Once you have found the ideal host blog, the first thing to do is to prepare your request for publication. In other words, you need to know how guest posting works with the blog.
In the simplest of cases, the site offers a guide or page exclusively dedicated to the steps, rules and instructions to follow for guest posting. All you have to do is read the document in question and follow the process indicated.
That said, you won’t always get this kind of guide with explicit indications. For this, you have to contact the blog directly and before doing so, I invite you to take some precautions to ensure the success of your request.
1) Know the audience and content of the host blog
This is one of the most important steps as it allows you to make a relevant request and to identify the angle from which you will treat your subject given the audience of the blog that will publish your article.
To do this, take the time to go through the content of the blog and determine the following
The blog’s audience
For your guest post to be successful, you need to be able to clearly identify who the host blog is targeting. This is done by analysing:
- Type of readers: companies, individuals, organisations…
- Level of expertise of the readers: Experts, amateurs…
- Demographic data: Age, gender, location….
- Etc.
For example, the tone or content you use for individuals will be different from the tone or content you use for businesses, even if it is the same topic.
In addition, the main problem that the target audience of the host blog wants to solve must be known. In fact, the same topic can solve different problems and you need to know which one the host blog is solving.
When taking SEO as an example, it is much more relevant to address topics related to netlinking, if this is the main problem addressed by the host blog. If you are going to cover content marketing topics, your content is less likely to be relevant to your target audience.
The type of content regularly published
You want to publish an article on a blog that is likely to have a different publishing style that readers have already become accustomed to. To do this, it is wise to identify this type of content and do exactly the same. Examples include:
- Case studies;
- Quizzes;
- Long or short articles;
- The type of media used;
- Etc.
2) Review previous guest articles
This review or analysis allows you to determine whether your profile is in line with those of other guest bloggers. Indeed, it can happen that those who write and publish articles on certain blogs meet criteria such as popularity. If you are a complete stranger, your application is likely to be rejected.
In addition, you have the opportunity to do a comparison of guest posts to see which ones work and which ones don’t. Further analysis can tell you what factors make a guest post successful or unsuccessful on a given blog.
Alternatively, you can already identify the ideas that appeal to the readers of the host blog. To do this, browse through the best articles on the blog to get an idea of what topics actually attract the attention of the audience, this will be a great help in making your request.
3) Focus on knowledge
Guest blogging is a concept based on trust. Indeed, when a guest publishes an article on a host blog, the latter puts his image as an expert and his business on the line. Hence, they risk being negatively impacted if the article in question is of poor quality.
So, given that the risk is high, most blogs find it difficult to accept guest posts without being reassured of their relevance.
For this reason, I recommend that you first approach bloggers you already know, which will make your task much easier. Otherwise, it would be interesting to try to create trust.
4) Create a relationship of trust
To increase your chances of having your proposal accepted, there is no better alternative than to first create a relationship with the blogger. Indeed, big bloggers are regularly solicited and to this extent, the best you can do is to perform these few actions:
Leave qualitative comments
Bloggers love constructive comments, as opposed to generic comments such as “Great article!
- Great article!
- Very informative ;
- I liked the article ;
- Etc…
To provide constructive feedback, make additions if you find that information is missing from the article. For example, if the article is about “9 Tips to increase the visibility of a website”, look for one more point that you will add via your comment. By doing this, you are adding value to their article and they will definitely notice you, which is a good start to a relationship.
Also, you can do a mini case study, taking care to apply the techniques mentioned in the blogger’s article and show your evolution via a comment. This type of comment is most appreciated by bloggers, who see that their content has been really useful.
To use this method effectively, you can make an initial comment to say that you enjoyed the article and that you will try out the tips. Then come back a few days or weeks later to show your results.
Share your content on social networks
This is a very simple action you can take by sharing the content of the host blog on :
- Facebook ;
- Twitter ;
- LinkedIn ;
- Etc…
Note that shares work much better when accompanied by comments.
Thank the blogger by email for an article you liked
For this tip to work, you would have to be really honest. After sharing their articles and leaving a few comments, you can send an email to thank them. This can look like this:
In addition to these three actions, you can insert links to his content from your blog posts. This allows him to count you among the websites where he has backlinks. A point that you can emphasise in your thank you email to build trust.
Finally, note that the creation of trust does not happen overnight and you should make sure that all your actions appear natural and not forced with an ideal timeframe. That is, not so short that it looks like manipulation and not so long that you are forgotten.
So, since guest blogging is a strategy in itself, you can plan this trust-building period, for the blogs you have selected, over for example a month or 2 to 3 weeks.
After this stage, you can now offer to publish your guest article!!