Bring New Readers To Your Blog By Comment Posting in Early Days

The adage of “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t always hold up online. Though great content is a necessity for any blog that wants to succeed, it simply isn’t enough by itself.

However, getting new readers to your site can feel like an exercise in frustration. To get a lot of targeted visitors, you need to have a good search engine presence. To get that, you need to have a lot of inbound links. That, in turn, requires a lot of people come by your site and like it enough to link to it.

This can make starting a blog feel hopeless, as if there is no way to get it off the ground.

But there is one technique that is often-overlooked, blog commenting, as it can be a simple, powerful way to attract targeted readers to your site and slowly build up your link presence. This, in the long run, can help you drive organic traffic to your site and cause your readership to start snowballing.

Best of all, it’s very simple to do and only requires a few minutes out of your day to make it work.

Use Twitter blog search tools to find people who are talking about topics related to your blog. Though the content doesn’t have to be “new” to be worth commenting on, new posts are usually better to target as comments on such posts are more likely to be read, both by the site’s owner and by its readers.

A good topic is one where anyone who is interested in reading that post will likely enjoy your site as well. Either something related to your topic or something you have different information on usually works best.

What isn’t very important is the traffic of the site. Though higher traffic is better, it might actually work against you, causing your comment to get lost. Sometimes a well-timed comment on a smaller site is much better than a lone comment in a swarm on a larger one.

Once you post a comment, keep track of it. If people are interested in what you have to say and begin to reply to your comment, engage with them and keep the conversation going. The only thing better than one good comment is several more good comments.

Best of all, the people you meet this way often become your first fans and a foundation that you can build the rest of your site’s traffic on.

In the end, when you first start out a site, especially if you don’t have a popular platform to launch it from, you will need to work hard for your first view visitors, often times working for hours just to get a small handful of people to come by.

However, all of that clawing to move the hit counter pays off in the long run as you develop a loyal reader base that eventually helps spread the word for you and helps you build search engine trust.

Posting blog comments is a great way to get to that point.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a psd to html service company which provides psd to html formatting conversions.  Lior also consults for the international MA in political science department at the Tel Aviv University.

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Guest Posting: Link Building VS Familiarity

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

I enjoy guest posting when I find the time as it allows me to write about subjects I can’t cover on my own websites. More importantly, it’s a great way of raising my profile, pushing traffic towards my websites and connecting with an audience that I have not had any dealings with as yet.

I’m sure you are all aware of the benefits of guest posting so I won’t speaking about that too much today. What I would like to do is compare the benefits of guest posting on a small selection of blogs and websites regularly against guest posting on new websites every week.

Obviously, it benefits you more to write on large traffic websites that have a large audience. That’s a no brainer. For the sake of argument though let’s assume that all websites you will be writing for will have the same traffic and give you and your website the same level of exposure.

So which do you think is better: Guest posting on a regular basis on 3 or 4 websites or writing a guest post every week for a new website (remember that we are assuming all websites have similar traffic levels etc)?

From a traffic point of view, guest posting on different URLs is better. It will increase your authority on search engines and raise awareness of you, your website or brand, as they will be exposed to a larger audience. The main objective with guest posting is primarily promoting yourself and your website so guest posting on a large number of websites is surely better, isn’t it?

My answer to that question would gear more towards yes. If I was employed by company to guest post online so that traffic was pushed to their new website then publishing 20 articles across 20 websites would likely bring more traffic than publishing them across 3 or 4 websites. However, there are benefits to guest posting regularly over a small number of websites and it’s something you should bear in mind when planning out your guest posting strategy.

Currently I guest post semi regularly for Blogging Tips, John Chow, ProBlogger and Noupe. I have guest posted on many other blogs over the last year or so but those are the websites I have published several articles on.

There are many reasons why I enjoy writing for a small selection of blogs:

I don’t waste a lot of time arranging guest posts

Arranging guest posts on new websites regularly can be time consuming. You need to email the owner, introduce yourself and explain why they should let you guest post. This process can involve a lot of back and fourths. Time is something I hold with high esteem when working online so I don’t take this added work lightly.

I have a good relationship with the owners and editors of the blogs I write for regularly. They are happy with the articles I write and publish them without modifying what I wrote. They are also very professional and quick to respond to my emails. When I want to write an article I email them with a suggestion, they usually email back quickly saying that they are happy with the article topic and then I email them the article. The process is painless.

I know the audience

When you write for a new blog you need to spend some time reading older articles on the site to get a feel for the type of content they publish and the type of content that gets a response. I have been a subscriber for the blogs I guest post regularly on for a long time so I know what type of article is suitable and what isn’t.

