I do guest posts. All about guest posts: how, why, for whom

Guest posting- far from new for link building and attracting target audience to the website. This method is used by both young sites and large resources and famous brands. And not easy! The efficiency of this method is quite high. Next, we will analyze in detail all the nuances associated with guest posting.

You have created your website, and now your main task is to attract the attention of the Internet audience to it, to promote it in the top search engine results. How to do it? To do this, there are many simple and complex ways with varying degrees of effectiveness. It is very important to choose the right ones, and use them in reasonable amounts. For those resource owners who are just starting to promote the site, it is wiser to use the most affordable and inexpensive technologies to increase traffic.

Today we will take a closer look at guest posting as a simple and effective way to promote your site.

What is guest posting?

V classic version performance, guest post - material with a link to your site, which is hosted on an already promoted third-party Internet resource. Simply put, you create content with a link to yourself, and it is published by a popular site, moreover, for FREE.

Why is there a guest post?

The more you will be mentioned in the Internet space, the more often visitors will be interested in you, the easier it is to find your site in a search engine. This is exactly what guest posting is for.

If you break it down into pieces guest posting goals, then they look like this:

increase in traffic, i.e. creating a convenient path along which Internet visitors come to your resource;
Website PR and link building;
getting leads (potential customers) who visit the site to use your services.

The first item on the goal set looks more real (compared to the other two). PR and leads can be attracted to the site with the help of a guest post, but we should not talk about their high efficiency. But it is quite possible to increase traffic. It is not for nothing that they write on the Internet about the influence of the link mass on the promotion of Internet resources in the top search engine results.

Pros and cons of guest posting

If we consider the pros this method of website promotion, then guest posting is beneficial to both parties. The author of the material advertises himself for free, and the owner of the landing resource gets the opportunity to attract free content, of course, subject to its quality. Thus, the author and owner increase traffic on their sites.

But there are disadvantages this mode of promotion. The owner of the site on which the post is placed, practically does not risk anything. But the author of the publication always gives away his content for free, which he could post on his resource, drawing the attention of visitors to it. That is, he needs to be distracted from working on his site, wasting time on someone else's.

How to write a quality guest post?

Look, the question itself has the answer. The post (article) should be useful, interest the owner of the resource on which you wanted to post it.

Guest Posting Tips

No need to pour water. Make your post well-written, interesting, original. More useful information expressed concisely and clearly. Spelling and punctuation errors are not allowed.
Correspond to the theme of the resource on which it will be published. But the topic of the article should intersect with the topic of your site. You need to do it easily and unobtrusively.
It is recommended that the post should correspond to the style and standards for the design of articles on the hosted site, the visitors of which are accustomed to seeing posts in the form they are used to.
Any content posted online must be unique. Otherwise, it will not be visible to the search engine and will only spoil the promotion of the site in the TOP of the issue. Do not duplicate material posted on third-party resources, even on your own website.
Create posts with key queries the site where you plan to host it. SEO-oriented articles are always welcome.
Do not make more than 3 links. If you write text with one link, then place it closer to the introduction. Not everyone reads articles to the end!
Before sending the text to the owner of the site, systematize the material, check the post, pictures. The text itself must be saved in accessible formats.
It will be nice if the owner of the site receiving the post makes changes to it.
If you are lucky and your material is published, keep track of his condition, read comments, answer questions. Nobody will do it for you.
It will be a great success if the owner of the site allows you to invite readers to subscribe to the RSS of your resource in the text of the post. This possibility should be discussed in advance, and not put the partner before the fact.

Studies show that a quality post should contain at least 1.5 thousand words. Such texts allow you to fully reveal the topic and get loyal readers ready for conversion.

How to find a place to host a guest post?

If you already post your reference materials, then on sites that have a similar theme to your site. Here the reader is interested in such texts. This will enable:

have targeted, not random traffic;
get thematic links;
get more chances of approval of the post by the owner of the site.

