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Hey what’s up guys, welcome to Inside The Mind where we talk about online marketing
strategy, what it is, why it’s important, and why
you should care.
In last week’s episode we talked about 101 ways to increase blog traffic, and this week,
I’m going to share with you my three phase strategy on writing guest posts for popular
blogs.
Now what’s in today’s episode is a distilled version of the information I learned in Jon
Morrow’s Guest Blogging program, and like I’ve said before... (harp ripple) I Highly,
highly highly, recommend you take Jon Morrow’s guest blogging course which you can find the
link by going right *ding* there.
(swipe)
At the foundation of any good guest post is the relationship between the guest poster
and the site owner.
What you don’t see are the friendly emails, tweets, and comments that happen between guest
authors and popular bloggers.
Without building a relationship, no matter what you do, when you’re pitching a guest
post, it’s going to always come off like this.
(tommy one in front looking at the camera, over excited tommy two comes in from behind
overly excited and asking to guest post on their blog. Tommy one does the Batman fist
to the face without looking)
To avoid looking like this, you have to enter what I call Phase 1 - (The Stalker Phase.)
This is really just a creepy way of saying you have to filter out their stuff from everyone
elses
Create individual lists on Twitter and Facebook, and a separate circle on Google + to get a
better feel for who these bloggers are, and how to befriend them.
Remember folks, these are people, not platforms.
What you’ll want to be looking out for are:
1. Smaller forums they hang out in. 2. Music, movies, and other general interest
things they share. 3. Live webinar’s with Q&A at the end.
The whole idea here is to find ways that you can help them & connect on a more human level.
If you’ve both seen the same movie, ask them their favorite part. If you both like
the same type of music, share links to your favorite tracks... that type of thing.
In terms of “helping out” most popular bloggers won’t ask the “I don’t know
this, can you help me” type questions on Facebook or Twitter, but will have no problems
opening up in a smaller, more private forum.
So... If you’re both members of the same forum, you can look for opportunities to share
what you know in a more private setting. Just remember, there are other people in the forum
too, and the more helpful you become to the entire community, the better you look to everyone.
You can also “help out” by attending their webinars and ask questions make them look
good. Often times webinars are held as a means to sell something, so if your question leads
to more money in their pocket, that’ll go a long way in helping you stand out.
Once you feel like you’ve established a good foundation for your relationship, you’re
ready for phase 2
(The Mind Expansion Stage)
Now that you “know” the popular blogger, it’s time to get to know their readers.
The best way for you to do this is to
1. Read ALL the “Most Popular” posts, 2. Read 20 – 30 of their most recent posts,
3. Read as many comment threads as your brain can handle.
It’s a lot of work, and here’s why - ”Most popular” posts are always featured because
of the high amount of comments, shares, and attention the post received.
Reading it all ingrains the “high bar” caliber your guest post must be to go viral.
The “Most Popular” section is your blueprint.
The writing style, sentence structure, and headline formatting you need are all right
there, laying the groundwork for your successful guest post.
Also pay careful attention to how they open the article, how they close it, and how each
line leads into the next. (swipe)
Commenter questions are ripe topics for viral guest post topics.
In the comments of the “Most Popular” posts, look for gaps in the reader’s knowledge,
specifically where they’re asking for more detail.
Also reading the last 20-30 most recent articles show’s you where the A-List blogger’s
mind is lately.
Like I said, I know it’s a lot of work, but doing all of this research will help you
to write a post that gets people whipped into a commenting frenzy and make the blogger happy
they took a chance on you.
Without the research, you’re just shooting in the dark and are leaving it to luck as
to whether or not your post is well received.
Phase 3- (Is the Pitch)
Believe it or not, this is actually the easiest part of the process.
First - Send an email with the subject line Guest Post or Guest Post for (their website),
anything more complicated than that can trip their spam filter and does not easily get
your point across.
Second - An email like
Hey (blogger’s name), How are you? I know you’re busy, so I’ll
keep this brief.
I was reading through some of your most recent and popular articles, and I had a couple ideas
I wanted to run by you that I think would be perfect. Do you have time to take a quick
look?
Thanks,
(your name)
The whole idea here is just to establish contact and get permission to send post ideas.
Popular websites get bombarded with ideas all day long, so asking if it’s ok, gives
you a few extra kudos on the karma scale.
If they say yes, then the next thing you want to do is pitch your post as quickly as possible.
This structure will keep you focused and prevent you from wasting anyone’s time.
You’ll want to present: (generated media) 1. Evidence it’s a good topic
2. Your interpretation of the evidence 3 Post idea based on the evidence.
An email would look something like this
Ok, great! Here’s what I was thinking:
The other day I was looking through your popular posts and I noticed there are (x) amount of
posts on (topic), but no one has talked about (subtopic) which is another (worry/problem/solution/interest)
(audience) has.
So I was thinking of writing a post titled “headline” which would talk about (explanation
of what the post is about)
I’d be happy to write a draft of the post if you’d like, and you can take it from
there, or if that doesn’t work, I can come up with some other ideas.
Thanks so much,
(your name)
Now, if you’ve truly done the research in the first two phases, you should have very
But now comes the hard part...
Your work is about to be read by potentially thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of
people. If now is not your time to level up, I don’t
know when is.
It’s not just about putting words on the screen, it’s about choosing words that move
people, that inspire people, and hold their attention for Every. Single. Line.
Now there are a ton of places that you could learn to be a better writer, but I can say
with the utmost honesty and the best lessons I’ve ever gotten were from Jon’s Guest
blogging course.
I’ve used what I learned there to get guest posts on sites like problogger, remarkablogger,
freelance folder, technorati and Chrisbrogan.com (to name a few)
This is one of only a few programs that I can say were game changing for me, and if
you’re looking to use blogging as a part of your online marketing strategy, I would
highly recommend you look into it. You can do so by following this link right here.
And... that’s all I’ve got for this week’s episode of Inside the Mind, thank you so much
for watching and there are only two episodes left of this season.
If you want to get all of the episodes delivered to your email, and get exclusive bonus goodies
Go there, and if you liked this episode or found it really useful, I would appreciate
a little thumbs up, and a comment!
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you next week!