Nine Reasons Why You Want to Be a Guest Blogger

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You’ve got a blog. You’re already publishing content. Maybe you’re on SheWrites.com and in Red Room. You’re posting updates on Facebook and maybe Twitter too. You’re already connected, why would you take the time to be a guest blogger on someone else’s blog?

Or maybe you haven’t stepped into blogging. Maybe you’re new to social media and online communities. Why would you go through the effort to learn this? Or hire someone to do it for you?

Here are nine reasons authors want to be guest bloggers.

  1. You’ll reach new audiences at each new blog site. Even if they have few subscribers, each blog has a different reach in searches.
  2. Every relevant link back to your author site or book site helps strengthen your site’s presence in search engines (google/bing etc).
  3. You have a chance to build new relationships with people near and far, around the globe.
  4. Just by asking about or receiving an invite for guest blogging, you’re establishing a new contact.
  5. Guest blogging is a form of online networking, and networking is a way to grow our world.
  6. You’re helping out the blog where you guest post, and they will want to reciprocate  in some way.
  7. You have a chance to answer new questions and share something new about yourself as a writer.
  8. You’re contributing to building a network of writers supporting other writers.
  9. An opportunity shows up and you decide to go for it!

What reasons can you think of to be a guest blogger? Why wouldn’t you do it?

To find out about being a guest blogger on booksbywomen.org, see this Guest Blogging page.

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Category: Blogging, Marketing Your Book

Comments (9)

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  1. I’m new to guest blogging, so thanks for the kick start I needed to remind me that networking is what makes the writer’s world go around!

  2. As someone who has been invited to guest blog on another writer’s website, but not yet taken up the offer (due to time constraints while finishing a new book), this posting gives me the encouragement I need to move toward accepting the invite! Thanks for the “9 reasons.”

  3. Norah says:

    I am a novice blogger and really appreciate all the tips. I look forward to hosting a guest blogger on my site and being invited to guest on another’s. The pleasure awaits!

  4. Glad Doggett says:

    I love this post because it backs up what I tell my students in my online blogging workshop The B Colony. In fact, I shared it with them in our private forum.

    I believe guest posting is the best way to share your expertise with different demographics. It benefits both the guest poster and the blog they’re posting on.

    I think the biggest challenge is finding places to guest post. Do you have any tips on how to either find guest posters for a blog or how to find places to post as a guest blogger?

  5. Ruth F. Hunt says:

    I would love to be a guest blogger. I have been a guest blogger on Marianne Wheelaghan’s blog. The post I wrote about the lack of disabled protagonists got over 120 comments. I would like to write a new version of this post. I am a writer and artist and also disabled. I am passionate about books for adults having more physically disabled characters, as such, I feel a post about this subject would prove to be a subject many writers would be interested in.

  6. I started a blog in 2008 and it’s taken me so long to work it all out. Guest blogging, writing on other people blogs, re-blogging, emailing, linking it all seems to help! But I think with things like facebook, people get a little lazy with how they acquire new information, I am guilty of this. I just sit there and passively consume things that are ‘trending’ on facebook or twitter, I sometimes don’t actively look for new updates. I don’t look at peoples blogs, I look at the facebook or twitter page for the updates. I comment or ‘like’ on their and that doesn’t do much. But when I write on blogs, when I email the blogger I find that these active engagements are far more useful for the blogger and for me and my blogging.

    I don’t think I’ve written a paragraph that says blogging so much in my life.

    LMM

    • Thank you so much for your comment Lily. Interesting point about how easy it is to just soak up what’s trending and not actively look for new updates. I expect you don’t use a blog reader, that’s probably the norm now, that we just see what’s on our news feeds on FB and Twitter. Comments take time and effort, but as you say, the reward is richer.

  7. I’m constantly tweeting or posting links to Kristen Lamb’s website. Her information is priceless!

  8. Valuable post by Kristen Lamb on building your author platform by being a blog booster. Well worth the read. http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/one-of-the-best-ways-to-build-our-social-media-platform-be-a-blogger-booster/

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