Are you using guest blogging to promote your business? If no, then you might be missing on something really big as far as your marketing effort is concerned. This article will provide 5 ways that you can benefit from guest blogging.

Here they are…

Reputation Building

The first advantage of guest blogging is that it can help you build your brand on the internet. Indeed, by publishing content on some authority sites you can help other people become acquainted to your brand and hence build a reputation online. But, for this to happen, you will need to make sure that your articles are really useful and that they really add value for your readers. After a short while people will begin to consider you as an expert in the field.

Massive Traffic

Another advantage of guest blogging is that it can help you get some really good traffic without relying solely on the search engines. Normally if your post is good enough, people will be interested to visit your site in order to learn more about you. And, if you published your post in some related sites you will be in a position to get some targeted traffic that may boost your sales. This benefit of guest blogging can be really useful for new blogs that have yet to get a ranking in the search engines.

New Market

Guest blogging can also help you target a market that you may have thought impossible before. By guest posting on some other blogs, you may be able to place your product in front of people that you would not have considered before. This can help you generate some new ideas that may be helpful when it comes to developing your business.

SEO

If you are a seasoned internet marketer you will know that the whole SEO game revolves around backlinks. Backlinks from real blogs that have real traffic can be really useful when it comes to boosting your site in the SERPs. This is why it might be useful that you look for blogs that have high PR and Alexa rank in order to get the most benefit.

Guest blogging can also be a useful alternative to article submissions. Following the Google Panda update, article directories have lost some of their effectiveness, and guest blogging can be a capable replacement when it comes to link building.

Social Media Benefits

Another advantage associated with guest blogging is that it allows you to take advantage of the host blog’s strength in social media. In the majority of cases, your article will be shared to the host blog’s Twitter followers or Facebook Fanpage, thus allowing you to take advantage of the site’s strength with social media sites. One idea will be to make it easy for visitors to share your content across social media sites. Place your Twitter and Facebook button in a visible position to encourage the sharing of your site on the different social media sites.

New Contacts

Guest blogging can also be instrumental when it comes to making new contacts. This can indeed create some opportunities for you to meet new people – not only fellow webmasters but also some readers of the host blogs. This can be a great opportunity for you to meet some other business professionals that might be interested in a possible joint-venture.

Guest blogging can be really effective when it comes to promoting your business online. It can help your site get instant traffic, break into new markets, improve your SERPs and also allow you to increase your social media reach. Whatever your business might be, you are definitely going to benefit from guest blogging.

About the Author

Robert Bellarmine is the writer behind Visitask.com where he covers topics related to project management and other management topics.

This may sound too good to be true for some. For others, this may be only a fraction of what they make from their blogs.

No matter which category you fall in, $750 is easily obtainable by implementing various money-making strategies. However, I’ve recently been introduced to a new blogging network that will actually pay you up to $750 per month. Sound crazy? Perhaps…

Blogging Network that Pays You

Guest blogging is super popular these days, and if you’re subscribed to my blog, you’ll know that I regularly publish guest posts on here. I know a lot of other bloggers who allow guest posts on their blogs as well. It’s a great way to build relationships with fellow bloggers/authors and introduce them to a new audience of readers.

But…

Guest blogging doesn’t have any monetary gain whatsoever. The guest author doesn’t get paid, and the hosting blog owner doesn’t get paid. This isn’t a bad thing at all, and frankly, that’s the way it should be. There are plenty of other benefits for both parties involved that don’t involve money.

However, this is about advertisers wanting to get in front of a target market, and they’re willing to pay to be seen.

What if there was a way to get paid for hosting guest posts? Would you be interested?

That’s exactly what WebTrafficControl.com does. They connect advertisers with blog owners and will pay you $15 for every guest post you publish to your blog. This isn’t your normal advertisement/sales type posts, though. The posts are useful, helpful, and don’t try to sell you anything.

They’re essentially no different than any other guest post that you would find on a blog, including this one.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons to get a better understanding of what WebTrafficControl is all about.

The Pros

I had a chance to email one of the guys behind the blogging network back and forth regarding functionality and what all the blog owner could control regarding the content their blogs would receive.