The audiance knows me

Guest posting isn’t all about getting a link back to your website at the end of an article. You need to connect with the readers of the blog you are writing for. By doing so they will be much more likely to visit your own blog and much more likely to subscribe.

One of the best ways of connecting with readers is by building familiarity. By posting on a regular basis they will get to know the type of person you are, the type of articles you write and find out more about the websites you run. A one off guest post can be a hit or a miss but if you write regularly for a blog you will be able to engage with readers. They might not agree with your viewpoint on one subject but they may on another.

I’ve not yet directly compared the benefits of guest posting on many websites against posting on a select few. Perhaps the best solution for those of you who do guest post a lot is to guest post on a small selection of blogs regularly in addition to guest posting on new blogs every now and then. Traffic is something that you will be able to monitor accurately though it would be interesting to see if you get more comments or tweets on the articles that are published on your ‘regular blogs’.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Good luck,
Kevin

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A Dash of Analytics Takes the Guess Work Out of Guest Posting

This guest post is by Joe of the New Customer Workshop.

Guest posting is a great way to market your brand. When you guest post you are able to demonstrate you expertise to a new audience. The short term benefits are a bump in traffic to your website. Longer term benefits are sees through quality backlinks which will help with search engine optimization.

One of the questions that comes up when guest posting is “Where should I post?” For me, the answer is often “Whoever will take me!”

As you begin to build a reputation you may become more selective on where you guest post. Part of your process might include research to find sites that are aligned with your brand.

Let’s say you’ve done the research and authored some guest posts. Now what? Well, like any good marketer, you must measure the results of your campaign. If you have Google Analytics installed, this is a snap.

All of you should be running some analytics software on your website. If you’re not, stop reading and go install Google Analytics.

If you aren’t running Google Analytics, the fundamentals of what I’m explaining are the same even if the mechanics are different.

When you insert the link back to your website you are going to add some extra information tags on the end of the link. This data will help you classify the traffic. Google calls these tags campaign variables.

Using campaign variables you can add extra information to your posts which will help you to answer questions like:

Which guest posts drove the most traffic to my site?Which websites with guest posts drove the most traffic to to my site?Which posts resulted in opt-ins to my email list?Which websites gave me more opt-ins to my email list?Which source of traffic is better for me? Facebook, guest posting or search engines?

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. Once you start using campaign variables on your guest posts you will come up with all sorts of cool ways to look at the data.

Google provides a number of campaign variables that you can use when you tag your links.

The following tags are available:

Source: utm_srcMedium: utm_mediumCampaign: utm_campaignTerm: utm _termContent: -tm_content

There isn’t a hard set of rules for what to put in these tags. What I’m going to show you is how I use the variables.

utm_src: I set this to the website I’m posting on. In this case it would be problogger.net. Once I do this, then I can compare problogger.net to my other traffic sources, not just other site’s I’ve posted on but also Facebook, and Twitter.utm_medium: I set this to guestpost. Then, I can compare guest posting as a whole to my other marketing efforts.utm_campaign: I use the name of the article. If I post a couple of articles on problogger.net I can see how they compare to each other.

I can also look at all of the articles across multiple sites to see which ones are more effective. You might want to abbreviate your post title but that’s up to you.

I don’t use utm_content or utm_term.

Put together, the tags look like this:

?utm_src=SITENAME&utm_medium=guestpost&utm_campaign=POST-TITLE

I then apply this to each link back to my website:

http://www.newcustomerworkshop.com/about?utm_src=problogger.net&utm_medium=guestpost&utm_campaign=dash-of-analytics

If you don’t want to do this by hand each time Google provides a link building tool that will take care of all the messy work for you.

After you publish your guest post, you’re going to want to look at your analytics dashboard to see what type of traffic the post is giving you. If you are using the new Analytics dashboard, you can find the information under Traffic Sources > All Traffic.

Select All Traffic, and you will see a report that shows visits by Source/Medium.

This will show you traffic from all referring sites and uses the value set in utm_source.

Select Medium to the right of Viewing, and you can see all of your guest posts.

This allows you to roll up your reports and compare guest posts as a group with your other traffic sources.

If you want to see what articles drove the most traffic, it’s easy. Click Other and then type Campaign in the Traffic Sources box.

This is just a very high-level overview of the kinds of reports you can create. Check out the book Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics if you want to learn more.

Google Analytics is a great free resource that, when used effectively, will help you zero in on the effectiveness of your guest posting efforts.

Armed with this knowledge, you will understand which articles and websites drive the most traffic to your website.

