Guest blogging can be an excellent way to grow traffic for your ecommerce store.  

In addition, it’s a highly effective method of increasing your brand awareness with potential customers.

If you’ve never utilized guest blogging as part of your content marketing strategy, you probably have a few questions about what it is, how to guest blog, and why you should consider it.

The primary reason, of course, is that guest blogging is an effective way of increasing your ecommerce business’s revenue.

Intrigued? Let’s explore guest blogging and how it can positively impact your business.

What are guest posts?

Guest posts, otherwise known as “guest posting,” simply means publishing an article on another person’s or company’s website.

Guest posters write content for other blogs in their niche, with the goal of increasing their website’s referral traffic, brand recognition, and domain authority.

If guest blogging is not part of your content marketing strategy, you’re missing out on an extraordinary opportunity to grow your ecommerce business.

What are the benefits of guest blogging?

There are three primary reasons why guest posting is an effective content marketing strategy for your ecommerce business. 

1. Guest posting allows you to obtain more brand awareness for your ecommerce store.

Instead of merely speaking to your website’s audience, it allows you to leverage the audience of other sites as well. Done well, this can dramatically increase the reach of your message and grow your brand awareness.

2. Guest posts provide backlinks to your website from high authority sites. 

Relevant, long-form blog posts that contain pictures, videos, and backlinks are ranked highly by Google and other search engines.

Search engines consider backlinks a vote of confidence, boosting your ecommerce site’s credibility.

In addition, guest posts generally contain the author’s by-line. A by-line is the few sentences at the bottom of the post that tells a little about the author and contains a link back to their website.

Here’s an example of a guest post by-line:

Sophie Van Tigelen is a passionate foodie, recipe developer, and author. Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 2009, she used the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) to reverse her condition and today, Sophie lives a full and vibrant life free from the anxiety and flare-ups that often accompany autoimmune diseases. With her food and lifestyle blog, A Squirrel in the Kitchen, Sophie shares her AIP experience and empowers others to develop new habits to promote good health and wellness.

Sophie’s eCommerce business sells an online course, books, and other resources for people struggling with autoimmune diseases.  

In addition, guest posts are often shared by other blogs and on social media for various reasons.

This means that Sophie is receiving additional traffic to her website today, as well as a backlink from Linnworks, a high authority site. And while Linnworks’ audience of ecommerce business owners is not Sophie’s target market, her site will still benefit from our mention. 

The best part for Sophie, of course, is that she did not need to do any additional work (aside from her original guest posts) to benefit from these backlinks. Her Paleo guest post, for example, has backlinks from at least eight other websites.

Some guest posts are shared hundreds or even thousands of times, depending on the topic. Imagine Sophie guest posts for ten different blogs, and each of those posts is shared five additional times.

It’s easy to see how quickly and effortlessly guest blogging enables you to build backlinks to your ecommerce site, improving your SEO and bringing additional traffic to your business.

3. Guest posting sends highly targeted traffic to your website.

In our example, Sophie regularly guest posts on organic eating and Paleo dieting sites. This sends a steady stream of highly targeted traffic, who are likely to buy her course and books, back to Sophie’s website.

This is a smart strategy because writing guest posts is an excellent way to build your own website rankings and credibility.

Leveraging the audiences and domain authority of other blogs in your niche allows you to build the connection and gain exposure to a broader audience.

Potential customers read your guest post and click the link back to your website, increasing your traffic. Adding a link that leads back to a special offer or an opt-in email page with a compelling reader magnet can help you convert readers into customers.

How will I make money from guest blogging?

Guest blogging allows you to earn additional revenue by increasing highly targeted web traffic to your ecommerce business.

It also helps increase your brand’s authority in your industry, connects you with other industry leaders in your niche, and builds relationships with future customers before they’re ready to buy.

Is guest blogging good for SEO?

Guest blogging is an excellent strategy to improve your site’s SEO.   

