How to Write Great Guest Posts

So you really want to write good blog guest posts? Well, you have to write engaging, useful and compelling content that your readers want to digest, and that they get sucked into – like a whirlpool of words.

It’s not just a case of banging out a few sentences on the keyboard – you have to be creative and hack up something wonderful.

This might seem daunting, but there is method to the madness and, in this particular post, we’ll be outlining some of the key points that you should take into consideration before you start writing.

It only takes a little time to take a break from writing before each of the steps, have a little think about what you’re about to do, and then start writing again.

Find a Place to Blog

This is not a difficult task, but it does take a little time. Go to Google and search for a blog about the topic you’d like to write about.

In the search results, find a website and look for a section on guest blogging. There, you’ll find information on the procedures for submitting your work to the owner’s blog – you should follow them wisely!

If there is no section on guest blogs, it can’t do any harm to email the owner with a proposal and ask them if they like it or would perhaps like to amend it. A big giveaway that a website uses guest blog posts is if you search their blog for posts written by ‘guest blogger’.

Come Up with Something to Write About

The most important bit!  A good method is to build a brainstorm map about your chosen subject. Extensively map out your idea and, for each new idea you generate, ask these five questions:

Keep repeating this process until you come up with a few really interesting ideas to write about and choose one.

Constructing an Awesome Title

This should be an obvious one. It entices your reader to the first paragraph of your post, so make sure it catches their attention and intrigues them to read on some more.

Opening Strongly

The opening sentence after the title is important. It needs to be able to excite the reader enough that they’ll want to consume the rest of your blog post.

You can do this in a few different ways. I did it here by asking a question, but you could also do it by saying something a little off-topic to catch a reader’s attention, telling an interesting story, making a promise that this article will solve a problem you’ve identified or issuing a controversial statement.

Make Sure your Post Sets Out to Achieve Something

You should make sure your post achieves a goal. It could be filling a need, proving a point or answering a question. Whatever the goal is, you need to make sure your post achieves it and doesn’t simply drone on for no purpose.

Writing the Post

The post should contain exciting verbs that provoke the reader’s imagination. Words like ‘powered’, ‘driven’, and ‘focused’ are far more descriptive than their succinct counter parts.

When you’re building a post, you need to show your readers what you’re writing about and use sensory words to help them perceive your imagery. Don’t forget to include a short introduction and conclusion as well.

If you start using all these points as a guide when you’re writing your next guest post, you’ll see that your post is far more interesting to the reader and they’ll probably spend more time reading other posts that you have published, making your writing much more useful to others.

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