guest blog posts – Nicole Munoz Consulting

20 Ideas for Marketing Your eBook

by Nicole Munoz

Get your book reviewed by review clubs. Each book store (E.g. Kindle store, Nook store, iBookstore,) has an active community of people who’re happy to review books for one another.

Get bloggers to review your book. Pay them to review the book if necessary. (Note: This isn’t a bribe, as you’re only paying for the review, regardless of what the review actually says. However, they should disclose the fact that they’ve received a free copy.)
Get on the radio. Buy an ad in the Radio Television Interview Report (RTIR) to promote yourself as an expert.
Contact podcasts and offer to be interviewed. Send them a free copy of your eBook first so they can make sure they like what you have to say. You may be asked for a sample of you on audio so they know you sound good when recorded. Look at PodcastDirectory.com for some ideas.

Do a search for your competitors’ books. Look at who’s promoting them and contact those websites. Offer a generous affiliate payout if you’re selling on Clickbank, or try to find some other “in” with them.
Tap into a pre-existing community. For instance, if you’re selling a fishing eBook, get involved with online fishing forums. Build a reputation for yourself, then promote your book.
Try to push your eBook to the top of your category, if you’re on an eReader platform. Have all your readers buy your book on one day and give them a bonus if they do so. This can send your book skyrocketing into the top charts, which gets you even more visibility.
Start your book cheap. Start your book at $0.99 cents, even if you eventually plan on selling it for $4.99. Starting it off cheap lets you get a bunch of reviews and initial traction right off the bat.
Buy ads on reader-oriented websites like Goodreads. This gets you in front of people active book lovers who’re already in the habit of buying books all the time.

Guest post on other blogs in your industry. Contact bloggers you know and ask if you can write a free article for them. If you don’t know many bloggers, write a brief line about yourself and what makes you credible and offer to do a free content piece for them.

Create a compelling affiliate program for your book. Be unusually generous. For example, offer a 100% payout for the first 3 books, or offer a $50 bonus to anyone who sells ten books. This can attract a lot of new affiliate talent towards your book.
Comb your LinkedIn and Facebook network. Look for people you know that have audiences, host events or have a large online presence. See if they’d be willing to promote your book. Make sure to phrase it as a win for them as well by offering to help them in some way.
Send your first chapter to BookDaily. This site gives avid readers one free chapter every day, on books topics they’re interested in. If you wrote a business book for instance, your first chapter can be sent out to everyone who’s interested in business.

Lookup conventions and conferences in your industry. Go to all of them. Meet other influencers in your niche and see if you can work together to promote one another. Who knows? You might also sell a few book copies.
Head to Twitter and search for questions that someone who needs your book might ask. For example, if you have a book about making your computer faster, you might type in “computer so slow” or “why is my computer slow” and so on in Twitter. Find people who recently asked relevant questions and shoot them a message.

Keep publishing! Publish lead-in books. If your main book is a $6.99 book, consider publishing a slew of $0.99 or free books just to get more traction and to build more of a brand. All of those sales will feed into the sales of your larger book.
If you’re publishing the book on Clickbank, try driving some traffic from Google AdWords and from Bing. Paid traffic can convert extremely well. This works much better for Clickbank than Kindle, because Clickbank books tend to sell for a lot more money.
As a long term strategy, create a blog. Post high quality content to that blog every week. Get ranked in the search engines and build a loyal following. This is a great way to sell books on a recurring basis, as well as a great way to launch new books.
Create a competition. The competition should be related to content within your book. Prizes can include free consultations with you, ten copies of your book, your help on their next project, a personalized plan for their project, etc.
Use Google Alerts to keep tabs on your topic. If someone writes a new blog post about something related to your book, be one of the very first people to respond to the post. Link to your Kindle book from your “name” and “website” field.

Guest Blogging Byline Tips & Templates

by Nicole Munoz

One of the main benefits of guest blogging is having the opportunity for a byline or resource box that tells the reader about you and includes a link back to your site. Some blogs may have specific byline guidelines and if they do, you should follow them accordingly. This document will give you additional tips and some quick templates to help you along.

