’re not superhuman?
You need a different strategy.
For the past year, I’ve been working with quite a few consulting clients who have jobs, and I’ve come up with one that seems to be working well. This might surprise you, but sometimes you can get more traffic if you cut down to writing only one blog post per week, and then you write one or two guest posts every month.
I recently wrote a whole post about it on Copyblogger, outlining the strategy in detail. You can read it here.
No, it’s not optimal, but sometimes you have to be realistic about what you can accomplish. You can’t do everything, so you have to decide what’s the best use of your time.
And in my opinion, the strategy outlined in the post above strikes just the right balance.
Any other questions? Leave them in the comments, and I’ll get back to you!
50 Responses 
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This isn’t about guest blogging, but I’d love to know how you make your videos. I never did learn Powerpoint – is that what you used? I want to make videos like that!
I actually used four pieces of software. PowerPoint 2010, Camtasia, SnagIt, and Audacity. But yes, I did the majority of the work in PowerPoint 2010. It’s actually pretty awesome.
@LaVonne:
You may want to check this course out by Gideon Shalwich. getyourvideoonline (dot) com
@LaVonne,
I can’t stop myself telling that I’ve a membership course on creating 5 types of web videos.
And I also have several blog posts that tell you how to make web videos easily with some simple software.
Blowing my own trumpet, but maybe you won’t mind checking out!
Best.
Partha
You could check out Prezi, too…it offers some really good text and image interfaces.
No process is perfect. I know I have trouble keeping up with my blog, guest posting, Superpower coaching and everything else I do. It’s all about putting the most important stuff to the top of the list.
Guest posting does work it’s easily brought me in over 500 extra subscribers. I’m still perfecting my technique, but the more I guest post the better I get at converting their readers into my own.
Glad to hear it’s been working for you, Karl!
How do you feel about writers who have written for other bloggers in their niche but want to write for bloggers in other niches which have mounds of traffic such as Problogger, CopyBlogger, etc?
For instance, let’s say you primarily write about Classic Ford Mustangs and have written for all the Mustang blogs in existence but traffic isn’t where it should be.
Your writing is great, you interact well and you’ve got your posting schedule down. Everything is there but the traffic.
So how would you suggest someone in a completely different niche approach the blog they want to write for without feeling like said blog author/editor won’t want your post because you aren’t already in their niche???
thanks
JC
As long as your post is good and on topic, I don’t particularly care what your blog is about. I’ve seen quite a few posts on ProBlogger, for instance, from people whose blogs have nothing to do with blogging.
Also, I’m sure you could think of relevant topics, even for a topic like that. For instance, you could talk about how you saved up enough money to buy your first Ford Mustang (personal finance), the pros and cons of investing in cars (investing), the effect on your dating life (relationships), and so on.
The examples for Question #1 are excellent. I would imagine that “big blogs” would enjoy bringing in new segments of users based on related topics.
Oh and can you add a check box where we can subscribe to the comments?
Done.
Great stuff Jon . . .
My question: I just have a landing page, with nothing on it except *coming soon* placeholder (sorta has a little more personality than that, but not much).
However folks have been ASKING me to guest post for them.
I don’t want to miss these opportunities, yet I’m not ready to crank out a site as of yet. Do I wait on guest posting, work killer hard to get site up, just put optin box on site to build a list???
Arggghh . . . whimper.
Yes, I think it’s possible. I’ve actually been interested in trying that out. If you do, keep in touch with me, and let me know how it works.
In general though, I think you should have at least 5-10 posts before you get started. There aren’t any minimums, but it seems to work.
Morrow, I love the fact that you’re realistic! A lot of posts I read essentially tell you to put your family, health and sanity on the altar of blog stardom and write, write, write!
I appreciate the “less is more” sentiment here and it relieves me from thinking I HAVE to do it all!
Thanks!
How can you search the internet to find and cull out good blogs to consider guest-posting on?
How do you approach the “big guys” – eg, Inc Magazine – who have staff writers, about a guest blog?
Good questions. We’ll be covering those in detail in the upcoming training program.
Jon,
Thank you for your advice. It helps to put some structure around blogging. I understand now that there is a science to it. I am going to take a hard look at my blog and see what I can do differently. If my intention is to contribute something of value to people’s lives, I can only do that with readers, right?
