Lindsay Buroker - Author of Encrypted

Guest Posting 101 by Lindsay Buroker

Welcome to my guest post about…guest posting. I could have written about my lovely new novel, Encrypted, today, but I’m a professional blogger for my day job, and I get more questions about blogging than I do about my stories (I’m trying to decide whether or not to be offended by that).

People, especially authors and book reviewers, often ask me for tips on building up a blog that draws lots of visitors every day. Authors are looking to create awareness about their books (and selling them is pretty okay too). Book reviewers are looking to make some money blogging about their passion for literature (if that’s a new idea to you, check out a series I’m running on my site on how to make money as a book blogger). Either way, we all seem to want more visitors to our blogs.

Guest blogging is a great way to achieve this. You can guest post for other sites, and you can invite others to guest post for your site. There are benefits to both.

Guest Posting for Others

The best way to get more visitors to your blog is to get links from other sites. This not only helps by sending you direct traffic but by improving your blog’s “authority” in the eyes of the search engines. The more links pointing to your site, the more important Google, Yahoo, etc. are going to think it is (and they’ll be more likely to rank your pages in their search engine results).

You probably won’t get far randomly asking people to link to your blog, but if you surf around and visit other sites, you’ll find folks open to hosting guest bloggers. If you’re willing to write a free, original article their readers might appreciate, they should be willing to include a bio (with links to your site) or perhaps, for my author friends out there, information about your book and where it can be purchased.

If you’re interested in more information, I’ve written a post on Guest Blogging Your Way out of Obscurity.

Inviting Guest Bloggers to Your Site

Now that we’ve talked about why you might want to guest post for someone else, let’s talk about why you might want to host guests on your own blog.

Or maybe you already know. You’re already thinking…ah, I need to finagle people into posting for me, so I can take some days off! That’s actually why many folks start hosting guest bloggers—as a way to continue posting fresh content for readers even when they are out of town or too busy to blog every day.

Other reasons to take on guest bloggers are: 

• to offer you readers fresh points of view.
• to share information on areas in which you’re not an expert.
• to get some help with promotion (guest bloggers often mention the posts they do on other people’s blogs, so this can also be a way to get some link loving!).

Of course, it isn’t always easy to attract guest bloggers, especially if your site is new. You may want to work on building up your own content and increasing readership before trying to woo folks to write for you.

Once you feel a slot on your blog would be a worthwhile reward to a guest writer, add easy-to-find information about your guest policy (most folks will look for this information in the contact or “about” area, but you can also add a link to a dedicated page). That way, visitors don’t have to hunt around to figure out if you accept guest posts or not.

You can also ask for guest bloggers on various social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. I’ve seen quite a few people recruiting over in the Writers’ Café on KindleBoards.com. Make sure bloggers know you’re willing to provide links to their sites as a reward for their hard work.

For more on snagging folks (and why you’d want to), check out my post on “How to Attract Guest Bloggers.”

Now, I hope you’re excited to go out and guest blog for people, and maybe invite some folks onto your blog as well. Go forth, and write!

Read all about Lindsay's work on her website: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/

ENCRYPTED SYNOPSIS AND EXCERPT

More about Lindsay's exciting new science fiction romance, ENCRYPTED

Professor Tikaya Komitopis isn’t a great beauty, a fearless warrior, or even someone who can walk and chew chicle at the same time, but her cryptography skills earn her wartime notoriety. When enemy marines show up at her family’s plantation, she expects the worst. But they’re not there to kill her. They need her to decode mysterious runes, and they ask for help in the manner typical of a conquering empire: they kidnap her, threaten her family, and throw her in the brig of their fastest steamship.

Her only ally is a fellow prisoner who charms her with a passion for academics as great as her own. Together, they must decipher mind-altering alchemical artifacts, deadly poison rockets, and malevolent technological constructs, all while dodging assassination attempts from a rival power determined the expedition should fail. As if Tikaya didn’t have troubles enough, her new ally turns out to be exiled fleet admiral, Federias Starcrest, the man who recommended taking over her nation. To trust him could be a mistake; to fall in love with him would be a betrayal to her people, her family, and the fiancé she lost in the war. Those runes cloak more than mysteries, however, and he may be the only one who can help her unravel them before their secrets destroy the world.

EXCERPT:

A man towered a few paces away, a dagger and cutlass at his belt, and a muzzle-loading rifle crooked in his arms. His bronze skin and dark hair would have marked him a foreigner even if the black military uniform with its fine factory weave did not. It was a uniform she had not seen in a year, not since the war ended, but she had not forgotten its significance: Turgonian marine.

Swallowing, she shifted her gaze left and right, hoping to spot a couple of the seasonal laborers her father hired to harvest the cane. But the day grew late, and she had worked herself into a private corner of the field. The house stood hundreds of meters away. No one would hear her yell.

The marine said nothing, though his dark eyes followed her darting gaze. Running  would confirm she had a reason to hide; maybe she could trick him into thinking she was  no one of consequence. Not that being an innocent would necessarily make her safe from  a Turgonian.

“If you’re looking for rum,” she said, his language sliding off her tongue automatically, “my brother’s working in the distillery. He can sell you enough for your entire ship at a fair price.”

The marine’s eyes widened, and a satisfied—no, triumphant—smile stretched across  his face.

Dread curled through her belly. They knew who she was, what her role had been in  the war. Addressing him in his language had been a mistake, a confirmation that they had  found the right person. She eyed the rifle, noticed it was loaded and cocked. A huge mistake.