Tips:

Check for byline guidelines on the blog you’re writing for before proceeding.
Make the link in your byline highly-relevant to your content. Readers will be more likely to click. This may mean linking to a specific page of your website, a special offer, etc.
Include keywords in your link for search engine benefit. Conduct keyword research at http://wordtracker.com or using your favorite keyword tool to find a very specific keyword phrase that is readily searched for and describes your link.
Include a specific call-to-action. Don’t just say, “My website is XXX” as it’s not compelling enough to get a click. Ask readers to sign up for your mailing list, download some free software, ask for a quote, etc.

What to Offer in Your Byline’s Call-to-Action

As noted in the tips above, we encouraged you to include a call-to-action in your byline. That doesn’t mean you have to ask people to buy something, but if you want the most results from your guest post, you want to ask readers to specifically do something.

You can offer:

A subscription to your newsletter
Invitation to a webinar.
A free report.
A free consultation.
Software download.
Tool download – think spreadsheet, worksheet, template, etc.
Instructional / step-by-step video or tutorial related to the article.

Anything you can offer of value is perfect your call-to-action.

Byline Templates

You can use the templates below as a ready-made guideline for your guest posting bylines. Feel free to use them as is and replace the red text with your own information. Or you can use bits and pieces. Whatever works for you.

Template: Free sign up for newsletter, publication, webinar etc.

[Your name] makes it easy for you [insert how you help people]. Sign up for [his/her] highly-acclaimed and surprisingly free [insert publication, etc] to find out how to [enter a specific result], [quickly, easily, inexpensively, etc].

Template: Free webinar / teleseminar series sign up

[Your name] is your host of the [frequency – daily, monthly, etc] [catchy name of webinar / teleminar series] that shows you how to [insert benefit / desired result]. Sign up to instantly download your first lesson free.

Template: Free report

Need a little extra help? For a complete guide that shows you exactly how to [insert specific and main benefit, related to the article], grab a copy of [name]’s [name of report]. It’s yours free and will save you plenty of [headache, time, money – be specific].

Template: Free consultation

For a free, no-obligation consultation, contact [insert name] by completing the [3-step / quick-response / something that shows it’s simple to do it] form at [insert location of form]. Set aside just [amount of time for consultation] and [he’ll/she’ll] how you can [benefit of your consultation/service].

Template: Software or Tool

[Insert your name] can help make the job go [X] times faster with her highly-acclaimed [insert software/tool name]. It allows you to [what it does + benefit], saving you tons of [benefit of the benefit]. [Download yours free / get a free trial] at [insert location].

Template: Instructional Video

Need a little visual? [insert name] shows you exactly how to [what you‘re teaching] [benefit – in 6 easy steps, etc.]. Go to [insert location] to watch a step-by-step video to get started [insert project, task] right away.

Template: Step-by-step Instructions

Need a breakdown, step-by-step? [insert name], your go-to source for [subject matter / product type], breaks it down for you, making it simpler than ever to [insert project / task]. Go to [insert location] for a complete and easy-to-follow tutorial.

Writing A Guest Blog Post Checklist

by Nicole Munoz

Before putting together any guest post, make sure to review this checklist. It will ensure you cover all your bases when providing quality content and making it as easy as possible for the target blog to publish your content.

Note: “target blog” simply refers to the blog on which you want your blog post published.

Post Content:

Put your best foot forward with the content of your post. Here are some tips to help you do that.

Read Through the Blog: Look at recent posts and dig deep into the category you want to write about. You do not want to duplicate something that has already been done. Take note of the voice and style to see how your writing might fit in well. Also, take note of the perspective the blogger takes on certain subjects. While there may room for varying perspectives, you do not want to directly contradict the opinions of the blog owner.

Read the Comments: Understand the people who are reading the blog. What posts do they seem to resonate with? What questions do they have? How can you help with something they seem to be looking for?

Create a Quality Post: Obviously, you want to make sure your post is of the highest quality possible. If you want it to be noticed by the blogger and to make an impact on the audience, it just has to be.

