10-point checklist for your next guest blog

No errors, grammatical or factual

This is pretty straight forward and applies to just about any content you decide to stick up on the web. Don't include any grammatical errors, it just makes you look bad. Also stay away from factual errors, theres a lot of bs out there so make sure you are getting your information from the right source. Also if its a guest blog it wont be very easy for you to go back and edit any mistakes, once you submit it, its probably not going to be changed. Make sure you're content is accurate to avoid being embarrassed by cruel internet trolls.

Appropriate subject for audience

Is this what their audience wants to read? or is this what your audience wants to read? Remember that when writing a guest blog you need to adhere to their audiences content preferences. If you aren't sure just look through their previous blog posts, look at engagement rates. Some of the bigger websites might show you how many people have shared this article. Do some digging and find out how you can make the most out of your guest blogging opportunity.

Make it non self-promotional, don't promote your product or company

Even though it might be hard to resist the urge of talking about how amazing you and the company you work for (own) are. Don't. Remember to always focus on whats in the benefit of the readers. This is not an opportunity to talk about your companies rates or how you stand out from the competition. It's an opportunity to educate a websites/blogs readers on something that you are an expert in.

Attention grabbing headline

headlines that have worked for your blog or other guest blogs might not work for your next one. This also requires some digging into the blog. What types of headlines have performed the best? You always want something thats going to serve as a hook and attract more readers. Choose a couple and ask coworkers or your connection offering you a guest blog which one they would go with. However don't be misleading.

Unique articles that aren't already found elsewhere

You are going to want to make sure that what you use on a guest blog is unique. If you are going to reuse the same guest blog at the very least make sure you rewrite certain paragraphs and add some original content. If you are small company with a small operation it wont really affect you, but take some effort and time to personalize each guest blog even if its going to a similar website/blog as the last one.

Link to your own website once, link to you other other websites as well

Guest articles are not there for backlinks. I mean they are, but don't make it so dang obvious. You should only link back to your own website once and make sure its relevant and not just some junk link for the sake of linking.

Pro tip: If you want to add another link consider adding one to one of your social accounts. If you don't have any social accounts, and you are not posting on them just give up already.

Anchor text linking, this applies to all blog posts

Don't use bs and outdated linking tactics. The pre-penguin daysare over, keep your links up to date and modern by having them blend naturally into your text. If it doesn't flow you're trying to hard, and Google's crawlers are very hard to fool. 

Is the guest blog being written for a a reputable and high-quality site?

You don't want to waste your time tiring over a well written and thought out guest blog post for a low-quality site. Download the MozBar a free toolbar that makes the art of SEO 10 times easier. You can see a sites domain authority. A guest blog on a site with higher domain authority than yours is what you should be striving for. Also try to find guest blogging opportunities on websites that are within your niche.

Customize your author profile for the publication

This brief blurb can be very useful, don't use the same generic one for each one of your blog posts, make it specifically for the blog your posting it on. Personalization is key! This is great way to promote engagement so use it wisely. 

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Don’t end your post with something boring, encourage engagement on your post, propose a call to action. Anything but a boring ending that will further bore your bored readers. Engage them, end with a bang, encourage them to share their thoughts.