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Is Guest Posting A Waste Of Time?

by Steve L
48 replies
I'm thinking about trying it out, but I have a hard time not just publishing my content on my blog so I get the search traffic directly.

Has anybody tested both strategies back to back?

It seems to me that the tactic Dan Norris gives in this article would be the only way to go about it. Some how working in your site in the article itself.
#guest #posting #time #waste
  • Profile picture of the author Mr. Ken Russell
    It works on high traffic blogs... if you can get your comment approved.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jay Brass
      Originally Posted by Nio93 View Post

      It works on high traffic blogs... if you can get your comment approved.
      I don't think that's what the OP was asking.

      OP - are you asking if posting your own content on someone else's site that's in the same niche will drive a good amount of traffic?
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve L
        Originally Posted by Jay Brass View Post

        I don't think that's what the OP was asking.

        OP - are you asking if posting your own content on someone else's site that's in the same niche will drive a good amount of traffic?
        I'm wondering over the long run, isn't it better just to publish the content on your own blog instead of publishing it on somebody else's blog? I understand that if it's published on a more popular blog, you'd get more immediate traffic, but over the long run, what's better?
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        • Profile picture of the author Jay Brass
          Originally Posted by Steve Longoria View Post

          I'm wondering over the long run, isn't it better just to publish the content on your own blog instead of publishing it on somebody else's blog? I understand that if it's published on a more popular blog, you'd get more immediate traffic, but over the long run, what's better?
          It's only beneficial for your site to do guest posting if the site you're posting on is an authority in that niche.
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        • Profile picture of the author shane_k
          Originally Posted by Steve Longoria View Post

          I'm wondering over the long run, isn't it better just to publish the content on your own blog instead of publishing it on somebody else's blog? I understand that if it's published on a more popular blog, you'd get more immediate traffic, but over the long run, what's better?
          By posting your content on someone else's blog you are going to get your content in front of people who might otherwise not find you.

          Let's say for example that I have a blog and you have a blog.

          Now obviously you have visitors going to your site and I have visitors coming to my site.

          If you just post content on your site, the only people who will see that content are the people who visit your site.

          Even if you have ads up in a bunch of differnt places or forum sigs in different forums, my visitors might never, ever see, or even find your site thus never see your content, nor see your offers, understand?

          But if you do a guest post on my site some of my visitors will probably visit your site, and when they do they will see your offers and hopefully some of them will buy.

          So it is in it's basic form another traffic strategy.

          Not only that but there is an added benefit.

          Let's say that I have a lot of trust and credibility with my audience. That my word is worth it's weight in gold. And I have a really good relationship built up with them.

          If you do a guest post on my blog, my audience will see that, and because they trust me, and I have credibility in their eyes, some of that will transfer over to you.

          It works in a way like a referral.

          For example, if you were looking for a car and a friend that you really trusted told you to go and see a certain car salesman at a certain car dealership, because that salesman treated them really good and gave them a good deal, your opinion of that car salesman would be different than if you were to just walk onto that car lot and meet him without that referral.

          So the trust and credibility that the original blogger has with their audience can potentially be transferred to you, and/or at a minimum their visitors will at least be more open to your offer.

          And your content will get in front of that bloggers visitors who will hopefully go to your site and purchase or optin to your list.

          In the long run you want to do both. You want to have content on your site and you want to do guest posting when you can.
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          • Profile picture of the author fin
            Guest posting only works if you write an article good enough that people actually want to read it.

            I read Copyblogger, Problogger, and Firepole Marketing articles and they post guest posts every day.

            With those kind of publishing schedules they obviously have to accept lower quality articles that normal. I'm not surprised those articles don't get a high click-thru because they're usually rubbish filler content. The great majority are. I bet Dan got much better results on his Think Traffic article because that was great.

            I bet everyone doesn't get bad results.

            And then when people actually click-thru to your blog it actually needs to be something they're interested in for anyone to do something.

            I think Dan's bad conversion rate was because the Problogger traffic is do diverse there is no way it's targeted.

            If you have a blog about building a chicken coup, I bet if you posted a guest post on a blog about raising chickens you would have much better conversions.
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  • Profile picture of the author MyNiches
    Nio93, I think the OP was referring to an actual guest blog post, rather than posting comments on blogs.

    It's a great strategy, and a great way to network with other blog owners in your niche. Rather than trying to sneak links into comments, if you can offer them useful content for their readers, you won't have to try the "trojan horse" method of getting your links in their blog, you can get them to publish your entire article.

