Guest posting offers way more opportunities than you might think. But it’s important to start properly to get your first harvest. From choosing websites for your content to pitching a finished article, all the steps should be taken carefully and with precision.

There are many intricacies and tricks to use, but the most important thing is your determination. If you’re ready to hear several ‘No’ and that one ‘Yes’ that will provide x10 results, this approach is for you.

In this guide, we share what guest posting is, how to submit blogs that will be accepted, and more!

What Guest Posting Is

This is a process of creating and contributing content (text, visual, etc.) to another website. The site can be of a specialist or brand.

You can do it to raise awareness about your brand, share knowledge, etc. Sometimes, people put backlinks to their websites there, but this part should be negotiated first.

The Essential Steps on How to Get the First Published Guest Blog in 2021

Here, we’ll go step by step into the process, from creating a campaign to reviewing the results of your work.

1. Know the Clear Goal of Your Guest Blogging Campaign

Determine the goal (or up to 3 goals) you want to achieve by contributing content. Here are some examples of things that can be achieved through the technique:

• Brand awareness boost – let people know about you and get interested in your website;
• Pitch your project – focus on the value you can offer so that a curious audience clicks through;
• Boost optimization – improving ranking and other metrics is relatively easy if you have an access to high-quality backlinks;
• Build a reputation – a new business in the niche should use guest posts to show their expertise and knowledge to attract visitors and customers;
• Increase the number of leads – through the new audience, you can find potential customers to focus on;
• Increase referral traffic – have more people visiting your sites and reading your publications with interest.

Don’t choose all the goals at once. Focus on several in one campaign. Thus, you’ll create content catered to your expectations and the audience that will help you achieve the ‘reward’.

2. Choose Proper Websites to Offer Partnerships

For effective guest blogging, you need proper websites. They have to be highly ranked, credible, relevant. If you don’t know how to look for potential partners at all, here are the best methods:

• Look where your competitors get backlinks.
  Check where the competing projects get their backlinks. You can use Alexa Competitor Backlink Checker or another digital tool of choice. If someone linked to them, chances are they won’t mind linking to you as well (or maybe even substituting the link). If you see a broken page, contact the site’s owner as soon as possible and offer a similar page from your source.
• Seek websites similar to yours by topic/niche.
  Look by industry-specific keywords, the ‘contribute to my blog’ and similar queries, etc. Relevance is very important when it comes to qualifying the donor site, but it’s also an easy-to-use filter when you’re initially looking for someone to provide guest content for.
• Find sources that would be interesting for your readers.
  Use digital tools that show what websites your audience visits frequently. Chances are people with the same interests are reading those pages. Seeing your link there, they will be automatically curious. Plus, your readers will see the link and deem your source even more credible.

As to the qualifying criteria, here are the most important:

• The site should have a similar target profile or the audience as your site;
• It should have an active following, which you can see in comments, shares, or using digital tools;
• Also, look for free cooperation unless you’re using a guest posting service. Visit this page to find out more about how a specialized service can help you make a leap to the TOP-10 with guest content;
• It should be highly ranked for its keywords.

As you finish with a list of websites, it’s time to research the most suitable topics they would love to post about.

3. Research Topics and Outline a Post That Provides Value

Brainstorm for some topics that would combine the two main criteria: achieving your goal and catering to the needs of the blogger or website owner.

Here are some broad ideas on what kind of topics to look for:

• Use tools to find out what sources their audience reads as well;
• Think of a topic that would fit the level of expertise and interest of that audience;
• Inspect the site for gaps in the main topic coverage;
• Ensure that the emerging themes also cater to your wants, needs, and desired results.

Some like to write a post as soon as they come up with a decent topic. You can post it on your own blog or pitch to another source later, after all. But to save time, you can outline it first. Then, if it’s accepted, write it well or hire a professional copywriter to do it for you.

4. Pitch Your Post to the Target Websites

You’ll need to do more than just sending a plan to the first email you find on the website. Here are the things to consider:

• The right contact.
  There may be several emails and social media. Think about the person that is responsible for such decisions and choose the right contact. Ensure that you’re contacting them directly.
• Guest contribution guidelines.
  There should be guidelines for people who want to contribute a piece of content. Read them and cater to them to make sure it’s accepted. Some blogs like it when their publications are all in one tone, contain certain media, etc. Such an approach will increase your chances for approval.
• Catchy subject.
  Use the subject line to write something that would interest the content editor, to catch their attention. Make it not a marketing title but something personal for the recipient and clear. You can use templates, but customize them to every particular editor or website owner. Show them the benefits of cooperating with you.

5. Monitor the Changes

Analyze the campaign and see how many websites have replied and agreed to work with you. If the results are frustrating, analyze the approach. What messages did you use? Where could you make a mistake? You can fix them next time and achieve better results.

If you’re satisfied with the number of accepted guest posts, analyze the benefits they bring:

• Monitor traffic to see how many people visit the site from a particular website;
• Monitor backlink portfolio for positive dynamics;
• Monitor search results to see how you rank;
• Monitor conversion rates and overall activity on your site.

Of course, you won’t see the results in a day. Besides, there are more things than submitting guest content that impacts how your business site does. But this technique contributes a lot to establishing your authority.

A Summary

These are essential steps every beginner should do to harness guest posting. This approach has helped millions of pages get more traffic and rank higher. It can achieve many more goals and should be in the arsenal of every marketing and/or SEO specialist.

If you can, write the posts yourself, putting all your knowledge and expertise there. If not, remember that there are professional services that hire copywriters to create incredible pieces based on the information and requirements you provide.