10 Tips For Writing An Outstanding Guest Post

Guest blogging is the act of writing an article for another blog as a guest author for the purpose of building relationship, quality backlinks and traffic. The benefits of guest blogging goes beyond traffic. Other benefits include:

1. More exposure for your site
2. More fans and followers on the social media
3. Higher page rank and domain name authority
4. Better income
5. Increased subscriber
6. Building your brand

The big question now is “How do I write a guest post that is unique and stands out from the crowd”?. The following tips has been written to guide you in writing an outstanding guest post that will be of help to your readers.

Tips for becoming an Outstanding Guest poster

Answer Questions :

A lot of your readers have questions they want answered. This is a very great way to provide content that will be read by many. Articles that answer questions also generate a lot of comments from readers.

How to find questions to answer

• Comment section of top blogs: When you go through the comment section of popular articles in the top blog of your niche, you will discover that the readers often have questions which they would like answered . This is a great way to find idea for guest post that will be engaging. All you have to do is to take down the questions and search Google for the answers.
• Yahoo Answer: Yahoo answer is another great platform you can use to find questions. Get familiar with the platform and narrow down your search to your niche and you will be amazed to find a lot of questions there. Google those questions and you will have answers that will give you idea of what to write in your next guest post.
• Quora: I like quora discussions more than Yahoo or other Q&A platform, because of the quality. Here you will find interesting questions, along with intellectual answers.

Write a controversial post:

Articles that cover controversial topics or topics that generate debate often attracts attention from readers. For example, debating articles like “Facebook or Orkut: Vote Your Favorite Social Networking Site“. This type of post will definitely draw attention because even though both platforms can be used to generate traffic, but the method differs and the result also varies.

A Catchy Headline:

Your headline will also determine if your guest post will be read or not. An interesting headline will stand out on your publisher’s blog and receive good views from readers. Such articles can also easily go viral if shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Share Your Article on Social Networking Sites:

Sharing your articles on Facebook and Twitter is another approach to making your guest post stand out. The number of Facebook likes and Tweets an article receives often determine its level of popularity. This also increases the number of comments the post generates both on the publisher blog and the social media platforms.

Article length:

The length of your guest post is likewise important. A well researched 800+ word guest post tend to stand out more. That does not mean that articles with lesser amount of words will not get attention. When your article is loaded with good points and engaging, it calls for attention. Such articles easily get good search engine ranking too.

An Attractive Image:

According to the popular cliché “a picture speaks more than a thousand words”. That is equally true in relation to writing an outstanding guest post. A clear relevant picture will go a long way to give life to your article. The picture interprets what you are saying and gives credibility to your assertion. Images get a lot of attention on social networking sites and could easily go viral. This is another means of traffic for you.

Relevant Case Study:

A relevant case study is another important element that could spice up your guest post. When giving your case study, provide link to the relevant references. Read an example how a site with no content got Google Page Rank 3 here

Search Engine Optimization:

The amount of search engine traffic your article will enjoy depends on the level of the level of your SEO effort. Getting your guest post search engine optimized is the answer. This guarantees free traffic from the search engine.

• How to write SEO friendly post title for more traffic
• How to write perfect SEO optimized articles in WordPress

Proofread Your Guest Post:

Before submitting your article to the publisher, spend some time to proof read what you have written. Check for grammatical errors and correct them. Make sure the links in your article are pointing to the relevant site. Also make sure the pictures are well placed.

• Learn how to better proofread an article

Encourage Your Readers To Leave Comments:

A quality guest post will automatically receive comments.  However, there are times when the comments are not forth coming. This can be discouraging. In order to encourage your readers to make comments on your guest post, you can follow these tips:

• End your guest post on an interesting note: One way of doing this is to end the article in a way that inspires your audience
• Encourage your readers to share your guest post on the social networking sites
• Timely response to comments by your readers: Imagine responding to a question in the comment section of your guest post a week after your reader posts the question. That is way too long. A timely response will leave your readers with a good impression about you. Remember, one of the benefits of guest posting is to build relationship and networking

Following these steps will make your guest post outstanding thereby giving you more traffic and exposure in your niche. Feel free to share your contributions in the comment section

Tweet