In recent times, guest posting on blogs has become a popular and effective marketing technique; it helps build links, promote your brand and thus increase sales. However, as this strategy is being used extensively, bloggers are becoming more and more wary of requests from individuals for guest posting.

In fact, guest posting has become a rather daunting process; an uphill battle, through and through.

However, if you follow the best practices listed below, you'll find it easier to get access to quality guest posting opportunities:

Research Well

Do not rush to send a request email to a blogger; over-eagerness displays a lack genuine interest, which is a big turn-off for any blog-owner.

I often consider sharing a post or some thoughts on social media, particularly Google+, where I know I will get some instant feedback and discussion. If it's on a personal interest topic like Game of Thrones, I will run with it. If it's on a "professional" topic though, like social media or technology, I always stop and think whether or not what I want to say would serve me better as a blog post.

As a blog post, I own that content. It exists on my website and will be there as long as I keep my site up.

One day, Jesus was teaching and a large group of people had gathered around. It was one of the largest groups to listen to him to date, and even local religious leaders were there to hear what he had to say.

Toward the end of his sermon, Jesus asked a curious question. He said, "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?" To the people of that time, these questions would have made complete sense, and would have been taken as lighthearted, rhetorical questions. That's because, locally, there was a kind of eel in the river that was a fish, but looked like a snake, and was completely inedible. If your son asked for a fish to eat, there's no way you would give him some disgusting eel that you knew he couldn't eat. You'd give him some fish. The people listening would have been laughing, yet puzzled.

I was grabbing a coffee with a random connection the other day and they asked me how I come up with so many different ideas for blog posts. They talked about how they have always wanted to start a blog but never did because they fear they'll run out of things to write about. The classic tale of writers block.

I wish I could say it's easy to come up with ideas but that would be a flat out lie. Coming up with new topics and subject matter that will keep an audience engaged and connected to your blog is no walk in the park. Throw in the fact that you're not only developing ideas for your own personal blog but also the blogs and ebooks of clients and developing ideas has become an art and science on its own.

A few weeks ago, I decided that it would be really nice to make the 10 hour drive back home to Ohio and surprise my mom for her birthday. She adores her granddaughter and I knew they both would be thrilled to see each other. Not long after I informed my wife and we scheduled the trip, we were invited to a baby shower in Chicago on the same weekend. While we wouldn't be able to attend the actual shower, we love visiting Chicago and decided to stop there on the way back to St. Louis and spend an additional night. As a result, I knew that I would be traveling and busy with family for four full days. 

When you have a daily blog posting schedule like I do, that's a problem!

I knew that I would have my MacBook Pro and iPad, and of course my iPhone, but I didn't know when or where I would have time to do much, so I decided to have posts ready and scheduled to publish ahead of time. 

The internet has many facets, but one of its most popular ones is without a doubt blogging. People blog for many reasons, but no matter the motivation, one should be passionately interested in what he or she is creating. There is an over-saturation of information on the worldwide web, and there is simply not enough time for readers to process everything. In other words, content that is probably high-quality and informative might never make it out of the pit of anonymity, for the simple fact that it doesn't engage with readers. When interesting and informative are no longer assets, bloggers have to come up with something else: emotional triggers.

Have you ever had an idea for a blog post, but before you can write about it, someone else beat you to it? If you write about social media and technology like I do, you probably answered "all the time!" It's actually quite rare for me to write on a topic that no one else has already. Jeff Bullas goes so far as to say that everything has already been said. I don't buy into that 100%, but I see his point.

Writing is not an easy task, especially if you're one of those bloggers who constantly need to be “inspired” in order to be able to write. This can work against your career if you're near your deadline and there's no time to wait for your “inspiration” to come to you on its own.

In this case, it might be better to do your own motivational steps to bring your muse to the fore – a process in writing loosely called “prompting.”

After I have finished writing, editing, deep linking and have published a new blog post, my work has just gotten started. Simply creating content isn't sufficient to gain readership. You need to actively promote that new post so that people can see it and have a chance to read it. It can take a long time to build up email and RSS subscribers, so in the meantime, you will need to be more proactive.

Here are all the things I do after I publish a post to get readers to it.