Directly Selling Guest Posts

Home » Directly Selling Guest Posts

Google Update Do’s and Don’ts: How to Navigate a Mission-Critical Algorithm Change

Chiqui P April 22, 2024

Google Update Do’s and Don’ts: How to Navigate a Mission-Critical Algorithm Change Google algorithm updates

How Long Does it Take for Links to Index?

Chiqui P April 22, 2024

How Long Does it Take for Links to Index? You want your backlinks to start

When to Disavow Links (Because Not All Links are Good Links)

Chiqui P April 18, 2024

When to Disavow Links (Because Not All Links are Good Links) Knowing when to disavow

Did you know that 49% of marketers believe that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel?

It’s no wonder why companies are focusing a huge chunk of their resources on building their SEO. And if you’ve ever been anywhere near the industry, you’ve probably heard that “Content is King.”

Search engines have constantly stated that creating high-quality content is the best way to rank for keywords as well as create positive user experiences. Because of this, high-profile blogs are always looking for guest posts — which can be a lucrative source of income for those looking to sell them.

Guest blogging might be an easy task for a large, established company, but how can you achieve the same results with your business? Here’s our guide on how to directly sell guest posts with your business.

What Is a Guest Post?

Guest posts are simply the act of writing content for another company’s website.

There are several benefits for both parties in a guest post. For the business receiving the guest post, they get great, focused content for the niche that they write for. They can also provide new content with fresh perspectives to their audience, keeping them engaged.

For the business, blogger, or writer providing the guest post, their business benefits by:

In short, guest posting is a fantastic two-way street that benefits both parties. It’s also considered a white hat strategy for boosting your SEO credibility, as well.

Where Can I Send Guest Posts?

There are a surprising amount of websites that are not only willing to accept guest posts but to pay for them as well. Here are several great places to start looking:

Look For Niche Blogs

Although you won’t get the best rates from these blogs, if your website is closely relevant to the content of their site, you’ll be able to get a higher conversion rate of people coming over to your blog or website.

Pitch High Profile Blog Editors

Big-name, industry-leading websites are often the ones that will pay the best rates for guest posts. But they’re most likely filled to the brim with pitches and have editorial calendars that stretch for months.

It can be tricky to get a post accepted for them, but if you do, it can be very lucrative and worthwhile. If you want to get accepted by one of these sites, make sure you work on your pitching skills first.

Sell Customized Content

If you’re running a variety of blogs on a network or are just selling your services as a freelance writer, you can look for any niche to write content for without worrying about how relevant it is to your site. Find the best paydays and go for them!

Sell to Aggregators

A content aggregator is a person or organization that collects web content from different sources to reuse in other places. They might use content, blogs, news, and social media posts. Some content aggregators will pay for guest posts on their sites.

Sell Listicles

There are websites like ListVerse that pay pretty well for listicles. But you need to be able to write a valuable article that can hit the balance of value and clickbait to lead more people to your site.

How Do I Sell Guest Posts?

Once you’ve found a place that you’d like to guest post for, it’s going to take a few steps to convince them to accept you. Reaching out to bloggers and websites is an art that takes practice. You’re selling them on why your content would be perfect for their website.

The exact situation and process may vary depending on the site, industry, or niche, but here are a few tips that can help get you started.

1. Build Relationships

The best way to get “on the inside” of great websites that want guest posts is to build relationships with bloggers and other professionals in your industry. The more you expand your network, the easier it will be to find content opportunities.

2. Read the Rules

Most sites that accept pitches or guest posts will have their own specific guidelines. Make sure you craft your pitch to their exact specifications. Otherwise, your email might get passed over.

3. Do Your Research

This will often be one of the top rules” on a site that accepts guest pitches. Make sure to research their website and audience carefully! They want to avoid writers who just mass-pitch to hundreds of websites.

Make sure to learn about their audience, the type of content they like, and how your skills can benefit their site. By doing this, you’ll be able to craft a more personalized pitch that highlights both what they want as well as your strengths.

4. Find the Right Time to Pitch

Although you don’t need to pitch at these times to get accepted, it can definitely help. These times can increase your chances of getting accepted:

These all show signals that they are open to guest posting. It can be a huge icebreaker when cold emailing them your introduction.

