PB037: Grow Traffic to Your Blog Through Guest Posting and Creating Content for Other Blogs, Forums, Media and Events

Hi there. This is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger. Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast. This is a podcast for bloggers who want to make the world better through their writing, who want to grow their audience, and build profitable businesses around their blogs. 

Today, we’re going to continue our series on growing your blog’s readership. I’m going to particularly focus upon techniques around creating content for other destinations on the web including, but not limited to, through guest posting. 

You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/37. If you enjoy today’s show, we’d love to see your review on iTunes. We had some really great ones come in so far. Here’s one from James. He says, “James here from Borderless Blog. I took the challenge,” he’s talking about the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, “and did many of the things Darren suggested and had the best month I’ve had yet. I look forward to continuing to implement his advice to take my blog to the next level.” 

There’s Carrie from Carrie Harris Photo. She says, “I’ve been blogging for over five years. I’ve learned a lot during that time. This podcast does re-energize me to take another look at my blog and find areas I can improve in terms of content, design, and layout. It’s perfect for beginners and experienced bloggers. I always look forward to new podcasts from ProBlogger.” 

Thank you so much, Carrie, and thanks to you, James. I’d love to see your reviews, too. Do feel free to leave your blog’s name. I’m more than happy to check out your blog if you do that in your review. I do read them all and value them all. Let’s get on to today’s episode. 

Today, we’re talking about how to grow traffic to your blog through creating content for other parts of the web. Also, we’re going to touch on some other methods as well. I want to encourage you, if you haven’t listened to the other episodes in this series, to go back a few episodes.

It started in episode 33. In that, we talked about identifying who you want to reach before you go hunting for them. In episode 34, we talked about two types of content that will help you to grow your readership. In 35, we talked about how to build a sticky blog so when people come, they get hooked. They keep coming back again. In the last episode in episode 36, we started getting more specific with how to drive readers to your blog. We talked about commenting on other blogs, forums, and working in social media groups. We also talked about relational marketing—how to build your traffic by getting to know other bloggers, even collaborating with, and working with those bloggers.

Today, as I’ve said already, I talked about content creation for other blogs, forums, media, and maybe even getting up as a guest interviewee on a podcast or even speaking at a conference. One of the best ways that you can showcase the value that you’re able to deliver on your blog, to people who aren’t yet readers is to find other destinations on the web or offline that you can showcase what you do. To do this effectively, you really do need to go back to that exercise I mentioned in episode 33 about creating a reader avatar and thinking about where they’re hanging out online. I’ve talked about this a couple of times in the last few episodes. I won’t go into great detail. 

Ultimately, you want to create a list of the type of blogs, podcasts, forums, Twitter accounts, Twitter chats, hashtags, Facebook pages, YouTube accounts, and the mainstream media that your ideal reader is already following and engaging with. If you can identify these destinations that your ideal reader is already hanging out, watching, and involved in, then you’re going to be in a much better place to find that type of reader. 

I’d also extend this to, where offline are they hanging out? Where offline are they watching? Newspapers or magazines? What conferences are they attending? What meetups do they attend as well? Once you’ve got a list of all these places, you then need to start to think about, “What opportunities are there to create content for these places?” That may seem like a big question, a hard question, but what you’ll find is that with many of the things on your list, many of the blogs, many of the forums, many of the people that you’ve listed in terms of the influences, many of the Facebook pages, there’s actually an opportunity for you to create content and build a presence in this places. 

The most obvious of these and the most common of these is through guest posting on other blogs. It extends much further than that. Pretty much everything I want to talk about today relates to guest posting but also to things like writing articles for mainstream media, contributing articles in forums, being interviewed on other people’s podcasts, being involved in Twitter chats or Twitter parties on Twitter, or even speaking at other people’s events. Each of these strategies is really worth a podcast episode on its own and we will get to that in future episodes, but today, I want to talk about some general principles that I think apply to all of them. 

What you’re trying to do here is to leverage someone else’s exposure and profile to put yourself on to their site. That might seem a little spammy but most people will be more than willing to let you have some exposure on their site if you add value to it. I loved the analogy that John Murray uses. It’s like being the warm-up act at the concert. He says, “Guest posting on someone else’s blog gets you exposure.” If you are the warm-up act for a band like One Direction, people go to the concert to see One Direction—not that I’ve ever been to a One Direction concert—but if you’re good and you’re the warm-up act, you’ll gain some fans as a result of that. They’re there for some other reason but if you can contribute some real value in that forum, people are going to notice and they’re going to want to check out who you are. The warm-up band is going to sell some CDs out the front if anyone actually buys CDs anymore. 

