Guest blogging is a great way to build brand awareness, establish yourself as a credible expert in your field, and drive traffic to your website.
Guest blogging champion Danny Iny bulit his Firepole Marketing business through the power of guest posting on popular blogs. I’ve established my name as a freelance writer through guest blogging. I’ve won regular writing gigs on a number of blogs, most of which started by pitching a guest post.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the process of launching a guest blog post. You can use this technique to post on any blog with any niche.
Even if you never plan to write a guest post, it’s worth learning how to email. Selling, after all, is how you sell your services and experience to customers.
Tutorial Assets
To complete this tutorial, you will need the following assets:
- An email account
- A laptop
- An internet connection
1. Set the Right Foundations
You can find all kinds of excuses for not launching a guest post. You don’t have enough time. You are not sure if your writing skills are up to date. It takes a long time to write a post when it could be rejected.
I agree, the rejection is hard. If you send a pitch and get a “no” answer, that will hurt. But you can minimize the chances of rejection by launching the sale in a correct way.
The key is preparation. If you establish the correct foundations, you will win the award many times more than those that do not. Instead of notching rejections, you will quickly find success, which will maximize your confidence and your writing portfolio.
What’s more, if you do your sales pitch well, there is no need to write an article before your pitch. Much better will be writing the articles after they have been commissioned by a blog editor. That way you would know when they would be published.
Step 1: Decide Your Niche
In which subject, industry or subject do you want to establish your experience? This may be directly related to your current services as a standalone, as guest posts is fine to make your name be heard out there in front of potential customers. However, guest posts is also great for expanding into a new niche. If you want to expand your skill set or learn something new, consider making guest posts about it.
Step 2: Build Your Portfolio
Putting together a portfolio of your writing is the most time-intensive aspect of setting the field, especially if you’ve never published a writing before. You have two options for a portfolio.
- Put together a collection of your best writing work so far. For each sales pitch you write, you need three items.
- Write three amazing articles, posted on your own blog or website.
It is better if your portfolio is related to your niche. However, the most important thing is to show that you can write very well.
Also Read: What is Guest Blogging? And Why It’s Importer
2. Do Your Research
Step 1: Find Blogs to Sell to
Once you have established the foundations, you are ready to start looking for blogs to sell to. To start, find a blog that you want to launch your sale that is within your niche. After. Find more blogs to launch the sale to:
- Click links to blog articles to view related news sites and blogs.
- Check the comments, and click on the blogs of those who have commented.
- Use Similar Sites to dig out hidden games.
Technorati and Google Blog Search are other great places to find blogs.
Once you’ve discovered a few possibilities, check through them for the following:
- Do you have a “Write for Us” or “Contribute” page? If so, they are in the market for amazing posts.
- What is your readership? Blogs with a large number of followers give you better visibility. If they don’t see subscriber stats on your blog, search their Twitter or Facebook page to see how big their audience is.
Try to get a short list of 3 to 5 blogs. If you launch a few blogs simultaneously, you will find that rejection is easier to cope with than if you put all your hopes in just one blog.
If the blog has a “Write for Us” page, they will provide guidelines on how to launch a sale. Read these carefully, and take note, even if they are different from what you learned from this tutorial. You only know the blogger you are launching the sale to: She always launches the sale on her terms, not yours.
If you find a blog you’d like to write for, but don’t have a “Write for Us” page, there are two ways to tell if they accept guest posts. First, you can search through past posts for contributions from guest bloggers. Second, you can email the blog editor. Two lines saying that you enjoy their blog, and that you would like to know if they accept guest posts as enough. It’s a good way to break the ice before you enter your full sales pitch.
When you’re reading a blog, find the name of your publisher or lead writer. This is the person to whom you should launch your sale. Including his name in your email will give your launch the best possible chance of being accepted.
Step 2: Research Your Chosen Blogs
Now that you have chosen which blogs you would like to launch the sale to, you are ready to start deciding which articles to launch. To do this, you must know which articles the blog reads.
There is a simple way to do this. Go through the blog for its 5 or 10 most popular posts. These are the posts with the most comments, likes on Facebook, or compartments on Twitter. This gives an idea of the blog editor’s article ideas that you are willing to accept. When you’re launching, you can also say, “I’ve noticed that articles on (topic) are popular with your readers.” That shows the blog editor that you’ve taken the time to get to know your audience, giving them confidence that you’ll be writing a high-quality and engaging article.
By the time you have finished your research, you should have an article idea for each of the blogs you are launching.
3. Write the Email
Step 1: Describe Your Post
For each of your article ideas, create a key point description of the 3 to 5 key points you plan to cover in your article.
This is the essence of your sales pitch, and it’s the “product” you’re selling to the blog editor, so make sure it’s a good one. You should be approaching the topic with new ideas or an original angle. A simple scheme that works well:
- Common problem faced by blog readers
- New solution to the problem
- How readers can apply the solution in a practical way.
Step 2: Write a Sexy Title
Your title is what will entice the blog editor to read your article summary, and it is what will tempt your blog subscribers to read your article. Without further ado, you need to command your attention.
You should spend so much time writing your title with the text of the article itself.
Unless the guidelines on the “Write for Us” page say otherwise, you should use your title on the title line of your launch email.
Step 3: Choose Your Plugin
The best way to open a sales pitch is with a short compliment. Say why you liked the blog you are launching the sale for. Or if you’ve been reading the blog for months or years, say so. If you found a particular article that helped you, say so.
Starting with a compliment gets the blog editor on your side even long before they’ve read your sales pitch. Show that you appreciate their work and understand their blog. However, it only works if your flattery is genuine. If you fail to be honest, they will see you in a bad way.
Step 4: Write the Email and Click “Send”
Now you are ready to send your email, and it will be almost completely written. Using everything you have prepared, gather your email. Keep it short and gentle. Many bloggers are busy people, and they don’t have time to waste.
Here is the email template I use to launch guest posts. You can use everything you have prepared to make your email jump with excitement.
Grab the Email Template:
Subject: Guest Post: (Sexy Title)
Dear (Blogger’s Name),
(Flattery Here)
I’m writing to make a guest post to (blog name). The title of the post is (sexy title here) and the article will include:
- Bullet point
- List of
- The outline of your article
I have noticed that articles on this topic are particularly popular with your readers.
Just so you know a little more about me, I’m a professional (job name). I have previously written for (names of other blogs you have written for) and you can find proof of my work here:
- Links to
- Relevant articles
Let me know what you think. I’m excited to hear from you again!
Best wishes,
(Your name)
You see, it has no magic. Just a short and simple email written in Gmail.
Instead of sitting at your computer waiting for an answer, start working on another sales pitch. The more sales pitches you enter simultaneously, the better you will face rejection, as you will always have seeds of hope out there.
Avoid These Mistakes
I have received many sales pitches for guest posts. More than 90% of them were half hearted. That is good news for you. If you follow the advice in this scheme, and avoid the following mistakes, you will be ready for success.
Here are the biggest bugs I’ve seen in chimbo releases:
- Don’t read and research the blog you’re launching for sale.
- Spelling and grammar errors in your launch.
- A compliment that was not sincere.
- Failing to find (and use) the name of the blog editor you’re launching for sale.
- Spray and pray when launching, where you make the same soft sale launch and with an irrelevant idea to every blog you can think of.
- Tell the blog editor how amazing a writer you are and how you would like to write an amazing guest post, when it’s obvious that you haven’t even read the blog outlines.