5 Guest Blogging Mistakes that Can Cost You Results

Guest blogging is a hot trend these days, and it’s probably one of the very few marketing tactics recommended by every marketer; including those who have tried it and those who haven’t.

Truth be told, guest blogging is very effective if used properly. I’ve seen people who have built entire businesses on it, and I’ve seen people who have landed a job as a result of guest blogging effectively.

The thing about guest blogging is that it shouldn’t be done impulsively; it will be pretty dumb if you just started writing guest posts without any plan on how to get results. I’ll be sharing 5 of the most common guest blogging mistakes I see being made online today; these mistakes can cost you time, results, and even your reputation. Avoid them like a plague.

Mistake #1: Not Having a Plan

When it comes to guest blogging for results, you don’t just rush into guest blogging. Instead, you plan your guest post and the outcome you want, and you quickly change course if things are not going your way.

Writing guest posts that get results is just like going on a military campaign; you don’t just arm the soldiers and start killing the enemies. Instead, you develop a solid plan focused on ensuring you never fail, counteracting the attack of the enemies, and creating a backup plan in the event that you fail.

The same thing goes with guest blogging; don’t just rely on gut feeling to succeed. Develop a solid plan on how you want to go about your guest blogging campaign, and make sure you change course if things don’t go according to your plan.

Mistake #2: Including Affiliate Links in Guest Posts or Littering Your Guest Post with Links

Do you know one of the best ways to damage your reputation as a blogger?

It is to appear overly desperate!

It could be in any form; it could be in how you want to get traffic, how you want to make money, or how you want to get people to take action.

If you want to last in the game, make sure you respect your audience and that of others.

Respecting the audience of your host blogger means you will never insert an affiliate link into your guest post, and it also means you won’t litter a guest post with links back to your blog. Doing any of the two makes you look desperate, and it reduces the chances of the host blogger accepting your guest post again.

Mistake #3: Not Creating a Funnel for Your Guest Post

Another mistake guest bloggers make that cost them results is to not create a funnel.

Do you know the dumbest thing any guest blogger can do? It is to write a guest post, link back to the homepage and expect visitors to figure out what next to do. It just would never work out that way.

A smart guest blogger increases her chances of success significantly by having a carefully planned funnel focus on getting the best of each guest post; your funnel could be focused on capturing as much visitors as subscribers from each guest post, and it could be to get people to buy your product and use your services.

Don’t just direct traffic to the homepage of your blog; you’ll end up losing most of it.

Mistake #4: Guest Blogging a Lot and Neglecting Your Blog

This particular mistake is becoming very common, and it is the most dangerous of all.

It can be likened to pouring water into a leaking bucket; no matter the amount of water that is poured into this bucket, it will end up going out through the other end.

Focusing on making your blog better than your guest posts, instead, increases your chances of success significantly. It helps secure traffic and subscribers to your blog, it leads to a lot of social shares of your articles, and it increases your chances of success significantly.

Mistake #5: Not SEO-Optimizing Your Guest Post

The final guest blogging mistake on this list, that any guest blogger can make, is that of not optimizing their guest post for traffic.

The reality of guest blogging is that it only leads to a spike in traffic to your blog, traffic that ends up dying down, unless you look for a way to retain it.

One of the best ways to ensure you get a lot more traffic to your blog from your guest posts is by SEO-optimizing your guest posts. This ensures your guest posts gets ranked well in the search engines, leads to more traffic to your blog on the long run, and also impacts your blog SEO.

You should also make sure to use anchor texts in each of your guest posts; the purpose of the anchor text is to impact your search engine rankings and send a lot more visitors your way on the long run.

This article was written by Bamidele Onibalusi the author of  “The Writer’s Handbook-How To Write For Traffic And Money. See here to get a free copy.