Create an Original Post: You will also be creating completely original content and offering exclusive publishing rights, unless the blog does not require it. While you can write on topics you’ve covered before, make the text is original.

Create a Targeted Post: In addition to having a quality and original post, you want it highly targeted to the audience. Mention things that are relevant to the readers and link to previous posts and any relevant products the blogger may have.

Post Formatting

Formatting is also important. It shows extra care and attention and makes it easier for the target blog to publish your post.

Use good web writing format by using short sentences and paragraphs. Use bullet points and subheadlines to make your content easy to read.
Format your subheadings with <h2> tags or whatever is appropriate for the blog.
Format your links, so they can be pasted into a blog and be clickable. For example:

Jeff recently <a href=”http://clickme.com/previous-post”>fly fishing</a> here.

Include images as they can add interest to the post. Make sure you have created the images or you have permission to publish them. You can host the image on your site and include the html code for the blog to automatically, but you may want to also attach the image, so they can upload it themselves. Name the image something descriptive and make sure the file size is appropriate for web publishing (i.e. Not too big!).
Do keyword research and optimize the post for a relevant keyword. Don’t let SEO take over as the quality of your post is key, but doing that extra bit of work will make your post attractive to the target blog and will more likely result in long-term benefit for you.

Overall, it’s important to put your best foot forward. Don’t skimp on quality or polishing your post before submitting it. Do your homework, write your best work, check it twice and you’ll do just fine.

How to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

by Nicole Munoz

There are a number of ways to find guest blogging opportunities and this guide will provide you an illustrated tour of how you can get great exposure through guest posting. Whether you search for blogs that publicly accept submissions, approach blogs directly, use a guest blogging site or a combination of all those methods, there are plenty of opportunities to be found.

Assessing the Quality of the Opportunity

There are a number of factors to consider when deciding whether or not you want to write for a particular blog. While you may have other considerations, the factors we cover in this guide include targeted audience, traffic and community interaction. How much weight you add to each factor is completely up to you and depends on what is most important for you.

Quality Assessment Method #1: Targeted Audience

Before you write your first word, make sure the audience is truly targeted for you. Would they make good readers of your blog and customers for your products? While there may be plenty of blogs who write on the same subject matter as you, they may not be the right fit.

For example, if you write on political subjects, writing for a blog that doesn’t match your ideology may not be the best idea.

Or if you have a cooking site that features “from scratch” recipes, you may not find the opportunity to write for a blog that promotes quick and packaged fixes for meals a good fit for you either.

Ultimately, it’s up to you decide if the target audience is right for you, but do your homework first.

Quality Assessment Method #2: Traffic

There is no sure method of knowing a blog’s true traffic, unless they tell you. If the blog accepts advertising or requests content submissions, you might be able to find this information published on their website. If you can’t find that, you can use a tool like Alexa.com to assess their traffic.

TIP: Never base your assessment on traffic alone. The higher the traffic, the more competitive it is likely to get posted. Use your judgement accordingly.

Here is an example of estimated traffic ranking of mashable.com. Below, you can see the average traffic rank worldwide (in green) and in the US (you can customize the data for any country, if you prefer). The lower the number, the more popular the site.

In this case, Alexa says that mashable.com is the 222^nd most popular website on the web. The ranking is based on users who use the Alexa toolbar and is often skewed in providing website with web savvy audiences higher rankings. However, any site that ranks in the top 10,000 or so is very likely to have a large volume of traffic.

To get a better picture of the popularity of a site, instead of relying on the single ranking from Alexa, you can compare the ranking to other similar sites.

First, you can click the “Related Links” tab to find related sites:

Because some of these are social networking sites, rather than targeted blogs, that mashable.com tends to write about, we’ll disregard Twitter, Twitpic, Tweetmeme and FriendFeed. In this case, TechCrunch, Reader/Write/Web, Wired, Search Engine Journal and/or Lifehacker seem to more closely suit our needs for comparison.

TIP: You can compare any related sites that you want. You don’t have to only compare the ones Alexa suggests.

We can compare traffic ranking by clicking the “Traffic Stats” tab.

