Guest Post

The MelvinBlog Best Blog Marketing Tip Contest has finally come to a close and I can really really see it as a major success. Just with the fact that all entries are superb entries that it exceeded my expectations is a reason good enough to call this contest a success. And add to that, the massive interaction between the community of those blogs who participated in the contest. So again I’d like to thank the sponsors by presenting this uber big banner.

As I’ve said, that’s the goal of this contest. Sure it gave me a lot of traction for the entire 1 month of holding this one but it’s just all about the other intrinsic benefits I guess. So right now, I’m going to announce the winners.

And the winners are…

Congratulations to… uh oh! not so fast.. Actually as for the request of some of the contestant and as mainstream as it may sound, I am going to extend this contest. Yes, extend this!

I’m sorry if I spoiled you as I know you’re really excited to hear if you’re one of the winners but after much discussion with some of the sponsors, the contest will be extended up to July 25, meaning you still have 9 more days to either get as much people to read your contest entry or write another killer blog marketing tip to increase your chances of winning.

Another reason for that is the mini side-in contests. Do you remember that when I opened this contest I announced that there will be a lot of side-in type of contest? The reason Im extending this is because I still have some really nice exciting small contest for you in the coming days, so stay tuned!

If you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for, enter the contest and get a chance to win over $2000 of REAL prizes at stake.

Looking for Guest Writers

I don’t really want to do this but I have to since I’m still trying to figure out managing my time for work and for business. I’m now officially accepting guest post entries for this blog again. All you have to do is register for an account and then wait for me to upgrade your account. After all is done, you can now write your articles inside my wp-dashboard. That’s it.

I don’t want to put “what to post” and “what not to” here but obviously in order to land a guest post here in this blog, you have to submit a high-quality and unique guest article. Of course, I reserve the right to accept or reject articles if I feel they don’t meet my taste but rest assure, I’ll let you know about it.

So I guess that’s it for now. I made 2 announcements in this post and I’m sure there will be a lot of clarifications so just let me know through the comment form.

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:

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!
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.
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.
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. 😀
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!
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!).