There are two purposes for this post.
One is to let you know that I’m a guest blogger at Geek Gyrls. I would love it if you could stop by there once in awhile, check it out, and say hi. Anna Baron has assembled a great group of guest bloggers for this site, and I’m honored to be among them.
You’ll find posts from these guest bloggers about the geeky stuff they are best known for:
- Cheryl Allin
- Katie Baird
- Anna Baron
- Candy Beauchamp
- Andrea Cannavina
- Jeannine Clontz
- Alyssa Gregory
- Pam Ivey
- Andrea Kalli (that’s me!)
- Patty Keller
- Bev King
- Laura Monroe
- Tawnya Sutherland
- Caroline Wright
Thanks for the invite, Anna!
The other purpose of this blog post is to tell you some of the reasons WHY you might want to be a guest blogger on someone else’s blog instead of just writing for your own blog. This is a common question and the reasons are very simple when you stop and think about it.
Being a guest blogger is a great opportunity to add to your current SEO strategy.
1) The group dynamic is a powerful asset to a blog site. Having multiple contributors to a blog brings in a lot of topic varieties, even if they are all focused on a similar line of thought – such as technology. The blog gets new posts more regularly without you having to do all the work yourself. The more variety in popular topics, the more popular the blog will become. The more popular a blog becomes, more people will be able to find your articles on the blog.
2) As long as the blog gives you an opportunity to show a little bio and include a link to your site, consider it a golden opportunity to create some of those all-important backlinks needed to increase your search engine popularity. The more popular the blog, the more valuable the backlink…as long as your site content is also about similar topics. If you guest blog on a site about technology-related stuff and your own site is about gardening, the link won’t be as valuable as it would be if your site is also about technology-related stuff. Make sense? A relevant backlink from a popular and reputable blog (or forum) is a golden opportunity. The more of these you can get, the better.
3) You can get greater exposure with a different readership than you get with your own blog. Just make sure you’re writing unique content in your guest blog posts than you have in your own blog posts. Make your presence there valuable. Become an important part of the team.
Tip: While you’re adding new guest posts, don’t forget to ping those posts. Try out the free www.pingoat.com service. Also use StumbleUpon and Digg to increase exposure for your guest blog posts.