Every since this post, it has been popular to write about how guest posting really isn’t (or is) dead. Just take a look at the top results for “Is guest posting dead” in Google.
The only problem with all of these articles is that no one is testing their assumptions. At the end of the day, isn’t the point of guest posting is to drive traffic from one persons website to yours?
Buffer built their entire business around guest posts. Could I copy that method today?
So I tested it.
I wrote my first ever guest post for Noah Kagan on Okdork.com this past Wednesday.
How much traffic did I get?
Over the last 30 days this site has average 285 visitors per day.
On the day of the guest post it received 1,086 and 686 the day after. Of those 1,782 visitors 73% of them were new visitors.
The traffic influx was from loyal readers of the Okdork.com blog that heard about me and came here to learn more.
But they didn’t just checkout my site, they became members. In the two days since that post 215 new people have subscribed to this site, an overall conversion rate of 12%.
So, yea. guest blogging works.
I learned 5 valuable lessons from this experience.
1. Spend 20+ Hours Writing
My guest post was long.
Like 4,000 words long.
I hadn’t written that much in one sitting since college (I’m not 100% sure I ever did it in college either).
The #1 take away from this post was that very specific step-by-step information is rare. The internet is full of generalizations and broad sweeping uneducated opinions. What is missing is specific actionable steps to execute a proven plan.
Writing that type of material is freaking hard. It’s exhausting and insanely time consuming. I spent over 20 hours writing the post.
Here are a few comments that were left (not meant to be self aggrandizing but an example of what you are looking to provide the sites readers):
2. Comments Supercharge Traffic
The comments section is one area that is often neglected by guest posters. I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen for me. My goal was to engage with every question and comment and it paid big dividends in the form of traffic.
One unique thing about many comment systems is that your username is directly linked to your website.
I intentionally sent all of this traffic back to my root domain (which doesn’t get much traffic normally) so I could monitor the amount of traffic clicking over directly from the comments section.
I commented 29 times in total which provided 29 more opportunities for Okdork readers to click over to my site.
The result was a 523% increase in traffic.
Here are a few tips to help you:
- Use UTM parameters inside of your username link in the comment section. This will make it possible to track the exact number of times that someone visits your site from the comment section.
- Set Up a IFTTT recipe like this. This will prevent you from hitting refresh 500 times on the day of your post. Instead it will send you a text every time a comment is left. This enables to to be engaged without killing your entire day.
- Manually reach out via email to each person you mention in your post. Doing this got the article mentioned by Neil Patel, Andrew Warner and others.
3. Reverse Engineer it for your Site
My biggest revelation through this process was that I need to be publishing guest post on this blog.
By Noah inviting me to interact with his readers it helped me tremendously. I realized I have a responsibility to help others that are starting out as well. Although there aren’t near as many people reading Videofruit.com as there are Okdork.com there is someone that is launching a blog today that I could give a huge boost to by showcasing them to you.
Coming soon you’ll be hearing from some of those people. Hint. Hint.
“So what? You got traffic why should I care?”
I am 100% convinced that the best possible way to grow your online business is through guest blogging. If you have 0 readers on your site, quit writing for yourself and go write a 4,000 word article for someone else.
Kill yourself making it incredibly helpful.
If you do that, 1,000 people will show up at your doorstep the next day.
- Do you have an app you have launched and need traffic? Do what Buffer did.
- Do you have an online marketing agency and need new customer? Do what Neil Patel did.
- Do you have a local nursing home that needs more patience? Blog here.
It is applicable to ANY online business and MOST offline businesses.
Giveaway: I want to help one person get their first guest blogging gig. I’ll talk over your business with you, advise you on how to make sure your site is ready for traffic and then help you manually outreach and secure your first gig.
This Giveaway has ended.
PS: If you have questions on guest posting, I’d be happy to help you. Just leave a comment below and I’ll jump in.