Guest Blogging 2014

 Google's Matt Cutts, the search engine's chief spam fighter, rallied a call that has many marketers shaking. The days of guest blogging, he said, are above for SEO. If you're just guest blogging to get links, he goes on to say, you're in bad company.

What he's referring to is awkward guest blogging that basically mimics the article marketing of old: bombarding mediocre content at every site on the web in hopes of scoring a link, without a thought to branding, audience, or relevancy.

Even with Google fast down on spammers, not all is lost. But it's dangerous to treat guest blogging deferentially.

Here's a closer look at how guest blogging can be one of your top tools for establishing credibility, authority, and thought leadership.

Recognize Why Thought Leadership Matters

There are many different kinds of writing obtainable to content marketers, from in-depth content like ebooks or white papers to quick blog posts meant to amuse and delight. Thought leadership elevates content formation to new heights by focusing in on quality insights, good writing, and taking a forward-looking position on key issues.

According to the Harvard Business Review, it begins with your brand which is "your personal assure to the market and to the world." They go on to explain that it's not sufficient to be the person that speaks Spanish, the most efficient sales leader, or some other similar skill-based position. These can be eliminated, or someone can come along who does what you do better, faster, or cheaper.

The best way to become exceptional is to build a brand centered on your unique strengths and contributions.

Instead, reframe the question to ask, "So how do you build a reputation as a singular expert – someone who doesn't just contribute in the conversation, but drives it?" You drive the conversation by identifying trends, formulating well thought-out points, and taking them to highly visible venues to begin to share.

Thought Leadership Starts With Defining a location

Thought leadership is about expertise. To move into the realm of writing or speaking for thought leadership purposes, you first have to determine your unique positioning.

What is it that you have to say and that you want to say that's diverse than everything else that's already being said? The answer can range from present a radically different position on the key trends and issues of your industry to simply putting a different twist on execution.

For example, if everyone talks about the value of video marketing from a theoretical viewpoint, but you're creating 3,000 word in-depth tutorials that really move people forward, that's your niche.

How you define your place can be based on several things:
 

•    What are your underlying goals for thought leadership activities? Are you promoting a specific business, or building your brand as the foundation for a career in a specific industry?
 

•    Where are your strengths? Are you able to write quickly? Are you comfortable on camera? Can you make people laugh with quirky top 10 lists, or do you have access to unique contacts that could be the foundation for a powerful interview series?
 

•    What series of smaller objectives are you going to tie to your content marketing, such as specific bylines or becoming known for talking about certain issues?
 

•    What unique experience or perspective do you have that's in demand in your industry, but hasn't been claimed by an expert yet?
 

•    From an industry perspective, what are some urgent questions that you and your peers and competitors are facing? What is the hot news or the biggest trend? If you think six months to two years into the future, can you answer the same questions and start talking about them now?
 

Develop Your Content Strategy

Thought leadership has many unusual components. shaping your strategy for "getting your message out" is a critical aspect of a practical thought leadership movement.
Choosing your channels is as weighty a decision as important your message. There are numerous opportunities available to you, for example:
•    Create a blog or website that becomes an authoritative brand in your space.
 

•    Contribute to other publications.

•    Talk at conferences, panels, and other industry events.
 

•    Write articles for trade magazines or convention publications.
 

•    Guest post in a range of online venues.
 

•    Host a podcast, video program, or interview show.
 

•    Invest in writing longer works, such as books, ebooks, and white papers.

If nothing else, remember this one key takeaway: the most efficient thought leadership efforts are systematic, and help you achieve a series of goals that build your brand along the way.
 

Make Some Key Decisions About Brand You

"Thought leadership" is a term that's used and injured to describe a lot of things. Mostly, it refers to having a platform to affect the discussion through your writing, speeches, work, and more.

At another level, thought leadership also means that you're valued for your skill and someone that others consult when they want to hire someone in your space. In extreme cases, "thought leader" becomes almost a job description, describing someone who writes books and travels to conferences for a living.

Expect Part of the Game to be Psychological

It's durable to move from thinking of yourself as an employee to a manager or leader. But stepping outside the idea that you're not just leading a company, but that you're taking a leading role in your industry also requires some major mind shifts.
 

Conclusion

Cutts' call to action is an important chance to look at guest blogging as just one part of building your personal thought leadership table. Thought leadership is about defining your brand, connecting with an audience, and moving the conversation forward. Many tools are at your disposal to make that happen successfully.

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Accommodating Guest Post Good, Bad or poisonous

As Google rules have tightened and link building becomes harder and harder to achieve, some companies have adopted a straightforward guest-posting policy. By hiring a few writers to talk up their products and services, they can get a few links in return, and they might even move up a speck in search engine results.

