Today, I will be discussing guest blogging and how it relates to building a business. Networking is an effective way to expand your business. I will be specifically focusing on guest blogging as a network building strategy. In the business world it's called forming strategic alliances but it still boils down to networking.

                “Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.” – Carol Roth

Networking can be an effective way to start a business and outperform competition. In all businesses I have built, I always make sure I connect with other businesses and together; we will form a business network.

                "The richest people in the world build networks; everyone else is trained to look for work." – Rich Dad

StrategicBusinessTeam.com is a business blog with a mission to help entrepreneurs develop the required entrepreneurial skills and grow their business respectively. Since this blog is a business blog, I made up my mind to find a way to connect it with other business blog networks. I did this because I came to realize that in order to achieve our mission, our blog has to connect with other blogs that has our target audience; and the strategy we adopted to make the connection a reality is guest blogging.

                “Create content that stands for something, what I call higher purpose marketing.” – Joe Pulizzi

                “The only way to build influence is to go out and get it yourself, and to overcome that fear of doing so.” – Terry Starbucker

                Guest Blogging: How I Network with other Successful Bloggers

Why Do I Engage in Guest Blogging or Networking?

This was the exact outburst of a friend when I told him that my best articles are to be published on other business blogs and not on mine. He asked if I received a pay for my effort and I said no. What! He screamed. Why should anyone give away his best articles for free? This was the question he threw at me.

                "Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written and to write what is worthy of being read." – Henry Ross Perot

                “Share good content consistently. That’s how I have done it.” – Jason Falls

I never did reply him because he was an employee and working for free was out of his ideology; he believes in getting paid for everything you do. But I will tell you why guest blogging and networking has been an effective business growth strategy for me; I am telling you because I believe you are either an entrepreneur or in the making.

                “I did 30 Minute Meals for five years on local television, and I earned nothing the first two years. Then I earned $50 a segment. I spent more than that on gas and groceries, but I really enjoyed making the show and I loved going to a viewer’s house each week. I knew I enjoyed it, so I stuck with it even though it cost me.” – Rachael Ray

My team adopted guest blogging (business networking) as a targeted marketing strategy because it links us directly with our target audience. In online business, it's called niche content marketing but in the offline business world, it's called strategic targeted marketing or value marketing.

                “Get good at filtering and aggregating content. Deliver it to people at the right time, the right size and the right amount.” – John Jantsch

Looking back over time, I will say the guest blogging strategy has proved effective for us. Instead of waiting for our target audience to come to us, we take our information to them. Just like taking our products to the doorstep of potential customers and asking them to buy instead of waiting for the customers to go to the retail store to buy our products. We are ultimately eliminating stress and making it easier for people to find our content right on their own chosen platform.

                “Find out from your customers which social networks they are using and be there for them at the moment they need you.” – Shashi Bellamkonda

Now take a critical look at this; if I implement this guest blogging/networking strategy on my blog or business respectively or I take my content/product/services to the doorstep of my targeted customers while my competitor waits patiently for the audience or customer to come to their selling point. Which business do you think will sell more and grow faster? It should be my business of course. So when next you see an article elsewhere with a link pointing back to StrategicBusinessTeam.com, don't fret; we are only implementing our business growth plan.

                "Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationship." – Henry Ross Perot

To balance our act and make the guest blogging strategy an effective two way affair, we are now opening up our blog to accept guest articles. This will solidify the network and give other successful bloggers the chance to leverage our own network. You can submit your business related articles here.

                "The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competitors, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose." – Bill Gates

I am not writing this to brag or tell you how we are faring. Rather, I am writing to encourage you to leave your comfort zone and take your product or services to the doorstep of your targeted customers. If your business is strictly offline, then do everything within your power to network with other businesses in your vicinity. For instance, if you retail male shoes, you can form strategic alliance with a male clothes retailer in your vicinity. It's all about forming a two way mutual relationship.

                “Get active in other people’s communities. Get out of your own head and get into other people’s spaces.” – Mitch Joe

But if you are strictly into doing business online, blogging for instance; you can use guest blogging as an avenue to increase your traffic or expand your business network. To even sweeten the deal, some business blogs are going to encourage guest blogging by allowing you to earn some revenue from their blog alongside traffic and popularity. ShoutMeLoud is an example of a blog that offers advertising revenue (Google Adsense) to you for submitting an article.

So the reward with networking as a guest blogger is now in four folds: backlink + traffic + revenue + fame. Aside guest blogging, you can also try blog commenting, cross recommendation or promotion, link trading and product swapping.

As a final note, I encourage you to go all out and network with other entrepreneurs in your industry or niche. If you are a blogger and you haven't been taking advantage of the guest blogging opportunity, I encourage you to start guest blogging today and the best way to start is to submit your business related article to be published here on this blog. You can click here to submit an article. To further prove that we practice what we preach, below are some guest articles I wrote that are published on other business blogs.

                Guest Blogging: How I Network with other Successful Bloggers

                My Articles Published on other Business Blogs

1.            7 Undisputable Reasons Why You Will Never Make Money Blogging

2.            12 Traits of Highly Successful Bloggers

3.            Building a Blog: What is your Primary Motive?

4.            How Reading Can Help You Become a Successful Blogger

5.            15 Characteristics of Highly Successful Investors

6.            How to Write a Simple Business Plan for Your Blog in Nine Easy Steps

7.            What is your primary aim for building a business?

8.            What’s your primary aim for building a business (part 2)

9.            7 Traits of Highly Successful Sales People

10.          How to build a strong brand image for your blog