Credit: canberkol

I don’t know any blogger who does not like to receive more traffic to his/her website. We all want more of it no matter how much traffic we already get. Writing guest posts on top, relevant blogs can increase your traffic and help you climb the rankings. It is a great way to make connections with top blogs in your industry too.

Some people assume that if they write a post and send it to top bloggers, those folks will feel compelled to publish their articles. That can’t be further from the truth. People don’t want garbage to show up on their sites nor do they want to subject their audience to boring, non-relevant material. In some cases, there may be no way to make sure your article will be published. But here are 6 ways to improve your chances:

1. know the blog you are writing on: so you want to get your work to show up on super blogs such as ProBlogger? You should take some time to get yourself familiar with the community you will be writing for. That way you will avoid costly mistakes and manage to connect with your audience more easily.
2. link to other pages: those of you who have studied SEO know about the importance of linking to your past work in each and every post. That applies to the blog you will be writing for too. So spend some time researching the host blog to find stories you can link to from your guest post.
3. make your post social media friendly: you don’t want your guest posts to be boring, do you? Make sure your format your guest posts appropriately. Do include images, videos, and other dynamic content to increase the chances of your posts getting more attention. 
4. create killer lists: lists do get attention from most bloggers. But you want your lists to be special. I have already written a post about ways you can write killer list-type posts. Twitter and resource lists do have a better chance of getting published (from my own research).
5. stay involved with comments: writing a guest post is not like having a one night stand with someone. Having your story published is a privilege. You should stick around to participate in the communities you have written for. Answering community members’ questions is the least you can do.
6. promote posts: this is a no brainer. Think about it. What do you do as soon as you publish your posts? You promote them on all kinds of websites, right? That’s what you should do for your guest articles. Do drop a link to them on Twitter and share them with your Facebook friends. The more you promote your own articles, the better chance you have of getting published on the host site in the future. Besides, your efforts will leave a better impression on your host.

Who said guest posting was going to be easy? You should put your best effort forward if you want to have real success with this tactic.

If you’ve decided that you want to take your blogging to the next level and start making videos rather than typing out your ideas, then you need to start learning a little more about what it takes to succeed as a video blogger or vlogger. There’s more to it than just having a video camera and something to say, much like there’s more to blogging that just having fingers (or whatever else you type with) and the ability to string words together. Here are some tips to help you build your skills as a video blogger.

1. Do several takes. Chances are good that unless you’re a real pro at talking in front of a camera that you’re not going to be perfect on the first take. Do it at least twice to see if you can get it right the second time around.
2. Pay attention to how you’re speaking. The speed at which you’re talking, your tone, emphasis and other elements of your speech will have a big impact on the watchability of your clips.
3. Avoid just rolling out of bed and vlogging. As superficial as it may be, appearance counts. Take a shower and brush your hair before you start blogging.
4. Learn to edit video. There are few things more awkward than dead air. Learn to edit your videos down to professional looking segments. There are many places to do this for free online, so fancy software isn’t required.
5. Have a script or notes. While a select few out there might be able to wing it when it comes to video blogging, most people will need something to work from. You don’t have to and shouldn’t just sit there are read from a paper, but at least have a reference when you’re speaking.
6. Actually have interest or expertise in what you’re blogging about. No one wants to hear me vlog about sports because a) I know nothing about them and b) I don’t care to. Keep your vlogs on topics you can actually get inspired by or have a clue what you’re talking about otherwise you’re not going to get many repeat viewers.
7. Keep it within a reasonable time limit. Generally, about five minutes is a good length for a video blog. Making it too long will pretty much ensure viewers will turn you off before you’re done talking.
8. Realize that public speaking rules still apply. All the things that you remember when you’re giving a speech in public or talking in front of a group of people still apply when video blogging, so keep that in mind.
9. Give a summary. Most people don’t want to have to watch a video in order to know if they wanted to watch it in the first place. Always offer a short summary about what each video contains so visitors can get the gist beforehand.
10. Learn from the best. These days, even the President gets in on video blogging of sorts. Listen and learn from what the bigger names in video blogging do and emulate the things they do well.

This post was contributed by Jill Gordon, who writes about the top online universities. She welcomes your feedback at Jill.Gordon25@ yahoo.com