3 Blogging Lessons I Learned from Publishing a Guest Post for a Million Member Readership

I recently published this guest post on the wildly popular Positively Positive blog.

This community includes 2 million Facebook fans, 80,000 email subscribers and a massive Twitter following too.

I learned 3 critical blogging lessons that will help you land guest posts on highly popular blogs with monstrously large, loyal, engaged readerships.

Check this out -> How to build a popular blog in 90 days!

If you are starving to grow your blog traffic, email list and blog profits follow these tips closely.

1: Match the Blog Tone Perfectly

This is the money tip.

Blogs with millions and millions of readers do not attract millions and millions of readers unless every single post matches a clear, concise, one-of-a-kind tone that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the blogosphere.

I carefully followed this blog – post per post – for weeks before writing and pitching my guest post. This step is the difference maker. Forget about steps 2 and 3 because unless you mimic the writing style and feel of the blog’s brand and tone the guestie will be rejected 100% of the time.

This is no longer “small potatoes blogging”. You’re stepping up to play with the blogging big dawgs on a few of the world’s most famous blogs with massive readerships. Part of stepping up is reading every single post on the blog for weeks or even months in some cases to put in the research legwork so you can capture the tone of the blog with your guest post.

I had to focus heavily on the suffering I experienced before making it as a pro blogging, island hopping Amazon best selling author when writing the post. I noted how I went through suicidal periods in my life. This real talk is how most posts unfold on Positively Positive; especially if you’re a new contributor whose story has yet to be aired on such a gargantuan platform.

I cut the post off around 600 words, writing short, punchy, emotionally raw paragraphs masquerading as sentences.

Even though I still added elements of my voice to the work I felt clear and confident that my guest post would be accepted because I did the prep work to ensure I found the Positively Positive voice through my guest post.

How can you gain enough confidence to match a blog’s tone? Especially a blog with millions of followers?

Write 1000 words every single day for practice. Open a Word document. Write 1000 words either related to your niche or about your life experiences. Trash the document to cultivate detachment around your writing.

If you want to land on a stage few bloggers ever see you need to practice writing like few bloggers practice writing.

2: Promote the Stuffing out of the Post

I spent nearly an hour promoting this post on:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • G Plus
  • G Plus Communities
  • Facebook Groups
  • Just Retweet
  • LinkedIn

I also emailed my rapidly growing list, sharing my post with my 60,000 community members through email and social media.

Putting a promotional blitz on these high profile posts helps you create an even greater buzz and taps you into the power of your community. The post generated 9 lightning quick comments in minutes because I promoted the heck out of it, adding to the already substantial buzz of publishing a guest post for a million member readership.

Pull out all the stops. Send individual emails to your most loyal readers asking them to share the post and to comment on the post. Create that palpable, exciting, inspired energy around the post by sharing it in as many spots as possible, with as many people as possible.

3: Respond to Comments Quickly

I spied a helpful comment left by a loyal Pos Pos reader. Within seconds I responded to said comment quickly and since the commenter left their email address I followed up with an email thanking them for their community.

When blogging for a large, loyal following, responding to comments quickly is an easy way to forge bonds, to make friends and to inspire individuals to subscribe to your blog.

Blog comments are pure gold for your blog but once you guest post for millions of community members every seemingly little interaction can lead to lifetime friendships which prosper both parties.

Set up comment notifications via email. Since you will likely get comments quickly and frequently this is one of those days to stay glued to your email inbox to foster bonds with readers.

Your Turn

Have you ever published a guest post on a popular blog?

How did you land guest posts on top blogs?

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