Here are some of the pros that really stood out to me after some of my key questions were answered:

• Quick process to add WordPress blog to system
• Clean and user-friendly member dashboard
• Built-in moderation system in place to ensure quality content only
• Blog owners can accept/deny each post that is received
• Once approved, articles are automatically posted to the blog via an Author account, with relevant categories
• Each post is relevant and targeted to your blog and your readers
• Posts are informative in nature and not a sales letter
• “Advertisers” download reports of all posts, able to see which articles were left on your blog

My main issue was the blog owner level of moderation, which they just recently implemented. This was important to me as I wouldn’t want an irrelevant/non-targeted post on my blog. My other issue was whether the “advertisers” would know that their articles were being published to my blog.

I was happy to know that both issues were fully addressed with systems in place. Overall, I was quite satisfied with what I found out.

Cons

The only issue I could see, that I find with any form of guest blogging, is the author coming to the blog and replying to comments left on their post. While the authors can download a report of their posts, there’s no guarantee that they will visit the blog/s to reply to comments being left.

I see this as a con only because I’m someone who encourages community and author/reader interaction. Replying to comments is something I require of my guest bloggers, and while it doesn’t always happen, I feel it’s better than no requirement at all. Most are more than happy to, as they also see the value in engaging readers.

Final Thoughts

I have added my blog to the network about a month ago but have yet to receive any articles to add to the blog. They provide you with up to 10 categories you can add your blog to, which increases the amount of articles your blog could receive. So, I would recommend adding your blog to 10 categories if at all possible as it may be a while before you start receiving articles for your blog.

All in all, I feel this blogging network could be good for supplementing your blog with additional, relevant articles, all the while increasing your monthly income.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think? Do you agree with my concerns about moderation and reader interaction?

After reading this, would you be inclined to add your blog to the network as well?

Please do share your thoughts by leaving a comment below…

It seems like time is just flying by. Where are the months going? I need to try to slow down and enjoy each day, as I don’t get a chance to do so as often as I would like.

What about you?

Anyway, March is already here, so that means it’s time for another blog post roundup of last month’s posts.

Let’s take a look at them…

January’s Blog Posts on ReplaceYourSalary.com

Win Over $2,300 in Cool Gifts in the TechChunks Giveaway

How To Create An Ergonomic Home Office

January 2011 Income Report

3 Tips to Utilize Your Blog’s RSS Feed

5 Tips for Financial Planning

Blog Posts Around the Web

My good friend Dennis Edell asks an intriguing question regarding guest bloggers being responsible for their own SEO when submitting an article for possible inclusion on a blog. Since I allow guest posts on my blog, this is a subject worth taking the time to think about, as I never really did before.

David Leonhardt talks about Google’s new Chrome extension that allows users to block “evil” domains. This is a bit scary when you think about it. Hopefully not too many people use the Chrome browser, or know about this extension!

Patt Flynn provides some cool Facebook Page and Landing Page Codes and PSD files for those wanting to expand their brand onto the most popular social networking site. Definitely worth checking out.

Oni shares the benefits of guest blogging to grow your blog. I absolutely love guest blogging and encourage it here on my own blog. It’s a great way to gain new readership and become an authority in your field.

Daniel Scocco talks about Facebook comments on your blog. This can be a very powerful feature, as it shows comments left by Facebook users directly on your blog post. I have yet to utilize this tool, and I’m not sure yet if I will. What about you? Do you have Facebook comments on your blog?

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more guest posts from some great authors!

This page will serve as an all-inclusive list of every guest post I have ever written for other blogs in the industry. Whenever I write a new article and it’s posted on a blog, I will add it to the list.

Enjoy.

My Guest Posts

When is the Right Time to Monetize a Blog

Does More Traffic Mean More Sales?

Best Ways to Market Your Online Business

3 Tips to a Better Blog

What Will Happen to My Blog When I Die?

Can You Really Make Money on the Internet?

When Is a Good Time to Build an Authority Website?

Why Guest Blogging?

I’m a firm believer in guest blogging and have written about the subject in the past. Guest blogging is a win-win for both parties involved. It’s a win for the guest poster as it helps them expand their reach to a new audience and bring in new readership, along with building quality backlinks. It’s also a win for the host blog as it provides their readers with a new, fresh face and a different style of writing, along with unique content.

