You might find it pretty interesting that I am so willing to whole-heartedly make that statement. It’s nothing personal, it’s just… The truth. Every characteristic of the great British musician would set him in stone to be a better blogger than any of us.

Photo credits: bixentro

He Spoke His Mind

Whether it was about religion, war, or women’s rights, John Lennon was an active authoritative speaker on whatever it is he had a strong belief in. That’s a pretty rare trait in bloggers, today.

I’m willing to bet that you are afraid to go against what the majority of “pro bloggers” think. For example, if Darren Rowse went ahead and said that any blogs that aren’t purple suck, you probably wouldn’t have the heart to disagree.

I highly doubt you’d have the nerve to shout, “But Darren! Purple is an ugly website colour!” even though you honestly believed it.

John Lennon would yell at Darren – he would know better. Even when everybody disagreed with his stance on a subject, he would blurt out his opinion. Although he got a lot of hate for it, he got a lot of respect, too.

Be more like John Lennon – speak your mind. Don’t be afraid that others will be angered at your position. Isn’t the entire point of blogging voicing your opinion?

He Was Unique

You have a better chance at finding Elvis Presley in 7/11 than you do finding diversity among the larger chunk of blogs on the internet. It’s kind of embarrassing.

John Lennon and the other three boys from Liverpool revolutionized the music industry. The great force behind the movement, though, was definitely on John’s part – he was extremely diverse.

In his school years, John stuck out as the troublemaker who would do anything for a laugh during school. He then grew an urge to create a Rock N’ Roll group in a day and age filled with swing and classical music, John seemed to defy the general movement of society.

From his odd style of music (that isn’t meant to be of offence – The Beatles are my second favourite band), to his will to speak out about whatever he wanted, John defied uniformity.

Everybody and their mother has a blog about every niche under the sun – yours has to be different. Without diversity, you will fall to the hands of being yet another [insert niche] blog.

He Was Awesome

When asked their thoughts on John Lennon, nearly anybody who knows anything about him will call him a complete and utter bad***. It’s true – he really was.

He had everything going for him – musical talent, the love of every girl under the sun, and a wonderful family. It wasn’t a bad gig.

Upon The Beatles’ split, millions were devastated – it had a big impact. If you left your blog, I am pretty sure millions of people wouldn’t care – they’d probably laugh at best.

Not only was John awesome, but he knew he was awesome. He put it to his advantage.

To succeed at blogging, you need to become awesome (that sounds pretty vague, right? Still, please do try it).

And What You Can Learn From John?

Here are a few tricks that will get just about any blogger to accept your guest post with open arms:

Become Their Customer

It’s really, really hard to say no to a customer.

Most authority blogs sell some sort of product or service. If you’re dying to get your post accepted, buy their product and send them an email telling them how much you loved it.

Once they get back to you, ask them if they’d be kind enough to accept a top-notch guest post you just wrote for their site.

BYOA (Bring Your Own Article)

One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make when guest posting is emailing the site asking them a) if they accept guest posts and b) what topics they want people to write about.

Popular bloggers are frantically busy and don’t have time to hold your hand through the article creation process. Instead, study their existing content, write an original guest post and send them a polished, final draft. That way, they only need 30-seconds to copy and paste the content on their site.

This may seem simple, but this trick has literally tripled the response rate I receive from site owners since I started my guest posting campaign for my surveys for money site Survey Spencer.

Personalize the Post

It goes without saying that you should always write a post for a specific site, being super-duper careful not to repeat a topic that’s been done to death. But for an extra-personalized touch, I try to mention (and link to) a tip or post that the blog has already covered that’s related to my post.

For example:
“As Joe already mentioned in this excellent post, guest blogging may be the most underutilized form of backlink building on the planet.”

Make Them Money

Most bloggers include a “no affiliate link” clause in their guest posting guidelines. However, if you read between the lines they really mean: don’t put any of your affiliate links.

To give them an extra incentive to accept your post, sprinkle in some helpful resources into your guest post that have affiliate programs.

When you submit your article, let the blogger know that resources X,Y and Z have high converting offers and they’re free to put their affiliate links in your post.

Add an Infographic

Readers love infographics because they present a complex idea into a fun and colorful form of visual media.

However, because they’re a hassle to put together and don’t get spidered by search engines like a regular article, many bloggers don’t use infographics as often as they should. But they have no problem with you taking on the trouble and expense of creating a clean, helpful and professional infographic and giving it to them in exchange for a link.

Are there any tricks that you’ve used to accelerate the guest posting process? If so, feel free to post your tip in a comment here.

In the last two months I read more than 200 articles and blog posts about SEO and traffic. I make a little compilation from them and in this post I collected most important tips (and links) about traffic and SEO which I found on blogosphere.

This article is divided into two parts.

The first one is about 35 Traffic and SEO tips – it’s my compilation of SEO and traffic tips

The second part is a base for it – it includes links to almost 40 great articles from bloggers.

