With lots of lower quality writers and link builders trying to ruin the concept of guest blogging (scaring away some bloggers), it is easy to fail to see the bigger picture: Guest blogging is the way to build contacts through great content.

You don’t disable comments simply because you get a lot of spam ones. Similarly, you don’t disallow guest posts simply because you got a couple of low quality pitches.

The benefits of guest blogging and accepting guest posts WAY outweigh the inconvenience of dealing with people who don’t get it: And one of our happy publishers has the proof today!

I’ve been contacted by our blogger Stacy Jackson who was sharing the following:

Just wanted to share with you a success for one of the My Blog Guest participants and my blog rabidofficemonkey.com.  I am sure other people have had bigger “wow” moments, but this is my first using your service.  

Crispin Jones is mentioned on one of the New York Times blogs with a link back to my site/his post!

Congrats to Stacy and to Crispin: Great job!

*Join our Twitter chat on TwChat =>MyBlogGuest Twitter chat*

Today we are happy to announce our spring contest winners! And here they go:

☆ Most active publisher - Sabrina Sabino (sabrinasabino). Sabrina published 193 articles through our plugin and gets $500!

☆ Most active “interacter” – Kiesha Easley (keasley) gets $500 for replies to comments and interacts with the guest author in the post 5 Ways To Use Pinterest Besides Image Sharing

☆ Editor’s choice (Our moderators’ special prize) goes to these two guys who get $150 each:

1. Spyros Thalassinos (sthalassinos) for How To Make The Most Of Point And Shoot Cameras
2. Tom Altman (vwtom) for Copywriting After Google Panda Stuck Its Paw In

☆ Contest promoter – our special prize for spreading the word about this contest goes to two bloggers who get $200 each:

1. Ruth Martin (mini1000)
2. Himadri Subrah Saha (himadrisaha)

Congratulations to the winners!

@seosmartyWoohoo!! Thanks, Ann! This is awesome news.It’s no surprise that I love @myblogguest Yippee!!

— Kiesha Easley (@WeBlogBetter) May 9, 2013

RT @robertekraus: Congrats to everyone who won the My Blog Guest contest!! #myblogguest

— Don Sturgill (@Roadturn) May 9, 2013

We’ve talked a lot about the hugest benefit of guest blogging not to miss: relationships. We’ve also celebrated the past Valentine’s Day by giving away the wisdom of building relationships.

Today we’ll also take a look at some specific tips on how to build contacts while writing your next (guest) post!

Tip 1: Build relationships by linking out from your (guest) posts

Linking is the best way to build relationships and by “linking” we mean NOT linking to yourself! Link from your guest post to relevant helpful articles written by others: This way you:

• Will be appreciated by those article authors (and thus start relationship with them) AND
• Make your own links flow naturally and thus appear in good relevant and trusted neighborhood (co-citation will be our next chat topic; for now let’s just agree that co-citation is when еру link to your site tends to appear next to links to other sites; when these “other links” are trusted, this a great quality signal to Google)

Similar to GREAT networking anywhere. Help others before you help yourself #MyBlogGuest @myblogguest

— Tracy Gaudet (@inspireplanning) May 9, 2013

So, by linking out to other useful articles, you both build relationships AND send good signal to Google – two wins!

To build relationships via your web content, link out to others. Acknowledge their good work. #myblogguest

— Don Sturgill (@Roadturn) May 9, 2013

Don’t forget that your linking *out* needs to be smart to work!

What makes linking smart?

1. Find real bloggers to link to (i.e. NO business blogs or huge magazines -> They don’t interact much)
2. Link to actively-interacting bloggers (i.e. Those who always reply to comments)
3. Link to amateur bloggers (they are more responsive and open-minded)
4. Advanced tip: When linking, try mentioning the site name AND/OR the author’s name AND/OR the author’s moniker / Twitter username (Those who manage their brand names will be the first to find you!)
5. Important: Link to POSTS (not home pages, category pages, etc.) because trackbacks will come as comments

Good point about building the relationships with entities that interact and engage #realpeople #myblogguest

— Deborah (@socialwebcafe) May 9, 2013

You can also link to your older guest articles on other blogs (this is what I’ve been doing). If that link adds quality and makes sense, you are allowed to NOT mark it as self-serving (even though it has some relation to you, it’s a clean context link and you are doing good to other member of our community by linking to him/her. So to encourage this behavior, we allow you to simply link and never count them!)

