This was kind of a major week for me, as a blogger.

I had not one, but two guest posts go live on a couple of big-deal sites: One on Remarkablogger: 17 Ways to Turn Your Blog Readers into Loyal Fans One on Problogger: Make Your Blog the Event of the Year (and have People Clamor to Attend)

And I gotta tell you, it’s been interesting! Having just finished up Jon Morrow’s Guest Blogging program, I was eager to see how this would all play out.

Jon’s premise is that guest blogging on big-name blogs is the way to get your name out there and build your own platform (and hopefully, loyal readers).

Makes sense, right? There’s definitely proof that it’s worked for a lot of folks in the past (watch his intro videos to get the full scoop — they’re totally free).

And of course, being a long-time fan of Jon Morrow’s work at Copyblogger, I knew the content of his program would be A-1. (It totally was.) So with dreams of building a relationship with Jon himself (and someday being a guest at Copyblogger), I plunked down the cash and made the commitment. The results? Pretty darn good.

My biggest Take-aways

• How to be a better blogger and writer < most important if you want to write for the big guns
• How to work with popular bloggers and build relationships with them that matter
• How to run my own membership/online learning course < for future use, filed away in my brain

Michael Martine (of Remarkablogger) has said I’m welcome back anytime (don’t even need to ask!). And the new connections I made via my post there are already proving valuable. I’ve got a virtual coffee set up for next week with one commenter who’s interested in a possible strategic alliance, and 12 new subscribers to my list. The stats are still rolling in with the Problogger post. (Stay tuned. I’ll update this post next week with those.)

What You Should Know about Guest Blogging

1. Pay attention to details. Proofread your submission at least 3 times. Read it out loud. And then have a friend or two read it as well. You want to put your absolute best foot forward.
2. Give them your best stuff. Don’t save it for your own website. Put it out there where you know the traffic is gonna be high.
3. Promote the heck out of your post to your own network and ask your inner circle to help you do the same. Ask for comments and shares. Yes, your host is going to do some of that; but this is really your chance and you don’t want to blow it by ignoring your part.
4. Say thank you to your host and to the commenters. (See my post on Remarkablogger above, for tips on this one.)
5. Ask politely for feedback. When you say thank you, let your host know that you’d appreciate any feedback (good or bad) that they might have for you. Never miss an opportunity to learn.
6. Remember they’re busy. It’s not all about you. It’s about them and their site. They may not have the time to correspond with you ad infinitum or give you the mentoring you’d love to have. So don’t expect it. And don’t be disappointed if you don’t get as much attention from them as you’d like.

What Guest Blogging is NOT

Guest blogging can be fun and help drive new visitors to your site. But it’s not the end-all solution/magic bullet to building your subscribers.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it (cuz you should!). It just means you don’t want to ignore other opportunities and strategies that could be just as helpful, if not more.

Some of the best things I’ve done to build readers exist right here on this site: 1) Blog Carnivals and 2) Content Curation posts.

In fact, if you do them really well, they might even help you surpass the traffic you get from guest blogging.