Perhaps you have a notebook full of post ideas for your own blog. Yet, you’re not sure if any of these will work on the other blogs you want to write for.
How can you find pertinent topics that will not only interest the readers of your host blog – but will also entice them to visit your own site?
The secret is to spend some time studying the blog(s) on which you want to guest post. If you do this strategically, you will soon have plenty of ideas for topics that fit well on that blog, and that dovetail nicely with your own expertise and blog topic.
1. Subscribe to the blog as soon as possible.
2. Read all the popular posts. Many blogs have a widget on the sidebar listing their most popular posts. Another way to tell what’s popular is to pay attention to the number of comments or shares that accompany a particular post. You want to choose a subject that is similar to the ones that get plenty of comments and have been shared often.
3. Read all the comments and make note of questions commenters ask, or suggestions they make. If the blogger responds to comments, pay attention. You will get ideas on the sorts of subjects the blogger is interested in. This can guide you to deciding what your post could be about. And pay attention to the quality of the comments. A post that elicits super enthusiastic comments or an emotional response from readers is a post you want to emulate. These are the types of topics that will work for you.
4. Twitter can be a rich source of ideas. Read the blogger’s Twitter stream and that of other bloggers in this niche. Again, watch for questions. How can you answer these questions, or what information can you provide that meets the interests you’ve discovered on Twitter?
5. Facebook can be another resource for writing topic ideas for your target blog and the niche in general. “Like” the blog’s fan page on Facebook, and check it frequently to get ideas from the conversation. Also look for Facebook groups around this topic or niche. Many great ideas await in these group discussions.
Once you’ve subscribed to the blogs you’d like to guest post on, and followed the blogger on Twitter and Facebook, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to brainstorm some post ideas.
In the next module we’ll take a look at how exactly you will find all these appropriate blogs, and how to keep track of it all once you do.
Author: A-List Team