In recent times, guest blog posting on other people’s sites 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.
First, do proper research on the blog you’re targeting. Check how many guest posts have been accepted in the past to assess if they actually even publish any guest’s posts. Read older posts, as many as possible, and identify the nature of topics written upon, the writing style that is favored, what kind of posts get good responses, so on and so forth.
Buzzsumo is a great tool to explore for this purpose.
Pay attention to the small details, for that alone can distinguish you from other guest-blogging aspirants. Once you have done your research, you can write a guest post that is most suited to that particular blog, thereby increasing the chances of your post being accepted and published.
Zero In On The Topic
Once you have studied the blog you want to contribute to, finalize a topic based on your observations of their content focus. There are some requisite qualities, which can lend your writing much appeal.
Several blog owners prefer that you send them a pitch first. So, come up with a catchy, funny and striking title for your post, and write an engaging synopsis that covers everything you will be focusing on. Make sure you go through the existing content on the blog to find a topic that has not yet been covered and write on that.
Write A Quality Post
For the article body, make your writing is detailed yet precise, witty yet purposeful, interesting yet informative. It’s hard to say no to engaging content, so in addition to having a great idea for a guest post, ensure that the language you use in your post commands your readers’ attention. Having done that, look for pictures to compliment the text; flickr, pixabay, etc. can prove to be good sources for copyright free images.
Finally, assemble your post and begin the editing process. Editing here would not involve simple proof-reading, but also changes that would align the post with the writing conventions that the blog seems to follow.
Once you have your guest post drafted and ready to send, the most grueling part of the exercise is over.
Create An Effective Pitch
The next step is to present your post to the blog owner – this has to be done tactfully as well as tastefully.
Write an email that is personalized, and obviously addressed to the blog-owner. However, refrain from seeming over-familiar or a little too enthusiastic.
Your e-mail should reflect the fact that you have read the blog, and understand what it’s about. Making an insightful comment about a published post is always a good way to start. Attach your post, or send in your pitch, based on the guidelines of the blog you are approaching.
In case the blog doesn’t have any guidelines in place, you could simply provide some URLs of your published posts as samples and politely ask the owner if they would consider having a look at your guest post topic suggestions.
You can send up to two follow-up mails on your initial offer. If you still don’t hear from the blog owner, retract your offer and move on.
The End Result
If, after all these efforts, your post gets published, make sure it does well. The more traffic, comments and social shares the post invites, the more likely the owner is to publish your guest posts in future.
In fact you can also use posts that receive good social traction as work samples to show to other blog owners and increase your pitch acceptance rate.
Thus, promote the post through all your social media accounts and ask friends and family to do the same. Respond to comments and make it a discussion rather than a bland self-serving blog post.
If your post gets a substantial amount of attention, you can then hope for the owner to give you more opportunities to write in the future. Remember, the end result is dependent on you more than anything else.
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