Writing guest blog posts has become the not new thing to do for internet marketers and for good reason.
It's an excellent way to show off your expertise to a different audience and expand your reach, but there is another important benefit that isn't always mentioned - creating high quality back links to your own site.
I'm going to share my strategy for writing high-quality blog posts that also create powerful backlinks for you.
Choosing a Blog To Post On Start by looking through blots available in your niche.
Ideally you want to find one that compliments your own site, but doesn't directly compete with it.
If you are just starting out writing guest posts you also don't necessarily want to approach the biggest blogs in the market place right off the bat.
If you know a blog owner already, start there and simply ask if he or she would like a guest post for their site.
Choosing a Topic To Write About Next it's time to come up with a topic to write about.
It has to be something you're comfortable writing but also a post that readers of the blog will be interested in.
Last but not least the topic has to lend itself to linking back to one of the articles, blog posts or product pages on your own site (ideally a page whose rankings in the search engines you want to improve with a good backlink).
I like to start with the end in mind.
This means that I start by looking through my site and finding a page that I want to build a link for.
I did the same for this article.
I started by looking at a page on my blog about guest bloggers.
I then decided on a topic that was closely related to that post.
Crafting Your Post Once you have your topic it's time to write the guest blog post.
Start with a title that will peak a readers interest.
Then take your time and write a high quality post that's well thought out.
It often helps me to start with a rough outline to make sure the article or post flows well.
I recommend writing a post of at least 300 words.
Most my guest posts tend to be between 450 and 600 words long.
Providing the blog owner with a high quality post that his readers enjoy will greatly improve your chances to be invited back for other posts in the future.
Including Links To Your Own Site Notice that this comes last.
While you do want to choose a topic that lends itself to linking back to pages on your own site, I'm not having you add the links until the content is done.
Now that you have a great blog post that reads well, go back through it and find one or two places that allow you to link back to your own site.
In my experience the best way to do this is to simply turn words in the article into anchor text.
No need to point out that this is a link and that readers should click it to learn more.
They are savvy enough to know that blue underlined text is a link they can click on for more information.
In fact by not waving a huge sign at them they will be more likely to respond positively to what's waiting for them at the end of that blue link.