Step 1: Find the sites
The first step in the process for any good guest blogger is to prepare a list of sites to contact.
Source 1: Partners
Let’s start with the easy part: your partners. Whatever your field of activity, you probably work in partnership with other companies.
A partner is a prime target for guest articles because they have two advantages:
- You already have a relationship with them, they will be easier to convince.
- You probably work in the same field, so the link will have a good thematic affinity with your site.
From experience, with a conversion rate of 40%, these are the easiest sites to convince.
Source 2: Guest posts from your competitors
If your competitors are also doing guest posts, why not go and pick from their own list?
At WisePops, we have seen a 38% conversion rate on sites that have published articles from our competitors.
The question you need to ask yourself is, of course, how do I know where my competitors have published guest posts?
You can use SEMRush or Ahrefs. These tools allow you to identify all the backlinks of your competitors. Then, all you have to do is manually identify the guest posts. You can filter on the type “Blogs” on Ahrefs for example to save time.
Source 3 : Google
Most sites that accept guest posts have a dedicated page that you can find from Google.
You can use the following keywords in particular:
- submit a guest post
- contribute to the blog
For more precision, you can add your domain afterwards.
For example: “submit a guest article marketing”.
Source 4: Sites that mention your themes
Last method: monitor the themes that you master on the web and react when an article mentioning it is published.
How can you do this? By using a monitoring tool like Mention.
One last important note: many sites do not explicitly state on their site that they accept guest posts. But don’t hesitate to contact them, most sites never say no to quality content provided for free.
Step 2: Prioritise your list
Once you have completed this first step, you should have a substantial list (on our side, the list was over 400 lines long). How do you prioritise the sites to contact?
I advise you to create an Excel file with the following data to decide:
DoFollow
The first element is the type of link that the site offers. If the links are in nofollow, you can already remove it from your list because the link will not have any point on your referencing. Be careful, some sites put the links in the body of the article in nofollow but allow a signature in dofollow. It may be worth the effort.
Thematic proximity
This element will be more subjective. Does this site deal with themes close to yours or not? If not, a link in an article will have less relevance.
Authority
The authority of the site. Does the site on which you want to publish have a significant number of backlinks?
To estimate the authority, you can rely on the different estimates that SEO tools offer:
- Trust flow and citation flow for Majestic
- Domain authority for Moz
- Domain rating at Ahrefs
Quality of articles
The last and most subjective criterion: does the site offer quality content? If the site has a demanding editorial line, this means two things for you:
- It is probably more difficult to publish on it, which means that your competitors will probably find it difficult to succeed in being published after you
- Google is likely to value the content offered by this site more highly.
Step 3: Contact the sites
The next step? Contact the sites you have prioritised.
When the sites have an external contribution page, simply follow the guidelines.
When sites don’t have one, use Linkedin or the legal notice to identify the blogger or website manager and search for their email with Hunter or Clearbit.
Step 4: Pitch your article
The pitch is the most important step. Many marketers automate these steps and send out generic emails. This kind of email is quickly identified as generic and ignored by the recipient. To stand out from the crowd, I encourage you to write personal emails instead.
A few things can help you stand out:
- Start your email by using the first name of the recipient (“hello John”, etc.) to sound natural.
- Use a specific catchphrase. For example: “I saw that you mentioned a certain topic in your article of XX/XX, I am a specialist in the subject myself, etc.”.
- If possible, share links to your latest publications to establish your credibility as a writer.
- If you have the time, directly propose 2 or 3 ideas for articles you had in mind for the site.
Step 5: Write the content
Once your pitch has been accepted, all you have to do is write your article.
Don’t rest on your laurels because a site may well reject the article once it is finished. To avoid this, here are some tips:
- Ask your interviewer for specific writing guidelines before you start the article. How many words do they expect? What style do they like?
- Suggest that they first check the structure and the introduction of the article before starting to write, as this will help to identify any problems beforehand.
- Take care in writing the article. Be at the level of your interlocutor’s expectations to ensure that it is put online.
To develop your audience, there is nothing like publishing on other sites and thus increase your site’s notoriety. Guest blogs remain one of the most reliable and quickest ways to develop your backlinks quickly.
