Becoming a Guest Blogger – Pitfalls to Avoid

Becoming a Guest Blogger - Pitfalls to Avoid

March 8^th 2012 Sally Ormond getting your guest blog accepted, How to write guest blogs

Guest blogging for someone else is a great way to boost your exposure and that of your business.

But how do you go about it?

Well, here are a few tips how not to go about it.

How not to be accepted as a guest blogger

Falling at first base

What follows is a list of ways you will kill your chances of being accepted as a guest blogger:

Send a spam pitch - don’t ‘blanket’ email, send a personal approach and show them you’ve studied their blog and readership
Get the name wrong - if you call them, or their blog, by an incorrect name your email will be deleted
Waffle - the blog owner is a busy person so don’t waffle; get to the point
No research - if you send an idea for an insurance blog post to a social media expert, you’ll be deleted
Soft soap - forget flattery, they know how great they are, offer a post that fits their niche - simple

How to get rejected

If you’ve managed to get past first base and have the opportunity to write a post, here’s a list of things that will get your post rejected:

Stuffed links - check the blogger’s guidelines and see how many links you’re allowed and where. Push your luck and your post will be ditched
Typos - bad writing, grammatical errors and typos will, you guested it, get your post rejected
Bad information - if you write something inaccurate, you will be rejected
Poor quality - it will be obvious if you’ve just written any old thing in an attempt to get a few back links - guess what? If you do, it’ll be rejected
Bad fit - research the blog you want to write for and make sure your post fits within it

Remember, although your guest blog will help raise your profile, you should also be aiming to benefit the blog owner too by increasing their traffic. Guest blogging is a two way street.