5 Tips to Get You Started Guest Blogging

This week, I’m welcoming a Guest Post from Nicole Dean on the awesome topic of Guest Blogging.

Be sure to soak this one up. Nicole is a smart cookie. You may remember my post on Nicole from several months ago.  One of my favorite web courses is Outsource Weekly, where Nicole explains in-depth how to avoid business overwhelm through outsourcing.

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Hi Erica!

Thanks so much for asking me here today to talk about Guest Blogging. It was such a treat to meet you in person in February and I can’t wait to see you again. (I hope it’s soon!)

Ok. Let’s dig into the topic. You sent me some questions regarding my Blog Tour. Before I get into those, I’ll back up a bit to explain what exactly a Blog Tour is and why it’s special.

We all know the benefits of Guest Blogging –

• Getting exposure to new people.
• Building relationships with those people.
• Establishing yourself as an ‘endorsed’ expert all over the ‘net.
• And, also building relationships with the blog owners that you visit.

Guest blogging is great. 🙂 I’m doing it right now, right? And, I’m meeting new wonderful people who hopefully will like what I have to say.

So, we know what Guest Blogging is, but what exactly is a blog tour?

Well, it’s Guest Blogging on Steroids. I took Guest Blogging to new levels during the summer of 2009 – and it worked like a charm.

What I did was to “go on tour” to 15 popular blogs in my niche. I spent one full week guest blogging at each blog, usually while the blog owner was on vacation, in order to keep their blogs active and interesting while they sipped margaritas on the beach.

At the end of my Blog Tour, I had been featured on 15 blogs, had links to my posts all over Twitter, and had 15 new JV partners. Plus, I had a ton of content that I’d written that I could turn into an infoproduct.

And, yes, I do teach a course about Guest Blogging and you’re welcome to check it out here:

http://simplevirtualteamsuccess.com/resources/blogtour

So, that’s the back story. Now, to dig into your questions.

What was the hardest part of doing your Blog World Tour?

That’s a great question. I think the hardest part for me was coming up with 75 article topics. That’s why I do NOT recommend that you do a 15 week daily blog tour for your first attempt. It was hard. 🙂

However, I do recommend that you sit down and do a brainstorming session before you start. It’s a lot easier to sit down and write an article if you’ve got your ducks in a row first than to sit down and think “ok. What am I going to write about today” – every single day – as you can imagine.

Should you allow your “host” to influence your topic and what you write?

Hmm… “Influence” could mean a number of things, so let me see if I can explain.

On the one hand, yes, it is their blog and I always asked my hosts if they had a preference for what they wanted me to write about. For instance, I wouldn’t come on this blog and write about puppy care, obviously. Erica asked me to talk about Guest Blogging, so here I am. So, yes, I do try to jump through hoops for people that I like when they’re kind enough to welcome me onto their blog. It’s a great honor to be entrusted with someone’s readership so I definitely am respectful of that.

However, on the other hand, it’s my reputation on the line, so, while I want to be polite to my host, always, and give their readers what they want, obviously I would say “no” to any requests they have that make me uncomfortable. There are tons of bloggers on the ‘net and you’ll always find another one who will be glad to feature your content.

What are the advantages of using a VA to coordinate your Blog World Tour?

Oh my goodness. I don’t think I could have pulled my Blog Tour off without a VA. The advantages are many!

• She researched blogs based upon my criteria.
• She contacted them with my request.
• She got them scheduled on my calendar.
• She asked them about topics.
• She got me logins for my week that I was scheduled.
• She reminded them to Tweet about the blog posts after I published them.
• And, she even helped me to brainstorm topics.

She was indispensable.

Yes, you can do it alone, especially on a smaller scale, but it helps to have someone to help you.

What are the best resources you can suggest to get started?

Of course my Blog Tour Guide is very helpful. I’ve sold LOTS of copies of it and people love it. You’ll learn from my mistakes so you don’t need to make them yourself.

I’d also recommend you check out Shelancer.com – if you need to get a Virtual Assistant to help you along the way.

Well, all, thank you so much for reading! And, Erica, thank you for having me here. I do appreciate it!

Warmly,

Nicole Dean

Visit My: Internet Business Marketing Blog

(I hope you all enjoyed Nicole’s tips as much as I did. Be sure to grab a copy of her Blog World Tour Guide if you haven’t already!)