You’ve heard it before – guest blogging is a powerful strategy for driving traffic to your blog. But how much guest posting traffic can you expect? Well I’ve had guest posts published on blogs of all sizes and even a guest post on the biggest blog is no guarantee of a massive rush of traffic to your own site.
So you might be wondering just how valuable that traffic really is. I’m going to show you some stats from a guest post of mine that was published last week, as an example of the value of guest posting for traffic.
Traffic Stats from a High Profile Guest Post
This particular guest post was published on one of the leading websites in the niche, and provided just a single link back to my own blog from the author bio. It is my second guest post on the site (the first was via a republishing agreement, this one was a unique article).
How did those visitors compare to overall site traffic?
- Time on Site– 155% higher than site average
- Bounce Rate– 37% lower than the site average
- Pages per Visit– 99% higher than the site average
- Conversion to Email Subscriber– 428% higher than the site average. Better yet, over 800% better than the conversion rate for the blog’s main traffic source, Google.
The conversions alone are worth the time it took me to write the guest post. It’s been exciting to see the big jump in new subscribers to that list.
How to Land Great Guest Posting Spots?
The post I’m referring to above was on a major site in the IT/tech niche, where I run my main blog. I’ve also guest posted on sites that are in the blogging niche, such as Pro-blogger. In my interview for BlogcastFM I was asked how did I manage to land a guest post on Pro-blogger.
In the interview I explained that it came down to a few main factors.
- Darren already knew me from interactions on his blog, Twitter, email and the Pro-blogger forums
- I took the time to write a quality blog post, giving myself time to do multiple edits and revisions until I was completely satisfied with it
- I did as much leg work as possible for Darren, such as pre-formatting the HTML, and making sure the images would fit in his blog’s content column
- I linked to as many of Darren’s relevant archived posts as I could find
- The timing was perfect, because it continued a theme from a guest post by David Risley and a post by Darren himself
If all of those factors were not present I would not have had the confidence to even pitch the guest post to him in the first place.
So how did I learn all of that? Well a few weeks prior to that I had bought and read the guest posting guide by Chris Garrett. Chris has been a prolific guest poster over the years and condensed everything he learned into this package which includes an eBook, video, and some worksheets and other resources to help plan a guest posting campaign.
I remember thinking at the time that the guide was a bit different than your typical ebook product. I couldn’t really put my finger on it until I actually met Chris in person at the Pro-blogger Training Day in Melbourne. Chris is so genuinely shy and humble that he can’t oversell anything. It just isn’t in his nature. So that instantly explained the very plain website and the bargain price for the guest posting guide.
Using Guest Posting to Build Traffic to your Blog
You can use guest posting to drive traffic to your blog by following this simple process.
- If you aren’t confident enough or want some help with the finer details, check out Chris’s guest posting guide.
- Choose the blogs that you want to write guest posts for. Don’t just pick the top blogs in your niche, look for some smaller ones as well, especially those that have passionate audiences.
- Get to know the blog owner by participating in their comments and in other places such as Twitter.
- Make sure you read their guest posting guidelines, if they have them.
- Write an amazing blog post. It should be so amazing that you would happily post it on your own blog. Don’t hold back thinking you need to save the best stuff for your own blog.
- Submit your post following their guidelines to the letter.
- After about a week if you haven’t heard back from them you should send a quick follow up.
I really recommend you give guest posting a try if you aren’t already doing it. As you can see from my own stats it is a very powerful method for driving high value traffic to your blog.