A lot has been said about this exact phenomenon. But as a business owner and blog administrator, you might also consider accepting guest posts on your own blog. Doing so could permit you to reap some of the same rewards, but there are also a number of situations that could be problematic, should you accept these posts. Some might crash your company’s online reputation, and in serious cases, some could land you in court.

The Good Parts

Accepting guest posts often means accepting hundreds of new viewers. Guest bloggers are expected to share links to their printed pieces with their own followers via Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, and each share could result in a fresh fan that follows the blog on a regular basis. If building traffic to the company website is the idea of keeping a blog, using guest bloggers seems ideal.
Similarly, using guest bloggers can give a small company some much-needed cred. An expert view written by someone with years of experience in the industry can lend a shine of expertise to the company website, even if that company is new and has very small experience at all.

The Bad Parts

Sadly, accepting guest posts can also guide to some tricky reputation management problems, particularly if those posts aren’t monitored in any way. A writer with a bone to pick could discuss a person, a company, a place or a thing in a disparaging manner, and if the word got out, that post could quickly zip through cyberspace and become a world-wide phenomenon that tarnishes the status of the company that hosts the blog. Publishing the piece can seem like tacit approval of the words that appear, and it can be hard to undo the damage.

Editing the pieces might not help, either. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is designed to help defend the owners of websites from the actions of third parties, including guest bloggers. But as the Electronic Frontier Foundation makes clear, adding in a few key words, or amending a few option phrases, could be seen as contributing new content, and that could leave the blog owner open to lawsuits.

Outstanding a Balance

Many blog administrators aim to protect their companies by crafting detailed rules about the kinds of blogs they will and will not publish. These same administrators might refuse pieces out of hand, when the blog entries seem a little too unseemly, or they may ask writers to rewrite those pieces and submit them again. Clear, well-defined rules allow these companies to communicate clearly with their guests, and they can keep editors from taking chances with content that could cause the company damage.

Administrators also craft public statements about their problem, when a guest blog is in play. A simple statement of deniability, suggesting that the writer is the cause for the opinion and not the owner of the blog, might be enough to keep a company out of the courtroom, should disaster strike.

But from a reputation management viewpoint, it’s best to simply deny any blog entries that seem too risky. Controversial blog posts can spread long before a company management has a chance to delete the offensive data, and some consumers have long memories, when the issue involves discrimination, libel or some other form of bad behavior. By reading over each and every word before posting, and ensuring that nothing untoward is contained within, blog administrators can do their best to gather the rewards of accepting a guest post, without damaging their companies in their quest for new viewer.

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Guest Blogging The right mode in 2013 and beyond

 Most of us already be familiar with what guest blogging is and how it can help your website succeed. But for those who don’t know yet, guest blogging is a method of contributing content to other websites associated to yours with a link to your website provided in return.

Most websites have previously attempted guest blogging movement to increase the flow of incoming links and juice to their website.

Here’s Google’s view on Guest blogging for links.

Contributing articles to a new website is actually good way to increase your relations and online presence. However, doing this just only for the sake of link is a dreadful idea. Instead of an author’s bio, include your link in the content so you are able to use different anchor text or embed your images and videos in content of your post with links back to your website.

Dos and Don’ts in Guest Blogging

Dos  

•    Make sure all the websites you guest blog on are highly applicable to your website – Keep your website links approaching from niche-related websites to avoid being penalized by search engines for manipulating links.

•    Become regular contributors to the websites you guest blog on – You need to be frequently seen on the websites where your content is published to keep readers busy and to establish a strong online presence.

•    Use long string anchor text as often as possible – Many guest blogs that I have seen are using keyword based anchor text (short tail and long tail) with both correct match and incomplete match. Which is quite disturbing since Google sees websites with exact match keyword link profile as manipulating their SERP. So avoid using exact match anchor text to keep your site safe from dangers associated with exact match.

Don’ts

•    Guest blog all over - Just like over optimization of anchor text and link profile, having plenty of signals coming from different websites even related to yours might cause you problem in the future. Especially if you managed to publish 100 guest blogs in a tiny period of time, and you used exact match keyword.

•    Buy links – This has never been a good idea, particularly if these paid links are passing link juice. Link buying to build links is a big no-no and will only punish your website. Just don’t do it.

•    Author bio links – Links in bio sections have become very manipulative including being used for exact match anchor text linking to a webpage/website. Although we want to rank for the keyword, it is still not a good idea to use keyword anchor text.

Although guest blogging is still working well for some websites, it is still too early to tell if it will go on to work. Filling your own site with fresh, updated content on a usual basis is still the best way to keep your audience engaged and build your rank.

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