Have you ever thought of guest blogging as a way to get more mailing list subscribers? Guest blogging can help you do this in two ways:
- It helps people to get to trust you. And they won’t give you their name and email address until they do trust you. As a guest blogger on the blog of someone they already know, like and trust, you have the opportunity to have a little bit of that trust rub off on you. This vote of confidence goes a long way in gaining the trust of potential new subscribers to your email list.
- It extends your reach. By guest blogging on a popular blog you can go way beyond those you normally reach.
If you want to have success with guest blogging you need to understand the audience of the blog you’re visiting. Your posts should connect with the audience and offer them value. Do this by studying the blog – what have readers responded to in the past? What topics are typically covered? How long are the posts? Do they include multiple images? Video? Infographics? Is the blog factual and maybe full of tutorials? Or is it based more around opinions? You want to look like you belong, while still offering something uniquely yours.
When trying to find blogs to guest appear at, start with who you know and who knows you. Then start looking for leaders in your field and approach them. It’s no longer as easy to as it was to get guest blogging spots, but all bloggers need content. It takes a lot of time and energy to create good content so if you can convince them you can offer them content that will be of value to their readers then they may well appreciate your offer. After all, it’s one day they don’t have to think of what to write!
Once you’ve secured a blog to post on and you understand what the readers want, it’s time to sit down and write. Here are some tips:
- Choose a goal for each blog post. In this course, we’re working on building your subscriber base, so your goal will be to send the readers to sign up to your email list. Think about your ‘irresistible offer’ and work your way backwards from there.
- Write useful information, but don’t give it all away. Remember that your goal is to bring them back to your own website to sign up for your list. Craft your post so that the reader is impressed with the information, but left wanting to learn more. Then create your offer to send them exactly where they want to go.
- Respect and thank the blogger. Do everything you can to make your visit is a pleasant one for the host and the readers. That means thanking them publicly for accepting your post, promoting your post via social media, and anything else you can think of to be a good guest. That way you’ll be welcomed back again.
Guest-blogging is one of the best ways to reach a targeted market. Try it out and you’ll see that building an email list doesn’t have to be complicated or confusing – you simply need to take action. So make a list of five sites you could approach to guest-blog. Then go and do it!