Do you want your post to be featured in front of an audience of thousands? I’ve scoured the net to find case studies of some of the many talented bloggers who have been featured on Problogger. Their meticulous analysis helped me narrow down the process to four simple steps.
Ascertain why you want to guest post on this blog
Different people have different outcomes. A freelance writer may be looking for more exposure in their niche. An internet marketer may be looking for potential leads. Here are a few reasons why people would guest post:
Launching a new website, product or series of post.
This can be more beneficial than a review. If you use your blog as a case study, you can get significant traffic. If its in the correct niche, you could also get an increase in sales and leads from people trying to replicate your success.
For branding and exposure.
Skellie said “the benefits of guest-posting shouldn’t be viewed in terms of traffic alone. If you write a guest-post on a blog with 30,000 daily visitors, only 300 might click back to your blog, but 30,000 people will have seen your name. It raises your profile within your niche more than any other action.”
To Accelerate Your Learning:
Occasionally, the blogs readership can be very critical of many facets of your guest post. While hurtful, this can give you an opportunity to learn more about the blogging medium. This can save you time in the long run – and can help you avoid costly mistakes.
To help out the blogger:
There are many times in life where one is unable to fulfill their professional duties. This could be due to illness, family emergency or simply overcommitment.
This may not have much professional gain. However, the blogger may seek additional posts from you should another emergency arise. This can give you a reputation of being someone that is reliable and willing to help the blogging community.
Ask yourself if would it be beneficial to the blog owner
These guys get constantly pitched. Are there any outstanding reasons why your post should be accepted?
- It will save the blogger time/worry. This is especially so when the blogger has an unexpected illness.
- If will reinforce their perception of being a publisher of top content.
- It enables them to get an exclusive of a new project in the blogosphere.
Once you’ve ascertained how it would benefit the blogger, you can move on to making the pitch.
Pitch the blogger
There are two steps to successfully pitching your post.
- Have prior contact with the blogger
- Waiting for a good opportunity.
Have Prior Contact:
Many who have been featured on Problogger have had prior contact with Darren. Jeff Chandler interacted with Darren on twitter, and the Aussie Bloggers chat, prior to his recent work. David Risely met, and talked to Darren at a convention. You don’t have to have a similar success as the blogger. Many bloggers have a genuine desire to help people out.
One of the best ways to establish a relationship with a blogger is via twitter. Occasionally respond to questions and comment on some of the links they tweet. Eventually, start suggesting other sites you’ve found useful. I do this quite often – I don’t have the reach that the A listers do. If I find a really good site, I’ll send it along and often, am rewarded with a credit. This establishes you as someone who is reliable and provides value to others.
Wait For An Opportunity:
The key to getting your post accepted is the timing. Wait until the blogger has a genuine need for external poster. A good example is a A Coiwboys Wife, who ““applied” when Darren had “the open call. He took a 100 people and I was one. Then we submitted our posts for his review. He chose the better ones.”
Follow the blogger on twitter. Have the occasional contact so they know who you are. Wait until theres a guest post opening and have one prepared. You can either have:
- generic posts for the B list blogs with a rough intended audience
- Posts that are highly targeted to the bloggers readership and will remain timely.
By waiting for an opportunity, you are increasing your chances of your post getting accepted.
Prepare your article, and site, to maximise the opportunity.
On My Tropical Espcape, Darren provided the following hints in the comment section:
1. Relevancy.
This is a solid reason why many guest posting to readers. “For example a guest poster who wrote on ProBlogger about tax and bloggers who has a tax blog did quite well.” It doesn’t necesarily mean relevancy to the niche as a whole – it could be a subsection of that niche. A good example is Skellie, who writes about usability and social media.
If the title of your blog doesn’t scream relevancy – try to explain to the Problogger readers how your blog can help them. So, if your blog is on health, focus on how to be a healthy blogger. You’ll get traffic that is much more targeted, and likely to interact with your content.
The exception is if you use your blog as a case study.
Case Studies:
As Darren said, “Guest posters who use their blog as an illustration or who point back to things that they’ve written on their own blog within posts tend to do better.”
A guest post featuring comprehensive case studies is effectively a long advertisement for your site. It is an opportunity to convey information you have learned. It is also an advertisement to visit your site to find similar information. Readers will have a higher chance of clicking through to your site if the case study is rich in detail.
Some more tips:
- Make sure you link internally from your post. Marko found that the readers sent from problogger interacted with his site more than his previous ones. This could be because they were seeking information specific to the post.
- Use the introductory paragraph to really sell your site. Marko compared the links he provided in his post and came to the conclusion that the one in the introductory sentece worked best. This is because it also makes it to the front page. However, I do believe that in text links can work really well – provided there is a compelling cause to action.
