Guest blogging has evolved over the years but 2012 has really pushed those who take part in guest blogging into thinking outside the box and going the extra mile to achieve the best quality links. If you are looking for a little inspiration, these handy hints have been compiled with you in mind.

400 Words Doesn’t Cut it

Anyone who creates guest posts on a regular basis will be familiar with the 400 words rule, but it has always been a minimum rather than an example of the perfect guest post length. Posts that just about meet 400 words come across as rushed and many of the more reputable blogs now expect posts of between 600-1000 words so keep this in mind as your benchmark.

Images are Expected, not a Bonus

Always endeavour to include an image within your post as this is something that increasingly more bloggers are requesting as part of the submitting process and even those that aren’t will be grateful that you made the effort to source something so that they don’t have to. Take the time to get your head around CC attribution and only provide images you know can be legally distributed online.

Authorship will Get you Everywhere

Gaining credibility as a writer online has taken a huge step forward this year with the opportunity offered by Google. Link from your blog post to your G+ profile and then edit your Google plus profile to add the website that you posted on as a site that you are a ‘contributor to’. To do this, click ‘edit profile’ on G+ then go to ‘contributor to’ and link to the site you contributed to. The more and more you are able to do this for high quality sites the more authorship status you will gain, giving you the edge over other writers when approaching prestigious blogs with your ideas.

Domain Authority isn’t Everything

There was once a time where our main concern when it came to guest blogging was the page rank or domain authority of the blog in question. These days there are so many other factors to consider that the rank and authority should be the last thing to check. The reason for this is that a site built for purely SEO purpose that looks awful in terms of design, is full of advertising yet has a domain authority in the 70s sets alarm bells ringing and the fact of the matter is that sites with inflated domain authorities are unlikely to be around in a years’ time. Instead, look at the social signals the site has and how active they are on social platforms together with the design and the quality of the articles they post.

Make a Connection

The most popular blogs are most likely being inundated with possible guest posts on a daily basis, so how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? Making yourself known on their site before sending anything through is a great place to start. From engaging with them on social media to leaving valuable comments on published posts, you can help to make an impression so that when it comes to sending a guest post idea their way, they are familiar with who you are and what you are about.

Guest posting still has fantastic value from a marketing perspective but this value can only be achieved through spending time and researching each post thoroughly, getting to know your blog of choice and its audience as well as gaining your own authority as an online contributor.