You're probably wondering how to find guest blogging opportunities because you've heard that guest blogging is a good way to generate targeted traffic to your business website. Indeed, it is!
Not only can you get direct click-through traffic as soon as your guest blog article is published, but you might also get viral traffic (if your post is shareworthy) and traffic from the search engines (if you naturally include some keywords and your guest blog is on an authority website).
In this article you'll learn more about what guest blogging is, its benefits, how to get started, how to find guest posting opportunities, and the best practices to improve your results.
What is Guest Blogging
Guest blogging (also referred to as guest posting) is the practice of writing and publishing a blog post on someone else's website or blog. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved as:
- The guest blogger gets exposure to a new audience, often with the opportunity to include a brief bio and a link back to their own site.
- The host blog benefits from fresh, diverse content and the potential for new traffic from the guest blogger’s existing audience.
It is often used as a strategy to increase exposure, build relationships, and gain backlinks to improve search engine optimization (SEO). By contributing content to another site, guest bloggers can reach new audiences and establish themselves as experts in their field.
It's like being a guest speaker at an event—only in the digital realm!
Guest blogging is a great way to tap into an existing, engaged audience. But in order for this strategy to really produce great results, you need to do two things:
- Find potential guest blogging opportunities.
- Do your due diligence on these blogs to ensure they’re high quality (so that your name isn’t forever associated with a low-quality blog).
So, with all these benefits in mind, let’s take a look at how you too can start guest blogging…
Step 1: Identify Potential Guest Blogging Opportunities
Here’s how to find potential opportunities...
- Ask your network if they know of any opportunities. You can message your colleagues directly, or post on social media to get a wider response.
- You can start by checking the well-known blogs.
- Run a general Google search for a list of guest blogging opportunities in your niche. That’s right, sometimes people in your niche will simply compile lists, which shortcuts your research time. Example search: “list of dog blogs accepting guest articles."
- Run a specific Google search to uncover blogs that likely offer guest blogging opportunities. Simply search for your niche keyword (e.g., “dog training” or “gardening”) alongside the following words:
- Guest articles
- Guest blogging
- Submit article
- Article submissions
- Article submission guidelines
- Guest author
- How to submit an article
- Guest blogging guidelines
- Guest author guidelines
- List of guest blogging opportunities
- Guest article submission
- Guest article submission guidelines
- Guest author submissions
Example, “Gardening submit article” (without the quotes).
TIP: Naturally, you can simply search for your niche keywords alongside the word “blog,” but not every blog will accept guest articles. In that case, you may still consider writing to the blog owner to propose a content swap.
Step 2: Investigate These Blogs
Once you have a list of potential guest blogging opportunities, then do your due diligence on each one. You want to make sure you ONLY submit to high-quality, popular blogs with good reputations. That’s because your name is going to be forever associated with that blog once you get something published.
Now go through the following steps to make sure that the prospective guest blogs on your list are high-quality sites where you’d be happy for your name and articles to appear:
- Check the quality of the content - In other words, is the existing content all high-quality content? Is it well-written, well-researched, accurate, and engaging?
- Look for visitor interaction - This includes discussion on the blog itself, as well as likes, shares, and comments on social media. Be sure to actually read the comments to be sure it’s thoughtful interaction (versus spam).
- Research the blog owner and blog - Run the blog name and owner’s name through two Google searches.
- Walk away if you see a pattern of complaints or other red flags - You don’t want your name or content to be associated with this person.
- Check that the blog has been around for a while - Unless you are certain that the blog owner is well-established in the niche, skip any new blogs. For example, you don’t want to guest blog on a one-month old blog that suddenly changes focus and lowers its quality next month.
Step 3: Initiate the Process
Now you should have shortlisted the high-quality guest blogging opportunities. Your next step is to read their submissions guidelines carefully and then initiate the process for becoming a guest author. Some of these blogs will ask you to send an inquiry, while the majority will likely ask you to submit an article.
Keep these best practices in mind when submitting articles:
- Follow the rules - Read the submission guidelines carefully and follow them exactly. Most popular blogs get a lot of guest content request, so they weed them out by first checking to see who didn’t follow the content guidelines.
- Review the blog’s archives - this is a good way to figure out what the blog owner likes by looking at what type of content they've already published. Model your article after the style of these successful articles. For example, maybe the blog owner publishes a lot of “top ten” lists. Then create your own list article. Example, “Top Ten Copywriting Secrets For Doubling Conversion Rates!”
- Offer something fresh. Your article should have a unique viewpoint and fresh information. The more novel your content, the more likely people will click on your links and/or share your article with others.
- Create a well-written, polished article. Exceeding the editorial’s standards will help your article get accepted. If needed, hire someone else to proof and polish your article.
TIP: If you're strapped for time to create the blog article for submission, you can outsource the task, or you can leverage AI content creators like Blaze AI.
Step 4: Insert a CTA
At the end of your article, you have a chance to insert a byline (a.k.a an author’s bio). Instead of using this space to talk about yourself, use it to send your readers to your own website by including an appropriate CTA (call-to-action). Ideally, you should send readers to your lead page so that you can get them on your mailing list.
Example., “You just read an excerpt from [Name of Lead Magnet Report]. Get the full report for FREE by clicking here now…”
Conclusion
Guest blogging is indeed a great way to get targeted traffic. Use the 4-step process given above to ensure you pick high-quality blogs on which you’ll be proud to have your name appear, give the editors fresh content, and you use your byline to direct readers back to your own website.
Put these steps to work for you ASAP, and you could soon have a big list of potential guest blogging opportunities.
