I was in the process of making our first 'write for us' page here at BloggingEhow and felt the need to address this post separately. I searched through archives and was surprised that I didn't give it a shot before, so let's do it today!
There is a common problem that I faced too when I had to come up with my first ever guest post.
It was hard to come up with a topic that would please the readers and would set a level of writing skills that I possess.
So in a nutshell, at this point where I have written a couple of guest posts for popular blogs, I would like to put down few tips that I believe would really help you out in coming up with your first ever guest post.
#1 Don't Think Too Much.
Its quite common when we think for more than the actual time in which we would complete our entire blog post. The best strategy would be to simply think of an idea that you wish to share with the readers and then open up your post editor.
Get your fingers on the keyboard and roughly sketch out the key points that you wish to share. Say before writing this particular post, I knew I had to write about quick tips to come up with a guest post. Right? So once I opened up the post editor, I quickly thought of the points that hindered me while I wrote my first guest post.
So that's how the key points come up. Thinking too much to make your post 'Simply perfect' would not be feasible. It's not just about the content that you make, the time and efforts count too. Right? You won't want to write a single post in 6 hours?
#2 Apply The Basic Blog Post Formatting Tips
To make sure that your post looks attractive to the eyes, you need to make it hoverable. Your post might share the BEST content out there, but if it fails to attract the readers to start reading it, your efforts would go in vain.
So be simple, follow the basic formatting tips and the guest post would be ready in no more than an hour!
How to structure your first blog post?
- Do a little keyword research, create a few topics/titles
- Write first paragraph (introduction)
- Add bullet points and some informative charts or images or links
- Describe your headings and break-down the topic in at-least 3 headings
- Write the ending passage
That's how you can write a basic guest post.
#3 Have Confidence In Your Potential
I believe this is one of the most important aspects that we fail to realize. Just for a moment, think of your self as the best one out there and that your content (guest post) would surely be loved by the readers as a result of such an approach.
DON'T even think that your post would be rejected by the moderators or blog owners. Why would he? If you create content that YOU feel is good enough to go live on the Internet, then that surely worth it.
#4 Apply The Basic SEO (On page) To Your Post
By 'on-page' search engine optimization, I refer here to internal linking. Make sure that you link the related keywords (or simply mention the related posts) from THAT blog.
Say you were writing about blogging tips. Now where ever you mentioned 'increasing blog traffic' then make sure that you mention some other post from the archives of that blog. The easiest way to search for related posts is to Google the keywords.
Increasing Blog traffic "Name of the blog where you're guest posting"SO that would bring up the post from that blog related to the keywords searched.
#5 DON'T Forget To Add Labels (Categories)
Where ever you would post (on popular blogs), you would find a group of pre made categories or labels (as what they call it in Blogger). Simply choose out 2-3 related categories for your post that you believe your article best suites in.
#6 If Possible, Try Coming Up With Guest Post Series
Blog post series are always welcomed by the owners of blogs. Why? Group of series (if intelligently written) could be really encouraging for the readers to come back to the blog and keep waiting for the next parts.
Try to make a Main menu (table of contents) in your introductory posts and mention the parts coming up in the line. That gives a general idea of the content that you wish to share through the series.
So yeah those were the main points that I thought I would surely share with you guys that I faced and learned during my guest posting experience on popular blogs. I hope this post would surely help you out to come up with your first guest post like a pro!
Share Your First Ever Guest Post!
If you wish to become a guest author for a certain blog of your choice for the first time, then you could proudly mention its name so that others can get to the popular blogs around too.
Or if you are into the process of guest posting, then we would love to read your FIRST ever guest post on Internet! That would be fun.