Preparing your site:
- Don’t provide a post welcoming a certain readership, unless you’ve hit a major media outlet. As Stephen Snell said, it takes up valuable space and time of the readers. “If they’re only going to spend a minute on your blog you need to make a good impression, and that’s more likely to happen with a quality post than with a welcome message.”
- Use a referral plugin. Marko greeted visitors with the referrer detector plugin.
- Have a related posts plugin.
- Offer a landing page for those visiting from the guest post. Highlight posts that are extremely targeted to that audience. You can link to this in the referral box.
Further Keys To Success:
- Strategically pick the blogs you want to guest post on.
- Continually be where your audience is – even outside of blogs
- Have regular guest posting campaigns
- Always offer high quality posts
- Offer a way for readers to find your other guest posts
- Have some articles on article marketing sites for those you can’t guest post for.
- Focus on how your post does on social media. If its successful, try to replicate it.
Nice blueprint Jade. As I’m a neuroscientist I can tell you this is great advice as it feeds directly into the basice biology of human nature. Something I examine a lot on my site.
Altruism is a very strong instinct in most people, but even more importantly our brains are so wired to this that it’s fairly easy to spot when someone is being selfish.
Thanks for helping all of us with this advice.
Patrick
veryevolved.com
This is an excellent post, Jade! Congrats are in order to you! I love your blog!!
Guest posting is critically important.
It advances your brand.
It helps the blogger.
Increase in traffic to both blogs.
Increased awareness.
Enhanced opportunity down the road.
You have written several preeminent articles. I will be reading your blog on a regular basis. Count on it. I am subscribing to it ASAP. I’ll help spread word on Twitter and on the blogging forums, as well as in other social media channels.
Have a wonderful New Year!!
Excellent post, Jade, and worth bookmarking!
Your new site looks fantastic, and I see that you already have some content starting out — a good move.
Good luck, and keep up the good work!
This is the most complete guide I’ve seen on the art and science of guest posting. Great job!
Very nice analysis Jade!
Thanks for linking back to my case study of experience of guest posting at ProBlogger.
Great info and well written. Appreciate the steps to follow and will take this to heart.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach
@Marko
You’re welcome! It was actually your two case studies that influenced this post. I had read a couple of others and knew the information would be relevant to others. I’ve been really enjoying your blog!
@Mike
I actually had planned to have significantly more content up before launching, but yesterday saw the need for this post to get out. Essentially, I decided to ‘launch’ based on the response to Leos guest post on problogger. 
Thank you very much
@Jack
Thank you very much your comments, and the link on your site. Its little things like that which make all the hard work worth it
Thanks Jade! One of my objectives in the next month is to get Darren to let me guest post, so this is very useful.
This is great advice. I just launched a new blog, so getting exposure via a few guest posts is would be great.
@Lisa thanks!
This post is the one I used to launch my blog – literally. I did it 4 days ago and will be following up with more articles about guest posting. I hope you have good luck with it
In most cases, getting a guest post is more for the branding then the traffic.
@Mike Good luck!
That was one of my goals too – which led to this case study. Glad you found it useful
Just make your post has a lot of value to the Problogger readership and you should be fine. Darren is one of the friendliest, and most approachable, bloggers I’ve ‘met’ online.
This is a very informative post. Thanks for you effort to bring this to us and for sharing this valuable post. A must read for any bloggers I must say.
Nice blueprint Jade. As I’m a neuroscientist I can tell you this is great advice as it feeds directly into the basice biology of human nature. Something I examine a lot on my site.
Altruism is a very strong instinct in most people, but even more importantly our brains are so wired to this that it’s fairly easy to spot when someone is being selfish.
Thanks for helping all of us with this advice.
Patrick
veryevolved.com
Great, my blog is only new so I’m looking into this idea of guest posting. I want to write a good post to give away but then it’s hard to part with it as you really want it on your own site too!
Well defined and easy to read. A-list guest posting is the way to go, but it’s really all about picking the right A-list blog to fit your blog. You may be published on an A-list blog, but if their audience isn’t into your topic you won’t see many visits from it. I’ve learned this the hard way and most bloggers will too. Just learn from your mistakes and stick with the ones that work.
Hi Jade,
Thanks for this great post. What do you suggest is the best way for approaching a blogger about doing a guest post–email? Twitter? Thanks in advance,
Shelley
Great post!
I particularly like your suggestion to follow and inter-act with bloggers on Twitter whom you want to approach concerning guest blogging.
See 6 Steps To Increase Your Blog Traffic Through Guest Blog Posts for some additional tactics.
Best of success,
Robert
Great in depth post.
Most of all i like that you promote the social factor. You see so many with know etiquette at all, a little politeness can go a long way sometimes.
Great advice Jade. I just wrote about this topic too, and I can’t believe I didn’t give any thought to that first step on figuring out why you want to guest post.
That’s such a big one, thinking about what you want to get out of it, who the audience is you’re trying to attract, etc. That’s like a whole 99% of the process!
Great post. I will share it with many others.
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