Now let's discuss where to find such sites. The simplest thing is to enter the query “I accept guest posts” into the browser search engine and select the appropriate resources for yourself. After all, it is not uncommon for the owners of sites and blogs themselves to look for content for which they do not need to pay.

Example of sites accepting guest posts

There are more than a million different blogs in the ranking of Yandex alone. TOP resources are unlikely to take your content for free, unless, of course, it is something special. But already popular, but not sufficiently promoted authors will gladly take advantage of the opportunity to get a good article for free.

Before submitting a publication request, select a list of 200-300 different sites and start working with them. This streamlines the process and saves you time.

There is a little trick to make your material more likely to be published. Having chosen a platform, study its content, participate in discussions, try to make sure that you are noticed. This will set the stage for a positive response from the owner of the resource.

How to track the performance of guest posts?

You are already seriously engaged in posting posts on third-party resources, but you don’t know how effective it is. What to do? The simplest thing is to use the services of existing analytics services: Yandex.Metrika , Liveinternet.ru , Google Analytics . With their help, they track the number of clicks to the site from various sources, draw conclusions about which publication, on which resource, gives the result. It is best to use all three resources to have detailed, unbiased information. It is recommended to evaluate the incoming information 2 times a month.

Be sure to pay attention to the following parameters:

the number of views, direct transitions, reposts, likes, comments;
growth in the number of visitors;
increase in brand demand.

Constantly analyzing the usefulness of the links placed in guest posts will allow you to highlight the most relevant resources and save time and money.
The Danger of Guest Posting for a Website

You put on stream the placement of materials on third-party sites with links to your resource and then read on the Internet that this could adversely affect the promotion of your own site in the search engine. How justified is this?

Indeed, Yandex and Google today are actively fighting to suppress any manipulations that change the issuance algorithm. And since links are the most accessible and effective way to promote sites, search engines are forced to create anti-spam link filters.
Guest Posting Tips

So that your posts do not harm the site, place them only on those resources that have a positive traffic growth trend. Keep track of the uniqueness of the content posted on the donor site. If the posting site is engaged in copy-paste, then you should not contact it. Try to place safe links in your materials, which include:

anchorless links;
image links;
direct entry and brand.

If publications follow the above linking principles, then there is nothing dangerous in guest posts.

Summing up

It is possible and necessary to promote the site in the search engine with guest posts. Guest posting is not a universal way to attract visitors and promote a resource in search engines. One-time promotions do not bring success! You should constantly work on placing link posts on third-party resources. After publications, it is imperative to analyze the information received and evaluate their effectiveness.

Elena Lukashina

Hi, I'm Lena Lukashina, editor-in-chief of TeachLine Media, the blog of the Texterra training center. The blog is relatively new and external posts are giving us significant traffic so far. Let me talk about my experience and the rules of guest posting.

Let's go through the terms

In short, the difference is in the money.

Why you need guest posting

Funny question. Positive mentions of the brand are never superfluous. Especially free and with a hyperlink.

I even heard many times that content marketing is guest posting. Nobody needs their own blog.

I do not agree. Your own blog is a resource. It costs a lot of money. It requires an investment of effort, but then he begins to work for you. A guest article, on the other hand, brings more benefits to the site owner than to you. Guest posting is good in the beginning. When you are small and unknown to anyone, and there is no money, but you need to move forward.

But in general, guest posting can have three goals:

Traffic- you plainly want people to visit your site. This means that in the text of the guest material there must be an active hyperlink.
PR- You want fame. Then the text should contain a mention of your brand or name (if you download a personal brand).
Leads- you just want money. It's difficult here. In theory, such an article should have a call to action and an active link. But this is advertising, not guest posting. You are wrapped with a very high degree of probability. Content marketing is all about loyalty, not sales.

Personally, I was most interested in traffic. Just expecting direct sales from a guest post is a bit naïve. Especially if you have such an expensive product as training courses. If there is traffic, there will be sales. Some day.