Then you’ll see a traffic graph and below that, you can enter sites to compare. We have decided to compare Techcrunch, Wired and Lifehacker and clicked “traffic rank”.

From the graph above, we can see that Mashable and TechCrunch have comparable traffic, but Mashable seems to come out the winner more consistently. Wired and Lifehacker appear to have lower traffic levels.

If you want to see specific numbers of any of the sites you are comparing, you can simply search for that site in the Alexa search box.

Quality Assessment Method #3: Community Interaction

If interaction is important to you, you may want to look at how people comment and interact on the site. However, realize that commenting doesn’t always give an accurate reflection of a blog’s traffic. Some blogs are more interactive than others and most blog visitors will read and never post a comment.

That said, understanding the vocal audience of a blog may give you an idea of whether or not this is the type of audience you want to write for. Some blogs may be more controversial than you were bargaining for or may not moderate or control their community in a way that you are comfortable with. On the other hand, you may find a lower traffic blog with a very tuned in and thoughtful audience of people you would like to connect with. In that case, the guest blogging opportunity might be a good one for you.

Finding Blogs

Some blogs you come across may include guest post submission guidelines. If so, always make sure you follow the guidelines to the letter. If there is no submission information, don’t let this stop you from submitting a post for consideration. To find submission guidelines, always look in the website menus (top, side and bottom) of the page or search on Google for “websitename.com submission guidelines”, “websitename.com submit post” etc.

Whatever method or methods you use to find blogs, make sure you do a quality assessment before jumping right in.

Finding Method #1: Google

A Google search is simple. Enter your topic plus “blog” and browse the results. In the example below, we’ve looked for “basket weaving blog”:

Technorati

Technorati is a large directory and search engine for blogs. You can browse through categories, by selecting from the top of the page:

You can also use the search box at the very top of the page to either search for blogs OR posts on certain topics. In the example below, we are searching for “stamp collecting” blogs:

Technorati lists the blog according to their own ranking algorithm:

Alexa Related Links

When you already have some sites in mind or ones you’ve already submitted to, you may want to find related sites to consider.

We already talk about Alexa’s Related Links feature and it will come in handy for finding additional blogs to potentially submit to. In this example, we have searched for sites related to comicsalliance.com:

In addition to the list above, if you scroll down a bit, you can search sites by category as well.

Using a Guest Blogging Site

There are sites and communities popping up where you can collaborate with other blog owners.

One such site is MyBlogGuest.com. It’s a free site where you can connect to find guest blogging opportunities and even to find guest bloggers to write for your site. Let’s take a quick look at how this site works.

MyBlogGuest

You can sign up for free at MyBlogGuest.com. When you sign up, you will be prompted to complete your profile, including your social networking accounts, a photo of yourself, your websites, your blogging experience and more. This will make it easier for a potential blog to evaluate whether or not they want to work with you.

Once you’re all set up, you can navigate to the Forum and find the “Looking for a guest for my blog” forum. There you can find blogs who are looking for people to post.

You can also post your own offers in the “Looking for a blog to guest post”, so other blogs can view your information.

Final Thoughts:

As you can probably see, once you start finding site to guest post for, it becomes even easier to find more. You can also use your experience on certain blogs as leverage to get other blogs to readily publish your posts. Finding opportunities isn’t hard, if you know how to look.

How to Verify Authorship of Your Guest Blog Posts

by Nicole Munoz

One of the challenges Google has had is the ability to verify content as high quality content. Many marketers and SEO agencies spent years spinning content into hundreds and thousands of versions and posting it to multiple websites all with links back to the main website. This helped the websites achieve top rankings in Google because at that time, the algorithm based a high quality website by how many links that site had.

Google has been trying to figure out a way to provide better search results for the end user. Their search engine is their primary product and it is in their best interest to give the best results possible. They then hired a team of Search Quality Raters to manually review the search results and provide data about the results. This was a step in the right direction, but not a long term solution!

