guest blogging

How to Start Guest Blogging and Get Accepted Every Time

6 January 2020 | by Gina Lucia

If you’re a blogger or online business owner, it’s probably clear to you that to get as many leads, customers, signups etc as you can, you need people to see your website first.

This is where guest blogging comes in. Building a website and gaining traction takes time, so it makes total sense to give your site a boost by utilising someone else’s audience. Guest blogging allows you to showcase your expertise, skills and knowledge to a larger audience than your own and gives you a little SEO boost at the same time.

This article will share with you the benefits of guest blogging, how to find the right sites to post to, some guest posting guidelines and our tried and true technique for submitting so you can get accepted every time.

Need to jump ahead? Click one of the following to take you there:

The benefits of guest blogging

Guest blogging has three main benefits:

  1. Access to a larger audience
  2. A link back to your website
  3. An increase in your status as an expert in your niche

Bonus: Guest blogging also helps you create relationships with other bloggers/site owners for future collaborations.

Access to a larger audience

An established site or even a smaller one will likely have a completely different audience to yours (even if you’re in the same niche). They will have different people subscribed to their newsletter, commenting on their posts and generally interacting with them. 

When you have a post published on their site, you get instant access to their audience. Basically, you have a golden opportunity to impress them and encourage them to visit you on home ground (your website).

For a few hours writing your guest post, this exchange is priceless and can really benefit your business in the long-run.

A link back to your website

If you don’t know already, backlinks to your website are the bedrock of good SEO (search engine optimisation). If you want to increase your site’s ranking in Google, then getting good quality links to your site is a must. Guest blogging is a great way to do this. 

Usually, the site your posting to will say in its guidelines what type of link they will give you. Sometimes it’s a link within the article, but most often, it’s a link within your bio at the top or bottom of your post. 

Either way, this link is incredibly valuable for the health and longevity of your website.

An increase in your status as an expert in your niche

It goes without saying that if you share your knowledge through guest posting, you’ll be seen as more of an expert in your niche.

Think about anybody you’ve seen being interviewed on the news for something really niche. Because they’ve shared their knowledge on the news, they’re now perceived by those watching – an expert. 

This works exactly the same for guest posting. Your post on a well-respected site acts as an indication of that site’s trust in you as an expert. This alone builds trust and notoriety with your audience.

How to find the best guest blogging websites

Now we know why you should be guest posting, it’s time to start finding the best guest posting websites for you. What counts as ‘the best’ for you, however, could look very different for someone else. So let’s establish some ground rules. 

The website should:

  • Have something in common with your audience (topics covered, target audience etc)
  • Already be producing quality content
  • Have a good domain authority (I will come to this in a minute)
  • Have guidelines for guest posters

There’s no use in trying to get a post published on a well-known website if your audience has nothing in common with theirs. As we mentioned previously, one of the benefits of guest posting is access to their audience. But if that audience has nothing in common with yours, then it all becomes a little pointless.

Now let’s talk about domain authority. 

What is domain authority?

“Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.”

Moz

Basically, the higher a site’s domain authority, the better it is going to be for your backlink, but the more work it’s going to take to get your post published on. You can check a site’s domain authority here: websiteseochecker.com/domain-authority-checker

Finding guest posting websites

A simple trick to find guest posting websites is to simply type any of the following into Google:

  • Write for us
  • Write for us ‘your niche’
  • Submit a guest post
  • Submit an article
  • Contributor guidelines
  • Guest blogging guidelines

These are generally the most common titles people use on their guest blogging web pages. By searching for all of these, you can copy and save the URLs of the sites you want to post to.

How to keep track of your guest blogging sites

You’ve found the best guest blogging sites for you and your business, now it’s time to keep track of them. Our favourite way to do this is by using a spreadsheet. 

When you first start guest blogging it’s easy to forget who you’ve sent pitches to, who you’ve emailed back and where your posts are published. To avoid any embarrassing mistakes, keeping a log is crucial.

This spreadsheet should contain the following:

  • The site URL and link to guest blogging instructions
  • The domain authority of the website
  • Your post’s title
  • The date you submitted it
  • If it’s been accepted
  • The URL of the accepted post

Our guest blogging guidelines

Okay, we know which sites you want to guest post to, now let’s take a look at how to write a guest post that gets accepted every time. 

