5 Steps to Achieve Guest Blogging Opportunities

Writing by Brick Marketing in Content Marketing

Content is an extremely important part of an online marketing strategy. Content is what improves brand visibility, builds inbound links, and supports a social media strategy. However, content is only valuable if it gets noticed. One great way to get your content in front of target audience members is to submit guest posts to other industry blogs. Bloggers are protective of their blogs and don’t just accept posts from anyone. Here are the steps to follow to achieve guest blogging opportunities:

Create your own great content
Before a blogger allows you to post on their web property, you are going to have to prove that you have something worth sharing. Start by building up your own blog first in order to establish credibility within the industry. Post content regularly. Once your own blog has started gaining some ground and you are ready to take your writing to the next level you can look for guest blogging opportunities.

Research other industry blogs
Guest blogging shouldn’t just be done for link building. It takes time to research and write a good post. The best places to submit to are the ones that target audience members visit and that will actually generate traffic to your site. The first place to look is at your social media followers and the people commenting on your own blog posts. It’s likely that they operate a blog in a similar niche. You can also conduct a search for “blogs about…” or browse blog directories for certain topics.

Get noticed
Once you’ve zeroed in on a number of blogs that you’d like to submit guest post content to, spend some time establishing a relationship with those bloggers. Follow them in social media. Share and Re-tweet their content and include your own thoughts on the topic. Write thoughtful comments on their blog posts and include a link to your blog in the “URL” field of the comments section.

Create a good pitch
Once a blogger knows who you are and you’ve communicated with one another, you can inquire about guest posting opportunities. Be sure to “sell yourself” and mention what your post will bring to the table. A blogger may ask for a sample of work or a proposed post. Make sure that what you submit is worthy of their time.

Follow up
If your content isn’t posted within a certain timeframe it’s OK to follow up and ask when it will be posted. It could just be that there were lots of other guest submissions. If they ignore you or pass on the content, just move along. You don’t want to annoy them and there are plenty of other places that you can submit the post to. Don’t worry, it won’t go to waste!