GUEST POSTING Will Change Your Blog's Fortunes

Guest posting is an amazing way to connect with other bloggers and to reach out to the blogging community around you. Yet so many people are hesitant to write guest posts because they require so much extra work. But I’m here to tell you that the work is well worth it.

In fact, I recently launched a guest posting marathon at my website and I’ve had fantastic results. I’ve been writing an average of 5 guest posts per day since I launched it.

Why would I put myself through that? Easy. Here’s four reasons that I write guest posts and these same reasons should motivate you to start writing some.

Backlinks

One of the great benefits of guest posting is the unique opportunity to create non-spam links back to your own website. One of the major factors that Google and other similar search engines uses in order to determine how valuable a site is are links to that site.

Does Your Blog Look Like NASCAR?

 In this post, Jack Gamble from Babeled talks about ad placement and the risk of overdoing it.

Are you responsible for a website that has so many ads that it looks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. should be driving it in circles at high speed with a strange aversion to right turns?
That is because your advertisements are out of control.
Like all things in life, with advertising you need to know when to stop. If there is one thing that drives me crazy, it’s arriving at a blog and being bombarded by a mess of Goggle Adsense, pop-ups, and 125×125 banner ads. All of these are ways to bring in some cash for your hard work, but at what point does it become counterproductive?
Here’s a hint: if I need to scroll down to get to your content because you have nothing but ads above the fold, then I am never coming back to your site. I will not click your ads. I will not subscribe to your feed. I will not download your e-book. I will not tell my friends about you. Are you getting the point? Too much advertising on your blog is simply insulting to your readers.
You need to come up with some simple guidelines for your ad campaign and stick to your guns. I’m not going to tell you that this ad is good and that one is bad. But I will tell you that there is certainly a point where the next ad you put up will cost you money.

Usefulness – Principles of Successful Blogging

Today we continue my series in principles of successful blogging by looking at something that is at the heart of my own philosophy of blogging (and business) – usefulness.
I’ve said it many times on ProBlogger but if your blog is not solving a problem or fulfilling a need or desire among your readers then you’re unlikely to see them return.
The needs, desires and problems you can be meeting need not be large ones – but if you’re connecting with people on these levels you’re being useful and this goes a long way towards making the type of impression on someone that draws them into a loyal relationship.
Better still – if you’re useful to someone they’re often going to tell others about it which is a big part of the growth of many successful blogs.

Examples of Useful Blogs

Being useful can take on many different forms. Lets looks at some examples of fairly well known blogs: