Guest Posting vs. Community Interaction
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Our host today is Frank Angelone. If you're interested in getting in front of the readers of Site Sketch 101, check out our guest posting invitation here.
This particular question is one that Nick and I discussed a while back. I remember asking him how he grew his blog and he said very little had to do with guest posting. As a matter of fact, he attributed most of his blogging traffic to community interaction on platforms like Twitter.
I really didn’t think it was completely possible to only focus on community interaction by itself to drive traffic. From ebooks I read and posts from other bloggers, many attributed their traffic to guest posting. For some, this strategy works well, but it may not be for everyone.
Is There Any Value In Guest Posting?
Personally, I think guest posting is loosing it’s value. When it was in the early stages, you had a greater chance of driving traffic back to your site using a guest post on a high authority blog. Now with everyone using this marketing strategy it becomes less powerful than it use to be. It’s just like Google AdSense. At one point in time, AdSense was a good way to make money from your blog. Now, too many people use it, so less money is paid out unless you receive a ton of traffic.
So with guest posting in my opinion not being as strong of a pull factor to bring you blog traffic, we must look to community interaction. This is something I’ve always loved doing, but never was able to have much success with it because I wasn’t looking in the right places. You need to engage to build a community. I know…that’s an obvious statement, but where can you find an already growing community to become a part of?
I personally have found that “Twitter chats” are a great place to go to engage and to build trust and credibility. My personal favorite is #blogchat. I get the most value when interacting there and I learn a lot as well. It’s great sometimes to just listen rather than say anything. Make sure that when you say something in one of these Twitter chats it’s valuable so that you increase your chances of building your community (or followers in some cases).
Your Community Helps Create A Long Lasting Foundation
It’s funny how my thought process on driving traffic and building a community has changed. Now I keep reflecting back to the conversation that Nick and I had. I wish I took his advice right from the beginning. He was right! Guest posting can still be useful, but let’s face it…are you really going to click the link to my blog after reading this post? The answer is probably not and if you do, you might check it out briefly and move on to something else.
Granted as we always hear, the content needs to be good to keep a potential new reader on your blog, but when that traffic comes from a guest post, that reader is most likely just going to go back to the original blog they read your article on. Stick to Nick’s suggestion, focus your attention more on community interaction rather than guest posting. That’s where the real value and true connections are made!
TrafficColeman said:
Frank..I think guest posting is great in the internet marketing field, but not so great in maybe the Garden flied. It all just comes down to who has the biggest audience you can get to.
Remember you just did a guest post..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
TrafficColeman recently posted..TrafficColeman Statement For July 2011
Frank Angelone said:
Guest posting is absolutely a great choice when it comes to internet marketing. However, my point was that everyone has been using this strategy as a marketing tactic. When more people use the same strategy, it becomes less effective. It still works best on the mainstream blogs in my opinion rather than just guest posting anywhere.
You’re right though, I did write a guest post here. I do so to share the conversation between Nick and myself after realizing that the quality of conversations on my blog were much better than from any guest post I have written to date. I do agree though, if you are going to guest post, it’s best to find a large audience!
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Let me clarify my position. I’m not apposed to Guest Posting. In fact, I’ve written on it’s benefits in the past and will continue to do so.
Having said that, my point in all of this is that strong community involvement will take you farther in most cases. You’ll maintain more regular readers, you’ll build loyalty, and you’ll build an army of folks who will be promoting your content for you.
Frank Angelone said:
I’m in complete agreement with that. I also believe guest posting still has its benefits. The community is just a more solid backing to your blog than a quick visitor from a guest post.
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Brad said:
I’m pretty sure Jon Morrow of Guest Blogging would disagree with you and throw huge numbers and visions of exotic locations your way to prove his point. I like interacting with the folks that take the time to read my work on my site so I guess both methods combined will suite you as long as your sincere in your engagement.
Nice read Frank…Thanks..
PS..I did check out your site..
Brad recently posted..The Heartbeat of Inspiration
Nicholas Cardot said:
I just know that I’ve written guest posts for placed like Problogger and received fewer visitors than I get from social media each day. And when you add in the number of visitors I get each day from search engines, which I attribute largely to links that my followers generously send this way, I find that far more rewarding to build, invest in, and be a part of your community.
Frank Angelone said:
Thanks for the feedback, Brad. I wouldn’t expect everyone to agree with some of the points I made here, but that’s one of the great things about blogging. It opens up room for discussion and like you said, sincere engagement.
I’m always appreciative of anyone who takes time out of their day to give their two cents on either a guest post I’ve written or a post on my own blog. Someone is showing they care enough to participate and it’s good to engage back!
Thanks for checking out my site.
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Thomas Frank said:
Guest posting and community engagement are strategies best used in tandem. I think someone who is building a engaged, active community can do well to start guest posting and bringing new people into the mix.
Where guest posting gets annoying is when people are JUST doing it for the link. I’ve published some guest posts in the past where the guest author never comes back to respond to comments or anything. They probably didn’t even come back to look at the published post. Now when I get the emails that start out as “Hey I’m a freelance writer and I have a great article…” I basically delete them. I’d rather publish guest posts from people who already interact with me.
