Simple tips are all that are needed because there is nothing complex about guest posting. It is just you trying to convince another human being to take your free content and put it on their blog in return for a backlink to your website. In essence you are working for free so it should be easy to give away your content in return for a link, but you may be surprised at how unwilling some people are. Keep it simple, and if you come across any pains in the rump then forget them and move on.
Follow the blogger’ instructions to the letter
If the blogger is smart then he or she will have set ground rules for guest posts. They will dictate how the guest poster is supposed to contact the blogger, and give advice on a range of things from format to word count. No matter how detailed the instructions are you must follow them to the letter. If you do not then the blogger has an ideal reason to reject you.
Persistence may pay off
If you keep trying every few months with a new blog post idea then some bloggers are going to give in a post your guest post on their website. It is just the way that people are. It is up to you as to how persistent you are.
Change your pitch over time to one that gets them excited
You are supposed to evolve your pitch so that it is one that gets more responses from bloggers. Use what does work and scrap the comments and ideas that do not work. Come up with a better and better pitch as time goes by so that most people who see your tailor changed pitch will reply to you.
Tell them how you plan to promote your post
There are too few guest posters who say how they are going to add posts to their Facebook account with XXX friends and that they are going to put it on their Google+ page, or Ping it, or tweet it. Too few people offer to do such a thing, so you offering is going to make an impact. The blogger may want to have your guest post because he or she is looking forwards to the extra publicity.
Show them your own blog and your following
If you have a blog or you have a following on social media then show the blogger your highly attended blog, your high PageRank, your high Alexa rank and your social media following. It is an anthropological thing called social proof. If you have a big chest then do not just show it off, you need to beat it so all the other bipeds can hear.
Do not send your article unsolicited
Sending a full article without any form of prior contact or solicitation is dumb for more reasons than are worth mentioning. Just don’t do it.
Do not copy and paste a greeting and a pitch
This is called spamming and it will just get you ignored or your IP address banned. Sure, you need to come up with a good pitch to keep people accepting your post, but each one needs to be tailor warped to create what looks like an original and thought out pitch.
Keep your request short and easy to skim read
Your article needs to be skim-readable when you send it later, and your initial request to guest post should also be easy to skim read. Keeping it short is just a matter of politeness.
Look at directories for blogs that accept guest posters
Instead of asking to guest post on a bunch of blogs that do not accept them, you can start looking at directories online. These are websites that have links to blogs that accept guest posts. It may save you a lot of time soliciting to people who don’t want to know you. You can solicit people all you like, but if you are just starting or you do not have much time on your hands then looking through directories for such blogs will save you a lot of time and turn up more results in a short space of time.
If you don’t ask you will never know
There are lots of blogs in the world, and even though the last tip said that soliciting to unknown blogs is a waste of time, it may still produce results. It is inefficient and there are better ways, but if you see a blog that could give you a good solid backlink then you never know until you ask.
