The technique of writing guest posts. For those who have never heard of it, the idea is simple to understand; it is simply an article that you write and which is published on a blog other than yours.

You may ask yourself: “Why would I spend time creating an article to make another blog bigger than mine? And who is also one of my competitors. » keep reading and you will get the answer.

The guest posts are a win-win method. The host blog author gets a new post for their blog and you, the guest, get some traffic back. And the craziest thing is that this method is accessible to all bloggers regardless of their theme and their current level of traffic.

But writing guest posts brings much more benefits than being able to increase your traffic.

Here are the advantages of publishing a guest posts:

  • Increases your notoriety and credibility. By posting on a big blog, you are automatically read by thousands of visitors. And by publishing on large blogs, the expert blogger transfers part of his authority to you in the theme, which immediately reinforces your words and your credibility;
  • Improves your SEO in the long term thanks to quality backlinks that you will have slipped into the article. When you write guest articles, you are generally allowed to insert 2-3 links pointing to your own blog;
  • Drives targeted traffic to your blog. As long as your article appeals to readers, some of them will visit your blog to find out more;
  • Increases the number of subscribers to your email list. And inevitably, if you manage to recover targeted traffic on your blog, your probability of converting these visitors into subscribers is very high.

How to write guest posts?

1. Determine your objectives

The first step before you start writing guest posts is to ask yourself what your goals are.

Guest posts allow you to improve three things in your blog:

  • Your level of expertise in the topic;
  • Your short-term traffic;
  • And your medium-long term traffic thanks to SEO.

The type of blog that you will contact to submit your guest articles will have to respect your objectives. For example, if you decide that short-term traffic improves your image as an expert is a priority, then you should target blogs with high traffic, as well as an engaged community.

On the contrary, if you want above all to improve your natural referencing thanks to backlinks, it will be more interesting to target blogs with a strong authority (Domain Authority). Having comments, shares and visitors on your blog is not essential for you.

Of course, it is possible to fulfill these 3 objectives, with the right content published on one of the most influential blogs of your theme.

2. Find blogs for your guest posts

Several techniques can allow you to find the websites on which you will publish your guest articles. Above all, be aware that very large sites do guest blogging and that it is wise to do your research correctly to have the blogs with the most authority possible. For this, here are some methods that seem to be the most interesting.

  • Search on Google

This is one of the easiest methods to use and involves directly searching for sites that clearly state that they accept guest posts. To do this, do a search on Google and add keywords such as:

Guest article + your theme;

Guest editor + your theme;

Article written by + your theme;

Guest blogging + your theme;

Become a contributor + your theme;

  • Use reference website

In your theme, there are probably some blogs that you consider to be references. Make a list of these blogs and check whether or not they accept guest posts.

When some blogs do not explicitly show that they receive guest posts, this does not necessarily imply that they refuse guest posting. To do this, you can try to make them a proposal directly that they may well accept.

  • Spying on competitor sites

Spying on your competitors means checking if they use guest posting and identifying the blogs on which they publish guest articles. Indeed, you just need to see the backlinks your competitors receive and where they come from. To do this, you can use several tools including: Ahrefs; Link Explorer etc.

  • Refer to your community

When your website or blog has some visibility, you are definitely going to have comments and interactions with your readers. In fact, you may have readers who own blogs that are perfectly suited to receive your guest posts.

Therefore, take care to research those who comment on your posts. They will be more inclined to publish your articles when you are used to providing them with very qualitative content.

  • Being interviewed as a blogger

It is true that this method is a little different from writing guest articles, but it could well complement it. Indeed, there are websites that offer the interview of bloggers always with the aim of improving their visibility.

This is a very interesting alternative and to find these kinds of websites, you just have to search on Google: Blogger interview; I interview bloggers; etc.

To find out how to get interviewed even if you just started your blog, check out this resource from Smartblogger. In addition to making you known, this option also allows you to:

To have quality links; To show your expertise; and to generate traffic.

  • Choose the most relevant blogs for your guest posts

With the previous tips, you were probably able to find several blogs that can publish your articles. Now you have to sort through to select only those that are most relevant for the publication of your guest articles. For this, take into account these criteria, which are the most important.

  • A blog that accepts guest posts

This is obviously the first criterion for your article to be published. In fact, not being an obligation, several blogs do not accept guest posts, but at the same time, some blogs do not explicitly state that they accept them even if they do.

  • A blog consistent with your theme and your target audience

Make sure that the websites you choose address topics related to the theme you are dealing with and target the same audience as you. In this way, readers are likely to be interested in the content you offer. Thus, it may be relevant to ask the following two questions:

The type of audience you want to drive to your blog;

The websites they regularly visit and what they search for.

