Guest Posting in 2023: How to Leverage it
Do you want to increase your blog’s readership? Do you still dream of growing your blog platform? Guest-posting might help you then! Let me help you understand how.
Let’s start with understanding what exactly is guest posting.
Guest posting: It’s about writing and publishing a blog post/article for someone else’s website. Anyone can offer guest posting facilities on their websites for other writers to write and publish an article for them. This helps writers to get their names out and find new readers.
How guest posting can help you?
It helps you in the following ways:
Guest posting helps you build a great network:
When you write something valuable for some other blogger, you establish a good relationship with them. This way you make many blogger friends and grow your influence online, thus you get more subscribers.
Guest posting helps you with back-linking:
When you write for other’s websites, the host blogger must mention your website’s URL while publishing your article. This is called back-linking. If you have more backlinks, search engines will recognize your website as more trustworthy.
This will help you improve your website’s rank. If your website ranks well, you eventually get free organic traffic effortlessly.
Basic etiquettes of being a good guest blogger:
- Keep a link to that post on your website.
- Promote your post on social media platforms.
- Thank your host blogger.
- Always respond to the comments on your post.
Remember that guest posting matters!
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Getting started with guest posting:
You should first find the websites that offer you to write guest posts.
You can find so many websites in this online world to write guest posts. You can either directly start by searching on Google for the websites that are related to your niche and offer guest posting facilities. It needs some effort from your side to do a proper search.
You can also try finding websites that are involved in connecting bloggers and publishers.
Now let’s understand how you should search for your ideal website.
Search for top blogs related to your niche. In the search result, you will find articles like “Top 5 blogs for….”, “7 Best Blogs for….”, etc. Click on such articles and visit every blog website listed in that article. In this process, you will end up finding many wonderful websites that provide a facility for guest posting.
Use advanced search techniques to get more relevant results.
Also, try to find people or companies who are involved in active guest-posting. You can go through their profiles and follow them. Through this, you can get many guest-posting opportunities.
However, not every blogger is welcoming to guest-post writers. Some even hate being requested for the guest-post writing opportunity.
You might wonder why.
The reason is simple. The guest posting technique has been wrongly exploited by many bloggers. They often focus more on forming back-links and do not provide good quality content on the host’s website.
Nobody likes to see cheap content on their website. Every blogger respects their readers and wants to keep them happy. So, people generally don’t take many risks.
That’s why bloggers don’t easily respond to such requests and stay away from guest-post writers.
Also, reviewing the articles written by guest bloggers takes time. Bloggers don’t have much time to spend on reviewing and they can’t afford to publish cheap content on their websites. Hence, this is also a reason for less acceptance rate for writing guest posts.
So, whenever you plan to send email requests for writing guest posts, make sure your email is not lengthy. No one will show interest in reading long emails. Make it short and crisp. Write it in a personalized manner. This will help you get some opportunities to write guest posts.
While pitching for the guest-posting opportunity, make sure you know the name of the editor. Explain in short why your content is valuable; mention the length of your article, your topic name, what kind of information your content would provide, and add some points that represent the uniqueness of your article to help you stand out from the crowd.
Writing on general topics is a big turn-off for many bloggers. So, don’t ever request to write a general boring topic which has nothing new to it. You have to be creative and unique. Make sure that your article is worth their attention and time.
Sometimes you may be even asked to pay for publishing your articles. It depends on the blogger. But this practice is against Google policies. So stay away from such practices. It’s all about paying money to get your link on another’s website. Don’t get yourself involved in this practice, otherwise, you will face charges.
Don’t waste your efforts on a low-quality website.
Here is a checklist to help you decide if a website is of low quality or not:
- Check the backlink profile of the website- use backlink checking tools.
- Check the website’s ranking/ domain authority.
- Good websites have good and understandable names.
- Check if the website has a decent traffic history. You have many tools out there to check this.
- Don’t confuse low-quality websites with young websites that are actually good.
Note that, if you work on a post and make it a masterpiece both in terms of content value and SEO, your article might rank well. If this happens, you will make your own brand. So, never compromise on the quality of your work. Only your quality work will help you to be successful.
Now that you know what guest posting is, what are the benefits of writing guest posts and you are now aware of the possible challenges that you may face when requesting other bloggers to write a guest post for them, I will now help you learn how to successfully do guest-posting.
Know that there are challenges and there is a lot of competition. But you cannot afford to get lost in the crowd.
Stop focusing on the challenges from now and focus on what you should actually do. I will provide you everything that is needed to excel in guest-posting. Now read further to learn more!
How to find the best guest-post writing opportunity?
There is no single formula for getting your dream opportunity. You have to understand that every blog has different needs and requirements. The type of audience differs based on the niche of that blog hence the style of your writing should match it.
Also, not all editors are the same. They look for different things in an article based on what they value the most and your writing should match their preferences.
Here is a compilation of key requirements for finding the right guest posting opportunity.
Contacting your desired host-blogger or editor through email:
You won’t find any opportunity until you start contacting the editors proactively. Start by figuring out your niche and narrow down what kind of topics or concepts you will write for. Write it down on paper. Don’t just think in your brain. Identify your voice. Have your own unique style. Figure out what kind of tone you would put to your writing piece.
Let me help you on how to find your tone/voice.
Simply think of a topic/ article headline related to the niche that you have decided on. Now, imagine if I ask you to prepare a speech or orally present that topic to your family and friends, how would you explain that topic? I am sure you will add your personality to your words.
