Are You Maximizing Guest Posting Initiatives? Why Posting on Low Readership and PR Blogs Is Important!

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Few years back when directory submissions were popular and worked more effectively than they do today (and yes they do still work), many internet marketers only focused on ones that had high page rank and neglected the smaller, less popular ones.

As a result, they missed on the opportunity to cash in when the smaller directories grew over time and became just as popular if not more so. The same happened to press release marketing. Remember when PR Log was free and relatively low PR?

Fortunately back then I was able to leverage it to market my ecommerce website, which I sold in 2007 for $250,000 to one of the largest power sellers on Ebay at the time. The site still ranks high for keywords I optimized for 6 plus years ago. Posting on lower PR sites back then is a big contributing factor of this outcome.

The point I am trying to convey here is that how does history translate into our present times? How can we learn from history so that we can do things in the present to capitalize on the future?

The Best Option

While the top blogs in our respective industries are hard to break into, they are no doubt the best option and avenue to guest post at for an up and coming blogger. After all, a popular blog not only benefits you from a Page Rank perspective, but you instantly get exposure to a massive and targeted readership immediately.

If you do a good job, the author blogger may take exceptional notice and go out of their way to endorse or promote you. Sometimes this single act is all that it takes to propel you to heights you never imagined before.

The Great Option

Guest posting on blogs that are on the same level as you in popularity and readership are also great to contribute to because of the peer relationships you can establish with the author blogger. Relationships established today can turn into business partnerships down the road, especially if you share complimentary and non competitive skill sets.

Add to that a targeted base of audience that while not as massive as a top blogger’s, will also benefit your blogging efforts significantly. You just never know who’s connected to who. Maybe you get mentioned in someone’s tweet. Or someone well connected “likes” you on Facebook. You just never know. The blogging community is small and blogs in the same niche share a lot of the same readers. Yes, word spreads like wildfire.

The Good Option

Many “guest posters” ignore guest blogging with smaller fish because it’s easy to do so. I am guilty of that as well. However, there is a significant upside to contributing to a relatively new blog. A new blog has a lot of potential upside. It’s like a small cap company that has a lot of room to explore and grow.

But notice I wrote “potential”. This is key. I am not recommending you submit a guest post to all the small blogs in your niche. In fact it’s just the opposite. I don’t recommend you submit to the small sites unless you see the “potential” in the blog.

Potential can be measured in the angle the blog covers a topic with, the author’s credentials (read the “About” section and see where the author is coming from) and determination (slightly harder to gauge). Finding a good one can be like finding a needle in the haystack, but if you do run into one, definitely pursue guest posting on their blog. It’s all about getting organized and going for it.

There are a few advantages to this. First, relatively new blogs are likely to accept guest posts easier with less restrictions, second, the blogger may someday look up to you as having given them support and guidance when they were climbing up the blogosphere and third, the biggest benefit in my opinion is the potential to ride the tidal wave as it grows over time. Remember, I would not have benefited from PR Log’s tremendous popularity had I not submitted my release to them when they were no one.

So while being biased (like me) is completely understandable, keep an eye out for that potential needle in the rough. It’s worth it sometimes to take calculated gambles. What do you have to lose after all?

Fellow bloggers, what do you think? Have you taken a gamble? How did it pan out? If you have not, will you? What will it take?

All the best,

Sunil

Sunil

Sunil owns over a dozen profitable niche websites and is the author of "How to Go from $0 to $1,000 a month in Passive and Residual Income in Under 180 Days All in Your Spare Time", a FREE report you can download instantly from his Extra Money Blog, where he discusses how to create multiple streams of passive and residual income, entrepreneurship, internet marketing, blogging and personal finance. In 2007, he sold his ecommerce website for $250,000 to a top Ebay Power Seller and since then has sold several niche sites for five figures each.

55 thoughts on “Are You Maximizing Guest Posting Initiatives? Why Posting on Low Readership and PR Blogs Is Important!”

