It’s damn hard to be a successful in guest blogging.
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Read More: $500 for Publishing Guest Blogs? No Thanks!
We also know how guest blogging is really one of the best ways to not only increase blog traffic and back links but also to establish a blog as an ‘authority figure’. Many bloggers outsource the guest blogging process these days and there are some who don’t.
Whatever is the intention of your guest blogging efforts, the number of rejections are usually high. For instance, not everyone can get published on Search Engine Journal or Hongkiat. In this blog piece, I will highlight 3 ways to improve guest blog acceptance numbers drastically.
Image Credit: MimiAndEunice.com
Guest Blogging SOS – 3 Awesome Ways
1. Do not use Guest Blogging Templates
Okay, most of us have heard how you found our blog and loved it. For a moment, we may even revel in its glory but when we receive 10-15 guest blogging requests with the exact words, we become cynical.
Why? We come to realize that you are not a real guest blogger. A real guest blogger will make the effort to send a personalized email and not follow a template.
Here’s a typical example of a template which I always get and royally send to the ‘Trash’ folder:
Another example:
These are classic examples of real dumbness. Even if you are guest blogging on behalf of some agency, do some research and send a real proposal.
2. Do Not Send a Pre-Written Post
While some guest blog seekers want you to send a pre-written post, other don’t. Therefore, there is no point is sending something which is most likely to be rejected anyhow.
Before pitching for a guest blogging opportunity, read the guidelines. It is a must. Read what the webmaster is really expecting from a guest blogger. The best way is to pitch an idea.
The idea has to gel with the overall theme of the blog; otherwise, why would it be accepted?
3. Use Real Name for Guest Blogging Authority
Just imagine –
A person called “Jonathan Selby” emails you. Everything goes well and you really like the guest post. When you reach the bio, it says “This is written by Jack Dawson, a blogger and entrepreneur at XYZ.com”.
You, the webmaster, will definitely think it is a fake blogger or someone building back links. While there is no problem with building back links, giving different names comes across as a big charade.
Secondly, this strategy won’t help the guest blogger to build authority. Just imagine I want to guest blog for SocialVani and instead of using my own name, I say “Sonia is the owner and blogger for SocialVani.com” – this won’t help me build blog authority. This will instead show me as a scammer.
Pro Tip:
Apart from these 3 ways, you need to present a really awesome, awesome and awesome guest blogging piece to warrant acceptance.
About Chitraparna
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Go Chitra! Go Chitra!
It always pays to be real and do your due diligence before looking for guest posting opportunities.
Apart from what you’ve mentioned, I believe it also pays to check out the blog’s content and try to come up with something totally unique and top quality that the blog does not have.
Real authorities have their ears to the ground and come up with things that will sweep the blog owner off their feet.
Cheers Chitra,
Walter
Hi Walter, great to see you on my blog
You won’t believe the number of guest blogging offers I get on “generic topics” despite the instructions page clearly stating that ‘please check out the sitemap’ before approaching with any idea…but they are so incorrigible
~ Chitra
Content is King- that is true for guest-blogging also.
When we read a lot of repeated tips on what guest blogging is, you have explained what is NOT guest blogging. (“Do not use templates” and “do not send a pre-written post” – are things quite opposite of what all others suggest). Very helpful, thanks.
You are very welcome Jignesh
What do YOU think should NOT be done in guest blogging?
Chitraparna, You just mentioned some of those crazy tricks played by writers who blog for a third party, but present themselves as though they have the interest of your blog at heart.
The third point is where I have problem with some of them most of the times. After submitting their posts, sometimes you keep them pending for review, only to discover later that the name of the writer does not in any way correspond with that of the person who submitted the post. Tracing the email of the submitter becomes difficult especially if you need to reach him for the purpose of making adjustments to the post. It means you have to manually search your mailbox to be able to fish out the actual person who submitted the post.
I personally discovered that most of those posts are sponsored but the writer pretends to be submitting a guest post and refuses to disclose the post as a sponsored one so as not to pay any fee to get it published. They get contracts, get paid for them, but come to dump them on your blog for free while you pay all the bills for the maintenance of your blog. It is really pathetic.
I agree. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I have to agree with you Joseph
I get such emails daily and they just go to the trash bucket. When I was unaware of these issues, I published many such posts around Feb – April 2012. Now that I am more aware, I have made the link no-follow and removed some posts. Needless to say, it has considerably increased SERP visibility.