Assignment 7, Bootcamp #5 - Guest Blogging

[iCraft Admin]

Guest blogging is another safe and effective way of building backlinks. Guest blogging means that you contribute content to other blogs, in exchange for a backlink to your site.

Usually, when you are guest blogging, you are allowed to place a link or two pointing back to your store and/or to your blog with appropriate keywords, as anchor text, in your author bio that appears above or beneath your article. Sometimes you can even weave in your store or product URLs right into the article body. (If you are creative enough!)  

Those references have to make sense and fit nicely into the story you are telling.
For example, if you are sharing a tutorial on how to make a Beaded Bracelet, you can show images of your own bracelet being made, and then link the image of the finished product to your product page... or you can link to your store page filtered by Beaded Bracelets, like this one https://icraftgifts.com/jewelry-by-kat/by-category-52/#products, where people can see more examples of Beaded Bracelets.
This would not look spammy, but useful to blog readers. So blog owners would most likely allow you to keep those links in your post.

Things to keep in mind when Guest Blogging:

• You want to contribute to relevant and active blogs. Pick them carefully!
• You don't need to contribute more than 1 article per blog, as you want them to be from different domains.
• As with all blog owners, they care about the quality of the posts, so don't send them very short posts full of self-promotion or posts that have been published somewhere else. Those posts will definitely get rejected.
  Read our Blogging Guidelines. They pretty much apply to any blog out there.
• Don't forget to include a link to your store in your post or in your bio section. After all, that's why you are guest blogging in the first place.
• If you can add more than 1 link, mention your blog and your social media accounts. if you are allowed to mention only 1 link, choose your store URL, as this is that's the page that we are trying to promote with backlinks.

Please tell me by Sunday afternoon if you were able to land any guest blogging gigs and how your experience was so far. What questions were you asked etc. Good luck everyone!

[Jewelry by Kat]

Been sending emails with guest blogging requests but no one is getting back to me.

[JaJeJems]

What is the best process, ask people if you can do a blog on their website or submit a blog when you ask?

[iCraft Admin]

The best way is to look for blogs that mention guest blogging on their site.
When approaching bloggers, tell them a bit about yourself and what you can contribute to their blog. Also, list a few samples of your writing - links to some of your best articles. That should be enough to get their interest.

[Jewelry by Kat]

I am not having fun.  I can finally submit my blog thru email and my email isn't working right.  It lost it twice! ugh!

[Jewelry by Kat]

After losing my blog 2 more times it finally gets there and she refused because it is too basic......what a day I'm going to bed

[JaJeJems]

http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/anchor-text-linking.htm. I liked this article because it gave examples!  I am having a slow week as we are selling a house and packing! However I have a couple of leads! So hopefully I will have something to report tomorrow!

[iCraft Admin]

Yes, JaJeJems, some good examples in the article on how to diversify anchor text. Thanks for sharing!

So how did everyone do this week? Any luck with guest blogging?

[Jewelry by Kat]

I did not have any luck.  Out of three I got none.   One refused because my article was too basic.  The second one was not interested and the third one now charges $ 100.00.  I am going to keep looking.

[JaJeJems]

Well I thought that this one would be easy but I have also not had much luck.  I have a few requests out but have not had responses yet.  My challenge  this week has been time and coming up with blog ideas that would fit the sites that I think would be willing to accept me.  I think that I need to do more work on relationship building so I will feel more comfortable approaching people.  A lot of the people that I am in contact with are starting out like I am and don't really have much of a following e.g. No comments on blogs. I will keep trying though!

[iCraft Admin]

Yes, it's not very easy and you need to be a pretty good writer too. Well, if you are spending too much time trying to land guest blogging gigs with no results, you might want to skip it and focus on other types of link building that provide you quicker results.

[Red Rock Designs]

Hi, I'm having the opposite issue than JaJeJems...the chainmaille blogs I've found are by artists who've been doing it a long time and are pretty advanced in their creations and I'm starting to think they have a team of people behind their products and blogging...so no responses...and I'm a little intimidated to approach them.    Plus I find it hard to come up with my own blog ideas, much less try to write for someone else's blog.  So I think I'm safe to say that this week was a bust for me.

Still working on the link building though.

[JaJeJems]

Yes I am still working on directories and link building too.  Maybe the guest blogs will come a little more naturally later.  Glad to,hear I am not alone and thanks for the  encouragement admin!

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Red Rock Designs,

You shouldn't feel intimidated by other bloggers. You have nothing to lose by engaging in a conversation and offering your skills. Also, it's ok if you don't have blog ideas ready. You can simply ask site owners for preferred topics.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,
Just wondering - how did you do with this week's assignment? Any progress?

[iCraft Admin]

Since nobody had any success with guest blogging this week, I'll give everyone 1 more week to work on this assignment. To find sites that are looking for guest bloggers, do replacement on Google for "Guest Blogging + Keyword".
Here are a few that came up for "Guest Blogging Handmade":
http://www.iamthelab.com/lab-guest-host/wanted-guest-bloggers/
http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.ca/p/guest-blogging.html
http://blog.fanchimp.com/guest-bloggers-wanted/

This girl mentions a blog that she contributes to -  Poppytalk. Worth following that link and checking that site out.
http://everythinggoldenblog.com/?cat=47
I know it's a bit of investigative work, but that's how you gather valuable info that will help you to promote your store on relevant and popular blogs.

