When you post your best article on another blog, remember it has to benefit you. You have to believe that your great article will work better on another top blog and put in all your passion and best skills to write this article, since it has to work for you. We also publish guest articles on QOT and share some secrets of highly successful guest bloggers.

1. Know your goals – Note down what you want from your guest blogging experience – free publicity, readers, traffic. Identify the blogs related to your expertise and niche, carefully study the previous guest articles on the blog and their reader response, then see what works for you in terms of your goals. Once you know what you want, then only get started…

2. Let your blog talk – When you approach with a guest post, let your blog URL do all the talking. Your blog will easily display your writing habits, topical interests, your social network and blogging skills. Remember to have a easy-to-find About page, because it speaks for who you are. Its easier to get a post accepted when your blog rocks. If you don’t have a blog, reference some other content you created.

3. Experience works -  If you guest blogged before, link out to previous articles to show your blogging skills. Superb guest articles are trusted resources, and those posted on bigger blogs, give more credibility. You want publicity for your site, you need to show your credentials.

4. Stick to niche – If you write great tech hacks,  guest blog on a top blog which posts great tech hacks. Staying topical in your niche will drive the most targeted traffic and readers your way. Always remember you need to know what you are talking about.

5. Cut the chase – Most guest bloggers send the first email asking if they can blog, second email discussing the topic, third email with the article, fourth email editing the format. Most blogs which accept guest bloggers will post some guidelines about content and format. Simply follow these guidelines, study the format of previous guest articles, study which type of articles get the most comments and backlinks – and then send in your article with the first email you send. If it is a great article, the chances are very high you cut the email exchanges and the article goes live faster.

6. Get original, be yourself – No one wants to publish rehashed content. You want to write your best stuff and share your viewpoint about an issue or topic. Write about what you truly feel and speak from your genuine experience and your passion for the subject will reveal itself. Give it your best shot.

7. Proof read. Do it again. -  Busy bloggers like a well formatted, grammatical error-free copy that they can instantly post without much editing. No one likes to do your spell checks. Many spell checking agents will pick wrong spellings, but may not be able to correct sentence structure etc. Proof read thoroughly. Then do it again.

8. Don’t be oversmart – Although it is a good idea to link to your blog, don’t overdo it. Its a bad idea to stuff your article with deeplinks to your blog, cloak affiliate links, promote your partners, use copyrighted content, send in a modified version of your older content etc. Such newbie efforts land your article in the Recycle bin faster with no response.

9. Create Impact – If you can add an original image to your article, it will make an impact. Try avoiding use of free icons, free stock images, linked flickr photos which someone else snapped – instead get in some original photos related to your article which can create an impact. See how best you can use bold, italics, lists, indents, headers like h3, h4 etc to create a high impact article that makes readers go wow and bookmark it.

10. Ooze credibility – Research your facts thoroughly before posting them. Its a great idea to reference the sources of information by linking to them, as it gives more credibility and  authority to your article. If you are discussing a controversial topic, its essential to have the facts right. Big bloggers will not publish defamatory articles, rumors and unreliable information without references.

11. Participate Actively. Once the article is live, your job is not over. Now is the time to draw the readers in. Get ready to discuss and interact with the readers via comments. It’s your articles, your platform, your limelight, so reply to comments and keep the discussion going. Submit to social bookmark sharing sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious and get more readers to read your article.

12. Don’t Embarrass Yourself. – Blog smartly and comment intelligently. Top blogs have a wide expert reader base, which will critically analyze and comment on your article. Be prepared with the answers and support your views, tips and tools. Wrong facts, ill informed views and ignorance about your subject content can backfire easily and work against your goals.

13. Don’t Embarrass Your Host – Your host blogger was gracious enough to publish your article. Don’t push them in an awkward situation by posting retractions, requesting post edits after it has gone live, modifying and re-posting the article on your blog or elsewhere, demanding money, spamming commentors and readers etc.

14. Get Analytical – Guest blogging is a learning experience which makes you a better blogger too. Track the response to your article in terms of traffic, feed count rise, comments etc and analyze if the guest article met your goals. If it did not work, then rethink what went wrong, learn from your experience, write another new article with more passion, and do it better.

15. Reload Article II – Smart guest bloggers learn from experience and once they know what works best for their goals. If the first guest article got you a phenomenal response,prepare and send out another guest article… after a few weeks.  Its will mostly be accepted as the host blogger is now more interested and receptive, as it creates great content for them too.

1. Building Significant Search Engine Traffic Will Take Time

New blogs generally take several months, at least, before they gain enough trust from search engines to produce any type of significant flow of traffic. If you are planning to focus on search engines as your primary source of traffic, you would be well advised to also focus on some other sources of traffic, especially in the early months.

Building a blog that is search engine-friendly is critical if you want to maximize search traffic, so take care of that from the start and focus on creating great content that others will talk about and link to.

