My Guest-Post Research: Results!

Today I bring you the results of my guest post research. I've read that having backlinks (sites that link to your blog) is the best way to build up your Google ranking. Obviously a higher Google ranking means that your blog will show up on the first page of search results. More traffic potentially means a higher number of people clicking on your ads, earning you more money. See this article for a recap

I set out to research this phenomenon so I took the time to write a few guest posts on some high ranking sites on the Internet. Granted, I only wrote one post for each site, I think I could still gauge the effect this had on my blog on a small scale - namely traffic. I won't know about the effect it had on my Google ranking until later in the year. Here's the breakdown:

How guest posting influenced my blog

On May 6th I wrote, Strange Death, Anyone on Page rank 6 - Kuriositas. I received just 2 comments on that page (including my reply).

A Blogger's Books received 19 page views, with 18 unique page views from this article. Visitors from Kuriositas spent an average of 2 minutes on the site. 

On May 13th I wrote 5 Reasons Why Blogging Is Like Parenting  on Page rank 6 - ComLuv. I received 42 comments on that page (including my replies).

A Blogger's Books received 21 visitors with 16 unique page views from that article. Visitors from ComLuv tended to stay for approximately 4 minutes.

On June 10th I wrote, Why Facebook Isn't Completely Crap on Page rank 6 - Blogcritics. I received 4 comments on that page (including my reply). 

A Blogger's Books received 14 visitors with 8 unique page views from that article. Visitors from Blogcritics stayed for about 3 minutes, but the bounce rate was one of the lowest I've had (this is a good thing).

Finally, on June 11th I wrote, 5 Tricks Master Bloggers Use To Make Every Post Popular on  Page rank 3 - (very popular with Blogger users) Blogger Sentral. I received 14 comments on that page.

A Blogger's Books received 44 page views with 42 unique page views from that article. Visitors from Blogger Sentral stayed for about 5 minutes on average. 

My conclusion:

1. I've noticed that the blogs which are more similar to A Blogger's Books' niche yielded the best figures.

2. I thought I would have more traffic coming from the sites, but I think that if one article yielded that many visitors, I have to consider that two more guest posts on each of the above blogs would add up to many more.

3. Back links are not only about traffic. They're about building up your blog's ranking and gaining more subscribers. Therefore, I may not have had hundreds of people rushing over to my site, but bit by bit, the backlinks I've built on all of the guest post articles  can influence what Google does next on my blog.

4. My subscribers on two of my blogs have increased slightly after my guest posts.

Finally, I do think that these guest posts have been a positive thing for A Blogger's Books and indeed, my other blogs which all received trickles of traffic from the above mentioned sites. I think that based on traffic alone, I'd say the benefit from the hard work and time I spent on the articles didn't pay the dividends I thought they would. However, in time to come, backlinks from these highly rated sites may very well be just the thing I need to get my blogs rated higher than they are. 

Have you ever done Guest Posting? 
Based on this report, would you do it now? Recommended reading: How Do I Blog?