Three Great Reasons Why You Should Guest-Blog

Do you run a business that requires you to educate your customers extensively?

Maybe you are in the training space or you offer services to other business or you have a product that needs a fair bit of explaining.

Have you noticed other players in your field get features in the media on subject matters that you can talk about?

Do you want to get a piece of that action?

Whether you’re just starting out or have many years of experience in your field, a guest post/opinion piece is the best way to get people to notice you.

If you don’t have a dramatic story to tell, I feel that it is one of the lowest barrier of entry when it comes to trying to secure PR mentions.

A blog post or opinion piece is a long form piece of writing on various subjects.

Some of these subjects have a strong opinion on current affairs or they simply offer advice on certain issues or challenges.

I’ve supported clients in getting featured and here are some examples:

I share three reasons why I think it’s a good habit to start guest posting/writing opinion pieces.

1. You can reach the right audience

Opinion pieces help you reach the right audience with very relevant and specific content.

From the examples above, it is clear that they are very distinct examples.

The common thread is that they are very specific in offering value on a certain topic.

You have to also avoid including any promotional content in the pieces.

Once you start sounding like an advertisement, it’s likely that your piece would not be accepted by the publications.

Often times, when you write an opinion piece, you have to be very specific about the subject.

Narrowing the subject matter and offering a well-formulated argument helps you draw an audience who are likely your customers or collaborators.

If they start reading your piece, it means that the subject matter is relevant to them.

If they read your piece to the end, Voila!

You’ve got a captive audience.

2. It’s great for your SEO

This brings me to my next point. It’s great for SEO.

Your opinion piece has to address a pain that your intended audience cares about.

It has to be a pain that they are searching for.

Thus, your content will be the advice or solution they need to solve their pain.

Once they search for a specific pain, and your opinion piece pops up online.

They read on and engage with your content.

If you manage to get your piece featured in the media with a backlink to your site, it immediately helps Google to recognise your site as an entity with authority.

Often times, media sites such as The Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia or Forbes are perceived as sites with high authority on Google.

They get an extensive reach, views and loads of engagement.

Thus, when your site receives a backlink mention from media (a high authority site).

It is as if Google recognises that you’re one of the cool kids.

So, you got to keep writing and securing these back links to maintain your position as one of the cool kids.

However, in the event that your piece didn’t get picked up by media, doesn’t get accepted by media, don’t be discouraged.

You can always use the content for a blog section on your site.

This definitely helps with organic SEO to your site.

Share the content on your social media platforms or to your mailing list and you will slowly start to see your traffic grow.

As your traffic grows and organic searches gets directed to your site, so will your site’s authority grow as well.

So, it’s still a win and you should keep writing.

3. It’s a good training ground for you

Writing and structuring an oped helps you best refine your subject matter expertise.

It forces you to learn to be really clear and concise in communicating the crucial points that supports your argument.

When writing, it also immediately reveals the strength of your pointers in communicating a message.

If you’re halfway through writing, and can’t find the pointers to support your argument, you may need to go back to the drawing block and delve further into research and better understanding your subject matter.

This forces yourself to know your subject matter well.

Have you tried guest posting or writing opinion pieces recently?

Three Great Reasons Why You Should Guest-Blog