At the same time, keep working on other types of link building and post your questions on forum. This is your chance to learn link building through practice.

I am going to post last assignment next week.

[Jewelry by Kat]

My first guest blog!!!!!!!!        http://www.amyshandmadejewelry.com/blog

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Kat,

Congrats on landing your first guest blogging post! You are the first.

A few notes for you:
- The first link on “bracelet” doesn’t work.
- Actually, you should place link on the whole product name “memory wire wrap bracelet”. Keyword Bracelet is too competitive, so you should try to avoid 1 word anchor text.
- I clicked on the link to your blog and it looks like you re-posted the same post there. That is a big no-no. This is called duplicate content and it actually hurts you more than it helps. Your site and everyone else’s sites, where you post duplicate content, can be downgraded for this reason. This will also anger more savvy bloggers that accept your guest posts. Please remove all duplicate posts from your blog and only post original content on any blog that you get access too.  Hope this helps!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for the extension!

I do have a blog that's ready to take my post and it has to be done soon, but it is year end at work and that means lots of administrative clean up on top of regular work.  I proposed I would write it in Word and then the lady can move it to her blog.  I plan to put instructions in the document like underline the words I want linked and then give the URL and put things like "insert picture here" and send along the pictures.

Is that how it's generally done?

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

No problem and thanks for the update! That's fine the way you are doing it. Just make sure your links are implemented correctly. Let us know your post's URL, so we all have a look.

[Jewelry by Kat]

Got rid of the duplicate blog

[Red Rock Designs]

Congrats Kat, on your guess blogging post!  It was a good tutorial.  Still working on landing one myself.

[iCraft Admin]

That's great, Kat! Just make sure you update links in the guest post, so it doesn't have broken links.

[JaJeJems]

Good work Kat and Fairy C.  I think that I have one, will let you know for sure tomorrow.

[iCraft Admin]

That's great, JaJeJems!  
Looking forward to it.

[JaJeJems]

Waiting.............!

[iCraft Admin]

Ok. Thanks for the update!
How are the rest of the group doing? Any questions?

[iCraft Admin]

If you ever wonder how Google might define quality content, here is a list of questions that Google published shortly after one of the Panda updates. This list gives us a glimpse into what's important to Google. Scroll down to "What counts as a high-quality site?" section. I think it's a good idea to keep this list handy any time you work on a new article.

Here are some of the questions from the article:

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original rereplacement, or original analysis?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in replacement results?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

[Jewelry by Kat]

One of my directories added me.       http://handcraftedjewelry.gotop100.com/index2.html

Still only one guest blog

one review and giveaway came through                     http://www.emilyreviews.com/2013/05/jewelry-by-kat-hand-made-beaded-jewelry-review-50-gift-certificate-giveaway-us-64.html

[Red Rock Designs]

No takers yet for guest blogging....I did get approved for Top100 directory...but they haven't posted my link yet.  I'll keep checking the site and provide the link when it's published.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I submitted my article for guest blogging.  Still waiting for it to go up though.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Kat,

In your last review, there are no links to your store. The whole point of our link building exercise is to increase traffic to your store and help you sell. I would focus on that first. If you want to promote your blog, don't use the same anchor text, like "Jewelry by Kat", as you use on links pointing to your store.

[iCraft Admin]

I will post new assignment a bit later on Monday or Tuesday. Just waiting for some stats that I wanted to share with you.

[JaJeJems]

Sorry for the delay Admin!  I had a request in to a "higher quality" site but have had no response from them so I am assuming that is a no.  I am doing one for another lampwork bead artist on her site.  We have decided on a topic now we have to figure out when and how to do it.  I am going to suggest that we use the process that Fairy C is using.  She has no problems with my adding links to the article.  Unfortunately I am getting in to a time crunch as our move is happening faster than I thought it would so I am frantically packing as the furniture goes next week!  I hope to publish that one nearer the end of June if she is ok with that.

Got accepted at one more directory.

Still available for last assignment but I may be a bit slow!

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks for the update, JaJeJems!
What process are you referring to?

[JaJeJems]

I do have a blog that's ready to take my post and it has to be done soon, but it is year end at work and that means lots of administrative clean up on top of regular work.  I proposed I would write it in Word and then the lady can move it to her blog.  I plan to put instructions in the document like underline the words I want linked and then give the URL and put things like "insert picture here" and send along the pictures.

That's what I meant.  Seems my host has a website that is a bit hard to work with, not sure what that means!

[iCraft Admin]

I am still waiting for the stats that I wanted to share with you guys for the last assignment. So it looks like you got this week off again. 
I'll post new assignment on Monday. Hopefully, I'll have the stats read by that time too.

Any more guest posts? Please post your links here, so we could all review them.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Still no sign of my guest post, but it was submitted.