The Art of Guest Blogging

Some of you may have noticed I’ve been doing more guest blogging as of late. If you’re a new reader, there’s a good chance you found me through the link in my byline on one of those articles.

Today I’d like to write about the importance of guest blogging, and how it has impacted my freelance business.

Traffic: Quality, not Quantity

The first obvious impact of having a guest article published on a large blog is an increase in traffic back to your site and an increase in RSS and Twitter followers.  The day I had my first article on Mashable published, I gained 100+ quality Twitter followers, had a huge traffic spike on all three of my websites, sold a few extra themes than usual, and significantly raised my online profile.  But it’s not just about the numbers. The quality of  those new followers is the real benefit.

Readers who are engaged enough to read your guest article, then click through your byline, and follow your feed (that’s 3-4 actions) are highly interested in your content.  Much more-so than random google searchers or clicks from sites like Digg and other social bookmarking sites.  There’s a good chance these readers are here to stay, spread your content, and potentially hire you or purchase your products.

Increased visibility and “web cred”

We know that personal branding is all about building credibility through sharing your expertise, experience, and ideas as they relate to your industry. As a web designer, guest blogging on popular industry blogs is one of the best ways to achieve this.

A 500-800 word article is the perfect medium to expose your depth of knowledge on a specific topic. You can flesh out your arguments and ideas in ways that other channels of exposure won’t allow.   A stunning portfolio can be a great tool for landing new clients, but a series of articles describing your design process, philosophy or expertise makes you much more likely to stick in the minds of potential clients. Speaking at conferences is a highly effective way to boost your industry profile, but you have a limited amount of time just to scratch the surface of a few ideas. Writing let’s you thoroughly flesh out those ideas, and really drive your point home.

It’s Not About Money.  It’s About Value.

Bigger blogs may offer payments for guest articles, but it shouldn’t be about the money.  The real value of guest blogging comes in the exposure and credibility you build for yourself by offering useful and insightful content. The more you put into it, the more you get out.

That was one of my quotes in a Mashable article (which was my step in the door to having my first article published on Mashable).  Roughly half of the guest articles I’ve done were paid posts.  My direct earnings from guest blogging ranged from $0-$150 per post.  Not much.  But it’s not about the direct earnings.  It’s the indirect earnings – boosting your profile, promoting your ideas, exposing your business to a larger audience.  But you don’t reap these benefits simply by having a link at the bottom of any article on any blog.

It has to be your absolute best, most value-packed content.  Remember what I said about gaining quality followers?  You have to earn every one of them.  Nobody will click on your link if you don’t give them a reason to.  You have to earn your bio links and encourage readers to click them by delivering a top quality read.

I spend way more time and effort writing guest articles than I do on my personal blog.  I do multiple drafts, extended research, and multiple rounds of editing.  I find additional images to support the article and sometimes design my own.  I’ve even written entire articles just to scrap the entire thing and start again.

And don’t sleep on the comments!

Sure, most (but not all) of us make a point of responding to comments on our own blogs, but many fail to follow along and respond to comments on their guest articles on other blogs.  I make a point of tracking all my guest article comments and following up with as many discussions as I can.  It’s fun.  There are so many more people to interact with, and serves to further solidify your commitment to your topic and your online presence.  Every bit counts.

Bottom line:  I care.

The last thing I want to do is add to the mountain of fluff that makes up so much of the blogosphere.  I want to add unique, interesting, value-packed posts that earn comments, re-tweets, followers, and increased business.