Thomas Frank recently posted..Guest Post: How To Speak In Public Without Peeing Your Pants
Frank Angelone said:
Unfortunately Thomas, I think a lot of people who guest do it for the link. I can’t blame them considering that’s a motive for guest posting.
I agree with you though, it’s not smart to ignore the comments shared on a guest post. Then you clearly show that it was a one-way street and that you really didn’t care about what you shared on someone else’s blog. I always come back to respond to as many comments as I can. It shows that you have respect for the community and the owner of the blog itself.
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Robin Jennings said:
Great comment- “Guest posting and community engagement are strategies best used in tandem”.
As with any form off traditional marketing, cast your net wide and see what works and what doesn’t.
Robin Jennings recently posted..What is Malware?
Frank Angelone said:
Sometimes the strategies you go with are all based off “trial and error.” Very good point, Robin!
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Gabriele Maidecchi said:
“are you really going to click the link to my blog after reading this post? The answer is probably not and if you do, you might check it out briefly and move on to something else.”
That’s actually the reason I stopped believing much in guest blogging. On one side, for blog owners, if you want to offer diversity on your publication it is far better to find real partners. On the other side, for writers, I believe there are other priorities before guest blogging.
Gabriele Maidecchi recently posted..Why Google Plus Could Be The Real Last Chance to Beat Facebook
Frank Angelone said:
I agree, Gabriele. I believe that there are many other things you can focus in on with your blog before you focus on guest posting. Guest posting is simply a marketing strategy and I think it works best when you have an actual friendship with the owner of the blog you are guest posting for. Hopefully that blog also has an active community to where you can get your name out there too!
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Todd said:
‘Everyone’ does guest posts because they work. Whether for marketing, or just building traffic/backlinks, it is a valuable resource when done well.
Engaging in community is just as important, but in a different way. You’re not going to reach a wide range of people, but hopefully the people that you do connect with will be of higher value because of the relationship.
Frank Angelone said:
The deciding factor with the amount of people you reach in the community depends upon the effort you make and if you actually try to build a relationship with that person. The best thing is to just be yourself because people would rather talk to a person than one that just wants to market to them.
Frank Angelone recently posted..How Can A Small Community Be Your Best Route?
Mandeep Singh said:
The only thing is that social media doesn’t help improve page rank.
Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s not entirely true.
Jane said:
I believe that a combination of both wont hurt. There is great strength in engaging in online communities. I agree on how important interaction is and creating a foundation with fellow community members. On the other hand, guest posting has also proven its benefits though it has already faded in the present times.
Frank Angelone said:
I do agree a combination of both can be a good idea. However, like you mentioned, with guest posting having faded, I don’t know if it shows the results it use to bring bloggers.
Frank Angelone recently posted..Have You Overpaid For Fixing Your Computer?
Toys said:
It really depends on the objective of the webmaster: guest blogging could not be good for traffic, but for link building. However I doubt that it is the best way for this, but it is one of the ways.I believe it should be used together with other methods in a portfolio for link building strategies.
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Frank Angelone said:
I agree that guest posting could be questionable when it comes to bringing new traffic back to your site. However, I think link building is the best thing you can get out if it in the long run.
Frank Angelone recently posted..Have You Overpaid For Fixing Your Computer?
ah hong said:
Aside of good quality content on guest posting, I think the About Author description have to be compelling enough to attract clickthrough -> traffic. Agree on what Frank said, guest posting it’s good in long run for link building.
ah hong recently posted..Business Letter Writing Format
Leo Tabibzadegan said:
Great post! I definately think building deeper, meaningful, lasting relationships/friendships with people in communities is the way to go. I’d way rather live an enriched life surrounded by great people and friends, than stress out about meaningless metrics and such. Sure I might starve because I didn’t get enough viewers to make enough money to buy groceries, but at least i’ll know that i’m starving happy
Frank Angelone said:
Glad you enjoyed the post, Leo. It’s always great to have friends and relationships with people online that actually care about what you’re doing. Without people caring about what you’re doing, the metrics aren’t going to be there!
Frank Angelone recently posted..Have You Overpaid For Fixing Your Computer?
Noel Addison said:
I believe that guest blogging is good way of gaining great exposure for your blog or website. It can help you build powerful links to your site and build the reputation of a real expert in your niche.
NR | ExP said:
Success in guest posting can also be attributed to how well the website promotes the guest poster. Blogs that get a ton of traffic and really feature their guest bloggers can drive a lot of traffic back to the individuals site. Sitesketch is probably one of the better ones out there that put a premium on the poster as well as the content.
Too often people read articles to get tips, but don’t really know who wrote it. Not because the readers don’t care, but because the site layout or the poster link is placed in some obscure location on the website.
Community interaction is huge. Just think of all the forums out there that thrive on nothing but community interaction? Building credibility and interacting with your readers in a meaningful way is hands down one of the best way to build consistent traffic and a loyal following. But great original content is king, doesn’t matter if you respond and interact in a daily basis, if you have nothing to offer to your audience that keeps them coming back, why should they?
Alan Chatfield said:
A great, short & thought provoking post on a concept that I instantly wanted to read about. I completely agree that building a community is key – though easier said than done. even if people love your content, most people have busy lives (at least when it comes to available time to spend on any given internet site).
I’m gonna check out #blogchat – thanks for the tip!!
best regards,
Alan