HOW TO FIND GUEST POST OPPORTUNITIES

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 Guest blogging is consistently cited as one of the best ways to build high quality backlinks (SEO) and generate more traffic to your blog. In this ultimate guide to guest blogging, we’ll walk through exactly how to guest blog post (strategically) and dramatically grow your blog as a result.

 With a high degree of certainty, guest blogging will be be one of the absolute best strategies to employ if you’d like an uptick in targeted traffic to your blog, higher search engine rankings and a stronger reputation in your niche… all for free.

 It might sound like a pipe dream (especially if you’ve only recently started your blog), but it’s not. You can accomplish all of these feats surprisingly quickly, and without paying a dime—through guest blogging. Let’s talk about how to guest post.

 Guest blogging, also called guest posting, is when you write an article for someone else’s blog with the purpose of growing your brand, gaining exposure to your target audience, generating traffic and building natural backlinks for your own blog.

 Although there are some exceptions, a guest post will normally be a unique piece of content you’ll have to write (or use a free AI article writer to help craft your first draft)—one you haven’t already published on your blog or anywhere else—and you’ll almost always be writing for a blog with a larger audience than your own (which is one of the major benefits of guest blogging).

 You don’t have to pay to be a guest blogger, either. If you’re asked to pay, then that’s a sponsored post, not a guest post. In fact, some blogs will even pay you for guest blogging on their site.

 Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a commission. When you purchase a product or service using my one of my affiliate links, the company compensates me, which helps me run this blog and keep my content free of charge to you. Know that I also only recommend products I personally stand behind.

 Thus, guest blogging is a win for the host blog that’s publishing your guest post, because they get a free piece of content that they don’t have to either write themselves or pay a writer to compile.

 You get your name, your words and links to your own blog surfaced prominently to potentially thousands or more readers. We’ll talk more about including links in your guest blog posts later on in this guide, because those are extremely valuable in terms of building your blog’s SEO authority.

 Check out this massive spike in traffic I saw to my blog (1,874 readers in one day—far above my average at the time) after my very first guest post was published several years ago:

 The readers of the blog you just guest posted for also win, because they get to read a great piece of content that likely presents a new perspective than they’re used to.

 You need to be able to write well. Be honest with yourself here: if you’re not very fluent in English, or if you struggle a lot with spelling and grammar, you may not yet be at the level where you’re ready to dive into guest blogging. If you do want to go ahead, then it’s worth finding a friend who can help out with a bit of editing, or you might even consider paying a professional editor to help polish your work before pitching a guest post.

 You need to choose your host blog wisely. This means picking a realistic blog or publication that already takes guest posts. And I know this might sound obvious, but aiming for the very biggest blog or publication in your niche with your very first try, will only let you down and set the wrong expectations when you’re first getting into guest blogging. With this incremental approach, you can also gain valuable experience before you pitch the blog of your dreams.

 I’m a living testament to the truth of this approach in steadily growing my own blog over the years—and I’ve structured my entire blog business plan around this core blog strategy.

 If you’re looking for a little more guidance with growing your blog, then pick up my free blog planner bundle that’s packed with templates and resources to help along the way.

 When I first started guest blogging few years ago and began to have my work published on other (much higher authority) blogs, I didn’t yet have a personal brand or reputation at all.

 What I did have, however, was the ability to write a blog post that could tell a compelling story, draw readers in and also serve to help my host’s blogging goals. Having the growing skill of writing that you’re constantly working to improve—and the willingness to be persistent with your outreach efforts—will go a long way in helping your guest blogging campaigns succeed.

 On top of that foundational writing ability, I started with pitching startups I’d either already worked with in some capacity through my day job (as a content marketer at CreativeLive) or companies that would at least be familiar with the brand of my employer.

How To Find Guest Post

 Instead, think about the blogs that you already read that cover the same topic, or a similar one, to what your own blog talks about. These are great types of blogs to pitch because you’re already very familiar with their style and the types of content that they publish.

 You already have some sort of connection with. Perhaps you’ve commented on the blog before, chatted with the blogger on Twitter or even have a similar blog name to. Starting with some sort of simple connection can make it easier to get your guest post pitch looked at.