If they bring value – why not? RT @roadturn: Should we mix links to authority sites in with links to not-yet-well-known ones? #myblogguest

— Sana Knightly (@SanaKnightly) May 9, 2013

Tip 2: Build relationships by social media tagging

Social media tagging = new linking (just more fun)

Exercise:

1. While you write a blog post, find interacting blogs to reference (see tip 1)
2. Create a separate Twitter list / Google Plus circle to categorize these connections (e.g. “My Sources”)
3. Find the authors as well as the blogs on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus (Create special lists / circles for them, e.g. “Sources”)
4. Once your article is live, schedule several tweets / shares to tag them all within a few days
5. Keep interacting with those lists to make those connections firmer!

As they say “Give, and you will receive“: Give away links and social media mentions and you’ll see your friends are ready to promote you back!

To sum up:

Today was the last day of our spring contest! Hold your breath… We are counting results, and will announce all the winners this Thursday at our weekly twitter chat.

At the meantime April is over, and we are happy to introduce you the roundup of 20 guest posts published last month.

1. 5 Must Have Attributes To Land A Junior SEO Job (via andy-morley.co.uk): So, you seem to be in search for a junior SEO but hardly imagine what you should ask during the interview as no experience? Just keep in mind these tips by Stacey Cavanagh of listingthings.co.uk and everything will go on wheels!

2. Freelancer Tricks to Accurately Estimate Deadlines (via aboutfreelance.com): I bet I’m not the only one who thinks deadlines to be a kind of the sword of Damocles. Are you the one? These helpful tricks by Karol K. of writersincharge.com helped me a lot, maybe you should try as well?

3. How Small Business Can Compete for Search Engine Rankings (via startingaffiliatebusiness.com): Small doesn’t mean helpless. History has many examples when creativity wins over size and budgets. Rodney Warner of connectivewebdesign.com shows you the way how to make it true.

4. Mobile Web Development: Understanding Responsive Design (via templatelite.com): If a couple of years ago the main question concerning mobile web development was why and what for you needed it, now, with the course of time it changed to how to show your best in it. Chris Scarborough from bigcommerce.com knows exactly how.

5. Outsourced SQL Server Administration: Best Practices to Adhere to (via fitcom.co): To outsource or not to outsource? Jessica Maine from wardyit.com listed some options for you so that to make a decision.

6. Actually, Apple Didn’t Invent That (via droidologist.com): I would say that sometimes it’s not that essential who invented something, but who implemented it. But I’m an Apple geek Anyway, you should have a look at this infographic by bestmastersprograms.org.

7. Six Mobile Web Design Tips For Dentistry Websites (via pagewow.com): Mobile dentistry.. even that is possible nowadays! Check this list of apps compiled for you by Dr. Robert D’Alfonso of dentalartist.com to know what it’s all about.

8. Stop Worrying – Just Love Them Unconditionally (via bobeeinc.wordpress.com): Yes, you got it right, it’s about kids. No love can be compared to mother’s love to her child, since it’s the only true love as to me – no special reasons, no conditions, the only pure feeling. Florence from worldtransformation.com will tell you more.

9. Hiking in the Wonderful and Beautiful Country of New Zealand (via timeinnz.com): I’m a LOTR fan, but even if not.. I love travelling. And when just taking a look at these pics, the wish to be there arises the same very time. Thanks to Steve Sterling from covermore.co.uk for new ideas on (hopefully) my next trip!

10. 5 Questions When Hiring An ECommerce Web Developer (via internetbusinessmastermind.com): It’s always a question for a business owner how to find a web developer who would suit to the company needs. Dan Rapoport of dotcomweavers.com may advise.

