Self-published authors don’t have the luxury of a publishing house promoting their work and reputation. It’s up to you to gain a foothold in the market and recognition for your work.
One of the best methods for getting your name out there is to write “guest posts” for magazines and top-tier blogs or money sites. What is a guest post? It’s a short-form article, usually between 400 to 2,000 words, discussing a popular topic adding value to the site’s readership.
Guest posts are freebies, so you won’t receive any money for writing them. To the contrary, you’ll have to pay the site a fee to get them to publish your work. Why would you pay someone to publish a post you’re offering them for free?
When you pay a site to publish a guest post, they allow you to insert a permanent link into the text. You could hyperlink a phrase to your blog or “about me” page on your site. Many people click the link when they read your guest post.
Google notices this activity, and the search bots start viewing your blog or author site as offering value to the community. They start pushing your site up the search rankings when people enter keywords in search requests.
More traffic to your site means more people read your work and look for your books online. The guest post also usually includes a brief bio on you, introducing readers to who you are and what you do. If you publish enough guest posts, you’ll start getting more attention from your target audience and more people buying your books as you build your reputation.
Step #1 – Find the Right Publication
There are millions of blogs online. To build your reputation effectively, you’ll need to publish your guest posts on a reputable site related to your work. For self-published authors, you’re looking for sites discussing book reviews, topics in your writing genre, and anything about new authors.
Look for the top-rated sites, magazines, or journals in your niche and create a spreadsheet of ten you feel could benefit your writing career if you published a guest post on their blog. Visit their website and see if they accept guest posts. Send an email to the editorial team asking them for their rate card for publishing guest posts on their site.
You could pay anything from $10 to $500 or more to get a guest post opportunity. You’ll have to weigh the value the site offers your career if you get a post published on their site and compare it to the cost involved.
Don’t be afraid of the expensive sites, as they probably have a large audience, and get plenty of clicks on your links. Set a budget for your guest post campaign and plan your outreach strategy.
Step #2 – Run Through Topic Ideas
The editorial team at the prospective guest post site will want to know the topic you want to discuss with your guest post. You can ask them what they would like you to write on or send them a list of a few topic ideas.
Brainstorm a few topic ideas you think they’ll publish and send them to the editorial team for approval. If you choose the right sites and publications, you shouldn’t have any trouble coming up with plentiful topic ideas for your posts.
Reach out to the editing team with your ideas and ask them what word count they feel would be the best option for your post. It’s no good writing 3,000 words if most of their blogs are 500 words long. Sometimes shorter is better. The idea is to add value to their community, and there’s no need to write high-volume if it’s not necessary.
Step #3 – Do the Research
As a self-published author, you understand the value of researching your topic before writing. It’s the same with guest posts. You’ll need to spend time coming up with original ideas for your posts. Search Google for topic ideas and read other people’s work for inspiration.
Rehashing other people’s work isn’t a good idea. You want to think of original ideas to write on that add value to the site’s community. Look through the other blog topics published on your prospective website’s blog. This strategy gives direction for topic ideas, then write your post.
Step #4 – Re-Read and Edit Your Article
After you finish your post, re-read and edit it. If you send the site a boring half-hearted post, they’ll likely reject it. It’s also crucial to run the article through grammar-editing software before sending it to the editing team.
Sending poorly written content to the editors makes you look bad. They’ll probably refuse to work with you again if you waste their time. Writing a guest post isn’t as challenging or rewarding as writing a novel, but it’s just as important, in fact, more important, because it’s attracting readers to your books.
See it as an opportunity to gain more readers and build your reputation. The goal of the guest post is to help you sell more books and spread your name to your target audience. You won’t achieve that goal with sending them shoddy work.
Step #5 – Submit Your Article
When you’re confident you have an informative, polished guest post adding value to the site’s readership, send it to the editorial team for publication. You must follow the site’s editorial guidelines for submissions. Study them carefully before submitting.
Do they require a cover letter? Do they have specific requirements for word counts or writing style? Understand what they want before hitting the send button on your email. It could take up to two weeks for the editorial team to publish your post, even if you’ve paid for it.
If you’re still waiting for a result in two weeks, follow up and ask them what’s happening. When they do publish, check the post to see if they included your link. Use a tracking tool in Google to monitor your traffic from the link, and you’ll know if it was a worthwhile exercise.