How to Pitch a Guest Blog Post For a Website (and not end up in a blog post as the example of what NOT to do)
Should you be guest blogging or posting on your own blog?
I don’t think it is a choice between one or the other. For me and even the brands that we own, I try to leverage as many platforms as possible. I will often create content specifically for Medium, Entrepreneur, my own blog, and other business-related sites that match up with my target audience.
I love guest blogging for a lot of reasons:
1) When done properly it builds authority and credibility
2) Gets you exposure to audiences that may not be familiar with your name or brand
3) Where allowed, it provides backlinks to your own site
Now that we own four pet blogs (and we are in the process of acquiring more), we are getting inundated with requests from people asking to guest blog. I guess I never realized just how bad some people are at pitching themselves or an idea until I had to sift through them every day. Some of them are cringe-worthy, and occasionally a well-written one comes through.
So if anyone ever wonders just how you get someone’s attention versus ending up in the trash folder, I am going to lay out some really simple steps to make sure you at least get someone’s attention (and honestly, I think this can apply to any form of communication — email, direct message, letter, telegram, carrier pigeon note).
So here are x simple steps if someone was trying to get my attention to guest post on one of our blogs (for this exercise, I will our blog Dogvills as the example):
Step 1: Actually show that you put some effort into it — may seem like common sense, but if you don’t put any effort into the email, why would I think you are going to put any effort into the content you create? Here is a great example of one that went right into the trash (name was deleted to protect the poor soul who wrote it)
Rather than saying “I reviewed your site”, take the time to read some of the articles. Find one or two that you think are really well written or that you connect with. A better intro would have been:
I was researching why my 4-year-old puppy was acting scared all of the sudden, and this article you have on your site really helped:
https://www.dogvills.com/dog-is-acting-scared-all-of-a-sudden/
Or
I read a couple of your articles, and really appreciated the writing style and depth of the articles.. particularly this one: https://www.dogvills.com/dog-is-acting-scared-all-of-a-sudden/
(Bonus points if you use Ahrefs to identify the top pages of the blog and reference them in the email)
Step 2: Find their editorial guidelines — Not all websites post their editorial guidelines, but if you can find them, reference them in the email so that they know you are familiar with what they expect. If the editor has to put a lot of extra work into properly formatting the article, correcting mistakes, or editing the content it will probably never get posted.
A lot of times blogs will have guidelines around outbound links in the article, article length, tone of the article, whether or not images need to be supplied, submission deadlines, etc. If you can reference any of that in the article, it just reiterates that you did the research.
Step 3: Do some keyword research for them — This is where Ahrefs comes in handy. Here is a really cool and easy trick (takes 2–3 minutes) to not only show the blog owner/editor that you did your homework, but it would impress the hell out of me because it shows you understand SEO and how to create impactful content.
Even if they have other content ideas in mind, it shows you did the homework.
Go into Ahrefs and enter the URL. Then go down to the left side and click Organic Competitors
Now you have an idea of what sites they are competing with the most on keywords. Jot them down, and then click on Content Gap and enter the top three URLs in there
Hit Show keywords, and Presto! You now have keyword ideas for content that you could potentially write an article about. I might add something like this to the email: I did some research using Ahrefs, and compared your keyword list to the sites that you organically compete against. It looks like an article targeting the keywords Golden Retriever Siberian Husky Puppy, Doberman Rottweiler, or comparing Belgian Malinois vs German Shepherd might be great ideas (unless you had specific content ideas already in mind).
If I received an email that said anything close to that, I might offer to PAY them to write for me. It shows effort, knowledge of SEO, and it is a GREAT indication that the article quality will be there.
Step 4: Go above and beyond — Add value by letting them know that you will also drive some eyeballs to the content. Something like this would seal the deal for me: If it is okay with you, once the article is posted I planned on sharing it on my social channels and linking to it from ______
Step 5: Show them some examples of your work — Make it as easy as possible for them to find other articles you are written. Either attach them to the email, or provide links so they are easily accessible. Sell your writing skills with your best articles (and if you have any stats to share about them, even better)
Let’s Wrap This Up
This might seem like a lot of work for just ONE email, but I am a firm believer in building longer-term relationships versus a spray-and-pray approach. By taking the time to do those five steps, to me you will have conveyed all of the following in a short and sweet email:
- You did your research about my company and brand
- You understand SEO best practices and what it takes to create great content
- You are easy to work with, and will take some of the heavy lifting off my plate
- You are going to create a piece of content that is valuable, versus just writing a generic article to get backlinks for yourself
- And…. You are going to create additional value by helping share the content
So here is example of what that looks like when you pull it all together (here is where the internet trolls start roasting me)
All joking aside, I think guest blogging is a great marketing tool for both writers and brands. When done correctly, it creates a lot of value for both parties and everyone benefits. In case you missed it, here is an article I wrote that outlines the structure of the perfect blog post.
