Guest blogging is one of the most popular blog strategies used by both beginners and experienced bloggers alike.

You most likely heard about guest posting before and wondered how can you become a guest blogger so you grow your own blog. You might also have other questions about guest blogging like Is guest posting really worth it?

You'll find the answers to all the questions you might have about guest posting in this article. I'm also gonna guide you through how guest blogging works and how can you find guest blogging opportunities.

You're probably familiar with the term, but in simple words: Guest blogging is when you publish a post on a blog you do not own.

How guest blogging works is you find blogs that accept guest posts, you reach out to the owner and pitch your ideas. Then you write the post and send it for publishing.

The process is simple yet, is not always easy.

Guest blogging for beginners is especially harder. When no one knows about you and your blog yet, there is more work into convincing people to accept your guest posts that it is for already established bloggers. But it doesn't mean it's impossible. You'll learn how to find guest blogging opportunities in the following chapters.

Now, some may wonder why would you write blog posts for someone else.

Why not keep all the content you can write on your own blog, right?

Well, there are more advantages to giving away your expertise and I listed them below.

Guest blogging doesn't have a one and only purpose behind. In fact, there are more reasons why to use guest blogging:

• Making a name for yourself and positioning your blog as an authority.
• Exposing your content in front of a new audience and getting more traffic to your blog.
• Creating connections with other bloggers.
• Getting backlinks to your blog.

You can achieve all these goals with a single guest post or you can focus on one of them at a time. It mainly depends on where you are guest blogging.

If you want to do guest blogging so you get people to know about you and your blog, then you must find the right blog for this goal. In this case, the audience on the blog you are guest posting to must have a relevant and engaged audience.

You want them to see your post there, get valuable information from it and become curious about who you are. It will make them check the author bio and click on your links to read more from you. This way you'll be acquiring more traffic to your blog and will get relevant readers.

Keep in mind that the audience must be relevant to what you usually write on your blog. One of the guest blogging advantages is that the readers you expose your content in front of are already interested in the topic you're writing about. If you resonate with them, it makes them more eager to check out your own blog.

Establishing relationships with other bloggers is an important part of blogging.

You'll find yourself in need of a helping hand from time to time and it's highly useful to have people you can count on. And for this to happen, you also need to offer your help and support.

One way to create powerful relationships with other bloggers is by guest blogging on their blogs.

As a beginner blogger, not many people heard about you yet. And I bet there are bloggers you would like to be connected with. An easy way to make them aware of your blog by providing them with quality content that will bring value to their readers.

If you manage to get the first guest post going on their blogs, you'll keep in touch for future exchanges. Guest blogging is not necessarily a one time deal. It's usually the beginning for collaborations.

As you may know, SEO is an important part of blogging.

To get traffic to your blog posts, people need to be able to come across your posts first. When you care about SEO, you'll get your posts to rank high in search exposing them to a bigger audience.

One of the main Google SEO metrics is the number and quality of the backlinks.

Link building through guest blogging is a popular and effective strategy to increase the blog posts ranking.

Not only the backlinks you get through guest posting are usually dofollow, but they are also highly relevant which matters a lot to Google.

When Google decides how important a backlink you have is, it also analyzes the website it is coming from. And because you'll be guest blogging only on relevant blogs which cover the same topics you do, the links will be valuable.

Another aspect Google takes into account for backlinks is the authority of the blog your link is coming from.

If you want to use guest blogging as a link building strategy, then you must find blogs with a high domain authority.

Isn't guest blogging dead?

There've been discussions on this topic, analyzing if guest blogging still holds its power or not.

It all started in 2014 when Matt Cutts said in a post that guest blogging is dead because it became a spammy way to build backlinks.

And it's true to some extent. But it's not true for you if you keep on playing fair play.

Stay away from:

• Buying backlinks
• Guest blogging on irrelevant websites
• Guest blogging on blogs with a low or bad reputation
• Paying people to create backlinks for you on random sites
• Abuse guest blogging (creating too many guest posts in a short time span)

Backlinks still carry a lot of power over Google rankings. And if you build natural, not paid links through guest blogging, you can be sure it's worth for SEO and for your blog's authority.

Now that we covered how guest blogging works and if it's worth it for SEO and traffic, let's see how you can become a guest blogger.

The first step to getting started with guest blogging is finding guest posting opportunities.

For this, the blog you're looking to be a guest on must cover some guest blogging guidelines

• The content on the blog you're looking to post to is relevant to the content on your blog.
• The audience is interested in your topics.
• The audience out there is active. If you want to drive traffic to your blog through guest posting the readers must interact with your content.

Guest blogging on irrelevant blogs is a waste of your time and will bring no results.

For example, say you sell T-shirts. Then you want to find blogs that are covering fashion topics. It would make no sense to write posts on a blog about dogs. If the readers won't relate to your articles, they won't come to your blog.

There are more ways to find great guest blogging opportunities and I'll cover them here.

As in most cases, Google is the first stop for finding something.

You can find guest blogging opportunities on Google by using a string like keyword + “guest blog”.

The word keyword will be replaced by a keyword related to your blog.

