Reader Challenge 2 - Guest Posting

The first DotComDud.com Reader Challenge got a pretty good response and I feel like the concept has great potential to help out other bloggers, so I’ve decided that it’s time for the next reader challenge to begin. For those who missed the first Reader Challenge here is a quick reminder of what the Reader Challenge is all about; basically I post a challenge that is designed to help improve your blog’s content and exposure and set a timeline for everyone who wishes to take part to achieve this goal. The aim of this is to do more than just provide the same old advice about blogging and actually encourage readers to set practical goals that will get them genuine results.

This time around I’ve decided to focus the Reader Challenge on guest posts. For those who haven’t heard the term Guest Post before, it is simply when you write an article for a different blog or when someone else writes an article for your blog. Usually you’ll get (or give) a mention and a back-link or two in the post, so guest blogging can help boost your traffic, make you more well-known amongst other bloggers and expose your content to brand new readers.

Guidelines: The goal this time around is fairly straightforward. Simply make a guest post on another blog and have someone else guest post on yours. You can make and receive as many guest posts as you’d like during the challenge, one of each is just the minimum you should be aiming for.

Time limit: I thought that for this challenge, the time limit should be longer than last time (which was 1 week). This time, the Reader Challenge will run for 3 weeks. That means the due date will be December 10th 17th. I will then post a Reader Challenge Round-Up post a couple of days later. I’ll look at my own results as well as any feedback the Reader Challenge gets.

Tips for Guest Posting: I am new to guest posting myself, so I can’t give expert advice on it at this point but here is how I’ll be approaching it and the strategies I’ll be using. To find blogs to guest post on I’ll be contacting some of my favourite bloggers, as well as bloggers in my niche that already have a big audience that I could tap into. I’ll be looking for blogs where I think I will be able to contribute a great guest post that will make the readers want to come and check out DotComDud.com.

When you are making a guest post, the contest itself is up to you but keep in mind the results you want from the post. Content that really appeals to the readers will increase the chances that they’ll click through to your blog. A great guest post will also help you getting accepted if you want to make more guest posts in the future.

Finding Guest Posters: Attracting guest posters is probably more difficult than making a guest post yourself, at least while your blog is still small. Again, I’ll be contacting other bloggers directly, specifically bloggers who produce content that I really think is of a high quality. I’ll also be asking my readers to contact me if they’d like to guest post. If anyone has any other tips on finding guest posters, I’d love to hear them and I’ll be posting about any new strategies I come up with during the challenge.

When you are accepting guest posts, remember that they should offer something valuable to your readers. They shouldn’t detract from the quality of your blog’s usual content. Also, managing to get a well-known blogger to guest post can always be great for publicity, especially if they are happy to mention the post on their own blog.

Just recently there was a great post (a guest post actually!) on ProBlogger called Do You Make These Mistakes in Guest Posting and I’d recommend reading it for some great advice on the best practices of guest posting.

What Else? Well I’d really like to see the guest posts everyone makes and receives, so be sure to leave a link to them in the comment section (or contact me with the details). I will be highlighting a few of the best guest posts made during the Reader Challenge in the Round-Up post on December 19th.

Finally, if anyone is interested in guest posting on DotComDud.com then just contact me and we can discuss the details. I’d like to feature a few guest posts on DotComDud.com during the challenge that will help highlight some other great bloggers.