You were mentioned in Forbes. Well, or in some other publication of the same scale - with a reputation and tens of millions of visitors.
The authors of the publication kindly agreed to write the article themselves. But this is no longer a guest post, but an interview or a commentary.

Underwater rocks

Topic mismatch

You can write the best marketing article in the world. But no one will read it if you post it on a beauty blog. I faced it.

Our blog is about continuing education. The topic is specific. It does not fit well with marketing, there is no other magazine specifically about it in Russia. Finding a publishing site is difficult. Those who talk about education usually mean children, and we mean adults. On sites about business and marketing, topics about education are average (no, well, maybe I write badly, but you're not complaining yet, right?).

In principle, anything can be pulled by the ears to anything, even Christmas trees to marketing (how to sell Christmas trees via the Internet), but this requires a significant amount of luck, talent and understanding of the needs of the target audience of a particular media. For example, a few weeks ago I published an article on Texterra entitled “How to Learn Content Marketing for Free and on Your Own”. She went average, but gave a good click-through rate at the level of 15%.

But a year ago I published here the article “Scientific trolling: converting hatred into sales”. It went a little better than average, but every sixth reader reposted it, and 40% clicked on the link I needed.

In short, do you understand why I am writing an article about guest posting and not about education?

But in general, you can publish on any platform if you understand its audience. On sites about handmade, let's say, topics about marketing go well, oddly enough. Simply, handmakers not only produce their goods, they also sell them. And this is marketing.

Think about how you can interest the audience of this particular site.

Alien Monastery

Even in the same topic, the audience can be different. Some bury SEO, others drown for traffic arbitrage. Some study history, others study conspiracy theories. Some people are used to serious and useful articles (hello, practical reader of Texterra), others love gags and memes.

Venue owners

They may not respond to your emails and will be within their rights.

They can and then refuse to publish.

They can generally set any conditions they like - this is their platform and their rules.

No need to be afraid of this and abandon the idea of guest posting forever, just be ready for it.

Where to look for sites

Let's focus on traditional sites with text content. Surely, you can also offer guest material in vlogs and podcasts, but I haven’t tried it, so I can’t advise anything.

To get started, google. I stupidly searched for "educational sites".

You can also search in Similarweb, a service that provides maximum information about the site, including approximate traffic and similar sites.

But the results of issuing similar sites from "Similarweb" are often strange: among similar sites, "Google" or LiveJournal can be found.

Before adding a site to your list, check its traffic with the same Similarweb. It's up to you to decide, but media with microscopic traffic (less than a million people a month) is hardly worthy of attention and guest articles. I mean, why go to them if you can publish with millionaires? Microsites may have another useful effect - link building, but this has nothing to do with guest posting.

Keep in mind that Similarweb overestimates traffic and sometimes very much - this is a feature of the technology (I obtained this data empirically - I checked the sites there, the traffic that I knew). At the same time, you can never tell how much he overestimated it. Sometimes one and a half times, and sometimes 6 times.

How to communicate with sites

In general, how many sites, so many editorial policies, attitudes towards guest posts, difficulties in communication, etc. But I conditionally divide all sites into two categories:

Before you break into the site, try to determine what type it belongs to.

Often the media themselves write how they feel about the guest material. Usually this section is in the menu or in the footer. It can be called "blogs", "columns" or "authors".

If the editors do not express any position on guest articles, you can still try to write there. Find the editor's contacts and write to him. What if he likes your article?

On some sites, you can simply publish an article yourself, and do nothing else - I know vc and TJ from such sites. They publish everyone if the article more or less fits the rubric and does not contain explicit advertising. Everything is clear here, there is nothing special to discuss: you just type up the article yourself through the sandbox and click "publish".

With more traditional editions more interesting. There aren't any general rules. Each site has its own policy. For instance:

"Chalk" offers to publish the article on its own, but the editor will still check it (maximum - a week). They allow you to add a single link to your site, but do not allow you to place direct ads.
"Texterra" adheres to the traditional approach - the article must be sent to the editor and wait for his answer (maximum - 2 weeks) and edits.
"Lifehacker" also offers to send an article. They do not report how many checks, but they warn about possible multiple edits.

