One way to build your online business is to write a regular column for someone else’s high-traffic website, blog, ezine, or offline publication related to your niche. Writing a column takes “article marketing” to a whole new level. The beautiful thing about being a columnist for another site or publication is that - in addition to building your image as an expert on your topic - you’re also getting access to another site’s audience who are very interested in everything you write.

You probably won’t get paid for writing your column. But in exchange for an article or two per month, you can get a level of repeated exposure and promotion to your niche audience that would be prohibitively expensive to buy.

What’s Involved in Being a Columnist?

Writing a column is dead easy. It’s just like writing a regular article or blog post.

Your column can provide insider tips, insights, interviews, product reviews, trend reports, or whatever useful content suits your niche.

For the past three years I’ve been a columnist for The Bead Bugle, one of the largest ezines in the handcrafted jewelry niche. Every month I write two different columns for this ezine - one full-length “jewelry business” article, and one collection of quick tips on jewelry business or jewelry making.

Although I don’t get paid for this columnist gig, it’s been a fantastic opportunity to reach tens of thousands of new readers, build my own traffic and lists quickly, and become thought of as an authority in my niche - all in exchange for a small amount of my time every month.

At the end of each of my Bead Bugle columns, I have a nice resource box with my mini-bio and a blurb about my main website, along with a link to my home page, a link to my newsletter subscription page, and a link to my latest ebook.

Every month when my columns are published, they bring a wave of readers and new subscribers to my site, along with more sales of my ebooks. And my column pages in the ezine’s online archives wind up at PR3 and PR4 very quickly, which turns them into valuable on-topic backlinks.

After experiencing the power of the “columnist” model of article marketing, I’m now a guest blogger / columnist on about a dozen websites, blogs, and ezines - and I appreciate the resulting boost in traffic, ebook sales, and “branding” of my image.

Often people who read your columns on other websites will give you an extra boost by blogging about them, Digging them, bookmarking them on del.icio.us, or Stumbling them.

Now for many of my niche keywords, the top 10 Google results show an article from one of my own websites, as well as one or two from my various columns, Squidoo lenses, Netscape submissions, other people’s blogs, etc. Dominating the first page of Google makes me look like the “authority” of that keyword.

Tips for Writing Columns

For my columns and guest blogger posts, I often write something completely from scratch.

“List articles” are always popular and very quick to write (10 Best Wineries in Spain; The 5 Most Important Resources for Bloggers; 7 Things You Should Never Tell Your Mother-in-Law; etc.).

However, if I’m short on time, I’ll take an article or post from one of my own websites or blogs, and expand or update it to make it new and unique.

Occasionally in my columns I place a link to an interior page or blog post on one of my own websites - but only if it genuinely enhances the article. I’m careful never to spam or take advantage of my publishers, and to keep the quality of my columns as high as possible.

TIP: You can make the job of columnist even easier on yourself by writing several months’ worth of columns at a time, and sending them in a big batch for the other publisher to “drip feed” into their site every month as needed. That way you’ll reap the benefits of being a columnist all year long, while actually attending to your duties only once or twice a year.

How to Get a Columnist or Guest Blogger Gig

Submitting one or two columns a month per publication is a very do-able level of writing. You should receive a regular flow of traffic from your efforts, but without feeling like you have a deadline everytime you turn around.

There’s a huge need for fresh, high-quality, niche-specific information that your columns can fill. All content websites, blogs, ezines, and offline publications are in a constant crunch for good content.

Many niche retail and wholesale businesses also publish a newsletter, ezine, or blog that needs good content.

If you already know some publishers or business owners in your niche, simply ask if they’d like you to contribute a regular column for their publication.

Or if you don’t know any publishers of high-traffic publications in your niche, edit one of your best articles for a sample column, and approach some popular blogs, websites, or ezines in your niche. Ask the publishers or editors if they’d be interested in receiving a regular column from you.

If you demonstrate that you can provide great content that the publisher won’t have to spend a lot of time editing, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a publication that will welcome you as a regular columnist in exchange for linking to your websites in your resource box.

The easier and more beneficial you can make your content for your publisher, the more likely you are to be welcomed as a regular guest blogger or columnist.

About the author of this article: Rena Klingenberg is the author of the ebook: Squidoo Traffic Power