Let’s talk about some principles about how you can contribute content to other parts of the web. The first thing is you want to choose the right destination. You want to really think about submitting content to the right places. There’s a number of things that you want to factor in this decision. As you look at the blogs on your list of the blogs that your ideal reader might read, you want to be asking yourself, do they have the right reader? That’s probably the number one question. Do they allow outside contributions? Do they allow their guest posts? Do they allow people to come in and do interviews or contribute infographics or whatever it might be that you’ve got to contribute? Do they have traffic? You don’t have to choose a massive blog to do this. It can actually work quite well on a smaller blog if they’ve got the ideal reader. But you obviously want them to have some traffic to make it worth your while. 

The last thing is, can you add value to it? Is the topic of the blog that you might want to submit to, is it something that you feel that you have something to say to? Can you actually contribute something of value there? Or is it beyond what you’re able to contribute? You want to actually dig around on their blog and get a feel for it. Get a feel for the fact that people are reading it, people are engaging, people are interested in the type of things that you got something to say on. 

If the answer’s no, you might want to continue to search. One way to find blogs where you can submit guest posts is simply using Google. Identify the keyword for the type of blog that you’re trying to reach and then just do something. Search for “guest post by” and then use the keyword as well in the search. You’ll begin to see destinations that accept guest posts. Similarly, you might use the keyword in the search and then put “guest post guidelines.” Many of the blogs that accept guest posts will have a page where there are guidelines. That’s a simple tip for finding the type of blogs that might accept guest posts. Again, don’t just think about guest posts; there are other ways you can create content.

Another one that we get pitched for occasionally at ProBlogger is infographics. You might be a designer, you might have some design skills, or you might want to hire a designer to create an infographic. Again, that’s another way to get on a blog to create something that’s useful for that blog for that blogger, for their readers, and also get some profile as a result.

The second thing I’d encourage you to do is to think about your goal for the content that you are creating. What is it that you want to get out of it? Also, what do you want to contribute to it? Ultimately, your goal when you’re creating content for another blog, a forum, or some other destination on the web is that you want to create the best content that you possibly can.

I actually heard someone speaking about guest posting recently. They said, “Your best content should be on your blog. You can just write anything anywhere else on other sites.” That’s almost the wrong way to work around. Of course, you want great content on your blog so that when people come to your blog, they’ll see it. You also want to put your best, your very best content, on other people’s blogs. Otherwise, no one’s ever going to come to your blog if you’re just submitting average content as a guest post. 

Don’t do what you’re doing half-heartedly. If you’re writing a guest post for a blog or an article for the media, make it the most polished and useful thing you’ve ever written. Go all out. If you’re going to be interviewed for someone else’s podcast, come prepared to deliver the most valuable and practical insights you can at every turn. If you’re creating an infographic for someone’s site, make it the most beautiful, easy to read, but helpful infographic that you possibly can. If you’re preparing a talk for a conference, make it the best talk you possibly can. Work on your slides, work on your delivery, work on your presentation. 

Ultimately, you want to create something that’s going to impress people, that’s going to stand out by the quality but also usefulness. To do this, you want to do some research on the blog that you’re submitting to. I would really encourage you to go back through their last 50 or so posts. Really do some analysis on the blog that you’re submitting to, the conference that you’re speaking at, or the podcast that you’re going to be interviewed on.

Who reads it? What voice or style does the blogger, the podcaster, or the writer presenting? What is the reach of the different topics that are covered? What topics seemed to connect best with people? What type of posts gets the most comments? What type of posts gets the most shares? What level is the blog being pitched at? Is it beginner ‘s stuff? Is it advanced? Is it intermediate? 

The more you understand about the blog or the media or the podcast that you’re submitting to, the better position you’re going to be in to deliver something that is something of high value, that is going to impress both the blogger that you’re submitting to but also their readers. So, dig deep. Do your preparation. There is nothing worse as a blogger who gets pitched for a guest post than getting pitched by people who obviously have no idea what you’re doing or who just know the topic and who spend no time at all researching what you’re on about.

The third thing I’ll say is that it takes time to get on blogs. Your first pitch to a blog is probably going to get rejected. It’s just the way it is. It takes time to build your reputation. It takes time to build relationships with other blogs that will allow you to guest post or to get on the radar of podcasters who might interview you. You may get lucky and have a yes the first time you pitch someone but do come prepared that this will take some time. It needs to start on your own blog with great content. 

What I would encourage you to do is to see every piece of content that you create as being almost like your portfolio that you can then present to these sites that you want to appear on. That needs to start with great content on your own site. That’s the place that someone is going to go and look to see whether you can write, to see whether you can do what you’re offering your services to do. Your own blog needs to have great content. 

You might want to start writing some articles for forums. Many forums on your niche will accept tips and articles for you to submit. You don’t even have to ask. You can just say, “Here’s something I’ve written about this topic. I hope you find it interesting.” You can contribute to that to a forum. That could add to your portfolio. It helps you to improve your writing and actually can drive some traffic back to your blog as well. I’ve seen a number of bloggers who’ve grown their readership purely through writing articles for forums. It also gives you another link that you can share when you’re pitching someone. “Here’s the article I’ve written on this other site.” 