Knowing the benefits of guest blogging, I opened up my blog to guest writers last year and received an overwhelming response from writers wanting to write for my blog. I couldn’t have been happier. That told me that people valued my blog and liked what I had going on here and wanted to expand their brand to my current readership. This year (2011) is already seeing much of the same.

In 2010, I also did a little guest blogging of my own. Many of the blogs I follow allow guest bloggers and have a solid reader base, and I wanted to get myself in front of that new audience. Other bloggers came to me requesting I write for their blogs, which of course I agreed.

I plan to do a fair share of guest blogging this year and the years to come, but I wanted to showcase my current guest posts as I never really shared them on here before. I alluded to a couple of them in previous posts, but I want to dedicate this post to all of my guest posts for 2010.

What I’ll also be doing is creating a permanent “Guest Posts” page that contains every guest post I have already written, as well as any and all new guest posts that have yet to come. I already a couple of guest posts in the works as I type this, so I know there will be new ones to add to the list.

Without further ado, here are my guest posts from last year.

My Guest Blog Posts of 2010

When is the Right Time to Monetize a Blog

Does More Traffic Mean More Sales?

Best Ways to Market Your Online Business

3 Tips to a Better Blog

What Will Happen to My Blog When I Die?

Can You Really Make Money on the Internet?

Some posts received a lot of response, while others received very little. Knowing this, I can plan future guest posts accordingly. I also have a list of other blogs I plan to write posts for, and I plan to write more posts for some of the blogs above. All will be added to my Guest Posts page once I get it up.

I invite you to check out my guest posts and leave a comment on them. Your feedback is appreciated.

As promised yesterday, here’s the list of May’s awesome blog posts that you may not have gotten a chance to check out or comment on. BTW, there’s only 9 days left for a chance to win in this month’s comment contest, so check out these posts and get commenting!

Without further ado, here they are:

Free Teleseminar – Learn How To Build A Profitable Business In Today’s Economy – This post will be updated whenever there is a new teleseminar scheduled. Right now you can register for the one on June 23rd.

5 Things to Consider Before Publishing a Guest Post on Your Blog

My Blog Guest – An Active Community of Guest Bloggers and Blog Owners

Don’t Make The Same Stupid Mistake I Made… Seriously! – You definitely want to check this post out… One of my toughest website lessons ever learned is talked about here. Don’t let happen to you what happened to me.

Where Do You Get Images and Photos For Your Website or Blog?

There you have it. If you haven’t yet checked these posts out then I invite you to do so.

Don’t forget… The comment contest ends on June 30th at whatever time at night I check the list for the final time. Right now Cebu is commanding a strong lead with Mici close behind. It’s anyone’s game at this point. Don’t give up now!

I’ve been talking a lot lately about Guest Blogging, providing both perspectives on the issue; from the guest blogger perspective, with The “Holy Grail” of Guest Blogging Tips, and from the blog owner perspective, with 5 Things to Consider Before Publishing a Guest Post on Your Blog.

Now, I’ve been thinking of a way to wrap up this series, and I think I found the perfect solution, or rather, it found me.

After my first guest blogging post, I was contacted by Ann Smarty of SEOSmarty.com. Ann wanted to invite me to her new project, MyBlogGuest.com, which is a forum-based website that helps connect guest bloggers and blog owners all in one place.

I immediately thought… this is the perfect resource! This is exactly what I was looking for, not only for you my readers, but also for myself as I plan to do my own fair share of guest posting.

Let’s face it, finding relevant guest bloggers or blog owners can be time-consuming. Wouldn’t it be easier and quicker if you could showcase your blog with the most pertinent information about it (and yourself), and then people can come to you, and vice versa?

I think Ann is onto something here with her new project, and I’d like to invite you to check it out as well. Signing up takes just a minute, and there’s no upsell to worry about it. Of course, Ann does offer a premium membership in which you can upgrade at any time. But again, she’s not going to bug you about it, ever. Something I can truly respect.

