I’m sure that if you’re reading this, you’re familiar with the concept of “guest blogging”. I’ve mentioned it before in a previous article, but if you aren’t quite sure what I’m talking about, it’s really simple. The name says it all - guest blogging is simply the act of getting on of your posts published on another blogger’s blog.

Now, even though guest blogging means you would write for any blog, typically when the seasoned blogger thinks of guest blogging, they are talking about getting your article published on a blog that has more readership and/or is more popular than your own.

Why?

Simple, really. If you were to guest post on a blog like Problogger, you would benefit the owner of the blog (in this case, Darren Rowse) by providing content for him that he didn’t have to write, and best of all, most times when you guest blog you’re allowed to link back to your own blog or website in your byline.

For example, the post would start out as: This post was written by Homer Simpson of homersimpson.com

When you get your link on a hot blog like Problogger, chances are, you’ll gain a significant amount of traffic, and a certain amount of that traffic that you receive will probably result in new RSS subscribers, which of course is always swell.

Guest blogging has actually played a key role in the success of many bloggers around the blogosphere. In some cases, they may have had good blogs before the guest post, but getting the extreme exposure on a popular blog can often be enough to launch you to the next level of blogging. I can’t think of examples off the top of my head, but trust me, there are plenty of those that saw immediate success after just one good guest post on an A-list blog.

Generally speaking, you can submit a guest post to any blogger at any given time. They’re used to it, and they receive submissions on a daily basis. However, here are a few things you absolutely keep in mind when you decide to submit a guest article to an A-list blog:

• Make sure the article is your absolute, A-game best work.
• Write on a subject that you know, and also make sure it relates to the blog your submitting to.
• Check and double check for grammar and spelling errors. Make sure it looks GREAT.

Politely ask the blogger to consider your post for an upcoming guest post slot. Don’t make the email a long, drawn out one that takes too much time to read. These are busy people, so make it short, professional, and sweet.

Having said that, there are times when big name bloggers put out a call for guest posts. Recently, John Chow announced his trip to China, and that he was open to guest post submissions. I’m sure a lot of bloggers took advantage of this (they’d be silly not to), and I’m sure he has a pile of submissions to look at. I know he’ll only take quality work, so I wrote up a 1200 word detailed post on a related subject, and submitted it to him for consideration. I never received confirmation that he would use it, but the last thing I want to do is bother him about it. If it goes live, it goes live. If not, yeah, I may weep quietly to myself, but it’s not the end of the world. My point is, when a popular blogger actually makes a post asking for guest blog submissions, jump on it!

I know many of you are already familiar with guest blogging, but it never hurts to tell those that don’t. This isn’t an A-list blog, but if you’re interested in guest blogging here, I would happily accept your submission. If you’re interested in taking me up on the deal, just use my contact form to get in touch with me, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible