Freelancing

Should You Guest Post as a Freelance Writer?

When aspiring freelance writers reach out to me and ask me how they could get off to a good start in freelance writing, I tell them lots of things. For example, I tell them to:

  • Write a blog
  • Build a personal brand
  • Use your real name and picture on social media
  • Engage with the relevant people on social media
  • Comment on others’ blogs
  • Publish guest posts

Some of them try out a couple of things, but most of them gave up on the hustle of being a freelance writer.

It’s true that freelancing requires a lot of work, grit, and perseverance.

I used to write guest posts for fellow bloggers in the past, but I couldn’t do it in the past two years.

Now, I’ve decided to pay close attention to guest posting once again.

I won’t do a guest post for a backlink or SEO. Rather, I’ll do it for building relationships with fellow bloggers and their audiences.

I know if my blog post could help two new faces, it’ll be worth it. So I’ll try to come up with the best content to guest post on others’ blogs.

Guest posting has been a great channel for me to reach out to the new audiences and generate leads through that.

SEOs and online marketers who used to guest post for search engine ranking and backlinks might not like this idea of guest posting for relationship building, but it works for me.

So the question is, should you guest post as a freelance writer?

The answer is yes.

guest post as a freelance writer

Here are four reasons why guest posting is necessary for freelance writers:

#1) Strengthen Your Relationship with a Blogger

When you put out your best content to guest post on someone else’s blog, they’d appreciate your gesture and consider it as a great contribution to their blog. Make sure that you produce the highest-quality content for them. Go through their blog posts, categories, and comments to understand their audience, and then come up with the right topic to guest post.

#2) Meet the New Audience

One of the perks of guest posting is that you get to meet their audience. Now, it won’t immediately bring every reader to your blog, but instead, it’ll start building a perception of your brand. Above all, you get a chance to share your ideas, thoughts, and suggestions with a new audience. If your content does ring a bell, they’d hunt you down on social media and start following you like crazy.

#3) Your Name and Face Get Recognition

It might not be a big deal for you, but I think your name and face’s recognition is huge. I’m an advocate of building a personal brand so I can tell you that name and face recognition is a big deal. Have you noticed that social media activists who put out videos on social media often get attention in public as well? The reason is the face recognition; people might not know their full name, but they’d like to take a selfie because they have seen them on Facebook. Ask Mr. Hisham Sarwar, he can vouch for this. He is a successful freelancer, entrepreneur, blogger, and freelancing instructor.

#4) You Can Land New Clients

It has happened to me more than once. If you want to win new clients through guest posting, then don’t put expectations on guest posting. The reason is that when the hopes are high, and you don’t get to see results, it starts to bug you, and you lose interest over time. Rather, acknowledge the opportunity you’re getting to put out content on someone else’s real estate. It’s a win-win situation for you, but you have to make sure that you’re giving away your best content for guest posting.

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Wrapping up

The freelance writers who’re reading this should take guest posting seriously. It could turn things around for them. And, I’m saying this based on my personal experience.

I promise you that guest posting would work only if your intent is right. If you’re trying to inject your links for the sake of SEO juice, it won’t work out most of the times. Not only would you spark a stingy conversation with the blog owner, but you could also revoke your guest posting facility.

The best way to guest post is by rethinking the idea of guest posting. Use this fantastic engagement strategy to build relationships, inspire people, and solve problems. And, guest posting would do wonders for you.

What are your thoughts on guest posting?

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13 Comments

  1. Hi Hassaan,

    Yes, of course. Freelance writers should blog because it will help to boost their credibility and increase their visibility. And the guest post they create, the better for their career since it will also serve as a learning curve that will enable them to hone their writing skills.
    It doesn’t matter whether it is a free guest post opportunity or not. The benefits are enormous, as you have already specified in your article, which includes landing freelance writing gigs.

    1. Hi Moss,

      Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment. I’m glad you agree with me on this topic. Guest posting is a great opportunity to build connections, but unfortunately, a lot of people put it under the SEO umbrella only.

      I genuinely believe that guest posting could do wonders for bloggers. Of course, you have to choose the right blogs, topics, and keywords to pull this off.

      Thanks, again, Moss.

  2. Hi Hassaan,

    Great article. I strongly believe in quality when it comes to guest posting. We are actually devaluing ourselves when we try to pitch someone with a low quality guest post. I really liked the relationship building aspect you mentioned here. People often tend to look only for backlinks or SEO benefits.

    1. Hi Surej,

      Of course, the content quality is essential to success. Once I read somewhere that you must put out your best content for guest posts. And, I think that’s great advice.

      What do you think?

  3. Hi Hassaan,
    great article man.
    I enjoyed reading it and I agree with you that guest posting comes with a host of benefits attached to it. As an SEO junkie, I like it because it gives definite SEO value to my site, but I agree that it’s a good practice for freelance writers too.
    Fun fact:
    I got my first writing gig after I left a thoughtful comment on someone’s blog.
    And that webmaster reached out to me out of the blue.

    1. Hi Nikola,

      It makes me happy to find out that commenting worked for you. It always works if you pay attention to it and do it the right way. Most people want early results, and thus, they quit things that don’t show any progress.

      Besides guest posting, you should also publish content on your blog. What do you think?

  4. Great article, but

    Do you think that link-building via guests post is still a viable option in the future (in 2019 or coming years to see)?

    I think this question is a huge debate, but yet to get a good answer Hassaan. 🙂

    1. Hello Shaheer,

      I think 85% of blogs that accept guest posts don’t provide dofollow links.

      It doesn’t stop me from guest posting on those blogs.

      My mission is to get my name and face recognized on the relevant blogs. I get it that most bloggers who guest post do it for the backlinks, but I don’t operate that way.

      I do believe that people are underestimating the power of name and face recognition, big time.

      All the best.

      1. “My mission is to get my name and face recognized on the relevant blogs. ”

        Good motivation and requires hard work.

  5. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on guest posting and relationship that writer must create with a blogger. It has no comparison to any other technique that one can use to build their goodwill. Keep sharing content like this.

    1. Thanks, bro.

      I appreciate your comment.

      Tell me about CyberPanel? Do you own this company or you work for them?

      1. CyberPanel is a web hosting control panel that helps end-users to manage their websites from a GUI (Graphical User Interface). It is designed to speed up your work with a few clicks. But, if you dont use it, then it will take hours to get your job done from the command line terminal on Linux. Web hosting control panels are designed to manage your things at an individual level without any technical knowledge.
        I am working at CyberPanel as a digital marketing expert, and I also write articles for them.

        Regards,

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