You can start to approach the other bloggers. You might want to start with the big bloggers but I would encourage you to submit some guest post ideas to medium or even smaller bloggers. Again, it’s adding to your portfolio. If you could go to someone and say, “I’ve appeared here, here, and here,” that’s more impressive than you just saying, “Here’s my idea. Could I be on your blog?” Show them that other people have accepted you.

Gradually over time, as you begin to appear on some small or medium blogs, some of those larger bloggers will be more likely to feature you because they can see the quality of your work. They can see someone else actually agreed that you’ve got something worthwhile to say. Of course, once you get those bigger blogs on the side, all kinds of doors can open up to you including more mainstream media work as well. 

I’d encourage you to keep a record of your best work. Just keep a list somewhere so that when you are submitting guest posts pitches or pitches to be on a podcast, you can actually show people your portfolio.

The fourth thing I’d encourage you to do is to think very carefully about the content ideas that you pitch. When you are approaching a blog, a mainstream media, a podcast, or even a conference to speak at, you really want to think carefully about what it is that you are going to pitch. Obviously, this starts with the topic.

A lot of the best pitches that we get from guest posts on our blogs, the person doesn’t write the content. They actually come to us with a title, a topic, maybe a paragraph, and some key points that they will cover. Maybe a key action item that they want to encourage our readers to do. That helps us to get a feel for what the article is going to look like but you’re not wasting your time by actually writing it until we say yes.

Personally, that’s how I prefer it to be pitched. Other blogs will have different ways of doing that, so you want to pay attention to their guidelines. What we’re looking for is the relevance of the topic as a starting point. 

As I’ve mentioned before, go back through some of the more recent posts that have been published on their site, blog, or that media site. Look at what they’ve already published. They’re probably not going to want to publish another article on exactly the same topic. That’s one thing to avoid. 

Also, go back and look at what has worked before. You may want to find an article that they’ve previously published that you can build on, so part two or another 10 points that the first article didn’t cover. Maybe you want to actually go back and give the opposite viewpoint. Sometimes that can be quite interesting. If someone’s written one argument, maybe you could present a flipside. Particularly, pay attention to posts that have worked well before because the blogger’s probably going to be more open to one going to that topic again but also going to that style of article. That can really work quite well. 

Look for any common questions that you see being asked by readers on that particular blog. You might want to dig into the comments on some of the old posts that have been there or you might want to look in if they’ve got a forum or if they’ve got a social media page that people are submitting questions, that can be a really great place to look for ideas for content. In fact, I pitched an article the other day where the person pitching the article said, “I noticed that you had three questions in this recent post all asking the same question. I’d like to write the answer to that.” That piqued my interest in that submission because I knew that my readers had that particular question.

Often, to create content, maybe look at emerging trends in that particular niche that haven’t been covered before and any gaps in content. Look back over the last 50 or so posts that they’ve written. What haven’t they written about that you could fill the gap of?

Again, look at the voice they’re writing. Look at what level it’s being pitched at, the style of the post that they write. Do they write in list posts? Do they write with lots of images? Do they write long articles or really short articles? You really want to pay attention to that, (1) because you’ve probably wanted to do the same type of content, but (2) every now and again, it can be interesting to submit something that’s quite different. You might find that that blogger actually likes the idea of doing something they couldn’t personally do themselves. 

If they’re writing lots of short articles, you might want to say to them, “Hey, I’ve got an idea for a mega post like the Ultimate Guide to this particular topic.” That may actually stand out to them. Again, go to them with the idea before you write the content. What type of contents? What headlines that they’re using? What visuals do they use? All of these can help you to think about the pitch that you create. 

One tool that you might want to use is BuzzSumo, which is a really useful tool for a number of reasons. One of the things that you can do with BuzzSumo is type in any domain and it will show you what kind of content has been shared the most from the domain. You can type in your own blog. You could also type in the blog that you’re submitting too for a guest post or the mainstream media site that you’re submitting to. It will show you the most shared content on that site. This is really useful because it shows you the kind of content that the site’s readers connect with in terms of its shareability. That may give you some hints of the type of content that you want to submit. 

Ultimately, you want to pitch an idea that the blogger knows is going to deliver value to their readers. Something new and something useful, that’s what we’re looking for when people submit content to us. We don’t want submissions on the same stuff that we’ve already published. We want something new and we want it to be of high value. That helps me as a blogger to achieve my goals. If you can help that blogger to achieve their goals in serving their readers, increasing traffic, and increasing engagement, then they’re going to be more open to that. 

