Guest blogging is a frequent occurrenceon the Internet. In fact, in the blogosphere guest blogging is as common as TV personalities appearing on each other's shows or news reporters gracing the studios of network shows in order to be 'talking heads.'
It's quite useful to think about the Internet as the next great medium, because in many ways it is replacing television as the default destination people go to to get their news, entertainment, and educational resources.
Companies use blogging as powerful marketing tools, search engine optimization, and even as reputation management services, which often deploy blogging as a way to saturate the web with positive content. Guest blogging is all a major part of this, as it allows a blogger or company to organically network and control the narrative surrounding his/her/its brand.
Here are a few of the ways guest blogging expands your brand's network:
BECOME MORE RECOGNIZED IN YOUR NICHE.
Why would you want to put one of your blog posts on someone else' site? You ask. Especially a good one—aren't you just helping to generate traffic for someone else? Well, yes. But you have to think about it on a broader level. Posting content on someone else's blog introduces your writing to an entirely new legion of readers that are already part of your niche. Ideally, you're blogging on a site with a higher Page Rank than your own, so you're basically getting free high-quality advertising while also poaching new readers.
GENERATE BACKLINKS AND BOOST YOUR SEO.
Backlinks are when another site or blog (again, ideally one with high PR) links back to your blog either in its blogroll (ideal) or as an in-post link. Backlinks are extremely important in the SEO world and can single-handedly boost your search engine results. Guest blogging usually creates powerful backlinks from the publisher and if the post is good enough and gets shared enough through social media it may be picked up and aggregated on a social news site like Reddit or Digg. This is the advantage of guest blogging, exponential exposure in high-traffic intersections of the web.
CREATE BLOGGING ALLIANCES.
By guest blogging for someone else you increase the likelihood that you'll have a permanent ally who will promote you to their readers, link to your own blog posts, and share your content on social media. Look at guest blogging as networking, SEO, advertising, link-building, and alliance-creation all in one. A great idea for new bloggers is to reach out to major publishers in their respective niches and propose the idea of a guest post. As we have covered, this allows you to build credibility in your niche, create strong backlinks and network with important bloggers.