11. Five Steps To Choosing The Perfect Kitchen (via totallyhomeimprovement.com): In case you are doing kitchen design by yourself, Anna Trent from kitchenwhouse.co.uk has several hints for you which will definitely help you to succeed.

12. How To Set The Right Temperature On Your Refrigerator (via howitoo.com): Shame on me, but before reading this article I couldn’t even thought that the temperature in a fridge could be that essential in many ways. Kirt Harrison from harrisonappliance.com is ready to tell you why and what you can do about it.

13. Beyond The Hype: A Critical Look At Google Glass (via blog.pre-pay-as-you-go.co.uk): As the first wave of excitement passed, now the criticism arising.. Is Google Glass good or bad? Does it harm or benefit you? You can take your own decision after reading this article by Dale Vernon of audubon-engineering.com.

14. Amazing 3D Printing Technologies (via fitcom.co): Do you watch The Big Bang Theory? Have you seen that episode where Howard and Raj bought a 3D printer? Actually it gave me the first idea how cool these printers are! And Daniel from nextdayflyers.com really prooves them to be in his amazing article.

15. WordPress or Blogger (via cinnamon-peripherals.com): As to me it’s just a matter of personal preference. Mark Stubbles of acuitytraining.co.uk will help you to make a choice.

16. Get Rid Of Boring Rooms Once And For All (via nanohome.org): Another home improvement topic this time by George from store.vinylsplash.com who will show you how to get rid of boredom when decorating your home once and for all.

17. 4 Must Have iPhone Accessories For Mums (via techntechie.com): Anna from vistaprint.com.au readily shares them with you, so that to save your time and money.

18. “Surfing” While Driving: A Dangerous Epidemic (via autoglassjim.wordpress.com): Lately I have seen already several social campaigns on FB by different creators against using mobile phones while driving. Let’s create awareness of its possible consequences today together with Jack Payton of tires-easy.com.

19. 3 Lessons Printed Flyers Can Learn from Online Marketing (via sourcedemand.com): Seems it used to be vice versa before: non-virtual marketing was the source of ideas for online one. But times go by and things change, so till nowadays they have become as u unit and can’t already be imagined without one another. Randal Whitmore of solopress.com explains it in more details.

20. Photography-101: Best Phoneography Apps and Accessories (via digital-101.com): A friend of mine, who has recently bought the coolest professional camera, would object strongly, if she heard that phones would ever be able to replace cameras. In case you’d like to give it a try and shift to a phone, use this list of apps compiled by an author of instaedu.com from San Francisco.

Intro by  Ann: This article is written by MyBlogGuest user. It is courtesy of Elite Articles Gallery, our newest feature featuring highest-quality pre-moderated content!

“I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company.”

This was the catchphrase of the 1980s television commercial for Remington Electric Shavers. It featured the company owner, Victor Kiam, who proudly noted he bought the company after his wife gave him his first electric shaver as a gift.

At around the same time, Steve Jobs was thinking about how to get people interested in personal computers. One way was to make the product cool. Until then computers were viewed as industrial machines no individual would ever need to own. Jobs started wearing his “beatnik” outfit consisting of jeans and black turtleneck, and suddenly the machines he was selling seemed downright artsy.

The inspiration behind these two different companies shared the same strategy: It’s not enough to tout your product on its features and benefits alone. You’ve got to be your brand. You represent the values, the aspirations, and the image of your company. People buy your shaver because they figure if you’ve got enough confidence in the product, then why shouldn’t they? If you’re using a product in a new way, and seem cool, then the people who buy your product can be cool too.

People follow your brand and purchase your product because they feel connected to it — and to you. How do you make that connection?

1) Focus On Every Transaction

Make every transaction an opportunity to promote yourself and your business. From the emails you send to the checks you write, to the website you build, you need to be your brand — and that takes more than just plastering your logo everywhere. It means inventing a style, a way of interacting with your target audience, where that logo or marketing tag gets people interested. That makes them want to be part of your brand.