Usually the sequence of actions looks like this: come up with a topic - write an article - send it to the editor - get ready for the fact that you will have to wait a very long time for an answer - accept comments - make changes - profit.

Some publications offer to first agree on a topic with them, and only then start writing. This is done for humanitarian reasons - so that you do not spend a lot of time on meaningless work that the editors will certainly not accept.

But usually editors are ready to discuss only ready-made materials. They are usually not interested in wasting time discussing a topic.

How to come up with a theme

I’ll tell you right away what topics the media will definitely not be interested in: internal news of your company, they are also press releases. Tell stories, be useful to your audience, don't push your products too openly, and read also:

And here's more:

Or let's say:

You don't have to invent anything if you have a cool story: catchy, holistic, useful, non-banal, and well-written. If not, read this section.

I must say right away that I had completely unsuccessful materials. The article “7 reasons why your child cannot find his place in life” brought me exactly 5 clicks on the link. Most likely, the topic did not go, but an unsuccessful link also plays a role.

Link in the signature of the author. In the sense of "Elena Lukashina, editor-in-chief of TeachLine Media, talks about the guest posting and places this link for illustration purposes, and not at all for you to click on it." This is a typical link in guest articles. Usually site owners don't mind it. It is on these conditions that a conditional deal is usually concluded between you: you provide quality material, and the owners of the site allow you to put a link in the signature.
Link with a call to action. In the sense of "Bookmark TeachLine Media - the only magazine in Russia about continuing education." There is another option when you say that only your product can solve the problem of the reader. It seems not a call, but still vtyuhivanie. This is a bad type of link. Too frank advertising, most likely such links will be deleted or refused to be published at all.
Link type "read also". In the sense of "By the way, you might be interested to read - memory impairment due to constant use of the Internet." In short, “read also” are links that expand and complement your material. They are not necessary for understanding the topic, so most likely the editor will remove them.
Proof links. These are links to the source of information: news, research, interviews, etc. Here are them

If you still have the question “What is a guest post and what is it for?”, then in this article you will find the answer to it. Well, in general, today's post will be devoted to promoting our blogs using this mysterious technology. You will learn how it affects the promotion and promotion of the resource on the network, as well as where to place a guest post (how to find sites) and how to compose it correctly. If you're interested, then let's get started...

What is a guest post

In simple terms, a guest article is an article written by the author of one site for another, it should not have been published anywhere before. Approximately, it looks like this: you write an article on a certain topic (discuss it with the owner of the donor site) and publish it on someone else's website with links to the author (your blog, portal, online store, forum, and so on). In this format, you act as an author on someone else's resource. This concept is also called guest blogging or posting.

The influence of a guest post on promotion and promotion

External links

They run the Internet. If you want to gain credibility with search engines, raise your site in search results, increase your rating (TIC, PR), then guest posting is the highest quality of free ways increasing the number of external links.

Traffic source

A guest post is able to give the most important thing - targeted visitors. Promoted thematic blogs and portals have a large lured audience, part of it can become yours. Transitions, readers, subscribers, commentators - and this is the soul and life of the blog, and in the future, a source of income. Since people follow links from the article - they already know you, bounce rate and others.

Brand

As market research shows, it is enough to look 5-10 times at one logo or name (non-standard name) for it to be fixed in a person’s memory. If you are doing guest posting, then you should do it on various sites. The more often you do this, the more likely your brand will be remembered.

After reading these paragraphs, you might be wondering, “What benefit will the owners of blogs that host a guest post?”. Everything is very simple. They get interesting, unique and keyword-optimized content completely free of charge.

How to find sites that accept guest posts

If you decide to place a guest post on someone else's resource, then first of all you need to look for similar sites that accept guest articles in order to get not only thematic links that search engines consider natural, but also interested subscribers. There are two tactics for finding such sites.

