“I know what I’m going to do this summer – and it will be a ton of FUN”.

I figured she just booked a really cool vacation with her family, but NO – Nicole was on a mission to really get her name out there (not like she isn’t already one of the brightest and nicest Internet Marketers out there), create a ton of traffic and most importantly get some super affiliates active in promoting her products (which resulted in quite a few sales for them and her).

Over the next couple of minutes she gave me a quick outline of our Blog World Tour. I remember being blown away, but also wondering if she could pull it off. It just didn’t sound all that easy to convince quite a few well know Internet Marketers to let her take control of their blogs for a week at a time. What I didn’t know was that Nicole had thought about that and had quite a few tricks up her sleeve.

By the end of the summer, quite a few more big names in the industry had taken notice of Nicole Dean, traffic to her blog NicoleontheNet.com had doubled – WHILE SHE WAS IGNORING HER BLOG FOR WEEKS. (She was busy writing on other people’s blogs).

About 12 weeks into her 15 week blog tour, we meet at an Internet Marketing Conference in Atlanta. I’d been to conference with Nicole before, but this was different. People would walk up to her and recognized her … all of a sudden my friend had become one of the gurus. Of course I quickly proceeded to pick her brain about the blog tour, how she set it up, how she organized it and what she did to get bloggers to agree to let her write on their blog. We shared a room, so there was no escaping me :)

By the end of the conference I had a schedule and action plan for my own Blog tour in October (The HBHW On The Road) and I could see the wheels turning in Nicole’s head. If I was this excited about this concept, should she write all this down so other’s could duplicate her process? Was there even a need for this? “HECK YEAH” was my response. Thus the blog tour guide was born.

Nicole’s Blog Tour Guide is a 38 page blueprint that outlines exactly how she went about finding blogs that would make great stops on her tour, how she talked bloggers into agreeing to it (including some very cool ideas on how to make it almost impossible for them to say no), how she planned, organized and scheduled the whole thing as well as what she did to profit from it.

Could you benefit from running your own blog tour? Absolutely, but being in the middle of my own tour, I have to tell you it’s a lot of work and a lot of writing. You’ll be burnt out at the end of it. I enjoy writing a lot, but there are days when I’m ready to be done :)

One thing I really like about the way Nicole has done this guide is that she gives you plenty of options. You don’t have to go out and blog on 15 different blogs 5 days a week to benefit from this. Obviously, the more stops your tour has, the more traffic, sales and recognition you get, but you can benefit even from the smallest of tours – especially if you take her advice on choosing blogs to heart.

Does it work? I already mentioned that it worked beautifully for Nicole, but that doesn’t always mean that it will work for others and in different niches, which is why I put it to the test before revieing the tour guide here.

I did a much shorter blog tour than Nicole. Mine is turning out to be 5 weeks long. Some blogs I posted on all week, others prefered one post a week for 4 weeks and I fit in a few single guest posts as well. The results – so far my traffic is up 20.55%, my newsletter readership has increased by over 2,000 and I have made quite a few sales. By far my favorite part though is that I’ve gained a few new affiliates that might just turn out to become super affiliates and I was able to get a few others who had joined my affiliate program a while back to actively promote my ebooks.

Last but not least, my own affiliate income has increased by 15% as well, and I’ve been spending less time than usual on the Hillbilly Housewife website.

If this is working for Nicole and it’s working for me, there is no reason for you not to give it a try as well. Start by getting a copy of Nicole’s Blog Tour Guide. But do me a favor, don’t just let it sit on your harddrive and collect dust. Set aside two hours to read through the guide and have a pen and some paper ready. Jot down ideas for your own blog tour as you read through the guide and then sit down and schedule your own tour.

P.S. Instead of spending all your time on article marketing and other traffic and link building activities, why not organize your own blog tour? It’s a lot of fun and VERY effective.

Before we get into the actual “how-to”, let’s take a minute and talk about why we would want to guest blog in the first place. It’s a great way to expand your reach and put yourself out there in front of a bigger or different audience. As a person who pays attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it is also a great way to generate incoming links. In other words, guest blog posts can create quite a bit of traffic for you and help your rankings.

The person allowing you to post on their blog, gets some interesting and unique content for their blog, making it a win-win situation.

But how do you go about becoming a guest blogger. In short, you ask. Most bloggers (and website owners in general) are looking for fresh content to add to their sites. Writing it all ourselves is a lot of work, and quite frankly I sometimes run out of ideas for things to write about. Having someone come in and write a post (or two or three) for me gives me a little break. Often that’s all it takes for me to get my creative juices flowing again and I’m ready to jump back in and post away. Guest bloggers are also great when you’re on vacation or out sick or can’t blog regularly for any other reason.

If you’d like to write a few guest blog posts (and I certainly think you should), start by looking at people you know. Is there someone that reaches a similar target market? If you already have a relationship with that blogger, it’s pretty easy to send them an email or give them a call and ask if they would be open to publishing a post you would write for their blog. I like to come up with an idea or two for the post, but also make it clear that I’m open to their suggestions as well.

If you don’t know any bloggers in your target market, start getting to know them. Find their blogs, leave some comments and send them an email just to start getting to know them. Then approach them about guest blogging.Yes, this is a little bit of work, but worth it because you are building a relationship with a fellow blogger that can result in all kinds of different types of cross promotions down the road.

When you start looking for these bloggers, don’t just focus on the big names and popular blogs – especially if you’re just starting out. Look for some smaller blogs. You’ll have a much easier time getting them to agree to a guest post.

While I prefer to approach bloggers that I think would be a good fit, there’s another option as well. Go to Google.com and search for your keyword or target market and then “guest blog” , “guest blogging” or “submit an article” or “submit a post”.

Your posts won’t always get published when you use this second method. I like to keep track of each my posts and if it doesn’t get used within a few weeks on one blog, I submit it to another one, turn it into an article that can be submitted to article directories, or I just use it on my own blog.

Just go out there and ask or find some places that will accept your blog posts. Keep track of what’s published where and then use those posts to show your expertise as you approach other bloggers about guest writing opportunities.

Oftentimes all it takes is to get those first few guest posts out there. As other bloggers see your guest blogs they start to contact you to about a possible guest post on their blog as well.

As I am writing this I’m sitting in a Hotel in Asheville, NC. I participated in a blogging conference here and it was a wonderful opportunity to find both excellent blogs that I can become a guest blogger on as well as plenty of wonderful writers that are interested in blogging on one of my blogs.

If you are already going to conferences, keep that in mind. You may also want to check into what blogger meet-ups and conferences happen in your area. Social media and blogging clubs are springing up all over the place and are a wonderful way to meet fellow bloggers in person. Once you know these people, it’s a lot easier to start a converstaion about guest blogging.

Get out there and find some bloggers today that may be interested in publishing a post by you.

P.S. My favorite conference for both content and networking is NAMS. If you’re thinking of attending a conference this year, come join us in January in Atlanta for the Nice Marketing Affiliate System Conference. I’ll be there.