 Is larger than your own, but not ridiculously huge. Aim for a blog that’s roughly five to ten times the size of your own. If you have 100 email subscribers, aim for a blog with ~1,000. If you’re aiming for blogs (like Forbes) that are more like a thousand or more times the size of your own, that’s a bit too ambitious when you’re brand new to guest blogging.

 Is on-topic for you. While you might gain some benefits from writing for a blog about cats when your blog is all about gadgets, there’s not going to be a lot of audience crossover, so you shouldn’t expect to see much of a gain from that time investment.

 Has a somewhat similar writing style to yours. It’s fine to modify your style a bit to suit the blog you’re guest posting on, but if you’re normally very “out there” with lots of off-color jokes, and the blog you’re writing for is more conservative, you’ll either find that (a) they reject your post because your style isn’t a good fit or (b) you modify your style to suit them–and readers who click through to your blog come down with a fit of the vapors. Both situations result in a less than desirable outcome.

 You’re proud to be associated with. Avoid guest blogging on sites that have been heavily criticized in your niche (unless you want to show your support for them), and avoid blogs that don’t fit with your personal moral or ethical values. If you’re a staunch liberal, for instance, it doesn’t make much sense to write a blog post that’s strongly in favor of a conservative ideology. The content won’t come off as authentic, and you’ll probably regret the decision in the future anyway. Consider your fit from a design perspective too—if the blog you’re considering guest posting on feels old and outdated with their blog layout, but you take a bold and fresh perspective with your ideas, will that really be the right place to publish your work?

 Offers a do-follow link. This is usually the case, but look carefully at the guest blogging guidelines to make sure that your bio link (or in-post links) will be “do-follow” rather than “nofollow” (as a nofollow link won’t do anything to help your blog SEO efforts). If there’s nothing stated either way in the guidelines, check out a past guest blog post, scroll to the bio, right-click on it, and select “Inspect” (in Google Chrome) to see the HTML code for that hyperlinked text snippet. If you see the word “nofollow” within the HTML description of the link, then it’s a nofollow link. If it doesn’t explicitly say the word “nofollow,” then you’re good to go.

 Again, you’re looking for any mention of the word “nofollow” in the description. So if it’s not mentioned there, then the link is considered “dofollow” which passes SEO benefits to the destination link (i.e. a post you’re promoting on your own blog).

 Of course, it’s crucial to first check that your target blog actually accepts guest posts—and if they do, whether or not they allow clickable links back to your own content too.

 Different authors cropping up on the blog (bonus points if something like “guest blogger” or “guest post” is used to introduce their work). This doesn’t necessarily mean the blog will be open to unsolicited guest blogging submissions though, so don’t automatically assume the flood gates are open.

 If a blog says they’re not accepting guest posts, don’t expect them to make an exception for you. However amazing your blog post idea is, you’ll want to spend your valuable time elsewhere.

 This is also true if a blog says they only take guest posts by invitation—though in that case, you can potentially contact the blogger (if you have an existing relationship with them) and ask if they’d be willing to look at a blog post outline to get a feel for your style, or go through a mutual connection to get an introduction.

 Instead, you want to come up with ideas that are perfect for each and every target blog you’re going to reach out to… not just ideas that are a halfway decent fit for a hundred different blogs. Think bespoke, not off-the-rack.

 To come up with a guest blogging idea that’s going to work perfectly for your prospective site, you’ll want to start by doing some keyword research using a free tool (like mine).

 Read lots of recent posts on your target blog. If you’re not a regular reader (or if you used to read the blog but haven’t done so recently), you really need to get up to date with the type of content they’ve published recently. If your target blog often writes about blogging costs and web hosting-related topics, then you could pitch them on a guest post that covers more niche blog topics like the best cheap web hosting plans, offering up a review of the top monthly hosting plan options on the market, or exploring the free hosting plans out there—all of which could ladder up to a bigger piece they already have about the overall best web hosting plans for their readers.

 Make notes about these posts. What topics have they covered? How long are the blog posts, roughly? Do their posts tend to be high-level and strategic, or focused on specific tactics? Are the posts aimed at beginners or people with a lot of experience? All of this can help you hone your ideas appropriately.