Guest posting helps your blog obtain both backlinks and referral traffic. The links you post on a site where you are guest blogging confer SEO value to your own blog or ecommerce site. This increases your domain authority over time, which improves your search engine ranking. 

Questions to ask yourself before guest blogging:

• Who does my article help, and what do they want to accomplish?

When writing a guest post, you want to keep the ultimate reader in mind. Think about your ecommerce business’s current customers and how you can solve a problem for them.

Do they need an answer to a common question?  A tutorial on how to complete a task?

Successful guest posts consider what the reader needs and provide them with the answer.

• Who would want to read it? 

Before starting, you’ll want to carefully consider the audience you’re trying to reach and whether or not the information you are providing will benefit them.

Guest blogs that target readers similar to your ecommerce business’s current customers, or customers in a new target market you’re trying to reach, will benefit your business most.

• What can you write that is unique and different from what already exists?

It’s always important to put your own unique spin on your guest posts to ensure you’re providing valuable information to the reader.

Every guest post you write should be educational, engaging, authoritative, and valuable to readers.

Provide the audience with the benefit of your knowledge and expertise. Your guest posts should: 

• Answer commonly asked questions
• Address your customers’ pain points
• Define or explain industry terms
• Provide solutions
• Educate and create trust

How to start guest blogging

Creating and placing guest posts is a relatively simple process.

Here’s how to start guest posting, step by step:

Determine your guest blogging goals

Before you begin, you’ll want to decide your main goals for guest blogging. Deciding what is important to you before you begin your outreach is critical for achieving your objectives.

The main benefits of guest posting are:

1. Getting additional traffic for your ecommerce website
2. Positioning yourself as an authority and expert in your industry
3. Building backlinks To your website

If your main goals are to increase traffic to your website and position yourself as an expert in your niche, you’ll want to target blogs with a large and engaged audience.

If your primary goal is to build backlinks to your website, you will target blogs with higher root domain authority.  In general, you want to target websites in your niche with a domain authority of over 50. Tools like Ubersuggest can help you to determine your best opportunities.

Create a targeted list of websites you want to write for

Google is a fantastic place to start when looking for guest posting opportunities. The following keyword searches will help you target blogs that offer opportunities for guest posts.

When searching online, replace the word keyword with keywords for your industry:

• keyword “submit a guest post”
• keyword  “write for us”
• keyword  “guest column”
• keyword  “guest post”
• keyword  “submit an article”
• keyword  “accepting guest posts”
• keyword  “guest post guidelines”
• keyword  “guest post by”

These searches should lead you to the guest post guidelines and submissions pages for blogs in your specific niche.

For example, if we were searching for ideal blogs for Sophie to guest post on, we might search for:

• Paleo dieting “submit a guest post”
• Organic eating  “write for us”

Another effective place to search for guest blogging opportunities is Twitter.  You’ll use the same search terms you use on Google, such as the keyword  “guest post”.

When considering websites for your guest posts, make sure you can provide value to their audience.

• Is your knowledge area a good fit for their audience?
• Does their blog need content?
• Is there a topic in which you have expertise that doesn’t currently exist on their blog?

Find the right contact for guest blogging opportunities

Using the keyword search technique listed above, submitting guest posts should be pretty straightforward.  The search term will generally take you to a form or page that gives instructions on how to submit a guest post.

Sometimes, however, you may want to submit a guest post to a blog that does not have a submission form or readily available contact to do so.  In this case, you will need to do a little research. Great resources to locate the appropriate contact include:

• LinkedIn (Search for “Content Manager” “Editor” or “Content”
• Their Facebook business page

Start your guest blogging email outreach

Cold-emailing a prospect is rarely fun, but the payoff is worth it. You’ll want to make certain you are offering something of value to the owner of the blog.

