7 Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Needs to Guest Post

Guest Post by Jennifer Blanchard

You’ve probably heard of guest posting—writing and publishing an article on someone else’s blog who has more traffic than you. And not just any old traffic, but your target audience, the one you want to get your message in front of.

It can be powerful stuff when done right.

Guest posting is actually what put my blog—and business—on the map.

Back in 2009, I’d been blogging for a year but still didn’t have any readers. I had been following the blog Copyblogger for a while, and knew it had more than 100,000 subscribers. The place is considered an authority in the writing world (which was the world I wanted to break into).

So on a whim, one day I pitched the editor an idea for a guest post. He wrote back almost immediately and asked me to send the article over.

The next day, it was live on his blog and my site almost crashed from all the people who visited (more than 5,000). My traffic was jump-started.

At the time, I didn’t have a fancy website (it was built on Google’s free blogging platform, Blogspot). I didn’t have branding, a logo or a clue what I was doing

And that didn’t matter one bit to the blog’s editor. He couldn’t say no because the guest post was a perfect fit for his audience and he knew they would eat it up.

In case you need more proof that guest posting can only help your business, here are the seven reasons why you need to guest post right-freaking-now:

1. Cause Everyone Else Is Doing It

Kidding.

But in all seriousness, everyone who wants to make an impact and spread their message is doing it. Check out Becky’s Entrepreneur Incubator Facebook group any day of the week and you’ll see members sharing links to their guest posts.

Guest posting is the number one way to get targeted traffic to your website. And targeted traffic means more eyes on your content and sales pages.

2. Exposure to Your Target Audience

Guest posting on blogs that have more traffic than you—but the same target audience—is the best way to get exposure. Not just for your business, but exposure to your target audience, the people you want to serve.

The more you can get in front of your target audience, the more you can help them with your content and through conversing with them in the comments of the post.

3. New Email List Subscribers

Guest posting is an amazing way to get new subscribers on your email list, which means leads for your business.

I often guest post on StoryFix.com, which is Bestselling author Larry Brooks’s blog. The last time I guest posted there, I got fifty-six new subscribers in one day. That’s fifty-six new people who opted in to hear from me.

Most of the money in my business comes through my email list, so getting new subscribers is of top importance.

4. Practice Being Visible

Some entrepreneurs are great at being visible. But for many of us, being visible is a challenge. Guest posting allows you to “dip your toe” into being visible.

The more you practice being visible to your target audience, the most your target audience will be attracted to you.

5. Confidence

Seeing your name on the Huffington Post (or whatever site you’re dreaming of) makes you feel awesome. And the more awesome you feel, the more good things you attract to yourself.

Putting yourself out there builds your confidence muscle.

6. Back-Links

When you guest post on someone else’s site, you get a link back to your site. This is great, of course, for traffic purposes, but it’s also super important for Google ranking. Google loves when your site is connected to other popular sites.

So the more popular sites you’re connected to, the higher your site will rank on Google. (Admit it, you know it would totally kick ass to show up on the first page of Google.)

7. Connection

Most people think you have to get connected with popular bloggers before you can guest post on their blogs. But it’s actually the opposite. In order to get connected with these bloggers, you have to guest post on their blogs.

When you pitch them a guest post and they accept, you’ve just taken a huge step toward creating a genuine connection. The more you connect with popular bloggers, the more you’ll grow your visibility. And the more visible you are, the more clients you’ll attract.

Now go pitch your guest post.

Jennifer Blanchard is an author and fiction-writing coach who helps emerging novelists write and revise their stories. Her guest posts have appeared on the Huffington Post, Copyblogger, and MindBodyGreen, among others. She recently launched Guest Post Guru, a 14-day coaching program to help you publish your content where you’ve been dreaming, get traffic and boost your subscribers.