Guest writing

Guest writing or Guest Posting lets you experiment into different areas and write content which might be out of place on your own site. Many popular sites openly invite or encourage submissions and will often reciprocate by writing for you at a later stage. Its fair to sit back and wonder – why go to all the effort to write an article or post for someone elses site?

Here are some of the reasons you aught to think about Guest Writing:

Build your Brand and Credibility

Being invited to be a Guest Writer builds your credibility as a blogger/ writer. When you have an article posted by another site, their readers will normally interpret the gesture as a “tick of approval” towards you and usually then explore whatever links or information you have about you at the end of your post.

Reach a different audience

By posting on another site, you are able to reach a new audience and one which may be out of your specific niche, but still related. As no two sites or blogs are going to have exactly the same readers, you can attract readers who will otherwise not have heard about you or your work. The bigger the site, the more potential there is for new fans and readers for you; however, don’t forget, smaller sites will often attract a wider range of readers who can prove to be as greater gift.

Networking

Blogging is all about building relationships. By building a network amongst people who have similar interests; you are able to share advice, information, skills and support. Being a guest writer is one of the best ways to build relationships as you are gifting something of value to others; and for the most part, this is something not forgotten quickly in this community.

Gather more fans

Once your article is up, you will generally have comments posted. Its important to engage the readers in a timely manner as you are more likely to build a rapport  and relationship with them; hopefully allowing them the opportunity to decide to become readers of your sites or other works.

Where to start?

• Contact other writers or bloggers within your niche and suggest a guest writing swap.
• Contact sites who have guest writers work appear and pitch a suggested article or post.
• Generally – but not always – the site you submit to will require your article to appear exclusively for at least a period of time. Ensure you clarify this while you are negotiating.
• Have a quirky (or niche appropriate) few sentences prepared which describe who you are and what you write about along with links to your site.
• What gets round, comes round. Host other bloggers and writers on your site. Encourage  exchanges of twitter links, stumble upon and diggs to increase your online traffic.

Just as a great article will give you credibility as an expert or leader within your field, a poorly written or thought out post will shine a dim light on your abilities. Explore the sites you are proposing to submit to and ensure they are the types you want your brand ( yourself) associated with. Both Print and the Internet are forever….

Here at Write Anything, we have a tight team of writers from around the world, whose breadth of experience cover most genres. For the most part, we often have to edit down our articles posted each day as we have so much to share and say to those who frequent the site or who are searching on clarity on a specific topic. I know I speak for all of us in saying we love to share our thoughts along our journey as writers and appreciate all the comments we attract.

From time to time, particularly over the festive seasons and during NaNoWriMo, our energies may be directed in other places rather than in formulating a post for Write Anything. Its for this reason that we would like to invite any of our regular readers to submit original posts or articles for consideration when we next require a “stand in” or Guest Writer.

If you are interested,contact one of us ( see our bio page for details) so that we can have a ‘chat’ to you.  You will need a WordPress account ( if you don’t already have one.)

What will happen next is that you will submit a post and if accepted, be granted author privileges ( which just means you are able to post draft copies to the site).

What will normally happen after this is that any articles submitted will be held in draft form, till there is a spot for it.

Please don’t be shy – we’d love to see some of your work and thoughts submitted and shared.

Annie Evett feels blessed to have been asked to submit an guest article at Write Anything about a year ago. She hung around like a bad smell until they felt sorry for her and offered her a place to live. Buddy up during NaNo here. Follow her here and catch her growing amount of websites and blogs here