Guest posting on established, authoritative blogs is a great way to give your own site and therefore law practice, more exposure and visibility. Guest blogging is a craft; there are many legal firms doing it, but if you follow these three practices, you are sure to stand out above the rest. Like working on cases, the process requires understanding, adaptiveness and commitment.
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Read the Blog
Before you write anything, you should take a close look at the blog you hope to be writing for. Take note of the language, attitude, tone, and formality of the posts throughout the blog, especially the ones that do well and are in the section that you plan to be writing. Figure out the type of audience you are writing for—demographics, attitude, alignment, etc. If you can fit in with the other successful blog posts, then you’re more likely to get your writings live. Briefly look through all of the topics that have been covered already so that you can ensure that you’re offering new insight to the website; on that same note, make sure that the topic you plan on writing about really fits in the categories and subject matter of the blog. If your topic fits clearly into one of the relevant law categories or subjects, you’re more likely to get published; if your topic is vague and and website’s host can’t really decide whether it fits in one place or another, your post might end up being pushed aside.
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Deliver
The bottom line is that you have to provide quality content. Without it, nothing will go through. Your post needs to be informative, clearly written, well revised, and insightful. You should know very specifically what type of audience you’re writing for. Keep in mind that you are writing a blog post, not an article. Keep things brief and relatively simple; long, in-depth articles are seldom well received in a blogging community. Your post should be structured to read fluidly and flow easily. The person that reads your post to decide whether or not to publish it will be able to tell whether you put effort into it, or not. You need to match or exceed the quality of the other posts you read on the site. Keep this mindset throughout the process: if you wouldn’t post it on your own blog, don’t submit it to someone else’s.
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Make it Yours
Remember that getting published isn’t the end goal. The end goal is to increase traffic to your site. Regardless of where it sleeps at night, this is still your post; treat it as such. Establish with the blog host how you can connect and interact with the readers. Respond to comments and questions. Be courteous and honorable. Thank people for compliments and shares and answer their questions in an intelligent and respectful way. Promote the post yourself, as well, as much as you can. Share it through your own social media outlets; the better your guest post’s traffic is, the better your linked site’s traffic will be.