5. Sell Yourself

If you’ve done proper research, selling yourself shouldn’t be too hard. After seeing past content that has done well for the business, let them know how you can meet those metrics or even improve on what they’ve done before.

Demonstrate your knowledge and how it will benefit them.

6. Make It Personal

Let’s face it. Cold emailing is one of the hardest forms of communication when you don’t have a relationship with the person you’re talking to — and you can’t do it face to face.

Even if you don’t know who you’re talking to, make it as personal as possible. Do your research to see if you have anything in common (same university or previous employer, etc.).

Find a way to make your cold email stand out from the rest.

How Do You Write a Guest Post?

If you’re already a blogger or writer who writes content for your own website, guest blogging isn’t very different. There’s a similar process you’ll follow, but here are a few tips to writing the most effective guest posts for other websites.

1. Focus On Their Audience

Don’t forget who you’re writing for. Even if your blog is in a similar niche, you might be writing to different demographics.

Make sure you do your research on the site’s target audience. You can do this by looking at comments on previous articles as well as social media shares. Make sure to reach out to your contact at the website for more information too!

2. Align With the Brand’s Style

Although you’ll probably be welcome to use your own voice, you’ll also need to adapt to the style of the site you’re writing for. Go through their articles to get a feel for their tone and message. Doing this will help you write a more effective piece, and will also help you avoid multiple revisions.

3. Check the Style Guide

Several websites, especially bigger companies, might have their own style guide with specific instructions on how to write your posts. These will include notes like:

Make sure to follow their directions carefully and ask if you have any questions. If they don’t provide one, go through past articles and see how they were structured.

4. Create Actionable Content

The best content is valuable to readers that help them do something in the real world. Inform them, teach them, and show them how to apply it to their life. This will provide value to them and have them coming back for more.

5. Don’t Make It All About You

Although you’re the one writing the guest post, it shouldn’t just be a write-up on your life and business. Most likely the article is not just a sales pitch for your business. Build credibility by providing value for the reader.

The value of content marketing comes from the fact that the pieces people are reading don’t feel like advertising. Plant the seeds by providing as much value as possible, and the rewards will come later.

6. Create Your Byline

The byline is the section where you can talk about yourself, your business, and your accomplishments. You will usually be asked to write a short bio to attach to the article.

Make it short, sweet, and effective. Tell people who you are, why you’re credible, and where they can find your business or content.

7. Include Internal Links

This might be something that the business asks you to do in their style guide. Including internal links to other pages on their website helps boost their SEO, which can help with their backlinking structure and organic reach.

8. Send It In

After you finish, make sure you’ve carefully gone through your article and edited it thoroughly according to their style guide and directions. Attach your byline, images, links, and any other materials they might need. Make sure everything is the right file type and that your links are working properly.

Doing everything professionally the first time will leave a great impression and will not only save time but could lead to more requests for guest posts.

Does Guest Posting Still Work?

Yes — guest posting is not only a great way to make money, establish your brand name, and expand your network, but it is still a great strategy for SEO as well.

By understanding the target audience and the content their looking for, you can get the most out of your guest posts.

When it comes to SEO, here are some metrics to keep in mind that will affect how powerful the guest post’s backlink will be.

Domain Rating (DR)

Domain Rating (DR) shows the strength of a particular website’s backlink profile compared to others on a 100-point scale. The higher their DR is, the more “link juice” gets transferred between domains that are linked together.

Domain Authority (DA)

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engines compared to its competitors.

Organic Traffic

This refers to the number of website visitors that find the site through SERPs or other unpaid forms of advertising, like content promotion or social media.

How Much Should I Charge For a Guest Post?

There are several factors that come into play when deciding how much to charge for a guest post. This includes:

Make sure to research what other guest posters are making in your field to get an idea of what to price for your services.

Key Takeaways

Writing guest posts is an incredibly effective way to help your business.

If you can commit your time and resources to writing great content, you’ll be able to increase brand awareness, expand your network, generate more traffic to your site, make your site more SEO-friendly, and most importantly, make money.

If you’re looking for a great SEO tool that can help you skyrocket your website’s SEO, book a call for a free strategy session for your business today!