Pay attention to any guidelines that that blogger might have on their site. Many blogs will have a guideline for submissions page. Pay attention to that. Personalize your pitch. Show them that you know what their goals are and they’re much more likely to take the content that you are submitting to them.

Once your pitch has been accepted and your post has been published, there are a few things you can do. Your job is not over at that point. The first thing I’ll say to you is to promote the content to your own social networks. This is really important. We see a lot of people submit content and then they just go missing. That’s the end. They think, “I’ve got the link. I’ve got the traffic.” That’s just part of the journey. You want to be promoting the guest post that you submitted and seen published to your own networks. You may want to link it in your own blog. You might want to link it to Facebook or on Twitter and to your own social network. You may even want to email your list to show your list of contents that you’ve created.

This does a number of things. One, it shows those who already follow you, already read you, that you are published somewhere else, and that can really impress them. “Hey, this person’s been published on this site.” That adds social proof. It can build your credibility with the current readers you already have. Two, it helps the blog, the media, or the podcast that you’re on to get more traffic to it, which impresses the blogger, the podcaster, or whoever it is that you’re dealing with. It increases the chances that they’ll want you to come back again. It also increases the chances that the content you’ve submitted might go viral. Again, that can really lead to a snowballing of traffic to that particular post which, in the end, is going to drive traffic back to you.

Think about how you can promote that piece of content to your own networks and maybe even pitch it to other social influences as well. In a similar way, you want to also be engaging with anyone who engages with that piece of content. Don’t go missing. Don’t see the publishing of that content as the end result. You want to pay as much attention as you can to those who are reached by that piece of content. If it’s a blogpost, any comment that comes in, you need to be responding to that. Go above and beyond in your engagement with people. People are much more likely to come back to your site if they’ve had a conversation with you. 

Again, the blog’s much more likely to want you to come back if they can see that you, not only created a piece of content, that you’re not only creating content that had traffic, but you engaged with their readers.

Another thing you can do is watch where that piece of content is shared and engage in those places as well. If it’s a guest post, it’s likely that the blogger is going to share that on their Facebook page or on their Twitter account. Watch those shares and any engagements that come as a result of that. If someone shares it on their Facebook page and there are comments, you should be commenting there as well, thanking people for their comments, answering their questions.

On Twitter, you can do the same thing. If someone shares it on Twitter, you can click on that share and watch the conversation unfold as a result of that. If someone else retweets it, thank them for the retweet. If someone responds to the blogger’s share on Twitter with a question or a comment, you can engage them as well. This deepens the engagement. This really stands out to people when you do that.

I see some of our guest posters doing this. It really impresses me. They actually go above and beyond and make some big impact. If you’re speaking at a conference, for instance, I guess that’s another way of creating content, stay back and answer questions. Network, add value to that conference in that way and engage as much as you can. 

Another thing to consider is the amount of pitching for guest posts or for interviews you do at once. What I’ve seen a number of bloggers do really well is a burst of guest posting activity or a burst of interview activity on a podcast. I’ve seen this work particularly well of Leo Babauta a number of years ago when he started his blog, Zen Habits. He would do guest posting on other blogs but he didn’t just trickle them. He did like an intense week or two of guest posting. For a week or two, he was appearing on every blog as a guest poster. He’d be on five or six blogs over a week. People began to say, “You’re everywhere, Leo.” “This is amazing.” “Who is this guy?” 

I did the same thing when I launched the ProBlogger Podcast. I appeared on about 10 different podcasts as an interviewee all within a week or two. People began to say, “Oh, wow. I’ve heard Darren in this place, this place, and this place.” Now, you don’t want to overexpose yourself. You don’t want to be writing the same thing in all of those places. You want to find different angles and different ways of approaching content. If you can deliver useful content in lots of places over a short period of time, it’s all interesting and all varied, then that can have a massive impact. 

The other thing you might want to consider is submitting multiple pieces of content to the same destination over time. This is where I’ve seen (again) a number of people use guest posting on our blogs to build their reputation. It’s unlikely if you go to another blog and say, “I want to write a series of 10 articles on your blog,” that they’re going to say yes. They’re probably not going to do that. But if you write one really good article and it resonates with their readers, get back in touch with them a couple of weeks later, and say, “Hey, would you be interested in a follow-up?” or, “Would you be interested in another article?” The chances are pretty good that if you’ve had a guest post or if you created an infographic or you’ve done an interview and it goes really well, they’re going to want to have you back. That’s highly likely. 

By coming back again, you have another opportunity to deepen the engagement that you’ve had with their readers, to grow the profile, the credibility, and the trust that you have with their readers. Don’t go too hard too soon, but do be open to that. 

We actually have one guest poster on Digital Photography School who pitched us one idea. It was a guest post on posing. This particular post did so well that he came back a week later and said, “Hey, I did well. I could do part two if you want.” I was like, “Yeah. Don’t just write part two. Let’s do a whole series.” We end