Part I

Traffic & SEO Tips

1. Define Who Is Your Reader

2. Plan Your Traffic and SEO

3. Follow Your Plan

4. Use Keyword Research Tools (like Google Keyword Tool or Market Samurai)

5. Use SEO Tools for Analyzing Your Competition (Alexa, SEMRush, Majestic SEO)

6. Use Analytical Tools to Monitor your Site

7. Optimize Your Website (Onsite Optimization)

8. Use Proper Keywords on Your Site

9. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

10. Use Internal Linking

11. Don’t Overoptimize Your Website

12. Don’t Overuse Black Hat SEO Methods

13. Don’t Rely on One Source of Traffic

14. Write for Your Readers, Not for Google

15. Prepare Great Content for Your Readers

16. Mix Content on Your Website

17. Get a Lot of Quality Links to Your Site

18. Try to Get Various Types of Links

19. Don’t Get Thousands Links too Quickly

20. Don’t Link to Bad Neighbourhood from Your Site

21. Remove Links from Bad Neighbourhood

22. Make Social Media Your Friend (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, G+)

23. Add Shares Buttons to Social Media

24. Make Relationships with Bloggers

25. Make Comments on Other Blogs

26. Write Articles for Other Websites

27. Accept Guest Posts on Your Blog

28. Go Viral (Click to Tweet!)

29. Start Building Your Email List Today

30. Participate in Social Networks (Bloggers.com, Tribber)

31. Think Broad, Concentrate on Details

32. Be Up to Date with Trends and News in Your Niche

33. Update Your Site Frequently

34. Be Consistent in Your Actions

35. Don’t Give Up – Building Traffic Needs Time

Part II

SEO Resources (Articles Written by Other Bloggers)

 (in alphabetical order)

Jason Acidre @ kaiserthesage.com

SEO Strategies and Inbound Marketing Best Practices for 2012

21 Advanced Link Building Strategies

Link Building in 2012: Scalable Link Building

A Link Development Strategy for Large Websites

Viral Content Ideas for Boring Industries

Anti-Penguin Link Building Plan

Jeff Bullas @ jeffbullas.com

50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog

50 Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics

Kristjan @ detailedsuccess.com

Detailed Guide To Backlinking Success For Niche Websites

Pat Flynn @ smartpassiveincome.com

THE Backlinking Strategy That Works

Casey Henry @ seomoz.org

What Makes a Link Worthy Post – Part 1

What Makes a Link Worthy Post – Part 2

Kristi Hines @ kikolani.com

40 Advanced and Alternative Search Engines

Natural Link Building 101

Search Engine Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing: The Showdown

Ana Hoffman @ trafficgenerationcafe.com

My Favorite Bite-Sized Web Traffic Tips: Reader’s Digest Version

The Highly Profitable Traffic Strategy You Aren’t Using Yet

Jennifer Horowitz @ ecombuffet.com

Farmers, Pandas, Penguins Oh My!

Chadrack Irobogo @ webincomejournal.com

Google Panda And Penguin Updates: What You Should Know To Stay Ahead Of The Game!

Jeevan Jacob John @blognetworking101.com

Why Commenting and Social Media Suck As Traffic Sources

Ankush Kohli @ emarketinguide.com

Mobile Website SEO Tips & Guide

Chris Madej @ NoPassiveIncome.com

8 Helpful Tips, How To Promote Your Blog

20 SEO Tips for Beginner Bloggers

Google Penguin Attacked – 50 Types of Links to Strengthen Your Website

Admin @ micrositemasters.com

Penguin Analysis: SEO Isn’t Dead, But You Need to Act Smarter (And 5 Easy Ways to Do So!)

Nick @ nickstraffictricks.com

How To Build Back Links Super Fast

Massive DoFollow Blog List Directory

How To Build Backlinks – Fast & Easy Strategies To Build Backlinks

How To Rank #1 In Google

Francisco Perez (ditesco) @ iblogzone.com

Best SEO Plugins For WordPress 2012 (part 1)

Best SEO Plugins For WordPress 2012 (part 2)

Daniel Scocco @ dailyblogtips.com

Blog Project: 30 Traffic Generation Tips

Amit Shaw @ itechcode.com

List of CommentLuv Enabled Blogs for 2012

Best Tips to Raise Traffic For Your Website

Jane Sheeba @ probloggingsuccess.com

Traffic Generation Formula: Is Blog Commenting And Social Media Out?

Viral Marketing: Generate High Potential Viral Blog Traffic

Gregory Smith @ rxseo.net

Link Building Secrets – Post Panda and Penguin

Matt Smith @ onlineincometeacher.com

15 Great Off-Page SEO Techniques

And what do you think about it? What are your tips & tricks to get a lot of traffic? Or maybe I forgot about your post or article and you must be here?

All related links in comments are welcome.