    I think most of us could spend a little bit more time networking on setting up guest posting opportunities. Most sites are going to have a "contact me" page, and if you've prepared a quick script you can send off like 50 requests in an hour - well worth the time! Of course, it really depends on the caliber of the blog's you are applying to, as well. Don't aim for the moon if you just have a small site, look for sites similar and perhaps just a bit more popular than yours to start off with and then aim higher and higher as you grow, until YOU have people approaching YOUR blog for guest posts and that's where you can really start to strike some interesting partnerships in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
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    • Profile picture of the author johnmorrisonlive
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      I think guest blog posts are still an effective strategy - espeically if the blog is active with subscribers and recurring readers.
      Agree with Randall. A lot of effort is required with guest posting 100%. So you definitely want to make it worth your while by posting on an active blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    Originally Posted by Steve Longoria View Post

    I'm thinking about trying it out, but I have a hard time not just publishing my content on my blog so I get the search traffic directly.
    Steve, the idea is to get in front of a group of targeted readers immediately. The search traffic takes time to build and it might not ever come. The guest blog actually helps you boost your ranking due to the backlink that the guest post will contain.

    No one says you can't put the content on your own blog anyway.

    Your goal of a guest blog should be to turn the readers of the other blog into readers of your blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author tess47
    It isn't necessarily better just to publish on your own blog, particularly if a relevant blogs get massive traffic. I like to publish about 80% of my writing on my own blog, 20% to relevant blogs - and since I'm a writer, I publish often. Just my two cents!
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    Well, that depends how much stock you put in SEO really.

    Some people SWEAR by it. Some people HATE it.

    For what it's worth, I think it can't do any harm really
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    • Profile picture of the author bigmommaisback
      I think doing guest posts are a great idea as long as you are able to link to your website, and the blog owner agrees that your post will remain up indefinitely.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewStark
    Guest posting is about getting seen as an authority figure.

    It's the same as being a freelance writer and getting your articles published in the best magazines. Once you have the first one done you can add it to your resume, and then you can get more work when an editor wants an article on a specific subject.

    For example if you write about technology then getting a guest post on mashable or techcrunch would make you a recognised name to the next level down of blogs who feed off these main sites.

    Don't get too worried about the SEO, just create the relationships with the editors as that's more valuable than a google spider.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
    I prefer to post an article on my blog, than to another blog as a
    guest post or to an article directory. Sure you might get instant
    traffic with the latter two, granted they are high traffic websites,
    but in the long run it's better to build your own blog and get
    good search engine rankings. Traffic will start flowing in time.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMDealBox
    I did some quest posting ...that never helped me..
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  • Profile picture of the author Chri5123
    To answer your question:

    NO!

    However it is a waste of time if you are posting at the wrong blogs and sites - it is as simple as that.

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author Jackson Tan
    IMHO, if you have the time and starting out new.. you may wanna to do that.. but I guess you should spend more effort in producing quality posts for you blog instead and let others guest posts?
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  • Profile picture of the author pkrme
    Rightly said Jackson Tan, it would be lot better to make ur own blog stand out. Whole crux of recent Google updates point that nothing beats quality content not even links

    Am not against the whole idea of Guest Posting but don't let it make u obsessed with it unless you see that as a great source of traffic and not a mere way to get links to gain rankings.
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  • Profile picture of the author chiwawa
    No guest posting is not a waste of time. There are so many benefits of guest posting like it helps to increase traffic and page views, Its a method used in reaching out to wider audience and it also helps you build online authority.
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  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    I can say that guest posting works. It really works. Otherwise, we would not have clients ordering $1,000+ worth of guest posts on a monthly basis. What's a waste of time is when the content of guest posts are rubbish.

    Here's a direct quote from Matt Cutts:
    “There’s a lot of guys who are now writing one article and they’ll make 50 copies of it, changing a few words and they’ll ask to do a guest post on your blog. They’re just doing that to try to get links."
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  • Profile picture of the author 181liquid
    Thanks for advise...
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  • Profile picture of the author nav123
    If you are unsure on guest blogging you might want to consider an virtual assistant.
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    • Profile picture of the author techie86
      Hi,

      If you are writing a post on someone else's blog, then you are a guest blogger. A blog owner may allow guest bloggers to post on his website for a few reasons. One may be that he is too busy to post regularly himself. Or he invites guest bloggers to add variety to his blog. Sometimes he may be able to get an established blogger to be a guest blogger to get more traffic.