Here's a list of strings you can try out:

• Keyword “guest post”
• Keyword “submit guest post”
• Keyword “guest posting guidelines”
• Keyword “submit content”
• Keyword “write for us”
• Keyword “submit an article”
• Keyword “suggest a post”
• Keyword “become a contributor”
• Keyword “guest author”
• Keyword “accepting guest posts”
• Keyword “guest post by”

By using this kind of searches you'll be finding guest post submission pages or a blog's guest blogging guidelines.

If you get stuck, try mixing things up and use different expressions and variables. For example, using “submit guest posts” instead of “submit guest post”.

If you're familiar with other blogs in your niche, and I believe you are, you must've noticed sometimes they are guest posting on other blogs.

The blogs they are contributing to might be a great place for you to become a guest blogger, too.

To find where others are contributing, first get their names. Then go to Google and search for:

• Name + “guest post by” / “written by”

If you take a website URL and add it to a blogging tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush you'll be able to see all the backlinks that site has.

And guess what?

Some of those will be from guest posts.

They might've even guest posted on blogs that don't have a guest posting guidelines page so you wouldn't find them otherwise.

The downside of this method is that you have to pay for a subscription so you have access to all the links. But if you're serious about your blog's SEO, these tools are worth the investment (and not only for your competitors' links).

Who thought you could be easily finding guest blogging opportunities by only doing a quick Twitter search?

Thanks to Brian Dean, now I know this effective way of finding places to guest post.

Just head over to Twitter and search for:

• Keyword + guest post

You'll have to do a little digging through the results depending on your blog niche, but you'll find both shares of guest posts (so you know that blog accepts contributors) and bloggers asking for guest posts.

If only there was a community of people to bring together guest bloggers with blogs in need of posts…

Here it is!

My Blog Guest

You just have to sign up for an account and fill out your profile information. Then you can start searching for blogs in your niche that are looking for guest posts. What easier way to find guest blogging opportunities?

If you don't feel like making too many searches to find a place to guest blog, I'll leave you with a couple of guest blogging sites roundups.

• 500+ Places to Syndicate Your Content
• List of 300+ Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts Contributions
• List of 200+ Websites & Blogs That Accept Guest Posts in 2018
• 150+ Sites to Guest Post
• 2018 Full List of Over 600+ Guest Blogging Sites
• List of Top Quality Blogs that Accept Guest Posts (450+)

Just because you found a blog that accepts guest posts it doesn't mean you have to throw yourself right away into pitching them out.

You must pay attention to where you guest blog because getting links from the wrong places can affect your blog in a negative way.

Google doesn't like spam. It tries its best to fight against it. And if it notices spammy behavior or a bunch of low-quality backlinks, your blog will get penalized for it.

So before you send a pitch for guest blogging make sure:

• The blog you want to guest post to is relevant to yours.
• The owner is legit and not trying to spam.
• Its domain authority is not low.
• There's activity on social media so your post will get some social share love.

Get your list ready

One of the best ways to get started with guest blogging is to find more blogs that accept guest blogging and use a spreadsheet to keep track of them. Separate them into great sites and not so great sites based on their authority and relevance.

Those that are not relevant must go away!

Once you make the list, focus on smaller blogs first. Because you are in the beginning, you have more chances for your guest posts to be accepted by smaller blogs rather than established ones.

Slowly, you'll build your way up to the popular sites.

There are some things you want to do before jumping into pitching to submit your guest post so you maximize your chances of getting accepted.

The first step you want to take is to become familiar with the blog that accepts guest blogging.

And while you do this, you want to keep in mind the following aspects.

• Who is their targeted audience? You want the audience to be interested in the content you submit to see any results from guest blogging.
• What types of content are already on the blog? Here you want to pay attention to the topics, tone, and the length of the posts. Also, do they post lists, how-tos, maybe tutorials?
• What have other guest bloggers done? Look for guest posts and see what type of content fellow writers provided and how it went. Did they receive comments? Did they make a guest posting exchange with the owner?
• Look for the guest posting guidelines. Each blog has its own requirements regarding guest blogging. This includes the length of the posts, the topics they look for if you can include backlinks in your post and how many. Bloggers who accept contributors usually have a dedicated page with the guidelines. If it's nowhere to be found but you know the blog accepts guest posts, email the owner asking for their guidelines before pitching them out.

One of the worst guest blogging mistakes you can make is to send out an email without taking some time to familiarize yourself with the blog. These kinds of outreaches get deleted right away most of the times.

One thing you might wanna do before you submit a guest post is to make sure you're not a stranger to the blogger you're reaching out to. This will increase your chances of getting accepted. You can do this by:

• Commenting on their blog posts – Take a week or so to leave comments on their latest posts. Make sure you leave proper feedback and not just a “Good job” kind of comment.
• Share their posts on social media – Twitter is the best for this as you can use the handle @ to make sure they see you retweeted their content.
• Email them – You can also send a thank you email some time before sending in the pitch.

Now that you know what the guidelines on the blog you want to pitch are, you must come up with a great idea that the owner can't refuse.