Step 1: Make sure your niche blog post will fit in with their content

So for example, our niche is introverted businesswomen, but if we wanted to submit to Mind Body Green, we’d submit a post with a mindfulness angle (still aimed at introverts). Something like: ‘I tried The Miracle Morning as an Overwhelmed Introvert and Here’s What Happened’.

Step 2: Look at what’s already doing well

Explore the website you want to post to, what are their most popular articles in your category? Websites will usually have sections for their most viewed articles, so look out for those.

Look at how long they are, how they write their titles, the type of posts they do and the style of writing. This will give you a good idea of how you can adapt your post to slot in.

Step 3: Pick your keyword or string of keywords

All websites that accept guest posts want content that does a few things:

  • Increases their following with engaging content
  • Increases the visits to their website
  • Improved their SEO ranking

It’s number 3 that we want to focus on here. The website itself may alter your wording to make it more SEO friendly, but if you can do some of the work for them, then you’re more likely to be accepted.

So, pick a keyword or string of keywords that you’ll use throughout your article. For example, the post title I listed above could either focus on the keywords ‘Miracle Morning’ or ‘Overwhelmed Introvert’.

Whichever I pick, I will need to make sure I repeat those words throughout the article. You’ll want to do this naturally so they don’t stick out. 

Make sure to:

  • Include it in the first paragraph of your article
  • Include it in at least one title or subtitle in the article
  • Within the article text, at least two or three times but don’t overdo it

Step 4: Write the article

Have a good read of the website’s submission guidelines and writing. Make sure to write in short sentences, include titles and bullet-point lists to break up your content and make it easy to read. Don’t allow your writing to waffle, keep your content concise and to the point and remember that there are many different types of readers. 

The different types of readers:

  • The information junkie: this person will read the entire article to make sure they absorb every bit of information (they are rare)
  • The skimmer: this person will skim the entire article to just grab the key bits of information. They need titles, bullet-point lists and bold text to help them skim with ease.
  • The skipper: this person will skip right to the end of the article, read the outcome and then if they find the answer to be worth it, they’ll go back and read the rest.

Make sure to accommodate all of these types when you’re creating your content.

Top tip: To avoid slowing your progress, write the entire article out as a rough draft. Then go back through it to add these features – it will make your life easier.

(optional) Step 5: Include your call to action

Some guest posting websites will allow you to link back to your website within the article itself.

If this is true, use this to your advantage and link to your email opt-in freebie. Make sure it flows easily within the article like it was meant to be there. If a guest posting website doesn’t specify that they allow this, put it in any way.

Then, when you email the site, make sure to state that this can be removed if they don’t allow it. Our policy is, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. 

How to write a bio that converts

Your bio is the most important aspect of guest posting. It’s here that you’ll draw people into your website (especially if you can’t link back to yourself in the guest post itself).

You’ll want your guest posting bio to be the same across all the websites you write for. So make sure to spend some time on this and get it right from the start. You probably won’t be able to change it later.

Note: All of our tips here need to be taken with a pinch of salt. If the website you’re writing for has specific guidelines for their author bios – go with them.

Keep it to the point

Keep your bio short, sweet, and to the point. Generally, a good author bio is only 50 words. This is enough to deliver all the information needed to give people a taste of who you are.

Write it in the 3rd person

Now’s the time to get all professional. Write your bio in the 3rd person as if you were a journalist writing a short bio about yourself.

If possible, include one piece of impressive info If you have it, impressive details such as awards, or big publications you’ve been featured in can give your bio a real authority boost.

Start by explaining what you do

In just one sentence, sum up what you do in the most specific way possible. Don’t get overly technical or sensationalist here, write it in a way that everybody can understand.

Write a sentence that makes you relatable

To ensure someone clicks through to your site, they will want to know that you’re similar to them, or at least relatable. Talk about your hobbies, perhaps your love for coffee, or something specific to your niche. Don’t get too personal here, keep it simple.

Include your call to action

This is it, your pitch to get people on your email list. Offer a freebie that they won’t be able to resist. Invite them to join your Facebook Group, offer them a free checklist or workbook. Whatever freebie you have to get people on your list, put it here and link it back to a page on your website where they can sign up.

Make sure this page never moves. Don’t change the URL or the freebie on that page because this link will be coming back to you for a long time.

