This is a part of our Question &Â Answer series. If you have any questions on blogging, WordPress or SEO, shoot me an email at admin[at]shoutmeloud.com!
This question is asked by Rahul:
Hi Harsh, I want guest bloggers for my blog. Can you suggest how can I get guest bloggers?
Answer: Well, Guest blogging has both advantages and disadvantages. In general, however, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so many bloggers have started to offer guest posts on their blogs.
The biggest advantage for guest authors are the free backlinks, traffic, and subscribers they receive.  In today’s post, I am going to share with you several points which have worked for me (and should work for you as well), to appeal to bloggers to take the opportunity to guest post on your blog.
Where to find guest bloggers for your blog
Build a community:
Nobody wants to write for a blog which does not have an active community. An active community means active commentators, quality blog posts, and people participating in your blog. Many bloggers blog for reaction and fame, which usually comes with traffic and comments. If you have a blog and traffic, but your blog does not have a community, the idea of guest posting on your blog is unlikely to be appealing.
So the first thing which you need to do is create an active community for your blog. Â In order to do this, you can start by commenting on other blogs, respect every reader of your own blog, and start building a community.
Read my post on how to form a community out of your blog.
Link love within the article’s body or at the end of the article
One major benefit for guest bloggers is the opportunity to get a high-quality backlink and follow-up traffic thereafter. Most of the blogs with the guest posting option enabled have only an author bio box, which most of the time goes unnoticed like ad blindness. Add a link at the end of the post saying something like this:  “This is a guest post by (Name) who blogs at (Blog name). If you would like to write an article for our blog, read our guest posting guidelines.”
This gives link love to your guest blogger, and it also makes your readers aware that you offer guest posting on your blog. Blogs offering only an author bio box to showcase a guest author are ineffective for this purpose, as people who are reading your blog via RSS will never land on the blog of your guest author.
Landing page for guest posting guidelines:
Have a dedicated page which notes that your blog allows guest posting. This page will serve as a landing page, and will ensure that you add all the information they need including how to start guest posting, how to register, and what benefits they will see from guest posting on your blog. Make the work easier for them by automating the system.
Interact with your guest bloggers:
On a daily basis, I receive at least three guest posts here at ShoutMeLoud.  Of these, two are rejected.  When you reject a guest post, do not simply trash the post. Instead, send an email to the applicant stating the reason why you can’t accept his post, and what he can do to make it better. By doing this, you will be winning the heart and a fan for your blog, and you will be helping the author as well.
Another excellent strategy is to follow your guest bloggers on Twitter and other social networking sites.  Show them the support and attention they deserve.
Love, Love, and Love
When people guest post on your blog, give them as much love as possible. That love could be in the form of traffic, exposure or brand awareness. Apart from adding a link, add a Gravatar at the top which will help the guest author to showcase his brand, thus offering him more exposure. Don’t try to conserve link love when it comes to guest authors!
Accept only quality guest posts
One major problem you could face when you open your blog for guest posting is that your friends will want to write for you.  They will be seeking lots of backlinks but may also be writing low-quality posts.You need to remember that this is your profession and sometimes we cannot mix our personal and professional lives. Always reject low-quality posts, no matter who writes them.
People love to write for a high-quality blog which consistently offers quality content. It may be hard for you in the beginning to reject the posts submitted by friends, but your blog will benefit only from its association with quality guest authors and quality posts.
These are some of the tips which I believe will help you to attract quality guest bloggers to your blog. It may take some time to get frequent guest posts from quality authors, but if you have done your homework right (as noted throughout this post), soon your blog will be showered with high-quality guest posts.
Do you know of any additional tips to help bloggers attract quality guest authors to their blogs? Â Feel free to use the comments section below to share your thoughts and ideas.
If you find the information in this post useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram.
Here are a few hand-picked articles for you to read next:
- How You Should Be Accepting Guest Posts On Your Blog
- How A Blog Admin Scans and Rejects A Guest Post
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE .. 😀
Now that is the best tactic seriously which i have tried for several of my blogs, it gets me many free Posts for my Websites 🙂
Good Post Mate !!
thnx for the sharing harsh but what about the OBL coming with Guest post
Hi Harsh,
Thanks for sharing this informative post. But I want to ask one more Question for my blog. I have Entertainment related blog (eespecially for movie new and information). I have started guest posting on my blog. but i want to guest post on my blog. please give me suggestion about my blog. I hope you give me reply this Question
Regards
Rahul Kashyap
Hi,
I love your tactic to provide extra revenue for guest bloggers and it is a completely a new tactic. Most of the guest bloggers will love it because they love to get some revenue along with the backlinks. Anyway a very nice article from you.