Search engines

Whether it's Yandex, Google or Bing with Mail, you need to enter the following phrases in the search bar of these systems in turn (then come up with your own similar ones):

I accept guest posts;
I publish guest articles;
I post guest articles;
I will publish a guest post;
etc.

Go to these resources and get acquainted with the rules.

Communication with the author

Look for authoritative and well-known authors who blog on similar topics and ask them if they are interested in your guest post or not. This method will take you more time, but the effect will be much greater, since they can publish your article exclusively. On top of all this, you can form friendships that are just as important online as they are in real life.

I hope that what we talked about above is clear, it remains to sort out the last question, in which I will share with you some tips in which I will tell you how to make a guest post so that it is accepted and posted on someone else's blog.

Content. I already said a little higher, now I will repeat it again. Remember that the guest post should contain unique, interesting and keyword-optimized text. In addition to all this, it should contain a minimum of water and a maximum of specifics. You can discuss the topic in advance with the owner of the site (maybe he will tell you an option).
. If allowed, then leave a link to your blog at the top of the article, it is best if it is surrounded by keywords or phrases, and have a style of writing that encourages the transition. This way it will look natural.
Area. It is not recommended to place a guest post anywhere. Take a close look at the site - evaluate the audience, attendance, number of comments, familiarize yourself with the author's writing style (jargon, swear words, calls, chewing on the topic), check its location under the filters and only after that post your material.
Subscribers. If, after posting a guest post, you are counting not only on traffic, but also on such a golden fund as subscribers, then you should place a subscription to the RSS feed in the body of the article. Make it more attractive so that interested readers don't have to bother looking for it.

The only way to publish with us is to write an article useful to readers. We post non-promotional articles for free that help blog readers implement their knowledge of online marketing. Our readers are Internet marketers and business owners.
We put one link to the author or the service he represents.
Please send exclusive material that you sent to only one editorial office.
Before publication, the editors approve the draft with the author.
We don't have themes to choose from. Decide on a topic on which you have expert experience and write a case/anti-case on content marketing, promotion in social networks, promotion of mobile applications, setting up business processes or optimizing working hours. We are interested in "white" methods of promotion.

In what format to write a case

task;
solution;
what they did;
what you got (result before/after);
steps that led to success/fuckup;
conclusions.

What should be in a case for a Netpeak blog

header- take it into clear useful action of the case.
Think about what new and useful things you can tell your readers. Choose only one aspect.
Introduction— for whom this case and why he to the reader.
Conclusion- answer to The main question is: "What to do with it?".
After reading the case, the reader must either learn something or figure out what everyone around misunderstood.
subtitles should be combined with each other and gather into a single story - when the reader scrolls fluently, it should be clear from the subheadings what the text is about and whether it is worth spending your time on it.
For each thesis need a clear argument- for example, you write about the results after a year of promotion.
"Success" needs to be backed up with screenshots that prove your words - analytics data, clicks on utm tags, reposts, traffic, screenshots of correspondence with managers, and so on.
In general, show what effect you got in KPI and how it was calculated.
Illustrations- what can be shown in the text should be shown, not described. Add screenshots, gifs from the screen, links, graphics, before/after, expert comments - everything that argues your thesis.

For detailed posting requirements, see

A guest post is an article relevant to the target audience of the blog, which was written not by its creator, but by an ordinary subscriber, visitor or other blogger. At the same time, the conditions of placement are always agreed with the author.

This may be a banal mention of a link to his account, a mark in Stories, etc. What is a guest post in other words? This effective remedy for promotion and promotion in social networks, one of the most effective advertising tools.

All about guest posts: how, why, for whom

Guest posts on Instagram, in fact, are not much different from regular posts. They are a standard author's photograph, accompanied by printed text. The only difference is the placement method. So, the news written by the author is not published on his blog, but on the page of another user.

Characteristic features and features of such records:

written by some users, hosted by others;
when publishing, they must be accompanied by links to the author's account;
are commercial and promotional.

What is it for? Two persons benefit from the placement - its creator and the owner of the account.

