The classic expression out on the sea goes “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” People trying to find guest blogging opportunities are in a similar situation.
Sources for Guest Blogging Opportunities
If you’re struggling to find guest blogging opportunities at first, the first thing you want to do is try and look to your immediate network for support. Someone else in your niche or industry may know of a publication that covers your area of expertise. If this doesn’t work, though, don’t worry, as there are plenty of other options:
Open Submissions: This is probably the obvious option. Many sites have a section dedicated for instructions for submissions, but you’re probably going to have a lot of competition.
Source Requests: On platforms like HARO and Quora, people will specifically look for answers on questions from an expert. If journalists like your answers, they may see you as a potential future name for guest posts.
Cold Outreach: Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Not all publications have open submissions, but they may still use you if your pitch is a perfect fit.
With all of these, before you make a move, make sure you know the right person to contact. This is generally going to be an editor or someone in a similar role, so be sure to take down their email. Most people aren’t likely to forward a pitch if you email it to the wrong person, after all.
What Makes Good Guest Blogging Opportunities?
At this point, you probably have a pretty decent list of guest blogging opportunities. and people to contact. The next step is creating a shortlist out of that. Having been a featured guest poster himself, Brandon Andersen, Chief Strategist at Ceralytics, uses a basic rule of thumb when it comes to narrowing down opportunities.
“The first thing I look at is the site’s Domain Authority in Moz. If the site has good Domain Authority, it most likely has two things: 1) Decent traffic, so people will actually see my guest post. 2) Decent authority that will be passed back to my site via any links I include in the guest post. I also look to see what the publication’s social presence looks like. If they have tons of followers, I can sort of assume that they will get more traction to the post than a site with few followers. However, followers are easy to buy, so my go-to metric is Domain Authority.”
So, in a nutshell, what you want for guest blogging opportunities are publications and sites that match your niche, but also have plenty of authority in their own right.
When you’ve narrowed down the list, you’re probably ready for the part a lot of first-time guest posters are worried about, the pitching. Don’t worry, though, Powerful Outreach is here to help with our full guide on How To Get A Guest Post Anywhere. Learn how to create pitches that pop and posts that drive action and interest.
David is the Founder and Director of article-writing.co, the fastest-growing content creation agency in North America. He has transformed companies by offering high-quality content that has impacted their SEO ranking, revitalized websites with engaging and industry-relevant blogs and website copy, and championed successful email campaign copy.
