Friday, September 21, 2012

Writing a Guest Blog - And why you should!


Guest Blogging - Are You Ready to Share?


If you read any books about how to promote yourself, you've probably seen the suggestion to guest blog.  So what's the deal with guest blogging, and how can it help you?  When you guest blog, you reach readers that may have never heard of your work before and that can open some new doors of opportunity.  Imagine that you've been invited to be a guest speaker at a new event, and that's pretty much guest blogging in a nutshell.  

So how can you be a guest blogger that people will want to invite back again into their space?  Writing a great guest blog means considering the blog you are posting for.  Read a few of their previous blog posts and see what they are discussing and try to stay within the theme of the site.  If you're appearing on a site, it's just good manners to subscribe or follow, in appreciation for their time.  

When writing a guest blog post, remember that you need to try and catch a readers attention quickly.  Most people have very busy lives and if you haven't caught there attention in the first paragraph, they'll move on to something else that does interest them.  Give a great headline and a quick overview of what you'll be discussing in the first paragraph.  Basically you're answering two questions for the readers:  Who are you and why should I care?  

What we've discovered with guest blogging (at least for posts coming in to our site), if you create a word document that labels where you want pictures inserted in your guest post, it helps tremendously.  When you send your email to the site owner, attach the photos to that email.  You should always ask the site owner what works best for them.  Remember the owner of the site probably keeps a schedule of which bloggers are appearing on a calendar, so ask how soon you should have your post ready in advance.  We've included a sample guest blog word doc here to give an example.

That's our 411 on guest blogging!  If you'd like to appear on this blog, then please send an email and tell us why you think your post would be interesting to the Tears of Crimson family!  Happy Guest Blogging!

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