The Best Practices To Become A Guest Author

Relying on social media followers to share your blog posts can be helpful. However, it is not enough - especially when you do not have that many followers yet. To increase the reach of your blogs (including social media), you will need to develop blogger outreach tactics.

Blogger outreach can make a massive impact on your marketing strategy. It is a robust method to expand your brand reach. It is also one of the best ways to get high-quality links that can boost your SEO stats and organic traffic.

In this article, let us talk about how you can increase the likelihood of getting published as a guest author and potentially introduce your blog to a different audience that can later become your subscribers or customers.

1. Establish Your Guest Blogging Goals

Before you begin writing an article, you must decide what your goal is for guest blogging. Typically, bloggers look into guest blogging for three reasons: one, to position their blog as an authority and an expert in their industry; two, to get more exposure from a different audience;  and three, to build backlinks.

If you want to focus on the first two reasons, then you have to search for sites that have a large and engaged audience. If you are aiming at the third, you can look for sites with strong domain authority. But with the right kind of content, you can target all three at once.

Determining your goals and why you want to become a guest author will help you know the kind of blogs you need to find and contact to submit a guest post to.

2. Find Where You Can Become A Guest Author or Guest Contributor

The next step to take is to find where you can post your content. The essential rule to remember is to always look for sites that are in a similar niche to yours. Their content should focus on the topics related to your industry, and they have a solid community of engaged readership and social media followers. It means if you are selling mobile phone accessories, you will need to look for blogs that publish articles about technology with an audience of tech-savvy or tech-enthusiast people.

You can search for blogging opportunities using the following ways:

• Contacting well-known guest bloggers - If you read enough blogs in your industry, you probably have known many names that keep popping up. For example, Neil Patel is a well-known digital marketing expert, and you see his name almost everywhere on the world wide web in relation to online marketing.
• You can use the query "guest post by" and add the name of the prolific guest blogger. The search will reveal the sites that this particular person has been published on and these should be excellent places for you to become a guest author as well.
• Checking for competitor backlinks - Many webmasters use tools where they can pull up a backlink analysis of their competitor's website. If you have one, you can use this to your advantage by looking at the backlinks of your business rivals and find any blog they have written for.
• Searching in Google - If you are looking more to submit a guest post to build backlinks, Google is an exceptional place to search for guest blogging opportunities.
• You can use the keywords "guest post," "submit a guest post," "guest post guidelines, "contribute" or "write for us." Using these key phrases can lead you to blogs that have already posted their guest post guidelines. It can also route you to pages of actual guest posts by other writers.
• Joining an online community of bloggers and engaging in their forums is also one way of looking for guest blogging opportunities.

3. Pitch Your Idea

Before you send an email and express your desire to become a contributor or guest author, you must first identify a few factors to get an idea how you can submit your pitch. First, identify your target blog and ask the following questions to yourself:

• What is the level of their readership? Are the posts for advanced, intermediate or beginners?
• Who are the people reading their posts? Are they teens, young adults, seniors, students or professionals?
• How long are their posts? Are they publishing DIYs, tutorials or merely general concepts?
• Knowing the answers to these questions will spark the idea of what article you are going to write. These will also help you determine the odds of getting accepted as a guest author on their site.

4. Think About Your Proposal

To ensure that your guest post gets accepted, you have to send a compelling email to pitch your idea of possible topics. These have to work with the site's audience and follow the theme of their blog.

Check the recent and popular posts on the blog. Try to see if some topics need expounding. You can also check related issues that they have not covered yet and work on that.

You can double your chances of getting accepted as a guest author by commenting on their recent blogs. You may also share these posts on your social media accounts as doing this will get you some points from the site owner. By the time you have sent your pitch, the webmaster will know that you are not just a complete stranger.

5. Time To Work On Your Outreach Email

First, read the guidelines. If a complete guest post list of instructions has been laid out, follow them carefully to submit your article. But if the owner wants you to pitch an idea first, you have to put some thought into your email by following these four  tips:

• Tip 1: Be personal by addressing the webmaster by his or her name. Try to search for this information on the site or through their social media channels.
• Tip 2: Mention a recent post you liked, commented and shared. Include the reasons why this particular post resonated with you.
• Tip 3: Tell the owner how your article will serve their audience.
• Tip 4: Provide links to past guest posts you have worked on, including your blog for reference.

6. Work On Your Post

If the owner has agreed to review your proposed article, you can now start working on it. Try not to make them wait for your submission as this can result in a missed opportunity.

Remember, the article is not for you. A guest post should be a good source of knowledge to their audience. Any information about your business can be reserved for your author byline. Remember to skip over any advertisements as well. Even the slightest hint of it can lead to a rejection.

Becoming a guest author is both a responsibility and a privilege - especially when you get to be one at an authority site. Getting published will not just drive a different audience to your blog and boost traffic, it can also help establish your name and brand as an expert in your industry.