6 Steps to Achieve Guest Posting Opportunities
Writing by Brick Marketing in Content Marketing
Guest blog posting is an extremely effective online marketing tactic. Getting a guest blog post published has many benefits. It improves the exposure of your content marketing efforts, helps to generate traffic to your own website or blog, and builds inbound links from relevant sites to boost the SEO trust factor of the site. There are plenty of blogs that accept submissions from just about anyone but those aren’t really the blogs that you want to submit content to.
In order to achieve the best guest posting opportunities it’s important to follow these 7 steps:
Conduct blog research
The best blogs to submit content to are the ones that are in your niche, or at the very least, related to your niche. Spend some time searching for industry related blogs. It may be very easy to find blogs in certain niches, while it may be very difficult for others. The first places to check are blog directories or conducting a simple search for “X industry blogs”.
Determine blog value
If you are lucky enough to be in an industry that has an abundance of blogs, it’s important to choose the best ones to target. Check the traffic information of the blog on Compete and check the social buttons on the blog posts to see how often they are being shared. The number of comments is also a good indicator of popularity.
Leave insightful comments
If you find a blog that you’d like to write for, the first step is to get noticed by the blogger. Spend time reading blog posts and leave comments that contribute to the conversation. Always use your real name (instead of Mary @ Company X) and don’t add links in the body. Blog comments aren’t a place to promote.
Make a pitch
Once the blogger knows who you are (via blog commenting and social media following) the next step is to pitch your work. Bloggers are protective of their blog and won’t accept just anything. Some blogs include a form for guest bloggers to fill out. On other blogs you will need to contact the blogger directly. Explain that you understand the audience of the blog, the kind of content that it typically includes, and explain how your post is going to add value to the site.
Write something great
A guest blog submission isn’t a place for mediocre work. You can post whatever you’d like on your own blog, but it’s important to spend some extra time and care when submitting a guest post, especially the first time. Pay careful attention to guidelines like length of the post, if images are needed, how it should be broken up, specific topics, etc. Ignoring any of these elements can get your submission rejected.
Maintain the relationship
Getting a guest post submitted on a blog is an achievement. Instead of moving on to the next one, inquire about a regular guest posting opportunity. Posting on a blog once a month is much more powerful than posting once and then disappearing.