Why guest posting on Instagram is beneficial for the blog owner:

allows you to temporarily take a break from writing text messages to a large audience, from communicating with subscribers;
maintains the rhythm of feed updates;
injects a fresh flow of information, keeps the interest of blog readers;
attracts additional cash injections to the account (if the entry was published on a paid basis).

allows you to reach a new audience of people who have not previously subscribed to the account;
an effective way to promote a blog;
the ability to advertise your own content, unobtrusively interest new people in it.

Guest post on Instagram, example:

Above are the news posted on the pages of the top Russian instabloggers. All of them are for informational purposes, urging subscribers to visit a specific page.

What should be a guest post on Instagram

The main rule that applies to such entries is that they should be related to the main topic of the blog or its separate section, look harmoniously in the general feed. This is the main, but not the only requirement. Along with it, the following can be distinguished:

The printed text should be unusual and interesting, stand out against the background of other news, attracting the user's attention. It is necessarily accompanied by a beautiful thematic picture.
Information should be presented briefly and concisely - the fewer characters, the better (do not cross the threshold of 1,500 characters).
From beginning to end, the text should be in the same manner, in the same style. It is important that it does not have an obvious advertising character.
A publication previously posted on third-party sites or resources cannot be used as a guest post.
After the entry is published, the author must follow the comments under it, communicate with subscribers, and take an active part in the ongoing discussions.

The introductory part is of particular importance in the text. In it, it is necessary not only to attract the attention of the reader, but to present yourself to him. There must be an acquaintance that a person wants to continue. A well-written introduction delivers the most out of your audience.

How to find partners

In order for guest posting to work, you need to find large profiles with a large number subscribers who could profitably present author's content. The search can be carried out by keywords and queries, by hashtags, in the Instagram section "Interesting" or "Recommended", as well as in subscriptions from "real", "live" subscribers.

After choosing the right profiles, contact their developers via Direct, offering mutually beneficial cooperation. Do not be afraid to get rejected, be active and you will definitely find those who will support your idea by agreeing. As practice shows, profiles with 20-30 thousand audience turn out to be the most responsive, making good contact. If you are a beginner with barely a thousand followers, it is unlikely that you will be able to start cooperation with a large page (for example, with a million coverage).

It is worth noting that a number of popular instablogers independently invite users and advertisers to cooperate, offer placement in their news feed for a fee. Finding them is not so difficult, just use the search engine and enter the query: "I accept guest posts."

How often to do it

To attract new subscribers, it is enough to post one post every week on the pages of different bloggers for two to three months. By the fourth month, when about 16-17 articles have already been written, the first echelon of the target audience will gather on the promoted page.

A good result is a mark of 100-150 new subscribers after each published entry. If you notice that much fewer users come to you, look for other platforms for promotion and promotion.

What should be the text

The goal of a guest post is to attract a new audience and only after that sell a product or service to them. It should be entertaining, benefit people, present the account in the best possible light. Reading the text, the user must believe that you are the undisputed expert in your field.

5 secrets of success

Secret #1

Blogging is the result of teamwork. If you are used to doing blog promotion alone, the basic principle of dating posts can be a real discovery for you. So, placing a guest post requires the participation of at least two people. Get ready for active communication and interaction in the social network.

Secret #2

Self-study is an integral part of success. Determine the key topic of your own blog, its future posts. Next find in space Instagram accounts with similar content, analyze the activity of their subscribers, find out which publications collect the most likes and comments. Use the experience of competitors for your own promotion.

Secret #3

Track the statistics of your own posts: which of them has collected the most likes, which has attracted a record number of new users, etc.

Secret #4

There is no magic formula for successful guest posting. Of course, there is a basic set of rules and guidelines that every author must adhere to. However, no one can give 100% guarantees that by completing a certain list of actions, you will attract a new audience and become a popular personality in the Instagram space.

Secret #5

Before you start posting, think about your own strategy, develop a clear action plan for the next two to three months.