Once you login you’ll be taken to the main forum page, which looks like this…

At this time you’ll be prompted to enter information about yourself and your blog. You’ll be able to include links to your sites, tags to help people find you, some social sites that people can find you on, and an Avatar so people can see who you are. You’ll also be able to add your Blogging Experience in which you can share about yourself, what you do and what experience you have with blogging. There is even room to set up a forum signature if you wish.

I haven’t gotten a chance to visit the different threads or post in the forum yet, but looking at the numbers I’d say there’s a pretty active community of bloggers.

It’s definitely worth checking out if you’d like to find relevant blogs to guest post on or find guest bloggers for your own blog.

Go ahead… sign up and see what it’s like.

Then, add your own thoughts about MyBlogGuest in the comments below.

In my recent post about Guest Blogging Tips, I had mentioned that getting a guest post on a high authority blog can bring you massive exposure because the blog owner is essentially endorsing you, your blog, your business, etc. This is true, whether that blog owner realizes it or not.

I didn’t touch on this subject in that post, but I wanted to expand on that more and bring up some strong points and tips that blog owners should be aware of. Thanks to Dennis Edell for bringing up the subject in his comment on that post.

Now, say you own a high authority blog, and you have thousands of readers. You’re well-liked, people trust you, and they enjoy the killer content you give them and have no problem spreading the word about you to their friends.

You’re in your glory, as you have a loyal readership and you’re on top of the world. However, the top can come crumbling to the ground if you’re not very careful.

And here’s why…

We know that guest posting not only benefits the guest poster, but it also benefits you. If you didn’t know that, you do now. Allowing guest posts on your blog is healthy, for both you and your readers. You may think you’re inviting the competition in to steal away your readers, but that’s not the case. You’ve already won them over; they’re there to stay.

BUT…

They’ll be running for the exits if you “endorse” a guest poster that has a bad reputation and is known for misleading readers and shady marketing tactics. There are plenty of other examples I could give, but I think you get the point here.

Basically, use some common sense (which I know is hard for some people, so if that’s you, see below).

You have to be careful about who you let guest post on your blog. I don’t want to tell you to be picky, but there are some guidelines that should be met before you ever publish someone else’s article on your blog.

5 Things to Consider Before Publishing a Guest Post on Your Blog

1. The Person Submitting the Guest Post – If you don’t know the person who’s submitting the guest post, then do some research about them. At the very least, visit their blog, read some of their posts and get an idea of what they normally blog about. Get a better understanding of the person behind the guest post.

2. Quality of the Writing – Is there post written in fluent English? Or, is it hard to understand because their English is obviously not their first language. If the substance of their article is good, then perhaps you could correct their grammar a little for them. If it’s way off the deep-end, then kindly reject it.

3. Subject of the Writing – Did the guest poster do their part and write on a subject that will appeal to YOUR readers? Or, is the post way off-base and has nothing to do with the topic of your blog? This will be very obvious and should be a factor in whether you accept or deny the submission.

4. Style of the Writing – For most people this won’t matter. Everyone has their own style of writing. What I’m getting at here are those people who come across cocky or arrogent in their post. Not sure why anyone would, but if you come across, just hit delete. I don’t think your readers would appreciate it too much.

5. The Website the Post Links To – This is critical, and goes hand-in-hand with tip #1. Take a look around their website/blog. See who they link out to, as well as see what kind of Page Rank their site has. If it doesn’t have a Page Rank, Google “site:http://www.theirsite.com” without quotes. If nothing comes up, you may want to stay away.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions for blog owners that accept guest posts? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below…

P.S. If you like this blog and would like to submit a Guest Post for possible inclusion, simply Contact Me.

May is here, and I particularly like this month. Maybe because my Birthday is right around the corner? Perhaps… .

In any case, April has come and gone. It seems like with the passing of April that Spring as come and gone as well. The beginning of May has been a scorcher, and temperatures are still hitting in the low 80′s. Yes, Summer is very early this year for my area.

I can’t complain, though, as the weather has been beautiful. I digress.

If you’ve been following along here then great. If not, then you really should subscribe to my RSS feed. I recommend subscribing via Email so you don’t miss a single post.

If you’ve happened to miss a post or two from last month, then that’s what this “Roundup” is for. Neat idea, huh?