For Victor Kiam, it was “I like the shaver so much, I bought the company.” For Steve jobs, it was “Think Different.” These brand mantras were repeated in multiple ways, across every transaction, for years. That’s what made them so effective.

2) Tell a Compelling Brand Story

The best brands tell the best stories. Why do you think social network news feeds and streams are so popular? Or the reason people like reality TV? People like stories about people like themselves, or, critically, the people who they would like to become.

To build a successful brand story you must start by providing an excellent experience using your products or services. Then the challenge is to create a story for your specific marketing demographic. Instead of talking to all people you need to talk directly to “your people.” Only when they have confidence in what you deliver and your story will they become brand ambassadors.

According to Kathi Kruse, that means having a compelling story of “[H]ow your got to where you are: Your team, your intent, your struggles, your triumphs…[E]verything that made your business what it is today.”

An example of this in action is the behind-the-scenes startup story surrounding the startup of an independently owned neighborhood retailer called George Bowers Grocery. By expressing the hardships of starting their business — in a publication read by many of their core customers — the owners were able to combine brand and a juicy story.

“It was surprising how powerful this was,” says co-owner Katie McCaskey. “We gained new customers and experienced greater loyalty than ever before by telling our story, especially the difficult parts.”

A more commonly known example is Nike’s “Just do it” message. This long-standing story invited every weekend warrior to emulate a sports hero. The average Joes and Janes became their own sports hero! Even the ones who never played sports, or were never good at sports, could at least look like everyone else who played sports. They, too, could just do it, by putting on a shirt and sneakers with a Nike branded swoosh on it.

3) What’s Your Story?

We all have a story. The George Bowers Grocery story demonstrates the six steps to developing a compelling brand story, defined by Jim Signorelli as:

• Collect the Back Story
• Characterize the Brand
• Characterize the Prospect
• Connect the Characters
• Confront the Obstacles
• Complete the Story Brief

To which we would add: keep it simple.

4) Be Brief, Be Consistent

There are just so many words in a marketing tagline, so many seconds in a commercial, so much space for the “About Us” page of your website. They have to encapsulate the essence of what you’re about, quickly and succinctly. Walter Isaacson wrote a 656-page biography of Steve Jobs. But his brand story was two words: “Think different.”

In the book, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, author Dan Pink advises everyone to distill their brand message into a “tweet length.” Messages on Twitter are 140 characters or less — just a handful of words. Distilling your message this way forces you to get on message quickly, just like “Think Different” did for branding Apple and Steve Jobs.

Equally important is to be consistent. You’ve got a plethora of marketing channels available to you, social media, print, Web, video. Your brand story doesn’t change because your marketing channel changes. It’s the same message; the medium doesn’t matter.

5) Be Yourself

Back in the 1980s, Kiam and Jobs had, by today’s standards, crude mass media to work with. You’ve got the opportunity to speak one-to-one with customers using Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and whole gamut of social media tools to promote yourself and your brand.

It’s not hard to become virtually ubiquitous. The hard part is having something to say that keeps you and your brand fresh, while staying on message.

Remember, though, the whole point of being active in social media is to promote your brand. You’ll need to engage in the fundamentals of content marketing: be honest, be helpful, be informative. Above all, personify all the good things about what it is you are marketing. This is particularly true of smaller enterprises because people associate you personally with your brand.

Keep in mind one guiding principle. You know why it was so cool to use Apple products? Because they actually were new, novel, and “cool.” Why did people ultimately buy Remington shavers? Because just as promised, they delivered a clean shave.

Your brand is your promise to your customers. You have to ensure your company can deliver on that promise. In today’s world your brand is your bond, so to speak.

Be bold, be brief, and be your brand!

Featured image: License: Creative Commons image source

David Soyka is a freelance journalist who writes for Vistaprint, providing personalized business checks and other custom marketing products to help small businesses be their brand. David has taught business writing as an adjunct professor at Rutgers University, and has been a journalist for three decades.

*Don’t forget to Bookmark us on TwChat =>MyBlogGuest Twitter chat*

Also, be sure to subscribe to our official guest blogging podcast.

