Guest blogging can be a very effective way for new and small businesses to reach a bigger audience at a relatively low cost.

Many online businesses and aspiring web entrepreneurs are switching to guest blogging. They write for popular platforms to promote their brand and build backlinks from credible sites back to their website.

However, guest blogging can become challenging if your blogs do not get accepted on your target platform. Even if they get published, you may not be getting the desired response and readership on the platform.

If you are struggling to establish credibility or don’t get the desired traffic from your guest blogs, then step back and look at what you may be doing wrong.

In this blog, we share 7 common mistakes that guest bloggers make and how to avoid them to improve your credibility and response rate.

Are You Following the Guidelines?

Most of the popular guest blogging platforms get hundreds of submissions every day. They have to set up guidelines to improve the quality of submissions. The guidelines make it easier for editors to select the right blogs to publish on their websites.

Normally, these guidelines are quite straightforward and should be easy to follow for most people. For example, don’t plagiarize existing blogs, keep grammar mistakes to a minimum, and use proper punctuation, etc.

Still, you would be surprised to see how many guest blog writers still ignore or miss the most basic of guidelines. This can be very annoying for the editor and more than likely have your submission end up in the digital trash bin.

Think about it. Why would a busy platform editor take the time to review your guest post if you can’t even follow some simple instructions?

You will get some corrections here and there. But if your piece requires extensive rework, it will be rejected in a matter of seconds.

Make sure you check your blogs for grammar and spelling before you submit.

Do Not Write Overly Promotional Content

Guest blog platforms and editors frown upon submissions that are too promotional or advertising in nature. If you want to promote your business, why not just buy some ads on the platform?

Take the audience into consideration as well. They want to read blogs that are helpful or provide useful information to them. If you only focus on promoting your products and services throughout the blog, it can turn off readers.

Now I am not saying that you cannot add a one-liner about your product and services in the blog. But keep it classy and most people will not mind.

Don’t write the whole blog centered on your business products and services.

Write Good Quality Content

What is good quality content? In simplest terms, it is the type of content that your target audience will want to read and interact with.

If you can write blogs that move people to click on links or share them on other platforms, your content is worth digital gold. If your content makes people pass it up or hit the back button faster than they finish reading the intro, it is of poor quality.

There are many things you can do to improve the quality of your blogs. Use better language and ideas in your blogs. Offer new information. Keep sentences short and simple. Add images, animations, or video. Make it easy to share and comment on. The list goes on.

In most cases, you won’t write a very good quality blog on your first attempt. Good quality comes with time and experimentation. The thing is to keep trying and find new ways to make your blogs better.

Read blog submissions from other guest blog writers on your target blog writing service. Check which blogs get more interaction and adapt. With time and effort, the quality of your blogs will improve.

Submit good-quality blogs on your target platforms.

Be Careful About Those Inbound Links

Most platforms do not allow you to add inbound links in the blog itself so don’t do it. You will generally have the option to add one link in the author’s bio.

Some platforms do allow one link in the blog back to your website but don’t count on it. Especially if you are a new writer, it will take some time before the platform will allow you to link back to your website.

For some guest bloggers, it is not worth the effort to write if they don’t get to add backlinks. For others, the exposure and viewership that they get are worth it to use guest blogging services.

It all depends on what your overall blogging strategy is. Ask yourself how much your business can benefit from getting published on a credible platform without linking. I think it is well worth the effort.

Do not add backlinks to your blogs unless you have permission from the blogging website.

Don’t Aim For the Busiest Blogging Sites at First

Even if your blog is perfect in every way, you may still fail to get published when you aim too high.

Every aspiring blogger and business wants to get published on the “A-list” guest blogging sites in their industry. But that does not mean you will be published there on the first attempt.

Blogging sites with millions of readers are very selective about who they publish on their platforms. They want guest writers with established names and credibility. If you are just starting or new to blogging, there is a slim chance of getting published on such platforms.

Focus on submitting your blogs to platforms that have a moderate following. Your chance of getting accepted will be higher.

Once you establish a name for yourself, you will be in a better bargaining position. You may even find guest blogging platforms approaching you to contribute to their site.

The lesson here is to build your name first, before approaching A-List blogging platforms.

Do Not Write On Topics that Have Been Covered

Keep an eye on the blogs posted on your target guest blogging site. You should submit a blog that is unique and different from something that they’ve already published recently.

Readers can get bored reading the same kind of blogs over and over. Guest blogging platform owners know this and they want to mix things up now and then. If you submit a blog similar to something that they’ve already published, your blog may get rejected.

Now you should note here that you can talk about the same subject. What you need is to have a different angle on the issue.

The real value of your blog could be what new ideas or perspectives it offers to the readers. You could look at an old problem in a new way to offer a better solution. Or talk about a completely different problem that your target platform’s audience may be facing and no one has written about it so far?

In short, write blogs on new topics or from a new perspective.

Conclusion

Guest blog writing can give you many benefits from personal exposure to improved brand reputation. You can also add backlinks to your website to improve search engine ranking and DA.

In most cases, guest blogging is free. In some cases, you may even get paid to write blogs for the publishing platform. When done right, it can be one of the least expensive forms of online marketing for your business.

Given the recent updates to Google algorithms, guest blogging is expected to become more prominent shortly. To get the most out of this medium you must set your sights on the bigger picture and adjust your strategy accordingly.

In this blog, we covered some guest blogging mistakes to avoid that give you a higher chance of getting accepted as a writer, boost web traffic, and build a better reputation for your business.