How to Be a Guest Blogger

August 28^th 2012 Sally Ormond how to guest blog, pitching to be a guest blogger

A big part of getting your name ‘out there’ to be seen as an expert in your field is blogging.

Writing posts for your own blog, asking other bloggers to review your products, or submitting guest posts to other blogs are all great ways of building links and widening your audience. But successfully pitching to other bloggers is key if you want your guest posts to be accepted. After all, most bloggers are inundated with requests for help daily, so the trick is to make yours stand out.

Getting noticed

1. Don’t be generic

You may think you’re being clever and saving time by sending out one generic email to loads of bloggers, but it’s a seriously bad idea.

If they get 2 emails - one that is addressed to them specifically, mentions their blog and shows a working knowledge of it, and one that’s obviously been sent to loads of people because it doesn’t mention their name, blog or anything else personal to them - which one do you think they’re likely to choose?

If you’re serious about your pitch, take the time to personalise each approach.

2. Blind submissions

Rather than just sending emails out blindly to a whole host of blogs, research who you want to send your pitch to. As well as this blog, I also have www.freelancecopywritersblog.com, which is all about copywriting/marketing/social media. So if I get an approach from someone who wants to write about the beauty regime of mountain gorillas, I’m unlikely to consider it.

Make sure you only send ideas for posts to the relevant niche blogs.

3. Repetitive

Sending your idea once is fine, but sending the same email again and again is annoying.

That’s not to say you can’t follow-up your proposal after a suitable time period, but don’t make yourself a menace.

4. Get to know them

If a company pops up out of the blue to try and sell me something and I’ve never heard of them, I’m unlikely to be receptive to them.

It’s the same with your blog pitch. If you’ve taken the time to get to know them, either through Twitter, Facebook or commenting on their blog, your name will probably be familiar to them and therefore they are more likely to respond.

6. Ignoring guidelines

Assuming you’ve got as far as receiving a request to see your post, don’t scupper your chances by ignoring their guidelines.

They’ll probably be along the lines of:

Your post must be original and must not be published elsewhere
It must fit within the topic of the blog
It must not be a thinly veiled advert
There should be no HTML links in the body text

If you completely ignore these, your post will not only be rejected, any further pitches will more than likely be ignored.

Over to you

Do you regularly submit requests to bloggers?

If so do you have any tips you can offer?

Leave a comment below, it would be great to hear from you.

Tags: how to guest blog, pitching to be a guest blogger

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