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How To Be A Brilliant Guest Blogger

By on February 22, 2016
How To Be A Brilliant Guest Blogger - Writer's Life.org

Blogging can be a lucrative and rewarding career. While starting your own blog takes careful planning, time and effort, it can be a great way to build up an audience, to share with the world what you love, and, if done well, could make you lots of money too!

While creating a blog yourself is a great idea, there are also other ways to make money through blogging if you prefer to keep your options open or don’t want to commit the time and effort to keeping your own blog up and running.

Writing effective guest posts can be a great way to get people interested in your writing, and to build up a dedicated following. If you reach out to others in your field, find high-traffic bloggers and write amazing content for them you can quickly build a fantastic reputation and become well known in the blogging world.

So how do you write an effective guest blog post? Here are some top tips to help you start.

Make it original

Lots of successful bloggers are more than happy to share the wealth and will welcome well-written, insightful content from guest bloggers. However if you are simply taking an old idea, and re-writing it to suit your purpose, it is unlikely to receive any attention. Come up with original and thought-provoking ideas, or talk about something from a point of view others may not have thought of before. Ideas need to be catchy and exciting, and ones that stand out. Remember high-value bloggers receive lots of pitches from writers who want to guest post on their blog, and most ideas simply don’t cut it. Make sure yours makes them sit up and take notice.

Do your research

If you are approaching a blogger to ask them to write a guest post then you need to research thoroughly. Look at their writing style, read through their posts and get a good feel for what they are about. Leaving comments that are insightful and useful (and complimentary of course!) will mean the blogger gets to ‘know you’ so when you approach them they will be more likely to trust you know what you are talking about. They will want a guest post that blends seamlessly into their own content, and appeals to their followers. When you approach the blogger have several ideas for them to choose from, each one backed up with points so they can understand how the post will flow and pick the one they believe will appeal to their audience the most.

If accepted make sure you submit your post in the same format as other posts on the blog, and that it is totally flawless. Include a catchy title and byline and, if they want images, make sure you have them too -making their lives easier will only help you secure more work in the future.

Build a portfolio

If you want to be accepted to write on the biggest and best blogs you need to start from the beginning. Try writing for other, smaller blogs first and build up a portfolio of work which you can send along with your pitch ideas so the blogger can get a proper feel of how you write. They will want evidence to show your writing style is a good fit, and security that you can write in the way that they want before they agree for you to continue.

Broaden your horizons

To make a living as a guest blogger get knowledgeable about lots of things. The beauty of being a guest blogger is you don’t have to write about one, niche topic. If you are interested in lots of different things that’s great, it will connect you to more people, and will mean more work for you. Just as long as all your content is well-researched and interesting then you can write about anything you want!

Taking your time by following these easy tips will make all the difference when it comes to getting your guest blog posts accepted, and in doing so you can reap all the benefits and turn guest blogging into a great earner for you!

Bethany Cadman -contributor

Bethany Cadman -contributor

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