There was a time when blogging was like publishing a good book. You write a book, and after a few attempts you will be able to eventually find a publisher who will be willing to publish your work. And voila, you will be an instant hit like J.K Rowling and her Harry Potter books. Similarly, with blogging, you just have to write a good blog and people will come and flock to your site. If you write it, they will read it.

Well, that was years ago, years and years in fact, if you consider how fast things change in the internet. That was when there were only very few blogs out there. Some of the most popular blogs today, like Problogger started out this way. However, today almost everybody has a blog. Even pets have blogs.  With everybody writing their own blogs, attracting readers can be really quite hard. This is the reason why there are so many abandoned blogs today.

This is where guest blogging comes in. Guest blogging is not something new and yet many blog owners do not know why it matters significantly to the success of their blogs. Guest blogging is a way to attract more visitors to your blog. Guest blogs or guest posts give you a chance to provide links back to your site. People who may find your post or guest blog may check out your blog for more information. What you have to remember is that it is actually like initiating a good conversation. If you have something good to say, others will want to hear more from you. The same applies to guest blogging.

A word of caution though. You have to make sure that your blog is really relevant to the topic or site and you have to make sure that the link back to your blog is really essential and integral to your guest blog. Otherwise, and this is very important, your guest blog post will be considered a spam. Google may even consider your guest blog post as link building. Google may penalize your site. That said, guest blogging is not just for those who have blogs. Guest blogging is done by many companies or businesses. Their guest blog post is good way to direct consumers to their sites. So, one thing that you have to remember is that guest blogging is a promotional tool. With good intentions, meaning you really want to inform the visitors, then it can be very effective in promoting your blog or site.

For businesses, having a blog is important in generating leads. The top three sources of leads for businesses today are social media, email marketing and blogs. A successful company blog or product blog can therefore generate leads for the company or business, in the same way that it can increase the traffic of a blog. At the same time, for a blog to be successful, guest posting is an activity that cannot be ignored. It is a very effective tool if done ethically and correctly.