As you might know, we’ve been requiring subheadings (as well as images) since day 1 on MyBlogGuest.

Someone may criticize us for enforcing these quality standards on users but we’ve been always good at doing what we’ve believed in.

With the introduction of the new higher quality level – Elite Guest Articles – we can’t stress the necessity of well-structured content enough…

So first let’s try to understand why we need subheadings in the first place:

The Necessity

An image is worth a thousands of words:

We’ve talked about subheadings during our April hangout on Google Plus; here are some takeaways:

• User interaction: Most web readers are busy; if they see the plain chunk of text and have hard time quickly understand what it is about, they will just leave
• Subheadings enhance the quality of web content giving it structure. They thus increase the odds your guest article will be accepted by the publisher!

@softwebchicago Good technique -> ask questions in subheadings and answer them in the body #myblogguest

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) May 2, 2013

• Subheadings are good for SEO as search engines use them to determine the relevancy of content
• Subheadings are good for usability and accessibility (most screen readers extract them from the web page)

@figmentations I prefer more descriptive sub-headings for usability reasons but intriguing works well too #MyBlogGuest

— William Patton (@Will_Patton_88) May 2, 2013

• Subheadings make it easier for you to structure your thoughts (very often I’d write subheadings prior to the body to line out what I am planning to say)

#myblogguest @seosmarty I prefer my Subheadings to be pithy and informative so the reader know what’s next. #myblogguest

— Robert Kraus (@RoberteKraus) May 2, 2013

There’s really no reason why you would not want to use subheadings (and some of our authors are surprisingly apposed to that!)

@softwebchicago Like Don said, title and subheadings serve different purposes: so you can play with both #myblogguest

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) May 2, 2013

The Art

While it all depends on your creativity and the way you organize your thoughts, here are some good ideas of making subheadings useful and enticing:

• Subheadings, ideally, should tell the story even when extracted from the page: They need to be meaningful takeaways from the article
• Subheadings need to be short and catchy

The Format:

No ALL IN CAPS please – once the publisher wants to change it, he/she will have to retype every single word. So please stick to either title case or simple sentence format.

Whether it’s h2 or h3 tag will depend on the publishing blog theme (some themes use H2 tags for post titles). Read more about h-tags here: Using Page Headings Correctly (that article is old but it still stands true)

More than just bold then.RT @roadturn SEO … make sure to set subheadings out in <h3> or <h2> #myblogguest

— Helen Hoefele (@figmentations) May 2, 2013

Additional reading: How to Write Exquisite Subheads at @copyblogger and Web copywriting 101: Sub-headings by @portent

So as of now the conclusion on subheading as per me, it has to be compelling, enticing, eye-catching and ask Questions! #myblogguest

— Softweb Solutions (@softwebchicago) May 2, 2013

Other ways to structure your content and increase its quality are:

• Bullet and numbered lists
• Images

Next week we’ll announce the winners of our guest blogging plugin contest as well as talk about building relationships with bloggers.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing people so eagerly spread the word about MyBlogGuest. It’s so awesome to know that nowadays when everyone is so focused on income, our members give us so much free love!

Today I am sharing the most recent video and text reviews from our members featuring our WordPress plugin as well as our Elite Gallery:

• Video: Content Website Success – Part 2 (SEO, Link Building and More) – Lisa Irby talks about both MyBlogGuest and Viral Content Buzz and says she loves our job!
• Video: My Blog Guest WordPress Plugin - Andy Nathan says how much he loves our new plugin and how easy it is to get free content with it!

• How to Find Free Articles on the Internet – Don speaks about how awesome we are and also mentions our Elite Gallery!
• My Blog Guest Review – Guest Blogging Network – Carl Ashton says how happy he was to discover our platfrom (we are happy too!)

Here’s a quick takeaways video from the two video reviews:

If you have ever reviewed or mention us anywhere, let us know and we’ll be happy to share here!

MyBlogGuest hung out on Friday, April 26th for our April hangout.