When Google launched Google+ it seemed to the world that it was an attempt to compete with the social media powerhouses of Facebook and Twitter. Maybe it was. Today Google+ is much more than that. And those that have delayed jumping in and have been slow to adapt to another social network… now is the time.

Google+ has many benefits but the one I want to talk about today is how to use it to verify authorship of your guest blog posts. Google wants to know what content you have written. They want to know what content they can safely mark as “high quality” and show in the search results.

The path to verify your guest blog posts is quite straightforward. In essence, it is a reciprocal link from your Google+ profile to your guest blog post.

The reason why you would want to verify your content is two-fold. First, Google has stated that they will give preferential treatment to content that is verified. Second, the search listings of verified content have a special bonus. They have a picture of the person who wrote the content. This little picture should increase the click through rate of your listing.

Looking at that listing, what listing are your eyes drawn to? Yep! The one with the picture. In theory, if all other things are equal, the user would click on the listing with the picture, making the click through rate of your organic search listing improve.

So how do we verify authorship of our guest blog posts and get that little picture next to our post?

Step One: Link to your Google+ profile from your guest blog post.

In your author bio you can normally put in 2-3 links to your websites. It is not yet the norm, but will be soon, for sites to request the Google+ link also. Simply put a text link with your name and link it to your Google+ profile with the ?REL=AUTHOR at the end.

Step Two: Link From Your Google+ contributor section to your guest blog post.

You can add as many websites as you need to and you can also change the visibility so they don’t all have to show up on your profile if you don’t want them to.

And that is it!

Nicole Munoz is the CEO of http://www.StartRankingNow.com. Since 2010 Nicole has helped over 150 clients market their businesses online and has spoken at over 36 live events attended by more than 41,000 people. She has recently published a series of 10 books and DVDs on Amazon called 7 Figure Marketing Blueprint. To discover more about SEO and Content Marketing, sign up for a webinar with Nicole at http://webinars.nicolemunoz.com.

Guest Posting: How to Get Readers to Follow You

by Nicole Munoz

Guest posting is the latest craze in the online business world. Business owners everywhere want to post an article on a site that has a high page rank because it means they get a backlink, and that backlink can do wonders for their page rank. However, it’s not only the organic search engine traffic that drives people to guest post, it’s also the chance to entice that blog’s huge following to come over to their website.

When a website has a large following, it means good things for you. Hundreds or even thousands of people will read your guest post, and those people can share your article with everyone they know on social media. Now, this might make you think that the only thing you have to do is create a great article, and your work is done, but that’s not entirely correct. Writing a quality article is important, but it’s what you write in your byline that matters the most.

The Secret to a Powerful Byline

Your byline is where you will state your name, what you do, your website, and any other information you want readers to know. It’s your time to sell your business in a paragraph.

You can’t be boring in this section. People won’t read it if they know it’s just some gibberish about your business. They don’t know you, and they won’t feel motivated to know you if you come across as just some prerecorded message.

The secret to a powerful byline is to give the reader one more piece of information they can’t deny. You have to hide it in the byline, so they don’t even realize that it’s really you trying to sell your business.

So, what’san example of some ways you can write a good byline? Check out these examples:

Want more information to help you [state a problem]? Get a complete guide that helps you [solve whatever the problem], come by [website name] for a free copy of [eBook or report you have available]. It can save you from [the consequences of the problem].

[Your name] hosts a [frequency of a webinar] [catchy webinar title] that shows how you can [benefit the reader would like to have]. Sign up now to [solve a problem may have].

The idea behind the byline is to grab their attention, and then offer them something free to persuade them to come to your website. You want to bait them with the byline, so you can then reel them in when they come to your site looking for a solution to their problem.

Not sure what to offer as an incentive? Check out these ideas:

A subscription to a newsletter with helpful tips
A webinar invitation
A free report
A free consultation
Software download
Helpful spreadsheet, worksheet, template or some other tool that they may need or want
A video tutorial with instruction on how to do whatever was discussed in the guest post

By using your byline effectively, you can get people to come to your website to discover the power you can give them with your business. Now go out there and start guest posting!

This is a Guest Blog Post by Marcelina Hardy from StartRankingNow.com