Thanks for the well written article; I’ve been considering offering guest blogging and have asked friends, family, and social media contacts to step forward. So far no one has taken me up on the offer. The question is does a site exist where you could sign up as a potential guest blogger for people who are looking. I mean I’m pretty knowledgeable about my niche and could use the additional links and traffic; but how do I know if someone is looking? thanks, Max
Hi, thanks for the post. I have been trying to find guest bloggers for a while for my blog and couldn’t get a good response yet. I will stick in to your advise. Cheers.
Great tips.
Thanks for sharing these.
I am thinking of starting Guest posts on my blog. All the above points are take away for me.
I have a well set up Blog. I know it’s on WordPress.com but it still gets good traffic. The thing is that I am unable to find Guest Bloggers. I have tried everywhere. Every website, every social networking site. I even have a page which lists all the required details for guest posts but I don’t know why people just don’t want to guest post on WordPress.com Blogs! I am ready to give the following to every guest poster:
1. A link back to any one page of your Blog/ website.
2. One link for your Feed Subscription/RSS subscription
3. One Affiliate link
4. The author’s bio (your bio) before or after the post.
5. Addition to BlogRoll.
6. One linkback to any one of your post which should be in concern with the post
But I don’t why Harsh, I still don’t get any requests for Guest posting. Perhaps you can have a look at my Blog and tell the where the problem lies. 🙂
@pulkit dude, i see no stats about your blog on that post u mentioned in your comment. if i hypothetically want to write for your blog i will want to know about your visitors and followers first and foremost. why i should guest blog is secondary. most ppl already know dat.
PS: the dolt should try the TCS IT Wiz and do away with his stage-fear. its cakewalk really. having won it before, i can surely tell.
After this …cmmnt u’ll defenately get some guest bloggers 😉
How much traffic is suggested before we expect guest bloggers..
I think it should be a minimum of 1000 uv per day…
Am I right?
1000 Unique Viewers are like too much. I think 300-400 would be able to do the trick.
depends a lot on the niche. for very popular ones you may get guest bloggers at way less than 1000 uv
yeah active community participation is must !! No one would like to write in a site where he not getting any populartity !!
Interact with your guest blogger: Yes thats a perfect point. When i first wrote a post on COG it was rejected & you told me the mistakes I did in it & then it helped me a lot in writing the next three posts. (which was accepted) 🙂 . Thanks .. ! 🙂
I have launched a new guest blogging blog few days ago. I am not getting few bloggers to that blog. I will try my best to follow your guidelines to get more blogger for my new blog.
It’s a role of guest bloggers also to write quality post. Their posts should mere not be for backlinks and to generate traffic to their site.
A blog required high quality articles. The most important aspect about guest blogging is that the webmaster should accept only top quality unique guest posts. If a guest post provides real benefit to the blog readers them it is acceptable option. The blog owner must also ensure that the guest post must be unique in order to avoid duplicate content penalties by search engine.
Hi Harsh
Each point resonated strongly with me, eespecially the importance of building community. And I think your revenue sharing idea is both innovative and brilliant!
Thanks for the great article and tips.
Michael
Making revenue sharing program for guest bloggers will make most people to think about guest blogging in our blog, since these days people are looking to make money along with getting backlinks for their blog. Thanks for sharing these tips, Harsh
One more wonderful article mate. I am also planning to start taking “Guest Post” on my blog as my blog is now some what popular and having PR-3. This will help me a lot. You also can share some good content as opener 😉
Keep writing and keep inspiring.
I would agree the advantages of guest posting greatly outweigh the disadvantages. I like how you allow guest posts to contains the adsense code of the original author. Great post!
I have had good luck with guest bloggers on my main blog – several of them are pretty high traffic pages. Like you say, Harsh, I think the key is maintaining high standards for quality. I tell my guest bloggers that I will take care of the pictures, but they are responsible for the text. Even if they provide photos, I do all of the formatting and optimization so that the guest post will be consistent with my own.
Well, I should have searched for some guest bloggers before hand for my xams time. Lets see if I get some requests of guest blogging or not .
Btw most of the guest bloggers want to just promote their site and I find that they are not adding any real value to the site, so reject most of them until and unless they are good for our readers .
You might want to post jobs @ freelancing sites in order to get professional ghost writers.
You’re very right – most guest poster don’t write quality guest posts these days. They are just looking for ways to get backlinks and grow their Page Rank significantly. I strongly believe that rejection of such guest post should be the norm of the hour.