In my last post, I talked about guest posts as a powerful marketing strategy for your business blog. But if you’ve never done a guest post, you may wonder if other bloggers will actually publish your content. So today I’ll cover some fundamental tips to increase the success of your posts.
Observe the Target Blog First
Before you write a guest post, you should observe your target blog, or the blog where you want your post to be published. Read the last 10 posts of blog. There are couple of reasons to take this preliminary step.
First, you don’t want to write about a topic that’s been recently covered. There’s a good chance your post will be rejected if your cover a recent topic.
Second, you want to make sure your post will fit well with the existing content. This means your guest post needs to be related to the same industry as your target blog. Consider the tone and style of the blogger. Is he writing in a formal voice that’s suited for academic journals? Or does he write in a more informal tone? Also, keep in mind the post length. On average, how long are the blogger’s posts?
Third, you want to understand where the blog’s readers are coming from. Check out the comments and see what kind of readers the blog has.
Fourth, you can generate ideas for a useful topic. As you read the blog, you’ll see that certain topics are not covered or are not covered with a lot of depth. You can create a guest post in those topics. Also, you might come up with a topic while reading the comment section. For example, you find a question there that wasn’t answered by the blogger. You can craft your guest post to answer that question.
Some bloggers write their guest post without checking out their target blogs. Don’t be like them. The best guest bloggers always check out their target blogs first. This allows them to tailor their posts to fit well on those blogs.
Write the Post
Once you’ve checked out your target blog, you should have some ideas for a guest post topic. Go through your ideas and pick the best one based on your expertise and how well the topic fits the target blog.
Don’t forget to include your bio and link. Also, be strategic with your link. You don’t have to link to your blog home page every time. Oftentimes, it’s a good idea to link to one of your blog posts especially if that blog post would be useful to the target blog’s audience.
For example, if I was writing a guest post for a link building blog, I would link to this post, 7 Types of Posts That Attract Links, instead of the home page.
Pitch Your Post
Once you’ve finished create your post, it’s time to send it to the blogger. I use a simple email template like this one:
Hi [name],
I’m a fan of your blog. I especially found [one of their recent posts] helpful.
I wrote a guest post that I think your readers would find interesting. The post is below my signature.
I know you’re probably busy, so I don’t need a quick response. If I haven’t received a response in the next 30 days, I’ll assume it’s okay to send the post to another blogger. Thanks for your time.
Your Signature
Bloggers are busy people, so I like to give them 30 days to give me a response. If you’re targeting a very popular blogger, you might want to give them more time since they get a lot of email.
Over to You
Do you have any tips for getting your guest posts published?