If your business has a content marketing strategy in place, you’ve probably considered using guest writers to post on your blog. Called guest posting, this tactic can be extremely effective in drawing traffic to your site and building your online credibility. Guest posts also present an opportunity for both your poster and your company to create backlinks, or links that refer to other credible resources.
In order to make the most of guest posts, you should follow a few simple guidelines.
Choose diverse writers with expertise in a variety of areas. Don’t be afraid to branch out when picking guest writers. You should choose writers who have expertise in an area that is related to your blog, but you should also focus on making sure that those writers can bring something new to the table. If you write a blog for your floral company, you might want to invite a party planner to write a blog that discusses both party planning and flower arrangements. Picking diverse writers will keep your blog readers coming back time and time again.
Create a sense of continuity in guest posts. It’s a good idea to aim for diversity when choosing guest posters. However, you should also keep an eye on continuity. You may want to choose a monthly or quarterly theme for your blog. Invite guest posters who can contribute something new related to that theme every week or so. By employing diversity and continuity, you’ll craft a blog that is both engaging and reliable.
Rotate guest posts with your own posts. Try not to run a series of guest posts back to back. Your blog or website visitors expect to hear your voice and don’t want you to get lost in a sea of guest posts. It’s a good idea to write two to three posts of your own for every guest post. You can also choose to do guest posts according to a certain timeframe. For instance, you could put up a guest post every Friday.
Invite great guest posters to write for you again. If response to a particular guest post was particularly strong, be sure to invite that writer to work with you again. Blog readers will appreciate that you’ve listened to their feedback. You should be sure that guest posters who write multiple pieces for your blog retain a sense of freshness and cleverness.
Remember that you should never feel obligated to publish the post of a guest writer if it doesn’t meet the needs of your blog. Also be careful to only publish pieces that are well-written and feature good spelling and grammar. So long as you carefully screen their posts, guest writers can be a big asset to your blog or website.