I’d love to learn how you measure your guest posting efforts. Please share them in the comments.

Joe writes at New Customer Workshop and offers training for small business owners who want to increase their business through Internet marketing. Visit his blog for more information.

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How guest posting is just like a personal loan

This guest post is SocialTechZone.comby Frank Angelone of.

Have you ever had a friend lent money? If so, this was someone you thought you could trust? If you answered in the affirmative, as they say in the social network, then you will want to keep reading.

The idea may already have crossed your mind, "How does lend money to a friend to blogging?" Well, I'm glad you asked because when it comes to guest blogging, the blog owner is lending you money you loaned to their blog just like when your friend.

Let's start with a story and we will bring this all together later on.

Let's dive right in this personal story of me and I'll show you to take the best practices when using my experience in your ventures blogging guest reviews.

A friend of mine, who I once considered "my best friend" had been in several financial jam when it came to pay rent, bills, or (let blunt!) anything with an expiration date.

So, if a friend, I decided to give him the money to help pay his half of the rent and lend any other accounts.

Little did I know that this pattern of a path of destruction would continue. What started as a "brother" turned into me help me to support him.

There are two things to point out: I must not have been so forgetful that he was taking advantage of me, and I'm not the only culprit on his list of lenders.

My friend me ripped off from about $ 1,000. It was so bad that it was started to affect my financial situation and the best thing that happened to me was to find a way out of this terrible situation by returning home.

When a friend makes use of several people who lend their resources, they are obviously not a friend, but someone who gets by through manipulation. The bottom line, as the saying goes, "If you want to lose a friend, lend them money." It's safe to say that I don't talk to this person more.

I mentioned in my above story I borrowed money. Well, when it comes to guest blogging, you should be aware that the blog owner loans to their blog is their resources, be whether you. their audience, their range in the blogosphere, or even their own reputation, made available to you when you share your voice on their property.

The means that the blog owner gives to you are as a personal loan. You must pay back the blog owner for giving you the opportunity to share your insight with his or her audience. Of course you're not back to pay a monetary value, but you must still looking to give back in some way.

I know that most people will feel that you "" repay the owner of the blog by writing an article of high quality for their audience. That is not enough. It is a general way to give back. A great article writing should be seen as a basic part of the Exchange, not an added bonus.

The last thing you want to do is disappoint the owner of a blog after they decide to publish your article on their site. This can ruin the relationship and ruin your personal reputation, like my friend by taking advantage of many of his so-called friends. Also, if you do not return the favor of the person who lends their your news blog, which can be spread like a wild fire among the popular bloggers — especially if you have an article published on the site of an A-List.

First of all, I always blog owner email directly after seeing my guest post go live and thank them for the occasion. I know that it sounds like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised by the strength of the emotional connection with the owner of the blog will hit in doing this.

They expect you the guest post as a marketing strategy used to the traffic back to your blog. To understand that because that's what everyone is doing when it comes to guest blogging. However, you can it a step further than the publicity you are given, and working on the continuation of the relationship with that owner of the blog.

A personal email would be if the old-school version of mailing a letter. People love the written word, not a "thank you for the opportunity" message on Twitter. That does not appear the effort, nor are you "pay" the owner back.

The personal e-mail means more. Just think how you feel when someone emails you and thank you for commenting on their blog. It sends a powerful message.

You can also ask the blog owner in the email if there is anything you can do for them! Maybe they come a new product or post and they help promote the need. They even have a service that they want you to be able to test out. Anything of this nature you are trying to make an effort shows "pay your lender" is great, but in a way that real — not just because you feel you have to.

There are not enough people who give back, in my opinion. My friend never gave back the money he owed me, nor has he has nothing to show that our friendship meant something really ever do. The blog owner is looking for this same feeling of your friend.

Everyone always wants to more friends, and to develop new relationships. When you give to them after they return to borrow their resources, you can then enhance the friendship or business relationship.

You almost a 100% guarantee of ruining the relationship if you screw over the blogger by failing to respond to comments left on your guest post or not to continue to keep in touch with the owner of the blog. By doing so, they will know "you" them for a one-off thing ... self promotion.

My friend used me and I was gullible enough to myself to be exploited. Hopefully these insights together with the integration of my personal story paints a clear picture of how to give back to those who help you.

What did you do after you go live to a guest post from the blog owner back "pay"? What were the results of these actions? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Frank Angelone offers social media strategies and tech tips by means of personal stories on SocialTechZone.com. His goal is to help and give back to people from his own experiences. He would like to share with you personal interactions his Newsletter Subscribe , so please and receive his free blueprint to improve the speed of your computer.

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