MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

How ‘Not’ to Have a Successful a Guest Post

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I have already  seen many guides on making an effective guest posts so I thought I would create one that is quite completely the opposite. 🙂

Anyways you might have seen me do guest articles on some blogs related to this niche. And to tell you honestly, guest post is really a great way to reach out to newer audience and types of people, interactive with them and hopefully have them following your blog. As I have been doing guest posts since last year I have learned a lot of stuffs about it and today I want to share you what are the things that you should do if you want to have your guest post suck big time:

  1. Crappy grammar – Well I have had some problems before with this because usually I just type what’s on my mind spontaneously so grammars had become one of my problems before. If you are no-english native, that doesn’t mean you should write posts with grammatical errors. But still if you like ‘Not” to have a successful guest post, then do your crappy article!
  2. Don’t comment/interact – While I don’t really respond to all comments, I try to interact as much as I can especially with guest posts. There is no worse thing than when a reader asks something on that certain post w/o getting a response from the guest blogger. Responding and interacting with them is like giving them another reason to subscribe and follow your blog. But anyway don’t respond back especially if you don’t want your author bio link to be clicked.
  3. Be boring – Every blogger has his one tone and by trying to pretend you are somebody is a big ‘YES’ if you want to have an unsuccessful guest post. If you speak like ‘chow’ then so be it! If not, readers would surely get bored with your ‘professional-like, pretending’ tone.
  4. Self-Promo Bio box – It’s not wrong to say that you are a ’10 year old blogger who has some experience in blogging’. But saying stuffs in bio box like ‘a guy who is making six figures a month and by purchasing my book you can learn how to’ is a big no no! The bio box plays a crucial role because it gives a short overview of who you really are and what value they can get from you in case they want to visit your blog. The box is not for bragging and self-promo but still if you think it can help you go ahead. Congrats, because you are destined to have no clickers for your link. 😀
  5. Full of fluffs – I have to confess that during my early days of guest posting, I get a rate of 10% success in guest posting! 90% won’t even get passed the owners approval because of fluffs and some nonsense in the article. Remember blog owners expect articles that are even better than what they are writing, so they expect you to write ‘scholarly’. Put fluffs and prepare to be criticized!
  6. Direct them to your front page – Ok here’s an example. On normal days this blog gets 150-250 uniques a day. On days where my posts on some blogs are published, I get 250-350 uniques. A 100 increase isn’t that high eh? Yes it isn’t (or it is depending on who you are), but on normal days my blog gets 700-900 pageviews and on ‘guest posting’ days it gets over 1500-2000! Why? Simply because of the use of landing page. LP is simply a page where the visitors  land. Here’s my landing page for instance. The page simply contains an explanation w/what your blog gives and what your best/helpful posts are. To be honest when reading a new blog for the first time using their LP, I usually subscribe after getting to read their best posts! It can increase conversions up to 50% depending on how you carve out your own.

Over the past years I think I have improved a lot in terms of making a guest post. Guest posts are really beneficial in such a way that it can simply bring you a lot. I know some of you have also your own ups and downs with guest posts so feel free to share your thoughts (or critique!).

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Wow your landing page tip is really good, I’ve never thought of it before, thanks Melvin!

    Just a comment on point number 5, I feel it’s not really about writing better than the blog owner. You do not need to write as well as the blog owner, but rather write content that will add value to the blog readers and indirectly add value to his blog.

    I don’t know whether I write as well as John Chow, but he accepted my guest post simply because he feels it will add value to his readers.

    Anyway, thanks again for the landing page tip!

    Charles @ Big Idea Blogger’s last blog post..Proven Money-Making Ideas – The Big Four Categories

  3. Cool post, Melvin 😀

    I’ve done a few guest posts on other blogs now (around 6 I think) and all of them went pretty well. I do agree with all the points you’ve made, but especially the bio box. You should basically try and write the post as if it’s your own blog, and you wouldn’t spam your own readers with that crap, so why do it on someone elses blog? The bio box is just for just that: a short biography… it’s not a space for advertising.

    Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Five Unconventional Ways To Market Your Blog

  5. well that was my opinion… In guest posting, owners nevertheless expect superb content. And by saying superb, they don’t want to see the ‘crapiness’ that usually even themselves are showing.

  15. @agentmango maybe they don’t know if the blogger is poor at writing… but again maybe they should check their blog for writing style! I’m not sure but a decent question non the less!

    Great read Melvin! I should use these tips to help build more attention to our guest blog at blog engage!

    bbrian017’s last blog post..Thai-Eyes Thailand Lifestyle Blog

  21. Excellent suggestion with the landing page. Come to think of it, it would be silly to point to your home page because people won’t know where to start. If you can hit em with a sign up and best posts as you have on your blog it will easily translate to higher pageviews because so many people would be opening everything in new tabs.

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