The most effective strategies include:

• Keep your email short (under 250 words)
• Personalize the email (Say “Hi Olivia” instead of “Hi Content Manager”)
• Offer to include links to their site in your  blog content
• Tell them what you like about their blog and mention a specific article you enjoyed 
• Introduce yourself 
• Ask if they would be interested in a guest post
• Provide samples to your previous guest posts or writing on your own blog
• Say thank you

Pitch your guest post topic

Once you receive interest from the blog, it’s time to pitch a few topics for your guest post.

It’s always best to send two to three ideas for blog posts.  That way, if the first one doesn’t resonate with the content manager, you haven’t lost out on the opportunity.

You’ll want to make sure that your topics have not already been covered on the blog and that they are a good fit for the interest of the blog’s audience.

When you pitch your topics, be sure to let the editor or content manager know that if the three post ideas you sent are not a great fit, you are happy to provide additional ideas.

Follow-up

When it comes to guest posting, the fortune is in the follow-up.  If a blog has expressed interest in your guest post but has not sealed the deal, be sure to reach out again to touch base And see if you can get your guest posting opportunity back on track.

How to craft a great guest bio or by-line

An essential element of guest blogging will likely be your by-line or bio.

Your by-line is generally a place you’ll include a link back to your ecommerce website or blog. 

You can link to your site, an email magnet, or a landing page you’ve set up exclusively for the host blog’s readers.

In your bio, you’ll want to include some information about your background and experience, and be sure to mention what qualifies you to write the guest post. You can have elements such as your position, notable accomplishments, or other items that would be of interest to the reader. 

The most effective guest by-lines:

• Are 2-4 sentences long 
• Let readers a feel for who you are and what you do

• Provide a way to connect with you 
• Include 1-2 backlinks to your site, social media, or another resource

How many links should a guest post have?

It is important to include at least 1-3 contextual backlinks in your post, meaning a link back to your website contained in the text of your article, not just your bio. You can link to another post on your blog, a report, or something else that is both useful and natural in the context of the article.

The number of external links included in a post is up to the blog owner’s discretion and their own editorial guidelines. That said, a good rule of thumb is to include 3-5 links per 1,000 words of content. Do remember to include links to your own site so that your ecommerce site benefits from the post. 

Should I accept guest posts on my blog?

There are several advantages to posting high-quality, long-form guest posts on your blog. 

One advantage is that you can publish free content by an industry expert that you don’t need to write. This boosts the number of posts on your blog, increasing your traffic.

You’ll want to ensure that you have strict editorial guidelines when accepting guest posts.  The content should be of benefit to your readers and customers. You’ll also want to ensure that the post contains only high-quality external links.

Creating new relationships with bloggers in your industry

One of the biggest benefits of guest posting is forming new relationships with other influencers and bloggers in your niche. These relationships can lead to additional guest blogging opportunities or other business collaborations.

To make the most of these connections, create valuable content, offer more than you ask for, and be easy to work alongside.

How can I scale my guest blogging?

You may be completely on board with all the benefits of guest posting for your ecommerce business, but wondering how you will find the time to write multiple blog posts?  The good news is that you don’t need to write all of the blog posts yourself to reap the benefits.

One strategy is to work with a content company, guest blogging service, or freelancer.  A ghostwriter is a blogger who writes the post under your name and by-line.  

You may provide:

•  An outline
•  List of specific tips 
• A collection of articles you’ve written for your own blog or elsewhere. 

The ghostwriter will write the actual article in the style of the blog, using your guidelines.

Final thoughts

Guest posting can provide numerous benefits to your ecommerce business. 

Writing high-quality guest blogs on other websites in your niche:

• Increases your website’s domain authority 
• Provides you with a larger platform gain more exposure to readers interested in your content 
• Improves your brand recognition in your industry and with your potential customers
• Creates backlinks to your ecommerce site, improving your search engine ranking 
• Helps you to build new relationships with important bloggers and influencers in your industry

Writing guest blogs continues to be one of the most effective ways to grow your ecommerce site’s web traffic and expand your customer base.