Why Guest Post?

Before getting into the “how’s” of guest posting, it’s important to understand what the purpose of guest posting is.

There are several reasons to guest post, but this certainly isn’t an exhaustive list.

Expand Your Horizons

This allows you to write in a different niche then you normally would, should you choose to do so. It also challenges you to move outside your own scope of community.

Extend Your Reach

Reach more people by writing outside your own readership. There are a lot of people still out there who simply doesn’t know your blog exists. This is your chance to enlighten them!

Expose Your Writing

Get your writing in front of more people. Especially is you’re hoping to publish in the future, you want your writing to travel.

How to Guest Post

Many people get stuck with not knowing how to guest post. It’s really quite simple.

Email a potential blogger that you’d be interested in guest posting for. It doesn’t matter how “big” you think they are. You might be surprised at how many actually welcome guest posts.

When you email the blogger, offer them a few suggestions of what you would like to write about. Always offer up fresh, new content. Do not copy an old post and email it over. If you’re interested in sharing an idea you have previously written on, reinvent the content and freshen it up. Perhaps you could write it from a different angle or perspective.

Always offer up your best writing. This is the one chance you have to offer a first impression to a whole new audience of readers. Make it count.

Guest Posting Etiquette

There are a few “unspoken” rules on guest posting you’ll want to know.

If the blogger you’re guest posting for sends you guest posting guidelines, be sure to follow them. If they don’t offer any, ask. Ask if there is a word count they’d like you to adhere to.

Study the blogger’s blog a little bit and the formatting of their posts. You’ll want yours to look similar so it fits in with her blog style. That doesn’t mean to make your writing style match. I’m speaking strictly in terms of formatting here.

Never use affiliate links in a guest post without first asking if it is okay. This is very bad etiquette that you do not want to fall into.

Be mindful of the blogger’s audience. If a blog is read by mainly stay at home moms, you don’t want to write a piece about working moms, just as an example. You want to be sure your content fits the readership or people will lose interest.

Where to Guest Post

Here are a few places that accept guest posts to get you started:

Allume – the Allume blog is an extension of the Allume Conference. “Our goal at Allume is to minister to the woman, the blogger, the story teller. We want to love well, encourage, and spur women on to shine the Light that lives within them.” You can email Christin (yep, that’s me) at christin @ allume dot com and request a copy of the guest posting guidelines.

I’m An Organizing Junkie - Laura loves to share people’s success stories with organizing. You can find her guidelines for other guest posting ideas here.

Joyful Mothering - This is my mothering blog where I accept guest posts on motherhood as well as marriage, homeschooling, devotions, discipleship, etc. You can find my guidelines here.

The Frugal Girls – This is a site about frugality, obviously. But they don’t only accept guest posts on frugality, but also DIY project tutorials, party ideas, wedding tips and more. You can find their guidelines here.

Money Saving Mom - Similar to The Frugal Girls, Crystal loves to share others’ stories on how they’ve saved money. There are various ways to do this. Guest posting guidelines are here.

(in)courage - (in)courage is home for the hearts of women. It’s a great place to share your testimony or what God is doing in your life and how others can learn from it or be encouraged by it. They are very flexible with their terms, but you can read more on their submission policy here.

MOB Society - Are you a boy mom? Maybe you’d like to write about your experience at the Moms of Boys Society? There is really no shortage of things to write about when you’re a boy mom (or a girl mom, for that matter!) Submission policy can be found here.

Do you know of other blogs that take guest posts? Share them in the comments!

 

Last week I shared why people should make money from blogging. It’s purpose was two-fold: to let readers know making money from blogging isn’t bad and can actually be used as part of ministry, and to let bloggers know making money from blogging isn’t bad and why they should do it, too.

Before I get into where my source of income generates from, I want to make it a point to share it’s important you only represent companies and products you truly believe in. I have been on blogs that have had a disclaimer state that “the representation of a company or product does not equal an endorsement.”

If you don’t believe in what you’re promoting, forgive me, but you’re going to lose your own credibility in offering products or company promotions. Why promote something you don’t endorse? Think about what’s more important here. Yes, we want to make money, but not at the expense of our credibility for products and companies we don’t truly believe in. So, my advice is not to promote something you don’t endorse. You want your readers to trust you and what you’re offering them.

