Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of the “The Art of Guest Blogging“.

This course has provided you with a solid foundation to becoming a successful guest blogger. Reading the information is just the first step, though. If you haven’t begun to do so already, now is the time to actually implement the material you’ve learned.

The checklist below will help you do just that.

If you are serious about building your own blog’s visibility through guest blogging, it’s important that you block out some time in your schedule to devote to it. Even if you can only set aside a small amount of time each day or week, you’ll eventually be looking at your byline on other blogs.

That time will pay off handsomely with continued guest blogging opportunities and many, many new subscribers to your own blog.

As you can tell, this course was created chronologically. Unlike some of our other courses, it’s particularly important to follow the steps in the proper order. For example, making the effort to build some connection with a blogger before proposing a guest post exponentially increases your chances at getting your pitch accepted.

Use this checklist to focus your priorities during the ‘guest blogging’ time you’ve set aside.

• Have you joined in the “The Guest Blogging Hub” thread on the A-List forum to offer and exchange guest posts?

• Have you started a tracking spreadsheet?

• Have you identified at least 20 potential blogs (of varying sizes) that you could pitch to? If not, review the strategy outlined in How To Find Dozens of Guest Post Opportunities.

• Have you spent some time researching the bloggers behind the blogs you are especially interested in writing for?

• Have you reached out to these other bloggers on social media and/or through commenting?

• Do you have a list of 5-10 potential topics to write about? You can come up with at least these many if you use the suggested brainstorming strategies.

• Do you have a byline to send along with your guest posts that will makes readers want to click over to your own site?

• When it comes time to make your pitch, be sure to review the tips outlined in How To Write A Successful Pitch, and you’ll be pitching like a pro.

And remember: if, despite your best intentions, you are just not able to make the time for guest blogging, review the resistance-busting strategies and practice some of these techniques so you can move forward with your intention.

Once your guest post has been published, remember that the followup is just as important as writing and publishing the post itself. Make use of all the welcome mat strategies so that your guest post gets some real traction.

Author: A-List Team