  • I always want to guest post at other blogs, but the problem is I can barely maintain to post to my own blog once a day 🙂 So I end up focusing too much writing for my own blog instead *sigh*

    I really need to take some time to guest post at other good blogs (or potential blogs, you call it)

    • You are right – that’s a challenge we all face Michael. Time is always so scarce so it’s either my blog or someone else’s 🙂

    • Michael,

      I find this to be the case in my situation too. I run several different blogs which makes it even more difficult to find time to guest post on other blogs.

      This is something I do plan to change however, when the time is right of course.

      • Every time I’ve tried to open a new blog, I stopped after less than a week 🙁 and this is me, who is still single. I can’t imagine how married people write with more than 1 blog + a full time job

        • Perhaps because they enjoy the ‘art’ or writing/blogging, rather than just ‘marketing’ their information. If it makes you smile, keep at it and don’t give up! 🙂

          • Ya I totally agree with you.. Love the art and it’ll be a constant flow of new ideas and your blog will be consistent

    • This is very true. Most of the time you will overlook a small site because your looking for that big break. I’m kinda like Michael I would like to do more, but my spare time goes to my blog, but I have written about 4 guest post.

      • 4 is better than none, as as that number increases over time so does your page rank profile and “footprint”. if the posts are optimized well, you may get free search engine traffic for months/years to come

    • Agree, time is a big problem these days.

      I do like to write as many articles but time wont let me to, this is one of the best way to spread the world.

      • Time seems to be the main restriction. Guys – how do you think some of the more active / most popular bloggers are able to juggle / balance time and other priorities in life? Would love to hear your thoughts

    • LOL we have the same situation. Actually, guest blogging or posting is one of my top online priority but still, no time for it because, like you, I barely update my blog as well.

  • I have to say that I’ve never had this as an issue. I haven’t written a lot of guest posts, but I’ve never based it on how a blog was ranked. If I’m asked I’ll take a look at the blog, and if it looks okay then I’ll write something. That’s pretty much it. This thing about always shooting for higher ranks blogs and the like is overrated sometimes; it all helps in the end.

  • I haven’t done much guest posting. But I have left comments on other high traffic blogs like this one. One of the web sites that I have written a guest post for is The Comment Luv network.

    I am still waiting to see if my article will be approved by the administrator.

    • Leaving comments is certainly recommended, especially when you are adding value to the ongoing conversation. For PR purposes, the link may or may not benefit depending on whether the blog you left it on is a “no follow” or a “do follow” blog. I like what Mitch said – just go for it

  • Guest posting is something that I have done, and at times it is hard to find the time to even publish posts on my own blog. The funny thing is that I have accepts several guest posts on my blog, but haven’t written any myself.

    I’m hoping that in the future I will find the time to write a guest post or two, as the benefits results in a win-win for both the author and the blog owner.

    • Most definitely Paul. Sounds like there are many abound scratching your back. Sometime it would be good to scratch theirs too and benefit from it in turn

  • The truth is that yo just don’t know which route a site will take..so jump on early.

    “Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”

    • TC your point is in “congruency” with Mitch – I agree getting in the game early has a huge advantage (just look at the regular columnists at popular blogs such as Copyblogger). I like to evaluate the blog/author’s caliber because this single handedly can determine whether a blog succeeds in the long term.

  • As TrafficColeman said you cannot know if new blog turn into a big one someday or just becoming another blog from millions so you cannot guest posting randomly to new blogs unless you know the history of the owner (if he/she has other successful blogs)

    • Totally agree – the approach of assessing before firing the trigger makes perfect sense. We don’t have time to write on every blog, so carefully selecting the “few good men” to target is key.

  • Small fish are great because variety counts in so many ways. You reach new audiences. You get a more varied link profile. You make more friends and allies. It’s all good.

    • Exactly. Variety counts. With small fish you can reach very targeted audiences.
      And maybe the readers of a small and new blog are much more engaged as the thousands of readers of a big blog.

  • Blogs come and go just like directory submissions. One day they are there and gone the next. Which can be kind of a bummer if you spend a lot of work writing your post and getting it accepted. The more popular sites are more likely to be around longer, but you never really know about any site. If you don’t spend too much time writing a guest post, then you aren’t out too much if the site suddenly disappears.

