This is a tip for those of you (super smart) people who guest post on other blogs.
First, catch up with my guest posting tips at How to Get Your Guest Post Accepted. And you know about the One Excellent SEO Gimme when you're writing your byline (sometimes called bio at the end of the guest post), right?
By the way, if you're not sure how to write your byline (or bio), Neil Patel suggests answering the following questions to create a good 3-sentence formula:
- Who are you?
- What do you do and for who?
- What’s the call to action?
Nice.
The main thing I'd say is this: keep it short and punchy. I mean, when you see a guest post byline aren't you much more likely to read it if it's only a line or two instead of a crazy long paragraph?
Here's another tip for writing your guest post byline:
In your guest post byline, don't link to your home page. Link to a special landing page that's been tailored made for the new visitors from the other blog.
Why? Because if you send them to your homepage, they'll have to figure out for themselves what you're all about. Unless your homepage is super clear and directive, you're likely to lose 'em.
These visitors are a captive audience, but only for a moment. Don't make them fend for themselves. Guide them.
How to create a guest post landing page:
- Create a new page (not a post because you don't want it going out to everyone).
- Make it obvious in the title that you're welcoming the readers from the blog on which you guest posted. For example, pretend you're guest posting here on BWA. You could go with a title like "Welcome BloggingWithAmy.com Readers!" or you could make it more clever.
- Think about what those readers are looking for. Who are they? What type of information is important to them? If they clicked through your byline, the post you wrote is probably a good hint.
- Pretend you're a tour guide. Your new visitors just arrived. What's the content on your blog that is most like the information you shared in your guest post? Highlight those posts at the top of your page with internal links (i.e. link within your own site to previous posts).
- The key here is to provide them ample opportunity to explore what you have to offer but not to overwhelm them. I'm just taking a stab in the dark here, but I'd choose 5-8 of my most relevant content that they are most likely to appreciate. Don't go crazy. This is an first date, not a marriage proposal.
- Make sure you ask them to subscribe via email. Paste in your FeedBurner email signup form directly somewhere on your page. I showed you how to do this in How to Make Your About Page a Little More Killer. You can also see how to customize the form in this tutorial (in this tutorial, I put the HTML in a sidebar widget, but in this case, you'd paste the HTML directly in your post. Just make sure you paste it in the HTML tab at the top of your post input screen and not the Visual tab).
What about you? Can you think of anything else to add?
Excellent idea, Amy! I'm planning guest posts soon and I will definitely schedule in the creation of this landing page. Thanks for the tip.
*smacks on head* You're so right, Amy!!! OMG! Why the heck didn't I think of that?! This is perfect timing because I've been reaching out to other bloggers lately to do guest posts and haven't gotten very far with my traffic despite all my efforts. This is the perfect solution. You're a genius! Wow, how do you think of these things?! Thank you thank you thank you so much for all you do!!!
Oh, I don't come up with all these ideas on my own. I pick up tidbits here and there as I read and then mix in my own thoughts too.
Hi,
Great post and idea. I guest post a bit and would like to create a landing page. Just had a question : How does one create a landing page just for those readers and not the others ? Do you create a page and NOT publish or something ? Or were you suggesting that we create a landing page which is extra page on your blog for those readers ?
You have to publish the page for the url to work. Here is how I would do it.
Create the page and publish it.
Don't place it in your navigation menu.
Doing this will make the page active, but no one will find it as an option in the navigation.
Grab the URL from the page and use it as the link in your guest post.
Hope that helps!
Yep, that's exactly how to do it. Thanks Find Time For Fun!
Amy-you're brilliant! Thanks for another wonderful tip!
Thanks for the helpful tip, this is a great idea!
I don't do a whole lot of guest posting but I sure do need some bio help. Love those 3 questions, I'll be working on that tomorrow.
Is there a link missing at the very end of #6? It just seems to drop off. Thanks for the tidbits.
Oops! No, the link is before, I just forgot to edit. {{smacks head}} Thanks for the heads-up!
Great idea! Do you think linking to an about page would be as effective? (Yes, I'm looking for the lazy way!)
Thanks for this great idea………Really helpful………….
You are such a smarty-pants! Thanks for the great idea.
Have you used Premise? You're probably familiar with it, but for the uninitiated, It's a paid plug-in from Studio Press. It allows you to make landing pages quickly and easily that have a simpler look / feel than your blog. There are no navigation or side bars on Premise landing pages – just a bare bones page with some call to action.
But landing pages are not why I spent the money – with the latest version of Premise you can also create a paid member access area. This is where I feel Premise might be money well spent. I haven't used the paid member access feature yet, but it is good for bloggers who sell their own e-courses, consulting and / or an on-going monthly paid content.
It was $150-$160 when I brought it a month ago. But I could have gotten it half off had I purchased it a week before or a couple weeks after I did. I'm a little bummed I didn't act on the half-off deal. I was hemming and hawing over whether or not to spend the money. I think it's worth the full price, but if you can get it half-off, I would jump on it.
Oh – and that price I paid was a one-time price, not some monthly fee.
I haven't taken the plunge with Premise, so I'm so glad you shared your experience. I love the paid access feature!
Nice idea for create guest post page. This is very help full because of the I am also add guest post page in my site.
Thanks for share such a wonderful idea.
This great idea i am finding way to guest post but i didn't understood how can i post but finally i found your post its a great way to guest post.
Thanks so much for this post. I am working on my first guest post right now and love this idea. Do you have one set up that I could look at? Thanks so much for your blog, It is a wonderful resource for a newbie like me!
I haven't gotten started with guest posting yet, but I just used this post as a guide in writing a landing page for people who come over to my blog from Facebook. Thank you for yet another awesome and helpful post! God bless.
I can I create a Gueat Blog?
Sorry I meant Guest
This is a fantastic idea Amy! I don't guest blog much..mostly because I can hardly get my own content out I'm so busy.. but I love this idea of a guest landing page and will definately do next time I do!
Blessings!
I can relate! One of these days I'm going to guest post a lot more.
Hi Amy! I am really interested in guest posting etiquette or rules as it pertains to lifestyle bloggers like me. It's a very common practice, but I have a hard time writing for someone else unless their blog is much bigger than mine AND they are providing incentives like ad space and promotion on social media. It's just so much work to post on someone's site that I rarely do it. Are there standard practices or etiquette for this?
Hi Sara, did you see my post How to Get Your Guest Post Accepted? I think you might find some helpful tips there.
This is a fantastic idea Amy! Thanks so much for your blog, It is a wonderful resource for a newbie like me!
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