Traffic. Traffic. Traffic.
That’s what you’re craving for, right?
After all, you can’t build a business using your blog without traffic.
And you were told to guest post to get traffic.
Jon Morrow did it, and he built a successful business. Danny Iny did it. Even in the old days, Brian Clark did it on Problogger to promote his blog.
So, you thought, “well, if they built their business that way, I should try it.”
And you try it, and then you get 10 subscribers per guest post, or 25 subscribers on a good one.
The Harsh Truth About Guest Posting
Guest posting is one of the strategies that has worked for a lot of people to build their business. That’s why more people are guest posting.
In the old days, all you need was publish a post and you’ll get a 300-400 subscribers if not more, if the post is placed on popular blogs.
Jon Morrow was able to get 1000 subscribers from this post in only after a month,?Twentysomething: Why I regret getting straight A?s in college.
Danny Iny was able to get 1200 visitors on the day this post was published,?38 Critical Books Every Blogger?Needs to Read.
These are the kind of results you’re looking for, right?
Guest posting has been?nearly saturated, and yet more bloggers are doing it.
Yet, bloggers like Bryan Harris was able to get 503 subscribers from one post.
Embarrassing, right?
The old days of just publishing a guest post is done
If you want to get the same results as Jon Morrow and Danny Iny did, nowadays, you should do more effort on your guest post.
That’s how Bryan Harris was able to get his 503 subscribers from one post.
I’m talking exactly about the three-part formula to getting more attention.
Blogger Outreach + Leverage + Promotion = More Attention
That’s how you could be a blogger that people pay attention to.
So in?guest posting:
- You should leverage your post more to get more subscribers. Give next-level content, aka content upgrade.
- You should promote the hell out of it. A lot of bloggers are guest posting on the same site.
- Use blogger outreach to promote your post.
So how to apply each of these? That’s what this post is for, so continue reading.
Leveraging your guest post more
You need to give next-level content for the post you have published to get more subscribers.
You need to have a bribe to get them to check your site that is related to the topic of the post. You can’t do it with any bribe, as in the old days.
Specifically, I’m talking about content upgrades.
Maybe, you’re familiar with content upgrades. You may have seen it on Bryan’s Video fruit blog, or on Brian Dean of Backlinko.
Here’s a definition I like from Gael of Authority Hacker:
A content upgrade is a complementary piece of information your readers can download in exchange for jumping through a hoop such as sharing the post or giving you his/her email address.
So for guest posting, you could:
1. Offer more tips on how people could do what you shared in the post.
Here is an example from Noah Kogan’s blog by Paul Shapiro,?We Analyzed the 3,000 Most Successful LinkedIn Publishing Posts.
Paul shared more tips on how to get more views from Linkedin for people who subscribe.
Do you remember Bryan’s 503 guest post? Here’s his content upgrade:
Here’s how to do it:
1. Create a new page on your blog and write these tips/create a pdf.
2. Use leadpages to create a lead box for people to subscribe when they click on the link in your post. Set it to redirect to the page you created in the previous step.
Or, if you don’t want to use leadpages, create another page that prompts people to subscribe to your blog, place a form there, and link to this page from the post.
2. Create a PDF of the post
Yes, you could just create a pdf of the post, for people to read whenever they want. Simple, right?
Jenna Dalton submitted a great post for Boost Blog Traffic titled,?The Ultimate List-Builder?s Resource Guide: 111 Links to Double or Even Triple Your Subscribers.
At the end, she created a bribe for people to subscribe and get a pdf of the post.
Brilliant, right? A lot of great resources were shared in this post, and you’d like to check them as you go after that.
3. Create a How-to Video
A simple strategy you could also use is creating a video showing people how to exactly do something.
There is nothing better than observing what others do.
It’s also received as a higher value, so you’ll get a higher percentage of people sharing their email address with you to get that video, especially, if it’s a tech video.
Yes, it won’t work with all posts, but when you can do it, I encourage you to do it.
Here’s how to create a video fast:
1. Have a list of the steps you need to take and notes if you need to.
2. If the topic is related to tech or online thing, you could record your screen using Camtasia Studio. If it’s an offline thing, open the camera and record.
3. Don’t re do the video, if you have something wrong, wait for seconds repeat the part you said wrong and continue.
4. Cut the parts you didn’t do well and produce the video. You could use Camtasia also.
5. Upload it to Youtube, Wistia or Vimeo. Take your pick.
6. Create a new page and add that video to it.
7. Link to either a new page that asks people to subscribe with a form, or to a leadbox.
And you’re done.
Hint to?the content upgrade to get more subscribers
The best way to get more people to anticipate to subscribe to your list is to hint to the content upgrade in the post itself. You could hint to it before you start the meat of the post, as in this post:
You could also talk about it at the end of the post, as Bryan’s post.
But if you can’t, don’t panic.
Sharing it in the bio is enough to make you more than 25 subscribers that you used to get on big blogs before. Jenna did that in her guest post on Boost Blog Traffic, and I’m sure she had great results.
Promote the heck out of the post
Now, you need to spend more time promoting the post after it’s published. Yes, the post is published on big blog, and that blog gets a lot of traffic, but you need to stand out.
You’ve done the hard work already. A tweet from one influential in your industry could send you additional 50+ subscribers.
The best part, the owner of the site will notice your work, and this will help you build relationship with him faster.
Worth the extra effort?
Hell yes!
So how to promote your guest post?
Yes, you could tweet it.
You could share it on Facebook and on Google+.
But that’s not how you get big eyes on your post.
The only strategy I know that is effective to get big bloggers to see your post is to reach out to them and tell them about it. Other than that, you’re in luck if they see your post.
Here is what to do:
1. Search for posts similar to yours on Google.
2. Check for people who linked to these posts?using Open Site Explorer.
3. Check for those who tweeted the post using Topsy. Click on the influential only tab, to save you time.
4. Email them and tell them you liked that post and why your post is better. Be brief.
5. Find similar content on the blog and repeat step 2+3.
6. Don’t forget The Howdy Neighbor Technique. Email people you mentioned in your post. They’ll be honored that you mentioned them on big blogs. They’ll be proud of it, and they’ll thank you for it.
7. Be creative, and find more people to email.
Here is how I could apply Blog Outreach for this post.
It’s better to learn from observing what others do. Here’s what I could do to promote this post.
1. Check for content about guest posting.
2. Plug the sites I find on Open Site Explorer and on Topsy.
3. Email those people.
4. Find people who linked to the “How to be a blogger people pay attention to” post and “The Howdy Neighbor Technique” post.
5. Email those people also.
6. Email people whom I mentioned in this post like Jon Morrow, Danny Iny and so on. They’ll be happy to share it.
Start creating more guest posts
Now, you know what it takes to get more subscribers from your post.
You also know how to stand out from the rest who guest post on the same blog, and get to build relationship with the owner of the site faster.
All you need now is to take action. Nothing would happen if you move on and don’t do anything.
Yes, you won’t get 500+ subscribers the next post, but you could get 100+ subscribers if you choose the right blog and apply what I shared with you today.
You need to take action.
You can get more subscribers. The sky is the limit. Just take action.
And if you want to know the 3 types of posts that are proven to be popular + more tips and tricks to do better blog outreach, I’ve created a free video series that show you that and more. Go here and grab them. I’m sure you were expecting this! 😉
Flickr Creative Commons Images via Kiran Foster (adapted).