My Income Stream

1. Virtual Assistant Work – I currently have 3 clients I work for. Two are permanent (or long term) and one is temporary (or short term). There was a time I had upwards of 7 clients and I could no longer juggle them all with the new adjustments of adoption looming. So, my income actually took quite a hit when I let go of some of my VA work. 
2. Blog Consulting – I am still offering blog consults and critiques as I really enjoy helping other bloggers refine and define their vision for blogging and help them make goals to aim high. While I offer a broad range of topics here on the blog (FREE), I also offer more personal, one-on-one help at a very affordable rate. For those who are serious about blogging and taking it to the next level, a blog consult can be a great investment. Bloggers I’ve previously worked with would agree.
3. Affiliates – These do require regular work to continuously bring in revenue and honestly, sometimes I don’t want to over promote products, so I just let the chips fall where they may. My biggest revenue from a single affilate comes from Amazon, and they are probably the smallest percentage of pay out of all the ones I use. But, because it’s the most widely used site, more people are apt to buy from it. So, when I promote  books, I use  affiliate links. And I love books, so I promote them a lot! It’s not hard, because I only promote books I love and buy (or want to buy). But Amazon goes well beyond books!
   There are a lot of affiliate programs out there!
4. Private Ads - These are ads for specific companies, authors, and products that I work with. These types of ads largely depend on my blog stats. When my blog was “younger”, I did a LOT of book reviews in exchange for free books. But it started to get really time consuming and as my readership grew, so did the time it took to interact. I set aside book reviews for connecting. I still promote books, but instead I allow the author to offer a guest post and/or giveaway. I will promote the book (after reading some or all of it) through Facebook and Twitter. Because I no longer do free reviews, though, there are a lot less book reviews as many publishers do not see paying bloggers a great return on investment (which I can understad in a sense). Some bloggers charge $25+ for book reviews and if you want a lot of influential bloggers doing reviews, it’s going to cost a pretty penny. I have also most recently begun offering blog ad buttons and eBook ads for only $10 per month for my fellow bloggers.
5. eBooks – I published my first eBook last month and am now working on my second. Now, my second one is going to be free for Joyful Mothering subscribers. It’s a devotional for moms who specifically struggle with keeping a calm tone when they become frustrated with their children. In addition, I have two other eBook ideas swirling in my head that will be offered for sale after that.

These are just the ways that I generate income and I have a few other ideas swirling in my head that will probably not come to fruition until next year. These certainly aren’t the only ways. You need to tap into your own gifts and passions and figure out what would be a good fit for you and your blog.

I am naturally bent at writing, administrative work, teaching, and encouraging others. So I used those accordingly and will continue to find new ways to utilize them.

How can you generate an income from your blog, using your own gifts/talents?

Blog at Home Mom is now available!!! ALL profits from this eBook go to help us bring our girls home. Our first trip is happening SOON and we will be going to court to make them legally ours. But the second trip still needs to be funded and we pray this eBook will help with that. So please know, when you purchase this eBook, you’re helping to bring our girls home! *Thank you*!

 

Get your PDF copy here

 

Get it for the Kindle here. Get it for the Nook here!

 

 

 This ebook is packed with fantastic, practical ideas and encouragement for those of you wondering if it’s possible to do both the mothering thing and the blogging thing at the same time.

From experience, Christin knows that being a mom and a blogger and doing both well requires intention, commitment, discipline, and focus. In the pages that follow, she’ll give you tools, tips, and suggestions so you can find exhilaration — not exhaustion — from both.

-Crystal Paine, MoneySavingMom.com

 

Writing doesn’t have to take away from family life. Instead, it can add to it, ushering in new experiences and opportunities to serve the Kingdom of God we might never have had otherwise. I’ve decided to be an all-in mother AND an all-in writer thanks to Blog at Home Mom. It empowered me to believe that my calling as a writer is important to me and my family, and inspired me to get more organized for them both. 

-Brooke McGlothlin, co-author of Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess, and co-founder of the MOB Society, an online community for mothers of boys. 

 

Get your PDF copy here

 

Get it for the Kindle here. Get it for the Nook here!