You may add humor or any unique style of yours which attracts your audience. So, when you write an article, write as if you are talking to the audience and explaining the topic in your own style. Find your style before doing anything.
Now, when you are clear about your niche and tone, make a list of websites and their editors or reviewers (can be your host-blogger himself). You have to personally contact these people one by one and market yourself through emails. This is known as pitching.
Though some bloggers think that guest bloggers write cheap content in exchange for the link, you don’t have to get discouraged. The content market is saturated in every niche. The same kind of concept is being published on every blog website. The website owners are craving unique content.
You have to become that content hero who brings uniqueness to their websites. So, master the pitching game, the rest of the things will become easy. Bloggers need them.
How to write a perfect pitching email?
While writing the email, your ultimate focus should be on marketing your uniqueness and keeping the writing very personalized for each editor.
You have to be creative and use your own essence. Don’t copy others, because it will hide your personality. Let me guide you on how you should write the pitching email.
Writing the subject line:
Keep it simple. Don’t try to write something bombastic to grab their attention. Most editors like simple and short ones, like ‘Guest article contribution’ or ‘Guest post suggestions’, etc.
If you send an email to the right address, you don’t even have to work so hard on pitching. Also, some websites provide guest-posting facilities and give you guidelines for writing the pitching email. There you can find what to write in the subject line. So, writing a subject line is not difficult for you.
But, if you are aiming for websites that don’t usually take article contributions, you should try to spice up your subject line. Make the subject line interesting by doing any of these things: mention your topic, mention the editor’s name, put a catchy message in there, mention something common in you both, and connect you, etc.
You don’t have to fear the length of the subject line and try to make it readable on mobile phones. Most of the editors go through the pitching mails from their desktops.
Get creative and write your subject line based on the type of editors or websites you choose.
Writing the body of the email:
Now, let’s learn about the important elements of a great pitching email. Writing a pitch is often a hard-work. All the efforts that you put into making the pitch personalized are worth it. Great things don’t come easy.
Your efforts will bring you the results. In fact, editors take your pitch as proof of your writing skills and attention to detail. Your pitch is the only way you can prove your creativity to the editors.
The editors can map your capabilities of structuring an article and giving a logical flow of ideas to the content you write. They try to figure out how much easier your content can be followed by the readers.
Don’t make any grammatical errors in your pitch as this is indicative of your proofreading capabilities.
If you have any work samples then provide the link to your article and mention whom you worked with. Not providing proof of your work makes them doubt you. If you don’t have any past work sample then don’t mention it just to look smart.
If there are any guidelines provided by the editor then follow them properly. Not adhering to the guidelines will make them question your work seriousness.
The body of the pitch email has the following sections:
- Wishes: Like ‘Hello’, ‘Hello + editor’s name’, etc.
- Your introduction: Write about yourself. Tell who you are and for whom you are currently working.
- Explain the whys: Explain why you are suitable for them and what values you will provide. Explain why you want to work for that specific website or blog. Also, mention what you expect from them.
- Tell them about your ideas: Mention the topics that you would write about. Suggestively describe them. You have to explain why your suggested topics are beneficial for their website. If you have multiple ideas then enlist the topic names and give small descriptions for each one of them. Keep your list short.
- The final part- Your work samples: Tell with whom you have worked and give a link(s) to your writing sample(s). If you are starting as a beginner then provide something that proves your expertise.
Be creative, put effort, and give attention to details.
Now you might be thinking about how to personalize the email. So, I will now explain to you the important elements you need to know to make your email more personalized.
Personalization:
By now you know very well how important personalization is. Below is a list of the important personalization details that are required.
Mention the name of your host blogger or editor.
When mentioning your past work samples, try to mention only the articles that are relevant to the niche of their website. It’s all about them, baby!
You can also mention a post that you liked on their website and mention how you liked it. Describe what grabbed your attention in that article.
You don’t have to brag only about your skills. You can get even more creative and add a link to a downloadable resource made by you which you think will be very useful for them.
You can also ask their opinion about something relevant. You can also try adding pictures of GIFs (it should be relevant!) in your pitch. Make it interesting.
You can brainstorm similar ideas to make a very interesting pitch that is irresistible.
There are many tools out there that can help you make your emails personalized. Explore them and use what best suits your requirements.
Quick tips:
- Do your homework before you send any pitching email.
- Be ready with the article’s idea and content. Make sure it is a masterpiece. Do your best.
- Do good research about the websites and keep the list ready.
- Personalize! Personalize! Personalize!
- Learn about the person you plan to send your email to. Make a short note and use it in personalizing your emails.
- Make a schedule and start doing your work. Don’t just simply involve in random activities, be organized.
- Explore more. Websites are not your only hope. Use social networking. You will find people who will provide you wonderful opportunities.
Final words,
Don’t stick to a single template for writing emails because all these freely available templates are used by almost everyone and you can stand out in the crowd. So, explore things, take inspiration but don’t copy. Give your own style to it.
Remember that guest posting is not necessarily a one-way road. You too can allow other guest bloggers to write on your website.
It may sometimes get difficult for you to keep up with your blog while actively writing guest posts for others. So, it’s really a good idea to allow other bloggers to write for you. This way both of you will be benefitted.
Don’t forget the benefits the guest posting will fetch you. It will help you get to reach the targeted audience, grow your network & social media following, improve your website rank and authority, give you identity, and overall increase the leads for your business.
So, work on your skills, be creative, and put all your efforts to move forward.
Hope you follow the suggestions given in this article and leverage the guest posting.
