Make Yourself a Star! Turn Yourself Into a Guest Author.

Guest-blogging is one of the best online marketing strategies — and it’s fun, too, especially when you have momentum leading you to bigger and better opportunities on a regular basis.

The problem is, it’s notoriously hard to get started as a guest author. So, what can you do to generate that early momentum for your personal brand and become a guest author for the first time?

The advantages of guest authorship

First, you need to understand why guest authorship is so beneficial. The premise is simple: When you write posts on external publishing sites, you gain the following benefits:

  • Visibility. The more you write for external publications, the more your work is going to be seen, and the more brand recognition you’ll build. Considering that 89 percent of B2B marketers list brand awareness as their most important goal (above sales and lead generation), this is vital.
  • Authority. The more you guest post, the more you’re going to be seen as an authority figure. With enough posts and publishers under your belt, you’ll be seen as an influencer in your own right.
  • Link-building. Guest-posting also gives you the opportunity to build valuable links to your site, which will result in referral traffic and improve your SEO.
  • Gateways to more opportunities. The more you guest-post, the more attractive you’ll become to other publishers as a prospective author, which means you’ll earn even better opportunities to guest-post and contribute content in the future.

So, how can you get started and begin seeing these advantages in real-time? Here’s how:

Step 1: Build a personal brand.

Your first step is to create your personal brand. You’ll need to decide how you want to present yourself professionally, including your main areas of expertise and your main writing subjects. Claim all available social media profiles you can, and start building up a following.

QuickSprout has a detailed guide on personal branding you should read for more information.

Step 2: Create a hub.

Next, you’ll need to create a hub for yourself (usually a primary website or blog), where you can create and publish your own content regularly. This is going to serve as a…