5 Mistakes All Guest Bloggers Should Avoid

It's a great honor to be a guest blogger - an honor and a responsibility.  After all, you have been chosen to contribute to someone else's personal project of blood, sweat and tears.  If you blog yourself, then you understand the importance of developing a relationship with your readers; your readers trust you, and are loyal to you, because they know what they can expect from you.  As a guest blogger, it's important that you uphold that same kind of respect for the readers of the blogger who is hosting you.  Therefore, it's important that you approach your guest blog post with the same kind of tender loving care you would provide for your own.  Here are five mistakes all guest bloggers should avoid:

Lack of research.  Before you sit down to write a guest blog, take the time to actually read the blog you are writing for.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but it can be easy to forget this simple task if you have a lot of writing on your plate.  Make sure you understand what type of message the blogger is trying to relay, as well as how the writer chooses to relay it, and write your guest post accordingly.

Not choosing appropriate blogs.  Sure, writing guest posts is a great way to gain exposure - but if you write about fitness routines, it's not exactly going to help you to guest blog for a site about dog training.  Again, research is important here. This isn't to say you can't write about a topic appropriate to the niche of the blog itself, but if you have no idea what the niche involves, it is best to avoid it altogether.Lack of quality content.  Don't just put filler in your guest blog posts.  What you write is an advertisement for how you write for your own blog, and you won't attract any new readers with lackluster, low quality content.

Not following guidelines.  Many blogs have specific guidelines for their guest blog posts.  You may need to stay within a certain word limit, include pictures, or any of a variety of specifications.  Read the guidelines and stick to them.

Sales pitching.  Of course you are writing a guest blog post to attract others to your own site, but the readers don't need to be reminded of that.  Avoid the sales pitch and stick to providing informative and entertaining content, and you will naturally attract readers (rather than turn them off).

Guest blogging is a great way to promote your own blog.  So it's important that your guest blog posts are a good representative of what you would provide for your own blog readers.  Avoid these guest blogging mistakes and you will be well on your way to creating a high quality guest blog post.

About the Author: Patty Kleen is a full-time writer and guest blogger who loves sharing her knowledge of the web with others. She enjoys using email fax services, sites like Google Documents, and other online document sharing sites to streamline her writing work so that she can get the job done from anywhere she travels.