      Thanks,
      Techie
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve L
    Thanks for all of the input! What would you say is the best way to ask for a guest post?
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  • Profile picture of the author seobuzz
    Guest posting is actually helpful if the website has good traffic and regular visitors. In that case it can be one of your major traffic source in long term. So selecting the blogs/websites to do the guest posting is important for its effectiveness.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMSince2003
    Almost every guest post I've ever written still brings me traffic to this day. Now THAT'S a testimonial
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheila Ross
    Guest posting is very effective if you can get published your posts in well ranked blogs. Through that, you will get a lot of targeted direct traffic and some good quality backlinks too. It is not a waste of time.
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  • Profile picture of the author kstavert
    I've been hearing about guest posting..

    thanks everyone for the great and useful
    info.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    A good guest posting site is: site-reference .com

    ... for internet marketers though (IM/MMO).
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  • Profile picture of the author hatcheck
    Guest posting is rapidly becoming the new gray hat spam tool, because guest posters usually want to stuff keywords into return links.

    From my perspective, the better reason to do guest posting is to reach a larger audience. Most of the guest posting offers you'll find will be on low-quality blogs...not a great idea. Stay away from them.

    However, if you can find a decent quality blog that's on a related topic to your site, then a guest blog is a great way to tell their audience about what you're doing, hoping that some of them will also become a part of your audience.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve L
      Originally Posted by hatcheck View Post

      Guest posting is rapidly becoming the new gray hat spam tool, because guest posters usually want to stuff keywords into return links.

      From my perspective, the better reason to do guest posting is to reach a larger audience. Most of the guest posting offers you'll find will be on low-quality blogs...not a great idea. Stay away from them.

      However, if you can find a decent quality blog that's on a related topic to your site, then a guest blog is a great way to tell their audience about what you're doing, hoping that some of them will also become a part of your audience.
      Thanks for the advice.

      Yea, I wouldn't be looking to guest post for the SEO link juice, more so for the traffic coming directly from the article itself. You have to be careful with your anchor text, obviously.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce99
    How do you guys rate getting a reciprocal link on a site, versus a guest blog on their site? I imagine that while the link page may not have a lot of PR it wont be archived - as doesnt archiving a page pretty much kill its chance of increasing PR?

    Guest blogging is really about driving traffic more than a long term link power strategy.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve L
      Originally Posted by Bruce99 View Post

      How do you guys rate getting a reciprocal link on a site, versus a guest blog on their site? I imagine that while the link page may not have a lot of PR it wont be archived - as doesnt archiving a page pretty much kill its chance of increasing PR?

      Guest blogging is really about driving traffic more than a long term link power strategy.
      I've moved away from actively building backlinks and have started to just focus on "content marketing" and SMM.
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  • Profile picture of the author FelixUng
    I agree with JMichaelZ's suggestion. Rather than you post on others' blog, why not you post on your own blog and put a link on other blogs. In return, you put their links on your blog as well. It's a win-win situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author marketwarrior06
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    Of course the article is good. I read it before. But I am not agreeing with you. Because the without getting the direct traffic there are some more reasons to get the article published in the big blogs. The main thing is that Google loves it. and it will also increase your ranking in Search engine.
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  • Profile picture of the author gilbert90
    It will depend on how you do it. it can be a waste of time and at the same time a huge traffic booster. I will advice that you do more research if you want to get the best out of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author isalmanbaig
    Guest posting is not a waste of time, I know ! Posting on your own blog can give you more organic traffic and good search results but if you do some guest posts they will increase your rankings too.
    Focus on your blog content but also do some guest posts.
    Example you have 100 posts to do. then post 20 articles in guest postings and do 80 posts on your blog.
    I hope you know what i wanted to tell, if any question then ask please.
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  • Profile picture of the author reneesbertrand
    You need to make good schedule for posting on your own blog and guest posting if you make a list of websites that accept guest posts and are really good you should keep on doing guest posts on websites better than yours it will provide you high quality back links as well as more readers will know about you ..!
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Of course its beneficial, but don't expect miracles from it.

    Guest posting is simply another way to build links and drive traffic to your landing page.

    The larger your content footprint, the better off you are.

    As with all things, quality matters and the readership of the site you are posting on matters.

    Do you have to write your butt off? Yep. Sure do.
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  • Profile picture of the author daedhrogon
    Depends on the blog you write for, if it has high traffic and could be sent back to your site it's always useful
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