As I said earlier. The content you provide by guest blogging must bring value to the blog it's posted to else your pitch won't work.

Here are some ideas to find the right blog post ideas for a certain audience.

1. Look for outdated content

Take a look over the best performing content on the blog where you want to blog post on and find older posts that are outdated. If you see a post that is missing details or where you can come up with new approaches, that's one great idea to go with.

2. See which are the most popular posts on that blog

They often have them on the sidebar.

Another way to do this is to input the website link into Ahrefs and head over to the top pages section. With a free account, you get a couple of free searches.

3. Go with the trend

Bloggers are always looking for trending and popular content. So head over to Google Trends and Buzzsumo and see which are the hottest topics in your niche at the moment.

So now that everything is in place, it's time to jump to the blogger outreach.

It's important to have a great pitch so you get accepted.

Blogs that allow guest posts get a lot of requests on a daily basis. And most of them are generic and not worthy of their time. So if your pitch doesn't stand out, your email will get lost in the crowd.

Here are some guidelines you should follow when sending your guest blogging pitch.

Never use a generic introduction like to the owner of, dear sir, or hi.

Always include the name of the blogger you're reaching out to in your introduction.

Hey, [Name]

This way you'll make sure the responder will keep reading the rest of the email. At least you made time to familiarize yourself with his/her name. People enjoy being acknowledged.

Who doesn't feel pride when receiving a pat on the back? We are humans. We love compliments.

You don't have to overdo it though.

One or two sentences that show you read their content and appreciate their work is enough.

I've been reading your articles for a while and I wanted to say I find them really exciting and helpful.

I especially loved [this article] as it showed me how to do [specific action].

Some bloggers request to send them already written guest posts while others prefer you first pitch them the topics you are thinking about.

This is why it's important to look over the guidelines before proceeding with the pitch. They tell you how to proceed in the guidelines.

If you have to pitch your ideas, make sure you include around three topics for the blogger to choose from.

I'm reaching out to you because I'd like to contribute a guest post on [blog].

I have some topics in mind that I think your readers will be interested in.

• [Topic 1]
• [Topic 2]
• [Topic 3]

Here you can use a sentence or two for self-praising.

I'll make sure the article is original, full of valuable information, and of top-notch quality.

To establish your expertise, you can add an example of two of other blog posts you've written so the blogger knows what to expect from you.

Just end in a positive manner and thank them for your time.

Either just use a nice closing like Wish you the best, Best, Cheers.

Or you can add an expression like Looking forward to hearing from you as it can higher the chances of them to getting back to you.

Ultimately, keep the email short and to the point. You don't want to transform the email itself into a blog post.

Here's an example of how a guest blogging pitch could look like.

Hey [Name],

My name is [Your name] and I'm a blogger at [Your blog].

I've been reading your articles for a while and I wanted to say I find them really exciting and helpful.

I especially loved [this article] as it showed me how to do [specific action].

I'm reaching out to you because I'd like to contribute a guest post on [blog].

I have some topics in mind that I think your readers will be interested in.

• [Topic 1]
• [Topic 2]
• [Topic 3]

I'll make sure the article is original, full of valuable information, and of top-notch quality.

Here are some examples of other blog posts I wrote so you can get an idea of the quality I can bring you.

• [Post 1]
• [Post 2]

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best,

There are some things to keep in mind when writing the post you are sending over.

Follow their guidelines – Again with this, but your post will be rejected if you don't follow their rules. For example, you don't want to send a 500 words article to a blog that requires 1000+ articles.

Look over their posts structure – How they use headlines, images, quotes, and so on. Pay attention to the text formatting so you do something similar to match their content.

Use internal links – To show your appreciation and the fact that you paid attention to their blog, make sure you include some relevant internal links in your blog posts.

Write a killer author bio – You want to make sure your bio will serve you well. Ask yourself what is your goal with the guest post. If it's getting more traffic to your site than you add a link to the home page in the bio. Do you want more social media followers? Then add links to your social profiles.

Proofread – Before you submit a guest post to be published, always make sure it's out of grammar errors and typos.

Once your guest post is in place, you don't want to just disappear. To maximize the effect your guest post has, you have to stick around for a while.

Answer to comments

This is one of the requirements from most blogs that allow guest blogging. To reply to the comments on the blog post over the next 24-48 hours. But even if it isn't required, it's still a best practice to do so as you'll attract more attention to your website.

Share on social media

Don't forget you should also promote the post social media. Not only you'll give your followers valuable content. This will also send some traffic to the blog you guest posted on which makes for a little thank you gesture.

Send a thank you email

By sending a thank you email to the owner of the site you guest posted on, you'll make sure your relationship ends on a positive manner. This leaves an open door for a future collaboration.

Guest blogging is an important asset in a blogging strategy.

• Guest blogging helps you build relationships with fellow bloggers
• It exposes your content in front of a new and targeted audience
• You get quality backlinks to your blog boosting your SEO game

You should seriously consider becoming a guest writer and starting guest posting on other blogs.

There are lots of opportunities out there for guest blogging. And I hope now that you know the guest blogging basics, you know where to look for them and how to create the perfect pitch so your submission will get approved.