So you’ve chosen the right plot that will give you enough sun – now you have to decide what to plant.
Intelligent guest posting is all about the ‘seed’. It’s no good planting premium crops in a load of rocks in the shade. Equally, don’t go over-planting in one field. Also consider crop cycles – don’t chuck all your seed in month one and think it will last you through the winter. You know yourself from reading different blogs that the tone, language, content and authority of each site is different. It’s essential you chose the right crop for the soil.
You need to aim for high quality, original content that is attractive for bloggers to post and engaging for their readership. The general rule is:
WRITE FOR PEOPLE FIRST, SEO SECOND
Before You Begin…
This initial work will speed up the process, add value to your blog submissions and enable multiple people to work on your campaign at the same time:
- Research your topic, read what other people have written, and compile a document of info you could use – statistics, research, quotes, article ideas, recurring themes
- In-house Material: Do you have any white papers, interesting in-house research, customer testimonials, nice images, short films, webinars, or archive of in-house articles/blog posts?
Waiting for the Muse?
A lot of our clients struggle with coming up with lots of article titles. As much as this is a creative process, there are ways to mechanise it to prevent your office filling up with chaise longues, ink splatters and colleagues puffing pensively on pipes in flamboyant housecoats!
1) Get Creative – The Brainstorm
– Who are your target audiences? Any deomographics you might have ignored until now?
– Why do they buy your product? What are their needs?
– What are your target keywords?
2) Get Logical – The Ideas Generator
Enter the results of your brainstorm into a table. This is the Ethical SEO Ideas Generator:
| Overall Theme |
Target Audience |
Reader’s Need |
Article Titles | Keywords |
| Theme 1:
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Audience 1 | Save Time | 5 Ways to… | |
| How can I…? | ||||
| Save Money | How to… | |||
| Audience 2 | Save Effort | 5 Tips… | ||
| Fear / anxiety | The Must-Read Guide To… | |||
| 10 Best… | ||||
| Audience 3 | Ignorance | Don’t let… | ||
| Why You Need To… | ||||
| Work-Life Balance | [Provocative question] |
3) Get Maximising
Although you must never duplicate copy and article ideas need to be original, it is possible to maximise each idea/theme by taking different perspectives on each original article you produce. Don’t treat it like re-writes; you’ll get bored and won’t give each new article the treatment it deserves. Just take an original article as a starting point and add some more flair, have a different take on the topic, embellish it according to the target blog’s style, and make sure your offspring-articles are as strong as the originals.
4) Get Organised
Remember to log each article title on a spreadsheet and save them in a file called something like ‘Available to Pitch’. Prepare further folders called: ‘Pitched’ and ‘Published’, or whatever labels work for you. The worst thing is getting confused later on and submitting an article that had already been published elsewhere.
Your Writing Must Take Into Account . . .
| AUTHENTICITY“The story the audience wants to hear, delivered in a likeable human voice” – Seth Godin |
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| AUTHORITY |
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| APPEAL TO BLOGGERS |
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| SEO VALUE |
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| INFOGRAPHICS |
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| READER ENGAGEMENT |
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| BIO |
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| IDEAS / APPROACHES | Consider:
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When writing an article, keep in mind one or two other sites you would like to approach in the future and link to them in your article – start building relationships |
Previous Posts in this Series:
How to Grow Your Business Through Effective Guest Blogging
Blogger Outreach Part 1: Finding Places to Plant Content
Following Parts in the Series:
Blogger Outreach Part 3: Sowing The Seed – How to Get Your Content Placed
Blogger Outreach Part 4: Harvesting The Fruit – How to Maintain Your Momentum
