If you have a blog or a business you’re hoping to promote and you haven’t yet jumped on the guest blogging train, chances are you’ve either considered it or have begun researching to see if you can make it work and make it profitable to your endeavor. The statistics show widely that guest blogging is one of the very best ways to build links and obtain new traffic for your site.
The opportunities are nearly endless and the benefits go both ways. You increase your site’s standing and the blog you are appearing on as a guest author, benefits from fresh, new, high quality content that they did not have to spend the time on themselves. So, if you’re ready to go and get started, here are some of the very easiest ways to get your toes wet, give it a shot, and see if it works for you.
Use MyBlogGuest
If you’re not sure who to contact or how to begin making inquiries, my best suggestion to you is to get registered on MyBlogGuest. This site can actually help you in a variety of ways. Number one, it gives you the opportunity to post what content you have written and have available for another blogger to pick up. This is perfect for content you’ve already written but haven’t been sure what to do with, or for content that you’ve been dying to write about but haven’t had a spot to publish it. You can “advertise” it here, so to speak, and if another blogger is interested, he will contact you. This means no soliciting on your part, it’s as simple as posting and waiting.
Secondly, you can browse the forums, find the “Looking for a blog” category and introduce yourself and what you’d like to write about. Bloggers looking for guest writers browse this, and if you spark their interest, they will contact you. Again, easy as it gets.
Finally, you can be proactive and browse the “Looking for a guest author” page. This is an extensive forum divided up into topics where bloggers will post “guest authors wanted” posts. If you’re interested in writing them, you simply send them a message and tell them what you can offer.
Use BloggerLinkUp
I’m a huge fan of this! This is much the same idea as MyBlogGuest but considerably smaller and therefore easier to get seen and picked up. Sign up and then receive bi-weekly e-mails with a list on both sides of the spectrum: bloggers looking for guest content and a list of content offered by bloggers. You can submit what content you’d like to get published as well as contact bloggers to confirm you can provide the content they’re looking for.
Make the Most of Google Search
Google will become your best friend as a guest blogger. Performing simple searches in Google related to your content niche, (we’ll say it’s baking) will look something like a search for: “guest blogger AND baking.” This will immediately provide you with search results of all the places where a guest blogger wrote something about baking, which means you have a good shot of also writing for the same site as a guest blogger on content that involves baking.
You can also do searches like “write for us AND guest post” in which you’ll get a huge variety of sites that are requesting people write for them. After this, you simply visit the site, find the site owner/manager, and contact them with a professional e-mail stating who you are, why you would like to write for them and a few ideas of what you would write for them. If you have samples available of your writing, you can include a few of these for their review as well. Whatever you can do to make their job easier in deciding whether or not they want you to write for them, the better.
Once you’ve tried these methods out for awhile, you should build up a solid guest blogging portfolio that you can carry with you as you get into more advanced methods of finding guest posts, but to get you started, this should provide you with ample opportunities for an extensive length of time. Go get started, find a blog and write your first post. It can’t hurt anything and chances are very good it will greatly benefit your site and your number of followers.
This is a fantastic article Jocelyn. Thanks so much for sharing some great tips. Guest blogging is something I need to do more of:)
@Lilach, so glad you enjoyed!! It’s a blast to get to write for other people on new topics you normally don’t get a chance to write about. 🙂
i need this post. I am thinking of writing many guest posts and not sure where to post them. This is a very timely post for me.
thanks for share
I’ve seen a lot of posts about using guest blogging but none that actually helped you find sites to guest post on. Thanks for finding and sharing these resources. I’ll definitely be checking them out.
I hope you find some very successful opportunities! The blogs to write for are almost endless. 🙂
I agree, guest blogging can be really powerful. I have used myblog guest quite a bit more to get writers for my blogs than offer my own services. http://guestr.com is another one that was just launched in Australia.
What an incredible way to expand you experience and exposure. Thanks for the great information of how to do this! I appreciate being able to see the pages you talk about right there within your post. It really helps me get what you are explaining.
Awesome! Glad you got something useful out of it. 🙂
I’ve been watching Myblogguest since the beginning and it’s amazing how much they’ve grown. Not only are they doing a fantastic job of introducing us to each other, they are doing a great job building the site and community for us.
Jocelyn Wow! What a wonderful set of resources you just shared. I see guest blogging as a wonderful way to co-create and will actually be seeking new guest bloggers for the coming year. Many thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your kind words! So glad you enjoyed — I’ll have to check out your blog! 🙂
Hi Jocelyn,
Guest blogging is a great way to get out there and gain extra exposure! I also love having guest bloggers when I am busy with other projects or when life throws in surprises.
Those ideas that you shared are great! I have never heard of the linkup one!
Thanks!
Stacy
So glad you enjoyed! The Blogger Link Up e-mail distribution list is wonderful!
What a list! I know about myblogguest but not the others, though I have not tried the services
The advantages of guest posts cant be overflogged. It does not just help you provide a new perspective to your readers, it also help form new relationship with anew audience as well as expand the scope of your blog.
I actually do recommend guest blogging. So thanks for the resources.
Tosin
Hi Jocelyn,
I don’t have any time for guest posting, but I don’t challenge its value. For people who are using this method of promotion, your article is full of good information. Thanks for sharing.
Lou
Great post — I am so glad you shared it on LinkedIn! Took the advice and signed up for MyGuestBlogger over the weekend….even with my first fumbling attempt to find guest writers, I’ve gotten three great pitches in so far. We write marketing, PR, social media, SEO and related “best practices” articles for corporate marketers (large, multi-channel distributed marketing organizations, mostly in regulated industries), but we also publish the occasional general piece on marketing. Our aim is to include something practical and useful that can be quickly implemented by a marketer. We get a lot of small business traffic, too. With a 3X per week publishing schedule and the promotion that goes with every post (press release, Twitter, social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), we’re trying to grow our readership and our guest blogger’s readership quickly, and your article gave me several good ideas. Thanks!
Hi Deb! So glad you already had such success with MyGuestBlogger! It’s such a terrific resource, I can’t get enough of it.
Can you tell me where this post appeared on LinkedIn?
Thanks!
Jocelyn
I love bloggerlinkup. I get about two dozen year posts from there every year.