Social media links

Many websites will want you to include your social media links within your bio. Don’t include these in your writing, just post them like this underneath your bio text:

  • Twitter: [link]
  • Facebook: [link]
  • Instagram: [link]
  • Pinterest: [link]

You can pick which social profiles you want to share. Stick to the ones you are active on or want to build and link those.

Your bio image

Every website will want you to include an author image for your bio. This step is crucial for those skim readers who will probably glance at your photo before reading your bio.

Make sure your image is bright, the focus is you and you look welcoming. Take a look at the above examples to see which bio images work well.

How to submit a guest post

Depending on the site you’re posting to, they may want you to submit a post in a different way. Here we’ve outlined the two most common and how to go about doing it.

Submitting an article pitch

This is where the website in question wants you to pitch the article to them, rather than just submitting the final piece.

To do this, first, you’ll need to do steps 1-3 in the ‘Our guest posting guidelines’ section of this guide. 

Then, you’ll need to send an email to the appropriate person (see their guest posting page) pitching your idea. To make it simple for you, here’s a pitch email we’ve used for guest posting. Adapt this as you see fit and make sure to keep it friendly.


Subject: ‘Guest Post: Headline/title of post’

Hello, [Name]

[Open by talking about what you like about their site, make it personal and mention if you follow them/subscribe to their content.]

I’ve been working on an idea for a post about [blog idea] – and I thought that it would be a great fit for your audience.

I’ve had several successful guest posts on blogs including [Blog Name], [Blog Name] and [Blog Name] – which you can see here: (if you don’t have any, link to your existing content on your blog)

  • LINK #1
  • LINK #2
  • LINK #3

The draft title for the post is [title], but I’m open to tweaking it if you need me to. I believe this post will [say how it will benefit or be relevant for their audience].

Here’s a short summary of the post:

[Bulleted list or paragraph summary of your post]

What do you think? Do you think your readers would find this interesting? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks,

[sign off]


Once you’ve sent this email, make sure to note in your diary to follow up if you don’t hear from them in a week. Be polite and perhaps suggest some other topics or blog post titles. If the website is a big one, you may need to be persistent to get their attention.

Submitting an article in full

Aside from actually writing the post, this one is the easier of the two. Most guest posting websites will already have instructions for sending over your article. Some will want a Google Doc that they can edit, others will just want a Word document sending as an attachment. Follow their instructions when submitting.

If they don’t have many instructions, use and adapt this email template:


Subject: Guest Post Submission

Hello, [Name]

[Open by talking about what you like about their site, make it personal and mention if you follow them/subscribe to their content.]

[Introduce yourself briefly, who you are and what you do. You can use your bio for inspiration.]

I’m reaching out because I’d love to write a guest post for [site name]. I have one that’s attached (or provide a link) that I think will really benefit/resonate with your audience.

It’s called [post title].

[Outline why you think it will benefit/resonate with their audience] I’ve had several successful guest posts on blogs including [Blog Name], [Blog Name] and [Blog Name] – which you can see here: (if you don’t have any, link to your existing content on your blog)

  • LINK #1
  • LINK #2
  • LINK #3

Thank you so much for your time, I’d love to know what you think.

Best,

[sign off]


Roundup

So there we have it, a comprehensive guide to guest blogging. Getting yourself published on other websites can and should be a key part of marketing for your business. The benefits more than make up for the time spent writing the posts and you can make some fantastic relationships along the way.

Now that you’ve read this guide, are there any tips you’d like to add to the guest bloggers looking to get their work published? Leave a comment below.

4 Comments

  1. Jean

    28th April 2020 at 2:12 PM

    Thanks for this great post, Gina. I will be taking this advice and consuming more of your content seeing as my DA has just dropped from 4 to 3….

    Best,

    Jean

    • Gina Lucia

      28th April 2020 at 2:55 PM

      Ah good, I hope it proves useful. Backlinks are so important right now for improving your DA. You’re always welcome to write for us.

  2. Codeaxia Digital Solutions

    13th August 2021 at 1:54 PM

    thank you very much for the post about start guest blogging …

  3. Jessica JOHNSON

    1st December 2021 at 12:12 PM

    This is very helpful writing for blog writers and also after reading your post, i am learning more about blog writing thank you…

Comments are closed.