Our participants for this hangout included (in order of Google layout): Don Sturgill, Gerald Weber, Michael Cohn, Min Min, Phil Turner, Shannon Hutcheson, and Deborah Anderson.

We created a takeaways version of the hangout in this short video

• Gerald told us about the news with Viral Content Buzz and VCB Labs.
• Don shared about the new Elite Articles Gallery.
• Min Min shared how she and the moderators are mentoring new MBG users.
• Headlines and sub-headings.
• Michael Cohn shares about changes in LinkedIn that affect social sharing.
• Cross-posting between MBG social help forum and VCB.
• Still time to win on this quarter’s MyBlogGuest Spring Contest.

You may also view the April 2013 MyBlogGuest Hangout Full Video.

More Resources from the MyBlogGuest Blog

• Viral Content Buzz
• Introducing #MyBlogGuest and VCB Labs (Free Tools!)
• Viral Content Buzz LABS
• MyBlogGuest Elite Gallery
• Use Guest Blogging Plugin and Win Cash! MyBlogGuest Spring Contest
• Guest Blogging WordPress Plugin From MyBlogGuest

Subscribe to the Podcast Versions!

*New* Check out the MyBlogGuest Podcast and don’t miss an episode of the MBG hangouts!

Add May 2013 Hangout to Your Calendar

May Google+ Hangout

Looking forward to seeing you!

Deborah Anderson is the MBG social media strategist, as well as hosting the MyBlogGuest monthly hangouts. Join her (@SocialWebCafe) on the weekly #MyBlogGuest Twitter Chats, and of course, these Google+ monthly MBG hangouts. Also, watch for her upcoming book on the topic of Google+ hangouts.

MyBlogGuest is getting ready for the traveling season! From now on you’ll be able to listen to our tips, interviews and updates while on the go!

Today we are launching our official podcast:

It’s a semimonthly podcast featuring our mods speaking as well as regular interviews with our featured users!

Listen to the first episode below:

This month was quite intensive: we were happy to welcome our new moderator Don Sturgill and introduced new Elite Gallery, and it’s not over yet: please join our Google+ hangout tomorrow with MBG mods!

Now let’s check out 10 guest posts published this month:

• 10 Of The Best Plumbing Jokes Ever - Excellent post idea! Seems like the one we once suggested in our topic ideas thread. Oh, poor plumber from the last joke

@sanaknightly Yep. I also was forwarding them to a Plumber buddy of mine. #myblogguest

— Robert Kraus (@RoberteKraus) April 25, 2013

@sanaknightly Good to be here (well in and out). #MyBlogGuest

— DonnaChaffins (@DonnaChaffins) April 25, 2013

• What Your Smartphone Says About Your Personality – Let’s not take it absolutely seriously – just as some useful observations.

• Pricing Yourself As A Freelance Writer – Last week we also featured this guest author on our blog. Sometimes it’s so hard to sell yourself even if you know you are good!
• 7 Inspired Uses for LED Lighting – These ideas are never ending! Michael had previously posted on similar topic, but it’s still different! Readers are always easily caught on unusual things to read about.
• 3 Key Elements of Writing Great Headlines – We never miss a chance to share blogging tips! Headlines are important!
• Explore the Importance of Mobile for Your Blog – Mobile phones give us more opportunities to develop our blogs for better exposure!

@viralmomtweets several. I use my iPad more than my iPhone to access the web. #MyBlogGuest

— DonnaChaffins (@DonnaChaffins) April 25, 2013

• 10 Movies To Spark The Travel Bug! – Great win-win combination of two niches: travel + creativity!

Post#7: Oh, Amelie reminded me of a recent trip to Paris…. #MyBlogGuest What are your associations? bit.ly/ZlbIpk

— Sana Knightly (@SanaKnightly) April 25, 2013

• Gospel Piano: Playing By Ear – This topic made music sound in my ears…
• 10 Fab Facts About the Earliest Beatles Record – No Beatles on “Ya Ya” I wonder if it’s really true, but it’s still interesting.
• The Psychology of Writing Headlines – A good chance to compare these tips from those in Post#5