Written by Danica on 03.02.2015

Guest Post Like a Boss: ONE Golden Rule to Rule Them All

If there is ONE golden rule you should remember before embarking on the exciting journey that is guest posting, it is this:

“One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.”

Guest posting is no walk in the park. It is not something you can start today and hope to reap results immediately. Thankfully, the golden rule above is pretty much all you need to remember when you initiate the outreaching, pitching and content-churning process.

How the golden rule applies to writers or content producers

We all know that freelancers and content producers are a dime a dozen on sites like oDesk and PeoplePerHour, but GOOD writers, on the other hand, are hard to come by. Sure, there are awesome writers who won’t cost you your first-born, but neither should you exploit them. You know what they say: “If you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys.”

What to do: The right thing to do would be to pay them according to their worth, which is clearly evident from the quality of the content they deliver. I’d decline to say how much, as you will need to decide on a payment that commensurates with the writer’s talent, but $1 per 100 words may prove to be too miniscule a budget.

How the golden rule applies to the bloggers and contacts

Put yourself in the shoes of the bloggers and contacts you’re communicating with. Naturally, you’d want to treat them as you would treat yourself, and that means…

• don’t reach out with messages you don’t want to hear
• don’t spam their inboxes with inane emails beseeching to “cooperate in the long term” when you can’t even get the nature of their blogs or sites, which brings us to…
• don’t assume you know what their sites are all about – take the time to READ thoroughly and understand
• don’t use templates or canned responses – you don’t want to be bombarded with impersonal emails or calls so don’t do it in the first place
• don’t send out half-assed content that you won’t even want to post on your blog

How the golden rule applies to your audience

Think about your content and how it would appeal to your audience and community. If you were a part of that community, won’t you want to read wholesome, useful content where the author takes his or her time responding to comments and questions? A good guest post involves the community as a whole, and if you do everything right, you’ll soon find your brand growing along with your very own loyal following.

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