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Donna
That’s right. Your posts don’t help anybody if no one reads them.
thanks for the reply and for the subscribe-to-comments option!
Thanks for the videos! For some reason, seeing these concepts in video make it stick with me better.
1. Will the trainings be in video?
2. What do you think about using Squidoo and Hubpages to promote your work. Is that as good as guest blogging?
Yep, all of the lessons will be in video. I’ll give you some more details tomorrow as to why.
Sites like squidoo certainly have their place on the web, but I don’t think it’s a great traffic strategy, no. Writing a guest post for a popular blog will, on average, send you a lot more traffic and help you with your search engine rankings.
Great stuff Jon!
I have a question:
What’s your opinion about blogging while on vacation? Do you prepare posts in advance, or just give your readers a few days break?
Recently I forgot to prepare posts for my vacation, and I ended up with the worst traffic of my (fairly small) blog’s history.
Thanks!
Yep, it’s usually good to prepare posts in advance. That way, no one worries about you.
The other option is you can just tell them you’re going on vacation. We did a variation of that on Copyblogger recently:
http://www.copyblogger.com/gone-fishin-2010/
@Jon you can still keep your guru status for launching late… but a true guru would have used the “my server crashed because of the amount of traffic I received so I had to delay my launch” excuse.
^^ Yes! What Raja said. And then add a mailing list to that so that people will be notified as soon as you come back online
Jon: What if I am a video blogger? Do the same rules apply? How would one ‘guest video blog’?
Thanks again for your hard work; this is very informative and encouraging!
Yep, most of it is the same. I did a post for Copyblogger in video:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/11/21/speech-recognition-for-bloggers-the-ultimate-guide/
You just need to have an angle that demands a visual element. Also, not all bloggers do video, so it might limit your options.
Then again, who knows? I don’t think anyone has ever tried to do it on a wide scale. You might be the first.
Speaking as a blogger who loves words and doesn’t do video myself, I have no problem publishing video blog posts for others as guest posts and neither does any other blogger I know. I don’t believe there would be an drawback to being a video blogger instead of a writer.
Jon, many people say put your best material up first on a new blog to show readers the value but if, as you rightly say, no one will read it, consider the following:
a) put only great–core–stuff up (and suffer the consequences) which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me and which also ultimately could hurt you b/c you’ve already used it;
b ) mix great material with good but perhaps less demanding (to write) material(this also partially addresses the Q of how often to post);
c) post best stuff first but then repeat it weeks or months later perhaps slightly altered;
(Is that a complete no-no re duplicate content from the SEO POV? I hope not! It seems to make sense in terms of using (wasting?)excellent material which, frankly is counterproductive (and , as you say, sad! Worse, it could cost you readers and sales!. And it is an alternative to trying to seduce new readers to dive into the archives.)
d) other approaches
What think you?
Thanks,
@Frank:
Darren Rowse on Problogger has some great techniques for making sure your older and best posts don’t get buried.
From him I’ve learnt and done a few things:
* Installed the recently popular plugin that displays the most read articles on your site. You can choose what time period it covers.
* Used the ‘Killer Recent Entries’ widget to display the last 10 posts in the category of your choice (I’ve used Product Reviews)
* Created what Darren calls a ‘sneeze page’. Essentially it’s a ‘Best of’ page and with this you can pick out your personal best of the best to link to, however old they are.
* Used a Magazine style layout to display 16 posts on the front page.
As of this morning the second most read article on my site was written in May 2009 – more than a year ago – and the 4th most read article was written in February 2008.
Hope that’s helpful!
@Jon,
Thanks again for this series. It’s the perfect lesson in how to create a tribe of raving fans
Cheers,
Martin.
There are lots of different opinions on this, but my personal strategy is to write 5-10 core articles, and then slow down on publishing posts until traffic ramps up. Usually, I’ll publish one per week and spend the rest of the time on promotion.
You don’t want to repost your articles, no, but it’s totally okay to link to them. The strategies from Martin are also good ones.
