I chat with my non native English speaking buddies quite a bit.
I have many readers from India and Pakistan, among other international locales.
One tricky, quite difficult to embrace, mental block handcuffs some of these awesome, rocking bloggers.
What is it?
Being a skilled, fluent English writer but not guest posting or blog commenting for fear of believing that their English is not good enough.
Guest Blogging and Not Being Good Enough
I know many non native English speaking bloggers with sensational writing skills. Fabulous with the cyber pen, these folks write blog posts as if they were raised in the United States. I marvel at their writing game, wondering if they would teach me how to get my grammar game down tight.
But with so many of these bloggers struggling I was flummoxed: why in the heck would a skilled, clear, cogent writer who crafts posts as if they grew up speaking English fluently struggle so mightily?
I finally got it, recently.
I understood the big mental block that many of these rocking bloggers cling to, which leads to their struggles.
Many in this crowd simply believe that they are not fluent enough, English-wise, to write for other bloggers. Fear of guest posting on native English speaker blogs is very real, because hell; I even cling to this self-conscious, destructive, resistant limiting belief if I considered submitting a guest post to a blog where the creator often writes the King’s English. Or if the blogger is a world famous dynamo.
I get it.
I get the self-conscious fears that cripple all of us at times.
But the only way to succeed blogging-wise is through the power of connections.
Your network does in fact determine your net worth on some level.
1,000 friends is better than no friends. Believe me on that. Lesson learned, personally.
Guest posting and effective blog commenting are 2 of the best, most powerful ways to make friends, to build connections, to help people, to expand your reach and to succeed online.
But to begin guest posting and blog commenting regularly, you need to embrace the powerful fear that you don’t write well enough to guest post and comment on prominent blogs in your niche because you are a non-native speaker.
Maybe this is True Some of the Time
Maybe you aren’t skilled enough to place guest posts on top blogs. Maybe you need more writing practice.
This is the case with a large portion of non native English speaking bloggers but a growing, expanding, emerging lot is skilled enough to land guesties on top blogs but simply fears being criticized or having their guest posts being rejected.
I understand that fear, even as a native English speaker. But the only way to get over the fear is to feel it, by diving into the fear and by reaching out to established pro bloggers who are your buddies, and by asking them if they would publish your guest posts.
Prime the Guest Posting Pump
Don’t cold pitch any blogger though.
Comment on a blogger’s blog (from your niche) effectively for a few weeks. Promote their blog posts on social media. Mention these top bloggers on your blog. Friendships will form, over months.
Eventually, you will be invited to guest post in some cases or you may pitch them a guest post idea.
Either they accept, or don’t accept. Either way, this simple process of diving into your fears will make you highly successful over the long haul.
In some cases, you are a skilled enough writer to place guest posts on blogs run by native English speakers. Blogs in the United States. Blogs in Europe. Blogs in Australia.
The only way to gain confidence and clarity in your writing is to build bonds by serving top bloggers and by either gaining invites to guest post or by pitching.
Go for it guys.
Take off the handcuffs.
Build bonds.
Go offsite.
Success awaits for the clear, confident, bold blogger.