Guest posting is one of the greatest ways to build links all over the web, getting your blog a name and growing your blog brand. This effectively drive you sales. I myself am trying to guest post as much as I can to improve my blog for awareness.
Its become such a great method of marketing that many bloggers are being stockpiled with many, many requests that its unfortunately causing them to ignore most of them.
Are your guest posts being accepted and making you some great exposure? If so let us all know in the comments below. If not, read on!
The first thing you need to do is contact the blogger that is the main port of call. You need to make sure your pitch is perfect to catch their attention.
There are a few key points that bloggers will not accept your guest posts:
- You don't state what you are going to offer to write about.
- You don't engage with the blogger and make it an entertaining email.
- You don't check and fix grammar mistakes in your email.
- You offer money and that would mean that the blogger would be selling the links.
Correcting these four points will make you on your way to grabbing the bloggers attention. So make sure you avoid these mistakes.
Research the blog in mind:
The worst thing you can do is to apply for the blog in mind and realise they already have a post on your subject. You should always do your research. Of course you can "cold-call" a few hundred blogs of guest blogging requests, you can almost guarantee that no popular blog is going to even consider you. You want to be able to create a relationship with this blogger. That's what blogging is all about, creating a community.
To give you an example of the research you need to do read this below from Neil Patel over at Quick Sprout:
See if they accept guest post – the obvious way to see if a blog accepts guest posts is to see if they’ve published any in the past. And if they have, look for a web page that may outline their guest posting requirements.
Read their blog – don’t just read their last few blog posts, but read at least 10 of them. Look for patterns on what their readers like and don’t like as well as the type of content that performs well. You can easily do this by looking at social share counts… the higher the number, typically the more successful the post was.
Read comments – the best way you can figure out what people like is by reading the comments on the blog. This will give you a quick understand of what the readers are like and what they are looking for.
Analyse their writing style – from how they format their blog posts to the style they write each post in, analyse everything. This will help you determine how you need to write your guest post. For example, on Quick Sprout I only accept guest posts that are written in a conversational style and contain an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Now that you’ve done your homework, you are ready to write.
Thank you to Quick Sprout for the great tips!
Deciding on what you are going to write:
So you have done your research and know what the blog owner likes. You now know what the readers want, so write something they both will appreciate. With spending the time researching what they like, you will increase your chances of getting your post accepted.
The first thing you need to do when beginning to write your guest posts is to come up with an attractive headline. If your headline is terrible, nobody out there is going to read your content. No matter how good it is.
Once you have your headline, get jotting down. Make sure you take the time to write a really detailed post. After all its the main point of call on that blog that people are going to want to come visit your own blog.
Last but not least in this step is to include images in your post. They need to be bought or royalty free so that your blog wont get into trouble for using them.
Sending off your email:
Now that you have an awesome headline to go with your awesome post, you need to shoot an email to the blog owner. What you need to do here is make your email stand out in the blog owners inbox. What is the first thing they are going to see? Your name and subject of course. You want to make sure they click on your message. I am sure I am not the only one out there that scans through their inbox because of all the notifications and spam that I get.
So what you want to do is make sure your awesome headline goes in the subject box, because by now you would of thought long and hard about it to make sure its eye catching.
Once again because you have done your research you will know what they like to blog about, so why not personalise your email by commenting on the blog posts that you like on their blog? This will make them realise that you are a loyal reader and like what you read. Then ask the blog owner if you can write a post for them? If you write an informal email it is likely to be more appropriate than sending a formal one. Bloggers see formal emails as sales pitches, which is why they ignore them. Casual emails are typically from readers and gives you the inside edge.
Thank you to Quick Sprout for the great tips!
Deciding on what you are going to write:
So you have done your research and know what the blog owner likes. You now know what the readers want, so write something they both will appreciate. With spending the time researching what they like, you will increase your chances of getting your post accepted.
The first thing you need to do when beginning to write your guest posts is to come up with an attractive headline. If your headline is terrible, nobody out there is going to read your content. No matter how good it is.
Once you have your headline, get jotting down. Make sure you take the time to write a really detailed post. After all its the main point of call on that blog that people are going to want to come visit your own blog.
Last but not least in this step is to include images in your post. They need to be bought or royalty free so that your blog wont get into trouble for using them.
Sending off your email:
Now that you have an awesome headline to go with your awesome post, you need to shoot an email to the blog owner. What you need to do here is make your email stand out in the blog owners inbox. What is the first thing they are going to see? Your name and subject of course. You want to make sure they click on your message. I am sure I am not the only one out there that scans through their inbox because of all the notifications and spam that I get.
So what you want to do is make sure your awesome headline goes in the subject box, because by now you would of thought long and hard about it to make sure its eye catching.
Once again because you have done your research you will know what they like to blog about, so why not personalise your email by commenting on the blog posts that you like on their blog? This will make them realise that you are a loyal reader and like what you read. Then ask the blog owner if you can write a post for them? If you write an informal email it is likely to be more appropriate than sending a formal one. Bloggers see formal emails as sales pitches, which is why they ignore them. Casual emails are typically from readers and gives you the inside edge.
Follow up with another email:
Something I learned while is was in sales is to send a follow up call after I had sent off a quotation for a job. Chances are if its one of the bigger blogs is that you will be ignored. Most bloggers will open up your email, but they will never find the time to respond to it.
What you will want to do is send them an email asking if they have decided whether or not they are interested in your guest post and if they are going to publish it. Just send them an email every week, keep the email short and casual and straight to the point. Sooner or later they will have to respond to you. Not knowing if they have accepted will play on your mind. Trust me!
So what do you do now?
Well not a lot you can do now until your guest post gets published. Just keep trying, it will do wonders for your blog. If your post gets onto their blog, you want to ensure it does well. If your blog post gets a lot of traffic, shares and comments, the blog owner will more than likely take another guest post from you. Plus you can use that post as a reference when applying to other blogs.
Web Success Diary is taking guest posts! Check out the guidelines and where to submit here.
Something I learned while is was in sales is to send a follow up call after I had sent off a quotation for a job. Chances are if its one of the bigger blogs is that you will be ignored. Most bloggers will open up your email, but they will never find the time to respond to it.
What you will want to do is send them an email asking if they have decided whether or not they are interested in your guest post and if they are going to publish it. Just send them an email every week, keep the email short and casual and straight to the point. Sooner or later they will have to respond to you. Not knowing if they have accepted will play on your mind. Trust me!
So what do you do now?
Well not a lot you can do now until your guest post gets published. Just keep trying, it will do wonders for your blog. If your post gets onto their blog, you want to ensure it does well. If your blog post gets a lot of traffic, shares and comments, the blog owner will more than likely take another guest post from you. Plus you can use that post as a reference when applying to other blogs.
Web Success Diary is taking guest posts! Check out the guidelines and where to submit here.
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