WHAT YOU'RE MISSING BY NOT GUEST POSTING

IMAGE BY Dirk Vorderstraße

by Kim Niemi

As you work to build your online portfolio in order to gain freelance writing work, are you considering guest posting to other blogs? If you’re not, you could be missing a ton of exposure. 

Freelancing is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of organization to seek out clients and figure out how to meet their varying needs, not to mention serious discipline to make sure you don’t let procrastination and distraction get the better of you on a sunny day.

Part of the gig is maintaining a killer portfolio to draw clients in and prove that you’re the one they want to hire. To that end you’ve got excerpts from other client work, and of course you’re writing a blog of your own, to get yourself out there and attract even more followers. But your own blog can only put you in front of so many people (unless you’re Seth Godin or someone). Which is why guest posting is a must.

But why would I want to waste my time writing for someone else’s blog? Here’s why: You’ll be put in front of all of THEIR followers, who don’t have a clue who you are. Don’t you want them to find out? Of course you do. And many sites will also promote your content as part of their marketing strategy, increasing your potential reach even further.

The TYPE of exposure you get is what's key - and being "one of everyone" does not a distinctive portfolio make. Look for sites that have standards (like us) and that won't accept and publish every submission they get, unless it's polished and professional. Folks seeking your writing services will note this as well, and the guest post will count as a notch in your belt vs a noose around your neck.

Want an idea of the kind of exposure you could be getting? Here are the stats for our blog, as an example, for the past month and six months. We're not posting this to brag, but to point out that blog traffic continues to grow on key sites - and we are far from a big fish (though still pretty snazzy in our overly-biased opinion ;)

Now, imagine how quickly you could put yourself in front of millions of people by guest posting - millions who would probably never find your blog on their own.

And it’s easy enough to reach out and offer. Many blogs already have a guest post system in place. Just don't waste their time - or ours - with posts that aren't worth their weight in retweets!