5 Lessons from Guest Posting on Popular Blogs

I did a little guest posting last year and targeted some of the best blogs. Asides from the exposure, I’d have to say that one of the best benefits of guest posting is getting feedback from editors that will make you a way better writer.

In fact, if you think you’re a good writer, try writing for some of the top blogs in your niche and see what happens. You’ll probably learn a few things and gain some insights from more experienced bloggers.

It’s easy to post on your own blog, because anything you can publish anything you want to post. When writing for other people, you will have to adapt your writing to their audience and the editor’s preferences.

But writing for other blogs can help you rapidly improve your writing skills. Here are 5 things I learned from guest blogging on other popular blogs.

1 – Moz – Target Your Content to Their Audience, Not Yours

One of the first sites I guest posted on was Moz. I had submitted two articles that got rejected, but finally got one accepted.

The big lesson I learned from guest posting on Moz was to adapt to their audience, not yours. The audience on Moz consists of knowledgeable digital marketers, many of which are running their own agencies or working for one.

My own blog has a more mixed audience, but the content I submit to Moz needs to be targeted to a more advanced audience. Guest post content is often different than the content you publish on your own blog because their audience is different than yours, even if the niche is the same.

Before submitting a blog post, take the time to really get an idea of who their audience is, the type of content they are writing, and the writing style of the blog.

2 – WP Curve – Write Multiple Headlines

WP Curve has done a great job with their content marketing and I was glad I was able to work with Alex and Dan to get a post published on their blog. There were a good number of edits before the post was accepted, but we were happy with the final outcome.

One of the suggestions that Alex made was to write multiple headlines. Headlines are very important so write multiple headlines and pick the best one so that people will click through and read it.

The headline is so important that I would recommend writing multiple headlines before you even submit your initial pitch.

3 – Kissmetrics – Add real life examples

I submitted a post to Kissmetrics and after editing, it ended up being completely different than what I originally submitted. The readers of Kissmetrics are high level content marketers, some of which are running their own content marketing operation.

Most of their intended audience is e-commerce and SAAS companies. So the targeting was different than my own blog which contains a mix of bloggers and digital marketers.

Sean made me go and find real examples of people that were using LinkedIn successfully to get exposure for their business. Add real life examples and screenshots to make your post believable and compel people to take action.

4 – Twelveskip – Spend time on sub-headlines

Last year, I submitted a post to Twelveskip and Pauline offered some good suggestions.  People usually scan articles before they decide to read them. One suggestion was to pay extra attention to sub-headlines and make them compelling so that when people scan the article, they’ll be tempted to go back and read the whole thing.

A lot of times, when bloggers write, they focus on the headline and just write the rest of the post freely. Going back and editing the sub-headings can make your post more interesting to read.

A couple of ideas for writing good sub-headlines:

1) State clearly what the section is about – A clear sub headline can convey the value of each section on your post.

2) Ask a question – Questions can stimulate curiosity because readers will want to know what the answer is, so asking questions in your sub-headlines can entice people to read the rest of the article.

I ended up using questions for the sub-headings which was my idea and stating what the takeaway was in bold, which was Pauline’s idea. People often scan the sub-headlines in an article before reading, so be sure to spend timing writing good sub-headers.

5 – Boost Blog Traffic – Answer the Tough Questions before They’re Asked

Glen from Boost Blog Traffic gave some amazing suggestions which completely transformed the post that I wrote.

I did an expert roundup on my own blog that got over 4,000 social shares and became the most shared post of the week, according to Buzzsumo. Expert roundups are known to get lots of traffic and social shares, but mine did better than most. I wrote a post about how to do expert roundup posts that outperformed other roundup posts.

On my first draft, Glen pointed out that some of the sections that I wrote were a bit too obvious and suggested expanding on some of the less obvious details. So I thinned out any ideas that were obvious to the audience and focused on content that will give readers “Aha” moments.

After writing your post, look over it and ask yourself honestly, if parts of your post are things that your reader already knows about. Can you reduce those sections and expand on things that your readers don’t know about or haven’t thought of yet?

Use real examples and create step-by-step details to prove that your ideas work and expand on ideas that your readers don’t know about.

Also, another good idea to make your blog post authoritative is to ask yourself every tough question that your readers might ask after reading your post. Then add the answer them into the post so that they won’t even have to ask.

Glen asked a lot of questions that forced me to think harder about why my post was so successful and how other people can duplicate that success. But the end result was a really high quality and detailed blog post that stood out.

6 – Matthew Woodward – Add Details and Proof

I submitted a post to Matthew Woodward about how I was able to get a couple hundred subscribers from LinkedIn writing short blog posts on their Pulse platform. He tried it himself and ended up getting around 300 new subscribers himself with just a half hour of work.

Before he accepted my post, however, Matt suggested that I provide some screenshots from my Google Analytics data. I added those to the post and went into some detail about how I was able to produce the results that I got.

Next time you write a blog post, ask yourself if you can add more details and proof to make it more compelling and believable. Sometimes providing helpful advice is not enough.

When your post is so compelling that you convince a busy influencer like Matthew Woodward to try it out, then you know you’ve written something worthwhile.

To Sum It Up

Asides from the obvious benefit of increased exposure, I highly recommend guest posting as a way to become a better blogger. Some of the most important lessons are:

1. Study and target their audience, not your own
2. Write multiple headlines and select the best one
3. Use real life examples, statistics or references to make your post more believable
4. Spend time writing sub-headlines that drive curiosity and inform the reader what the section is about
5. Pre-emptively answer any tough questions in your post before your audience asks them and delete any sections that are obvious to your readers.

What lessons have you learned from guest posting?