Hi Jon, I’ve really enjoyed all your posts and videos, thanks for sharing! My question for you is: would it be acceptable to publish a post on your own blog first, and then offer the same post up for guest blogging? (so the article is essentially reprinted on another blog) Or do the big blogs take a dim view of that and prefer exclusive rights to an article written just for them? Thanks very much for your insights!
They almost always want exclusive rights. I’ve never seen anyone ask you to sign over your copyright or anything, but it’s an understanding. You don’t publish it anywhere else. It’s fine if you link to it on your blog, though.
Hi Jon, love the series. Do you have any experience in guest blogging, but redirecting people back to an ecommerce site? Let’s say I run an online store that sells DVDs – it’s not a blog, it’s a full blown ecommerce site. Is it still practical for me to write guest posts on movie blogs and put my ecommerce site in my author byline? Will popular bloggers accept a guest post from someone who doesn’t have their own blog?
It’s certainly possible, John. Some bloggers may be wary if you’re linking to an e-commerce site rather than your blog, but a lot of them won’t care. In fact, I think it’s a pretty good SEO strategy.
Hi John and Jon,
There are bloggers like me who are intentionally small business friendly. Some bloggers do object to anyone linking to ecommerce sites – even in comments – and I do my best to get them to see the importance of supporting small business.
As long as your ecommerce site is not a bad neighborhood or questionable topic blogs like mine and some others I can introduce you to will publish your best posts and allow you to link to your store.
I’m always happy to suggest topics and recommend the optimum blog to publish that content.
Jon,
Thanks for the FAQs page. I recently had a guest post on Zen Family Habits and one on another blog coming soon. My blog is very new so I can report back with results if it is helpful to this new community.
@John Dunbar
Here are my two cents:
I wouldn’t see a problem with that if your post added value to the blog for which you are writing. You might disclose that your site is an ecommerce site. Of course, my next thought is “Why not add a blog to your site if you are going to take the time to guest post?”. I think it would really add to your business marketing plan.
This sounds right for me. I was going to look at taking a writing or grammar editing class, but this sounds more in line with my goals.
I recently took a journalism class and started using the techniques for one of my content writing jobs. Well it didn’t turn out well. A new editor returned most of my pieces and I lost $100. Writer’s guidelines went out re-written to all writers. I was given the boot. I am learning from this situation, but a little shaky about submitting anything else to even blogs that praise me for writing in-depth articles.
If this class can help increase my confidence with solid skills, it sounds a lot more fun than an editing and grammar class.
This is great advice. I run two niche blogs and a personal blog, and, frankly, they’ve been lagging.
I’ve always shied away from guest-posting for the reason you’ve given above in point three: where does one find the time? It’s clear I’ll have to rethink my strategy.
Thanks for taking the time to make these videos, and I look forward to the re-opening of your course.
I just wanted to mention that there are places that take category suggestions from guest bloggers to better fit their niche and who also take guest postings on an ongoing basis.
Article syndication must first be based on quality. Top 3 article publication sites will give you you more market expansion than the rest 300 syndication points, working together.
Quantity against quality issue is similar to the content or links. You have them both and then in good proportion, otherwise the top positions in search engine does not received.
If You were to ask me, there may be a few things to be added but since you took the initiative for opening this topic I can’t but admit your sayings.
I’ve just watched 2 of your videos and the way you explain things and the depth of your knowledge is inspiring. You make be want to work harder, write better and reach more people. Blogging rules:) Thank you Jon.
Hi Jon,
Do you have plans to re-offer this? Somehow I missed it last August (most likely I was on e-product overload!) It’s a shame–I would love to learn more about guest blogging.
Thanks!
Julia
Jon,
Do you do any coaching at this time? If so, what are your fees and how whould we determine your interest in helping me get my message out?
John,
The info that you have put on here is really good. So good, it may drop Darren from the Problogger title and give it to you! Keep supplying the great content! This content is king!
I am looking forward to diving into your course.
Does it address how to monetize all of this new found traffic?
I love to write everyday, but how long can I do it for free? It has been a full time job just to maintain my personal blog … but I have enjoyed every minute of it.
I am once again seriously considering doing this training. What holds me back is time. Could you give us some idea how much time we would optimally need to commit to get the most out of your course?
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