You’ve probably heard that your business and brand stand to gain a lot when you write guest posts. But maybe you’re at the point where it feels like editors have ganged up to reject all your guest-post pitches.
Getting your guest posts published doesn’t have to be so difficult.
Let’s look at those rejections from another angle: Most likely, you’ll discover that these editors are sending you a message. To understand that message, just take a step back and review everything you’ve been doing, strategically.
Let’s start at the beginning. What exactly is a guest post?
A guest post is a piece of content that’s written to be published on another person’s website or blog. Also known as guest blogging, writing guest posts can be an effective inbound marketing strategy with the power to deliver actual results.
Writing guest posts can also help you:
With such awesome benefits, no wonder guest posts are so popular: Editors are bombarded regularly with guest-post pitches. But if you’ve been writing your guest posts before looking for a place to pitch, this might be the reason your post isn’t getting picked up.
To finally say goodbye to rejections and craft guest posts that editors love, here are six tips that will help you write successful blog pitches.
If you’re guilty of writing pitches to websites or blogs you’re not familiar with, remember that editors can quickly spot this and get the impression that you’re not serious. This may be one of the reasons your guest posts are rejected.
Read at least some of the most recent articles on the website or blog that you want to guest-post on, and study the blog thoroughly before you start writing.
Then ask yourself the following questions:
This informs the website audience about who the author is and what the author does. In addition, the links provided can be used by any interested member of the audience to connect with the author.
It’s also not impossible that a website might not pay and at the same time not allow an author bio. Familiarity with the website will allow you to discover which options are available and decide if they work for you.
Editors are very busy people. It’s not unusual for them to get numerous pitches daily from total strangers.
Take the time to develop a relationship with the editor or blog owner before pitching. This will give you an edge because you won’t be a stranger. At the end of the day, your guest post will have a better-than-normal chance of being accepted.
Let’s look at some simple steps you can quickly take to develop that relationship:
Going out of your way to develop a relationship with the editor or publication before pitching ensures that you’ll need little or no introduction. This separates you from the crowd and gives your guest post a higher chance of being accepted.
To increase your chances of writing a guest post that the editor will love and accept, you must read and follow the guidelines provided. This is nonnegotiable.
Guidelines vary from one blog to another, so there’s no one-size-fits-all guide. Always look for the submission guidelines for that particular blog and follow them. Read them thoroughly to ensure that you understand everything required.
If a blog states that you should submit only the headline of your proposed guest post, don’t submit complete articles. If they ask you to send a complete article through a form on their website, don’t send the article through email.
Remember that these guidelines were provided by the blog owner or editor for a reason, so anytime you don’t adhere to the guidelines, you risk earning yourself a rejection.
Other areas that guidelines may cover are:
Guidelines are there to make the job of the editor easier and also make your job easier as a guest writer, which improves your chances of getting your guest post accepted.
Before you can propose a guest post topic that’s original and relevant to the blog, you need to have a good understanding of the following:
Having all these at the back of your mind will help you generate high-quality content that informs, educates, or solves a problem for the website’s audience.
An original guest post is one that has not been published before on that blog or anywhere else. This is the type of guest post most blogs and websites prefer.
To ensure that your guest post is original, search the site you’re pitching to confirm that they’ve not published a post on the topic before. You can also do a Google search.
Some other ways search more thoroughly include:
Because editors are always on the lookout for original topics, proposing one will help you grab the editor’s attention quickly and boost your chances of getting your guest post accepted.
To increase your chances of crafting guest post pitches that editors love and accept, you must be able to show convincing proof that you have what it takes to write that type of guest post. One of the best ways to do this is to have some writing samples ready.
If you can provide published samples of your writing in the niche you want to guest post on, this can convince the editor of both your professionalism and your capability to produce solid original content.
Writing samples published online, by the way, are more easily shared than PDF or Word documents.
Writing samples also improve your credibility and go a long way toward convincing the editor to accept your guest post.
But what if you’re a newbie without samples, published or not? It’s still a good idea to create and provide them, and it’s not as difficult as it sounds.
Instead of using Word or PDF, you can create samples with shareable links by using any of the options below:
By providing published samples of your work, you become more credible and therefore more attractive to editors.
Now that you’ve done your homework, it’s time to pitch your guest post idea or article to the editor.
Your pitch email should:
Writing guest posts that editors love and accept is really about being a good guest writer. And to be a good guest writer, all you have to do is make it a priority to take the following steps before writing your guest post:
When you take the time to put all these tips into practice, you can confidently expect that editors will not only love and accept your guest posts, but they might request more.
Sola Kehinde is a freelance content writer and SEO blog writer with 5+ years of experience. She helps businesses and brands engage their target audience, build trust, and gain more customers, with compelling long-form content. In addition to writing, editing & publishing topics, she also covers digital marketing, productivity and other business-related topics. Check out her LinkedIn profile to learn more!