    • Ray – you make a good point and that is one of the inherent risks involved. So while the site you post at may not exist, therefore hurting your page rank building efforts, you may still be able to capitalize from the readership of the blog coming to know of/about you. The hope is that they visit you, like your work and subscribe, therefore whether the blog on which you posted exists or not months or years down the road becomes mostly irrelevant. what do you think?

  • You are taking a risk and it is hard to come to a justifiable conclusion. It is very hard to judge the potential of a websites. If a blog has being around for at least two years then at least you know that blogger tries to maintain it properly.

  • Great post I completely agree. Diversity is key and who knows where that blog will go take a chance on the little guy.

    Lisa

  • You do make a very valid point. I have had many conversations about this subject with people telling me I am wasting my time, but I look at it like building a strong foundation that will hold up the site for time to come!

  • Guest blogging is really helpful in order to get highly targeted traffic from relevant authority blogs in your niche and to work on your name and brand, much better than digging the article in a general article directory where it is covered by unrelated articles.

    • true Andreas – whereas I’d use article marketing solely for link building, guest blogging serves two purposes, the link building aspect as well as the more important aspect which is targeted traffic that is interested in your stuff.

  • Great post, Sunil. Yes posting is huge these days – because it’s a great way to build traffic; not only through the actual post, but as you mentioned through tweets and likes and referrals. Keep up your good work!

  • As a relatively new blogger, I really appreciate when experienced, more well-known bloggers take the time to come to my site, provide feedback and share. It is often times difficult to get experienced bloggers to guest post, but for us “little guys,” a few great guest posts really can make a huge impact, not only in our ability to promote our site, but also in the way we write in the future. Just as I trust other bloggers based on the quality of their posts, I hope people base their decision to contribute to my blog on quality and potential growth.

    • What a great point you make Melissa. The challenge with “popular” bloggers is that as popularity increases, available time for such initiative decreases. One has to truly make it a priority so that it makes it to the front of the to do list

  • Guest blogging also helps the blog owners. I know without guest posting on my blog I would bee in so much trouble as I’ve been struggling to find the time to write my own content for my blog for months.

  • I like contributing to smaller blogs. My guest posts have already been featured on several niche blogs and it’s worth it. Although, the traffic spike is gradual and not like the A-list blogs, I love the backlinks I gain, thanks for clearing the way and making this simple.

    • Excellent strategy that works in its own way Michael. As we can all learn from this discussion, there are many ways to skin a cat. One can engage in one of several methods depending on what serves them best.

  • Absolutely correct. One should not solely divert his/her effort towards high PR ones only. PR keeps changing, what is small today has a chance to become big next day and vice versa. Thanks for sharing this.

  • Hello Sunil –

    Excellent post and great advice as many have the desire to enjoy the benefits of link building through blog commenting and make the understandable mistake of seeking only high PR blogs.

    I particularly like your advice guest blogging. This is a great way to build more links and even more establish authority status within your niche.

    Excellent content on your site and I appreciate the value you represent.

    Have a blessed day!

    James

  • What a great post Sunil! That is genies and a fantastic tip.

    The same hing could be said about commenting on such blogs.

    I actually noticed the same thing a while back when looking at where my backlinks were coming from and I noticed I had many backlinks from high pr blogs where I had left a comment when they had no pr ( when you leave comments on newly published posts, they are always pr na).

    But then, as the site grew and so did the page and now it has a high PR which helps me in seo.

  • Hi Sunil
    I totally agree that you need to guest post everywhere, including new blogs and hidden treasures.

    I look at the person who owns the blog..

    –Are they a hard worker?
    –Are they in it for the long haul?
    –Do they go all out to promote their blog?

    If the answer is yes then I will submit a guest post..

    I have had many opportunities that seemed like a waste of time that turned out to be gold mines. You never know!

  • Guest blogging has become such a growth area right now, many people are jumping into it simply because it provides a great opportunity to get exposure and to gain readers.

    I’ve seen more and more people accepting and requesting guest blog posts in the last 2 months than ever before.

  • Guest posting is really great meaningful stuff make good traffic on site and helpful for SERP.

  • You make a really good point here, if you start out on lower ranking blogs you can gain notority through them and get some great longtail links.

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