Once you’ve written a few articles for you blog you can really add to the momentum of your blog’s growth by accepting guest articles.

For those of you who are unsure what a guest article is, it is simply an article written by another person given to you to post on your own blog.

Guest blogging is becoming increasingly popular as it benefits both the writer and the publisher.

What Guest Blogging Can Do for You

Accepting a guest article allows you to publish a unique article on your blog, without cost, adding to your content repertoire.

You, of course, have the right to refuse any article that isn’t in keeping with your blog or doesn’t meet your usual standard of quality.

Accepting guest articles can take the pressure off you to write articles to meet personal targets (such as writing 3 posts a week) and give you more time to focus on what you are writing.

Why Authors are Keen to Write Guest Articles

Now, if you are new to guest blogging, you may be thinking, ”Why would someone write content for me, for free?” and that of course is a good question – with a simple answer.

It is common practice for anyone writing a guest article to include an author byline at the end of their article. In this section, the author writes a little about themselves and will usually include a link or two to their site(s).

By including a link, they are increasing the visibility of their blog.

Experienced guest bloggers will include links using keywords to improve their rankings for those keywords in search engines.

How to get Guest Article Offers

As your blog grows, the amount of offers you get from authors wanting you to publish their articles will increase, but there are a few little things you can do to help get those first few:

• Make sure you have a contact page so prospective authors can get in touch with you!
• State specifically somewhere within your site (preferably on your contact page), that you are interested in receiving offers for guest articles
• If you use a blogging platform that allows you to have multiple authors, set up a ’Guest Author’ and credit all guest posts to that author – this will make it easier for people to see you are accepting guest authors
• Post in forums and on your social media sites that you are looking for guest authors

Don’t Always Say Yes

Some guest articles are more well-written than others. Always ask for a draft before you accept an article and read through it critically. If the article is not up to your usual standards you are well within your right to refuse the offer.

In some cases, the article may be acceptable with a few changes, in such a case, suggest these changes to the author or ask if they would mind if you made the changes yourself.

Never make major changes to a guest article or remove links from within a guest article without prior consent from the author.

Once you’ve accepted a few guest articles, you’ll be surprised at how many offers continue to arrive in your inbox – remember, always make sure those articles are in keeping with your blog’s theme and quality and don’t forget you can say no!

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