Pin It



Blog Engage $650 USD Guest Blogging Qualifying Article

I’ve won second prize in my very first online blogging contest which ended with Blog Engage’s first guest blogging contest. And my article in my contest was my very first guest post. I had no experience with good guest blogging but still I was able to survive my contest and also was able to put my post under the “TOP COMMENTED” post. Now, the question is how did I do that?

There’s nothing like a BIG SECRET for that. As I said above, it was my first guest post and I wasn’t aware of guest blogging strategies so much. So, here in this post, I’ll be sharing the strategy I used use in my first contest with my first guest post.

Choosing a blog

Basically, it depends on the blog on which we are writing. In my case, I did it in a contest. So, to participate in the contest I had to submit it on that blog only and I didn’t have any choice. It depends on the popularity of that guest blog you are choosing, blog readers count and followers count. Of course, it would not have been possible if I had done it on a newbie’s blog, where there is little traffic. There are some factors which we should take care about when choosing a blog for our guest post.

Factor #1: Popular Blog – Select a blog with high traffic. The blog should have a high subscribers and followers count. A blog which gets lots of comments on it’s most of the posts. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you’ll get a lot of comments just because all posts get lots of comments there. It’s just the first step, let’s move to the next factor for choosing a blog.

Factor #2: Relevant – Who will read our article if we post about mathematics on a poems blog? I hope you got my point. The topic we choose should be completely relevant to the blog we choose for guest posting. Or write a post with a topic which is the most popular topic on the blog you choose. I’d suggest that your guest post should add to what’s been said on that blog already, or should contradict it

These two are basic but important factors in the success of your guest post, if your goal is to get lots of comments. BUT… it’s not enough. Here comes the main job:

Writing a master piece

Choosing the topic: I know, I’ve discussed this above but I’m trying to be more specific here. It may happen that you don’t have enough knowledge about the topic that is the most popular on your guest blog. What then? One option is to do proper research about that topic and write a fresh new article with your own perspective. Or just go for another relevant topic to that blog. But I think, just a popular blog with relevant topic is not enough to rock with our guest post.

Write on a General topic and make it controversial: Suppose you write about affiliate marketing on a blogging tips blog, then it’s possible that there might be some readers who are new to blogging (I think, many Internet users come into blogging everyday). Affiliate marketing will be very new to them. Maybe there are some readers who don’t believe in affiliate marketing. So, prepare an article on a general topic when you are writing for new readers. And don’t be afraid to take a stand, for or against something, such as the pros and cons of affiliate marketing. Be persuasive, but leave room for debate in the comments. So that everyone out there can have interest and can easily understand what you are talking about. My article was about “how to make a good blog”, that was good enough for newbies and a good refreshers for intermediates. So, I was able to attract most of the audience there.

Make your article controversial. Again, relevant to the blog’s theme. A topic which is hot to get the debate started. Like a post “something vs something”. An example I’ve got in my mind just now:

If one is writing on a blog related to blogging tips then a very good controversial post would be “Blogger Vs WordPress” Or any platform. This is one of the hottest topics in blogosphere on which the debate never ends. Because there are WordPress lovers and Blogger lovers as well who will surely jump in to defend their platform. My second guest post was a little similar and I got around 280 comments there. It was on BasicBlogTips and named “10 reasons why I’ll not visit your blog”.

Note: For these type controversial posts, one needs to do proper research before saying something in front of a big audience. You should try to be respectful also for the opposing position, so that readers who disagree feel welcome to comment, too.

Work on Title: Be mysterious as well as interesting when making a title for your post. So that readers feel curious and click on your article title without moving further.

Writing skills: This one matters the most when we want to write a MASTERPIECE. I’m not saying that one needs to be perfect in his or her English. Even, my first language is not English. But by paying attention to a few basics of grammar and writing rules, we can write a better, more readable piece.  I’d like to mention two of the common mistakes which are good enough to make someone look really unprofessional and which can be seen on most of the blogs from newbies to some very good blog owners. (The following section is for newbies, especially.)

Mistake #1:  Un-capitalized ‘I’ – This can be seen on many blogs. I used tothis mistake too. But I’m glad I have a professional writer as my friend (Holly Jahangiri) who pointed this out (and many other mistakes). ‘I’ is never used lowercase when used alone or individually, “..i’ve, i’m, i..” are wrong. Correct are “.. I’m, I’ve, I…”.

Mistake#2: Short forms: “hw r u”, “I hv lot of frnz”. What do you think about that? This is our chatting language, may be. But this gives a bad impression when used in an article where you are trying to teach something. And this mistake is done unintentionally, most of the time. So, it’s easy to take care of this if one writes carefully.

A search on Google with “Check Grammar” can give you hundreds of free online tools to check grammar for your article.

SIMPLEST TIP: USE SPELL CHECK OPTIONS BEFORE SUBMITTING OR PUBLISHING.

Moreover, be specific in whatever you say. For example, you might have read some articles with words like “and much more”, “and so on” and one very common word “etc”.  There might be some readers who are completely new to the topic you are writing on. And they’ll be unable to understand that what exactly you want to say with “so on” or “much more”.

Get the conversation started

I think, now we know how we can write an impressive guest post. But here we are talking about, to get comments from maximum readers. It’s not necessary that a very good impressive post with correct grammars will get lot of comments. Here, we need to take care of few things while we write our post.

Style and Humor: Writing style is important – write as if you are talking with your readers, not giving a lecture. Give some points to encourage readers to speak their mind. Readers should understand easily what you are trying to say. Adding some humor to make your readers laugh can lead to start a conversation there – It’ll start with appreciating the humorous writing style.

Ask questions: Try to be interrogative in your article. Not only in the article but also when you get comments. Keep asking questions related to your topic or questions relevant to reader’s comments. It helps to change comments in meaningful conversation.

Social Promotion

Last but not the least, promote your post on your Facebook fan pages, Twitter wall, blogs, and any community or forum you are in. Of course, it doesn’t ends with a single share in all. I think, we need to promote out guest post in regular interval of time. I still share my two month old guest post sometimes.

This is the strategy I used for my first two guest post.

Now the question is how much comments I’ll get for this article? Do you have any idea?

Can you add more tips? I’d love to hear from you.

And you know, these share buttons are really meant to be pressed. Try them! Let me know if they are working properly.

About Abhi Balani

Hi there, I am +Abhi balani , I am a future Computer Engineer and a part time blogger as well. I am the founder and editor of OddBlogger.com. Make me your friend on Facebook, Follow on Twitter, add on Blog Engage.

Tags: , , ,