2. Not All Traffic Is Equal

No two sources of traffic are quite the same. I get a good percentage of the traffic at my blog through social media, and I can attest to the fact that social media traffic is generally less responsive and less likely to stick around than visitors from most other sources. Focusing on stats without looking at the true results can cause a bit of an illusion. Sure, visitors are great, but are they leaving after being on the blog for 30 seconds and never returning?

Search engine traffic is highly sought after because these visitors are actively looking for what you have to offer. But other types of traffic have strong points too. Visitors who are referred from another blog will generally be more responsive since they have been recommended by someone they trust. Every source of traffic has pros and cons, so try to take these things into consideration when you are promoting your blog and analyzing the results.

3. Consistent Posting Is Key

Most bloggers need to keep publishing new posts in order to keep traffic at a certain level. Some bloggers are able to generate large amounts of search engine traffic to older posts to the point that traffic will be fairly sustained without new posts, but this is pretty rare. New posts keep subscribers coming back, they keep social media votes coming, and they keep adding new pages to search engine indexes.

Posting consistently doesn’t mean that you have to post every day, it simply means that you need to publish content on a regular basis, whatever that may be. Almost every blog that successfully draws traffic is publishing new posts with some consistency.

4. Consistent Traffic Is Almost Impossible

Although posting needs to be consistent to keep traffic levels up, that doesn’t mean that it will keep traffic levels consistent. Every blog has ups and downs and two days are rarely the same. This is a natural occurrence and it should be embraced or else it can become very frustrating. Make sure that you enjoy the times when traffic is high, and keep on plugging away to get through the slower times. Blogging would almost be boring is traffic levels didn’t fluctuate like they do.

5. Repeat Visitors Should Be the Goal

Yes, it’s great to see an impressive number of unique visitors arriving at your blog, but how many of them will be back? Repeat visitors are the lifeblood of blogs. Subscribers, of course, are most likely to keep coming back, so focusing on subscribers is typically a good thing.

Repeat visitors will not only help to improve your overall traffic flow and stats, more importantly they will be your most responsive visitors in terms of comments, social media votes, sales, and just about anything else. As they keep coming back and reading your blog, you will be earning more of their trust and your network will grow.

6. Links Help In Several Ways

Building inbound links is a priority for most bloggers, and for good reason. They drive click-through traffic from other blogs, they increase your exposure around the blogosphere, and they help to boost your search engine rankings. Link building is often prioritized because of search engine rankings, but the other factors should not be overlooked. If you blog in a competitive niche, recognition and exposure will be critical in convincing visitors that they should pay attention to you. Getting a few links from respected blogs can help with search engine traffic, but the added credibility that you get can be just as important, especially for newer bloggers.

7. Balance Is Important

Diversity in traffic will help you to avoid losing a huge percentage of your visitors if something unforeseen happens. Search engine rankings are not permanent, especially with Google being so ready and willing to penalize blogs who they feel have violated their guidelines. If you rely too heavily on search engine traffic you could find yourself losing a big portion of your traffic at any given time.

Also, social media traffic is extremely inconsistent, so just because you have been getting decent traffic doesn’t mean it will continue. The best approach is to spread things out and focus on growing traffic from several sources rather than just one. That way you will always be safe and you won’t depend on a particular source for your livelihood.

8. Smaller Sources of Traffic Shouldn’t Necessarily Be Ignored

Not all sources of traffic will send thousands of visitors, but that doesn’t mean that they are not valuable. For example, participating in forums is likely to drive some traffic to your blog, but not tons. However, those visitors can be very valuable because they have met you or learned from you through the forum and they’ll be more likely to subscribe and become a loyal reader.

Likewise, leaving comments on other blogs will bring some traffic, but it is rare that any one comment will bring a lot of visitors. Still, this traffic is valuable because many times they have clicked through due to something that you said catching their attention.

Don’t simply assume that traffic is measured only in terms of numbers. Smaller sources of traffic have been instrumental in building many successful blogs.

9. Networking Is Critical

All successful bloggers are surrounded by a strong network of other successful bloggers. This is something that I didn’t really think much about before I started blogging, but I quickly came to realize the importance of networking.

A strong network will provide you with friends and colleagues that can be a help when you need some advice, they can provide links to your blog, they can give you social media votes, they can be an inspiration and encouragement to you, and they can even wind up being your partners in future projects. Being a strong networker is all about being willing to help others and being proactive in meeting others.

10. Blog Traffic Can Be Bought for Relatively Little Money

If you are interested in getting some extra promotion or growing your blog quickly, there are a number of affordable advertising options that will drive real traffic to your blog. Pay Per Click ads can be very effective and inexpensive (depending on what words and phrases you bid on). StumbleUpon advertising is another option. You can purchase their traffic for just $0.05 per visitor. Even banner advertisements on other blogs can be relatively cheap. Running an ad for a month or more will give you exposure to a new audience and if you were to calculate a cost-per-click it is usually pretty low.