Without further ado, here they are…

Get Paid to Write Blog Review Posts

Laugh A Little – Get Free Daily Web Cartoons

Should You Pay for Reviews?

Internet Marketing – How To Build and Rank an Authority Site the Google Way

The “Holy Grail” of Guest Blogging Tips

If you haven’t left a comment on them, then what are you waiting for? That’s the whole point here, and I share the love (link love, that is) with my little community.

So… join in, we’re all friends here.

Going off from what I talked about in a previous post, writing guest blog posts can in many ways be more effective in building traffic and gaining readership, sales, etc than paying for reviews or buying advertising slots or links on blogs.

Not only can this free method of advertising be more effective, but it also brings with it many more benefits.

The fact that you don’t have to pay anything to get exposure on a high authority blog, or any blog of your choice, is the most obvious. There are two other main benefits, and they are:

Being seen as an expert in your field – The fact that your post is being published on a high authority blog speaks volumes for your credibility, whether you’re actually credible or not. Common sense says that you are if you managed to get this far, and the readers of the blog are automatically going to trust you just as much as they trust the blog owner. Well, maybe not quite as much, but if the blogger is endorsing you, and they are since they’re publishing you’re article, then that’s going to build trust between you and the readers.

This holds a lot more weight to the blog readers because you’re providing valid and relevant information that they can relate to and use, rather than just paying the blogger to write a review about you. The readers are going to respond much better to a guest post because the blogger isn’t obligated to post your article at all. If they’re being paid to write a review, then they have to talk about you.

Automatic trust among readers – I touched briefly on this in the first point, but I feel I need to elaborate on this further. Don’t underestimate the power of trust. Trust is critical to your online success, no matter what your business.

No matter what activities you’re involved in with your business, you want to make sure that what you do and say is creating and building trust with others. It could be the slightest, littlest thing, but believe me, one miniscule little thing can completely ruin any trust you had. You want to do whatever you can to build and keep the trust you have.

The first thing to do to create trust is build relationships, and keeping in line with the topic of guest blog posts, the blogger has already done the hard part in building a relationship with his/her readers. As a guest author, you get to reap the rewards.

That’s not to say that you can slack off and write a mediocre article. For one, it won’t get published. Second, the readers will take notice and decide they have better things to do than check out another wannabe blogger. A lot of care and time needs to be taken when writing your guest post.

Here are some tips to help you write killer guest blog posts…

This should really be part of your overall marketing strategy for many different reasons, but knowing what to do, and what not to do, can really go a long way. Read each and every post I link to and learn them well. Save them, favorite them, bookmark them… whatever you do… so when you’re ready to do a guest post, you’ll start off on the right foot.

Instead of making this into a VERY long and drawn-out post, I thought I’d keep it somewhat short and give out some link love to other bloggers who have already taken the time to share their guest blogging tips. I call this the “Holy Grail” of guest blogging tips… tips from the A-List bloggers themselves.

The first set of tips comes from none other than “ProBlogger” Darren Rowse. Darren writes about How to be a Good Guest Blogger. Be sure to check out his full Guest Blogging Series at the end of his post for even more great killer content. Also check out his How to Guest Post to Promote Your Blog article.

Our second round of tips comes from Copyblogger, which just happens to be a guest post by Jordan Cooper. Neat how that works, huh? Jordan’s article is 10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-List Blog. If nothing else, read it for the humor and sarcasm Jordan incorporates into the post… if you like that sort of thing. I think you know which way I lean.

The third set of tips comes from Chris Garrett about How To Guest Blog Without Disaster. Chris provides some great advice for bloggers who are ready to tackle the challenge guest posting.

As mentioned earlier, check out every single one of these articles. The content is beyond excellent.

Another reason I decided to go this route is because I’ll soon be venturing into this area as well, and linking out to articles I find helpful makes it easier for me to find for future reference. That’s my own personal blogging tip… did you get it?

Know of any other bloggers who’ve shared guest blgging tips that you’ve found helpful that I didn’t link to? Share them below to make my “Holy Grail” list even bigger!

What other benefits are there from guest posting on other blogs? Share your thoughts and personal experiences below…