The second part of the blogging series is about guest blogging, where you will be publishing your entries to other websites that are not your own. But how exactly does this help you increase your online community, especially if your audience does not find your well-made content on your blog page?

In the first part of this series, we talked about how to use blogging to increase your online community. There, we shared three helpful tips. One, blog about a single idea and a topic that you are passionate about. For instance, if you are an event planner, blog about topics related to event planning such as party ideas, venue tips, etc. Two is to use approachable language in your blog entries. Three, encourage your audience to engage with you through comments or connecting with you directly via your socials or email.

What is guest blogging?

Also known as guest posting, guest blogging is when you write for another website. Generally, you’ll be guest posting on websites that are related to your industry. It is an act that offers benefits to the blogger and the website that is hosting the content. If a website hosts you for a guest blog most of the time, you must do the same in return.

Why is guest blogging an excellent strategy to increase your online community?

So, why is guest blogging important? There are many benefits to this digital marketing strategy. For one, it builds brand awareness to a new audience, which provides a significant impact on your online community. There is a chance of new subscribers when readers of the host website find your blog and visit your website as a result and build trust in readers. Suppose your guest blog is posted on an authoritative and trusted website. In that case, the audience will have complete confidence that you are also an expert with an excellent reputation in your industry.

How to use guest blogging in increasing your online community

Now that you have an idea about what guest blogging is and its benefits let’s talk about how you can use it the right way to increase your online community.

Find the right site to contribute to

The goal is to increase your online community, so you need to find a trusted and authoritative website that you know has a significant amount of audience. You’ll usually find these numbers shared on their websites, such as their email subscribers and social media followers.

But how do you find these websites that are open for guest blogging? One of the easiest ways is going straight to Google and typing out the following search keywords:

• [topic keyword phrase] + “guest article”
• [topic keyword phrase] + “write for us”
• [topic keyword phrase] + “become a contributor”

For instance, you can type out the keyword: “event planning” + “guest article” and see this search result list below for event planners.

Start your research on each site you see and check their domain authority to see whether guest posting there is worth it. There are many online tools that you can use for this, such as Moz Link Explorer.

Connect with the site owner

Now that you have chosen the right site, time to connect with the site owner. This part is not as easy as asking them if they can publish your guest post. Instead, you need to pitch your ideas and share your high-quality content. To do this, you need to understand their website and the type of content they publish. Follow them on social media, take a few weeks or longer to notice how they make their content and connect with their audience. Doing this will give you the right idea of how and what to pitch to the site owner.

We also highly recommend becoming a part of their online community. Comment consistently on their blog posts, sign up for their newsletter, respond to emails, and tag them when sharing their content with your thoughts. Form a genuine relationship with the site owner, find the right topic, and form your pitch.

Write great content

With a winning topic in hand, it’s time to create winning content. Here, you’ll need to create a great headline that will attract an audience. Of course, avoid clickbait headlines since they are an example of poor content writing practice. Next, be sure to research the right keywords, so your audience will find you easily when they search for the specific topic you are writing about. Third, be sure to add the correct links, either towards your website, the host website, or external links from other trusted sources. Finally, do not forget to format the post correctly, making good use of formats, capitalizations, bold texts, and images.

Use your bio effectively

The bio is where the authors are introduced to the community. It’s here that you can fill it with the right amount of details about you, your brand, and how they can connect with you. You can share your socials here, a link to your website, or a helpful resource that the audience can continue reading related to the guest post published. Here’s an excellent example from plannerslounge.com:

We hope that these tips will help you reach your goal of gaining more website’s audiences and increasing your online community through guest blogging. If you missed the first part of this series, click here.