The 5 Cherished Lessons from 18 Guest Posts and 2179+ Tweets / Shares

Over the last few months, I have posted as a guest blogger on several sites on a variety of topics. In terms of base data, I have posted 18 guest posts on 6 blogs. In terms of response, there have been 169+ comments and 2179+ Tweets / Shares (as of 24 Jan 2012).

The master list is below:

 

Site	Topic of the Post	Number of Tweets / Shares (as on 24 Jan 2012)	Number of Comments (as on 24 Jan 2012)
ProBlogger.com	Why you should wear the 6 Thinking Hats on your blog?	812	45
12Most.com	12 Most Vital Things To Do After Turning 30	68	2
	12 Most Vital Facets of a Broker	79	4
	12 Most Noteworthy Aspects of Cooking	41	4
	12 Most Tornadic Ways in which the Weather Affects your Life	88	2
	12 Most Genuine Ways to Support a Cause	108	5
	12 Most Mesmerizing Mantras on how to publish 321 blogs in 321 days	108	28
	12 Most Wonderful Moments in the first year of Motherhood	298	13
	12 Most Compelling Reasons for you to write	215	29
FamousBloggers	Focus on Diversity in your blog	87	11
The Change Blog	12 Choices To Transform your life	263	24
PaulWriter	9 Must-Have’s for a Senior Marketing Executive	4	0
	Success of a Blog	1	0
	Social Media Legacy	1	0
	Who Rules Social Media? – Content Creators or Content Consumers	1	0
	Marketing at Surajkund Crafts Mela	1	0
	How to create your online personal brand?	1	0
MindBlogs	To RN	3	2

NOTE – Above data is based primarily on the statistics published on the web-sites and does not include Re-Tweets, Forwards, etc. In reality, the number of Tweets / Shares is significantly higher than the numbers quoted above.

I did a further analysis of each of these sites as listed below:

Site	Run by	Focus of the Blog	Twitter Profile	Number of Twitter Followers (as on 18 Jan 2012)
ProBlogger.com	Darren Rowse	Blogging	@ProBlogger	153504
12Most.com	Paul Biedermann & Peggy Fitzpatrick	Business, Media,Lifestyle	@12Most	5275
FamousBloggers	Hesham Zebida	Blogging, Making Money Online Tips	@FamousBloggers	16498
The Change Blog	Peter Clemens	Positive Change in Life	@PeterClemens	2474
PaulWriter	Jessie Paul	Marketing	@paulwriter ,	414
			@jessie_paul	4723
MindBlogs	Nirmala Govindarajan, Zahid H Javali & Christina Daniels	Diverse	@mindblogs	49

 As you can observe by the data, I have posted on

A diverse set of blogs on
A diverse set of topics and
Received a diverse set of responses…
What’s common is this - I have put my mind, heart, sweat and soul into each of them & each of these posts is dear to ME for many different reasons

In this post, I will share the 5 Most Valuable Learning’s from these Guest Posting experiences:

1) CONTENT is the KING
You must have heard of the adage that content is king. From my personal experience, I can vouch for this! It’s TRUE. If you write quality content, you will eventually find your way to the RIGHT blogs and in turn to the RIGHT readers (& of course over a period of time)

The 4 things that can be attributed to Quality Content are:
i) Blog Title – A Well-Thought out Blog Title definitely catches reader attention
ii) Originality in Expression – And here’s where your creativity and literary skills will make the difference
iii) Honesty in Articulation – I use the word honesty because even if it is a simple message which people have read several times before, if you are honest in the way you articulate, it will be well received. And if it’s based on your personal experience, then the level of content integrity is definitely HIGH!
iv) Language (English) Accuracy – And this includes the right spelling, right grammar, right punctuations and right vocabulary!
Novelty in the subject and content is a definite bonus, but NOT a Must-Have

2) Choose the RIGHT BLOG to PUBLISH your Guest Post
You have great content. But it is of limited value if it does not reach the RIGHT EYES. So once you have written a post, pause and ask yourself “What is the target reader profile that should read this post?”

Once you have answered this question to yourself, follow it up with a thorough research and analysis on the various sites that you can explore for guest posting. Zero-in of the BEST CHOICE and then contact the site owners with a request to review your post for publication on their site. Be open to their suggestions and feedback, and make the changes. Simply because they have the best understanding of their target readers!

3) The BLOG MARKETING is the real DIFFERENTIATOR!!!
You have written great content. You guest post if finally published on a blog of your choice. But what is that missing link between the posts which get maximum readership and those which don’t really get there. It’s the MARKETING strategy!

If you have a guest post on a blog, then the blog / site owners usually do promote your post through multiple channels. For e.g.: Their own personal Twitter handles, The Twitter handles of their site / blog (in case it exists). In addition, you should ensure that you do market your own guest post using a combination of channels like mail, FaceBook Status, Twitter, Blog, Personal Chat, face-to-face discussions with family and friends, etc.

Personally, the most critical learning for me is that you should continue to market your posts on a periodic basis. Most bloggers aggressively market their posts only when they go live and then don’t really follow it up with any additional marketing. Don’t assume that your target readers would have read your post the first time you share it. Do invest in planning and implementing a blog marketing strategy for your post over a period of time – This is critical to reach a larger reader base

4) ONE Tweet / ReTweet (RT) has the potential to CREATE a DYNAMO EFFECT
My post 12 Most Wonderful Moments in the First Year of Motherhood was RT by Alyssa Milano (Yes! The Hollywood actress and former singer) & Jure Klepic (who was represented in Forbes’ Top 10 Influencers in Social Media) and it went viral after that.

The truth is this – If your post is RT by a real-world / cyber-world celebrity, then the readers who will even eye your content goes up by exponentially.  And you can increase your chance of being RT by a celebrity by writing superior quality content and focus on a well-thought out marketing strategy.

5) The BRAND Image of the BLOG makes all the DIFFERENCE
I’ve realized that every blog has a brand image – Which is determined by
i) The individuals and teams who run the blog (For e.g.: Kudos to Paul Biedermann & Peggy Fitzpatrick for the positivity, energy, vibrancy and TRUE community spirit they foster at 12Most.com),
ii) The frequency, consistency and quality of content posted on the site and
iii) The strategy to engage, nurture and build the reader & writer community

Based on the Brand image of a blog, it attracts a different set of reader base and retains a sub-set of one-time readers as loyal followers. And the interest, reactions and response that any guest post receives on this site is reflective partially of the brand image of the blog!!

Ending Words of Wisdom

Content is KING, Social Media is the NEW QUEEN
And together they RULE the online world!!!

So, here are your options:
1) Be the KING – By generating GREAT content! AND
2) Befriend the QUEEN – By understanding and leveraging the power of Social Media OR
3) Be prepared to let the KING and QUEEN rule you’re WORLD!
Which one will you pick?

SPECIAL REQUEST TO YOU
I would be HAPPY if you  Tweeted / Shared / Forward in your network to spread this message…
I would be HONORED if you took a moment to leave a comment…

On that note, Happy Blogging!!!

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