Although some prominent people in the search engine world declared guest posting dead a few years ago, guest blogging – the right way – has never been more alive and more important to the growth of your business. Not only does guest posting provide a ton of value by allowing you to piggyback on the established audience of another blogger or business, but if you choose the right blog, there will also be some real SEO benefit as well.

The biggest problem we see people have with guest posting is getting their posts approved by other bloggers. So, I am giving you my best advice on how to get a blogger to gladly take your guest post and not only publish it, but also promote the crap out of it.

Step 1: Choose a blog that has the same audience as yours.

The first step in guest posting for real return on your time is to find a blog that has the same audience that you have. This is so important because to get the full effect of a guest post, you really want to get SEO value and direct traffic value. It does you little good to spend time writing amazing copy (more on that in a minute) and then publish it on a blog where no one cares. Not to mention Google values links from sites that are in the same “neighborhood” as yours, so you have to be sure to reach out to relevant blogs.

Speaking of links (this is why most people guest post), it does really matter what anchor text you use in your guest post links but that is a post for a different day. You can learn more about how to do it correctly in this post. When I launched GuestPostTracker.com, I was targeting people who were trying to do guest posts for SEO purposes. I wanted to find a blog I could post on that had people that cared about SEO.

I found a business blog (Business2Community.com) that seemed to have a decent following. I applied to be a writer for them and was quickly approved. After posting my first article there, which talked about GuestPostTracker.com as a new tool, within 48 hours I had about 10 new signups on my site. I was honestly blown away at how easy it was to get new customers from one post that cost me nothing but time.

Note: One important thing to remember is I was able to get approved to write for this blog because I had good writing samples to show them. Any respectable blog is going to want writing samples from you. You must have good writing samples to show people. If you haven’t written for another blog, then you need to create some awesome content for your own blog. That will work just as well as content for other blogs.

Step 2: Choose a blog that already has readership and a loyal fan base.

This step is similar to the first step but adds the next step of amazing returns on your time. If you can find a blog that has the same audience as your website and that blog has a loyal and engaged audience, it’s like Christmas. It’s one thing to write a guest post and have Google index and get credit for any links to your site, but it is so much better to have an audience who trusts the owner of the blog to actually read your well-written post and then respond. Because they trust the blog owner so much and he (or she) is letting you guest post, you almost automatically inherit that same trust from the audience.

I remember doing a guest post for Matthew Woodward’s internet marketing blog. He is a very well known and established internet marketer with an awesome following. But even then I was blown away by the audience engagement and interaction with my guest post. The post has 84 comments, 123 social shares, and it has sent me hundreds if not thousands of visitors to my site since it was published.

Best of all, it was another flood of orders from his loyal fan base. (See the post here) Take your time choosing which blogs you want to reach out to do a guest post. It’s worth the time to find the blogs that will really make a difference with your business.

Step 3: Become familiar with the writing style of your chosen blog.

Once you have a few blogs that you are convinced are the right fit and audience, you then need to spend some quality time on the blog itself. You need to figure out the writing style of the blog posts. Pay attention to how the blog owner and other guest bloggers speak to the audience. What is the tone? How often do they use case studies? Are they using a lot of pictures? What is the typical length of a post? Which topics do you know a lot about but are not covered very thoroughly? When you have a good idea on the style of post they would want for their site, then you can start to come up with article ideas.

When I pitched to Matthew Woodward, I noticed that many of his guest blogs were case studies of people quickly starting a web business and making at least $1,000/mo. So, this is the story angle I used in pitching to him.

Note: If you are new with relatively little experience guest blogging, don’t try to start out by guest blogging on huge blogs. Start smaller and work your way up.

Step 4: Build a relationship with the blogger.

I’m sure you’re probably thinking, “We’re already at step 4 and I haven’t sent an email to the blogger yet pitching my guest post. What gives?” The sad reality is most people send the pitch email at step 1. That is a great way to get nowhere with guest blogging. If you really want a blogger to be open to the idea of a guest post from you, start out by building a relationship with them.

This can be easily accomplished by posting well thought out comments on other posts he has written. Post 2-4 awesome comments and the blog owner will recognize your name. Then, when you go to email them about a guest post, your name will be familiar to them. Before you actually send the email asking about writing for their blog, I would recommend just sending them an email telling them how awesome and helpful their blog is. Give them a specific example of a post that you particularly liked. Maybe even ask them a follow up question. Now they will really recognize your name.

Step 5: Make Your Pitch.

Once you have at least a semblance of a relationship, you can reach out and ask them about doing a guest post. Remember that you are talking to a person in the email who is most likely just like you. Speak to them as if you were speaking to yourself. How would you want someone to pitch you?

Be personable. Tell them why you think a guest post from you will be a good fit and a benefit for their audience. (i.e., “I noticed that you haven’t covered the topic of guest posting much on your blog. I would love to share some of the things that have worked really well for me.

I was thinking something like: Title of post”) and you would literally give them the title of the article you are going to write. You can see a sample guest post pitch email template I have written here, but I urge you not to copy it. Instead, use it as a guide and include your own voice. Because you have taken the time to warm them up, you will be amazed at the success rate of this strategy.

Step 6: Blow Their Audience’s Minds With Amazing Content.

This is the most important step of all. Many website owners love to save their best content for their own blog. Although there is a time to put your best stuff on your own blog, you’ll have way more success giving your best content to the blogs you reach out to. You’ll gain a reputation for being a true expert, and you’ll be surprised by how many blogs will reach out to you to write a guest post for them.

Look at the audience of the blog you’re writing for and teach them what they don’t already know. Give them step by step instructions or case studies. You’ll get awesome reader engagement in comments and social shares, which will only help promote you and your business even further. Use supporting images in your content and don’t include fluff. 98% of content on the internet is useless fluff (including this stat I just made up), so provide real valuable content and you will stand out in a great way.

That’s it. That’s all it takes to become a guest posting ninja. Do what most people won’t: Take the time to build relationships and then hit them with amazing content. Your business will grow as a result.

 

About the Author

Adam White is the founder of SEOJet(https://seojet.net), backlink software for digital agencies and marketers, and Guest Post Tracker(https://www.guestposttracker.com), the largest curated list of guest blogging sites on the internet. He has been in the SEO world for over 15 years and lives in Arizona with his wife and kids.

Interested in guest posting on LongTailPro?

Visit our write for us page, https://longtailpro.com/write-for-us/