  • An authoritative and highly reputable blog

The purpose of guest posting is to help you improve the visibility, authority and SEO of your website. For these goals to be achieved, you must focus on blogs that far exceed yours on these three different aspects.

  • A blog that highlights guest posts

The primary purpose of guest posting is to get you exposure, and if the host blog you choose isn't promoting guest posts properly, it's not worth it.

Therefore, check how guest posts are presented on each blog you select. Similarly, check how the presentation of the authors is done starting from their profile picture to their description. In fact, the better your article and you are presented, the more likely you are to get more exposure.

  • Rank the blogs

Once you have a good list of blogs, it's time to rank them to bring out the best blogs.

To classify them, we will base ourselves on three objectives: increase perceived expertise, short-term traffic and long-term traffic, respectively thanks to the following three criteria: "number of monthly visitors", "average number of comments and the blog's Domain Authority.

The easiest way to do this is to open an Excel file, then:

Create 5 columns: “Influential Blog”, “Site URL”, “Domain Authority”, “Number of monthly visitors”, “Average number of comments”;

Fill in the “Influential Blog” and “Site URL” columns;

Fill in the “Domain Authority” and “Number of monthly visitors” using the Open Site Explorer tool from Moz and SimilarWeb;

Complete the “Average number of comments” column by averaging the number of comments for the last three articles published;

And finally, do a descending sort to bring out the blogs with the most interest. The manipulation is simple: click on “Data”, “Sort” then add several sorting criteria, taking care to select “sort from largest to smallest”.

3. Know the content of the blog

At this stage, you know which blogs are the most interesting to publish your guest articles. But before you rush out and contact these bloggers, prepare yourself to maximize your chances of getting a positive response.

And this preparation begins with knowing the blog you are requesting. It's the minimum. Take the time to read some of his articles to understand the audience and analyze the angle used to treat the theme.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What is the audience for this blog? Are they BtoB companies, freelancers, individuals? What is the main problem of the readers of this blog?

What is the readers' level of domain expertise: beginners, intermediate, experts?

What type of content does the blogger write primarily? Does it favor list articles, infographics, case studies?

4. Analyze previous guest articles

It's always interesting to compare guest posts that work and those that don't.

This is a great way to understand why certain articles perform better. You can learn from lousy guest posts and take inspiration from ones that have had positive reactions.

5. Identify ideas that please readers

Some story ideas hook readers better. This is one of the reasons why top articles are top articles. These articles hit right into the readers' problem. That's why they like them so much.

Identifying the articles that appeal will allow you to better understand what appeals to the audience of the blog. So you will know exactly the kind of ideas to write your guest posts.

6. Get noticed

Do you usually ask something from a total stranger? It is very unlikely. Even less if the request requires a strong commitment, such as risking your reputation and your business.

Because yes, when a blogger agrees to publish you, he trusts your content, taking the risk of dissatisfying his audience and negatively impacting both his image as an expert and the income they derive from his blog.

To positively prepare a blogger to receive a guest article from you, the easiest way is to build a relationship of trust before your request. To initiate this relationship of trust, here is what you must do:

Leave quality comments on the blog;

Share the articles of the blog concerned;

Contact the blogger by email and thank him for one of his articles, for example.

7. Submit your guest article

  • Use a professional email address

Conveying a professional image is a very important point that will only work in your favor. To do this, start by choosing the email address that you will use to send your request.

Indeed, email addresses such as “eric4580gmail.com” or “alice9@yahoo.fr” should be avoided when you want to contact other bloggers. These addresses are fine for personal use and it would be wise to use them as such.

Nevertheless, addresses such as "axelaris@hotmail.com" which include the first and last name, are much better than the previous ones. That said, they are not completely satisfactory, and the ideal email is one that directly points to your blog.

This is for example “axelaris@livepositively.com” which automatically tells bloggers who I am and the name of my blog, which makes it easier to present.

  • Email subject clear and to the purpose

The subject of an email is fundamental, it determines whether the recipient will open your email or not. This is also valid when you send an email to another blogger.

Here, the email does not need to deliver any specific promise. It is enough to allow the blogger to quickly identify the subject of your email and if he should take interest in it.

Here are some examples :

Guest post: [Name of your post]

Guest article proposal: [Name of your article]

Conclusion

You know exactly how to get your blog traffic off the ground with guest posts.

All you have to do is take action. Write your first guest post. Your second, and continue until you reach a sufficient mailing list to get started.

As you may have noticed, writing guest posts requires building a relationship of trust with other bloggers on your topic so that you can then ask them to publish you.