Identifying a Guest Post Opportunity

And while you could simply plug into Google “guest post blogs,” (and that would work  – to a certain extent), we’d rather see you be more successful and strategic with your plan. In fact, what if we told you about a series of categories of sites that typically accept guest posts so that you can narrow your search and find a place that is most likely to accept your submission? The path to publication may be easier than you think!

Go Niche

The best place to focus your search for a guest post opportunity is within your own niche.  Make a list of sites that are in your niche, or that offer content within your niche and check to see if they accept guest posts.  There are several benefits for staying within your field:

• You already know a lot about it, so you can speak with authority, and this comes through in your writing.
• Having posts published in your niche that aren’t on your own site builds your credibility even more for your audience.
• You are able to build relationships with other people in your niche and this is important for later posts when you need insight or quotes from another professional or influencer in the field.

Target a Company or Industry

Further to staying in your niche, you can also achieve this by reaching out to companies or industry sites that are within your field of expertise.  Visit a company website or the site of an industry professional and look for a blog component on their site.  From there, visit the blog and do a little bit of investigation:

• See what topics they regularly post about and what the style of the blog is. Do they mostly do how-tos? Is it largely list based?
• Check to see if it appears as if they have accepted guest posts previously, or if it is all written by members of the company.
• Use this information to select an appropriate topic and then offer it to the company, being sure to give evidence of your authority and credibility when you send your request.

Make it Newsworthy

Most of the time, there will be changes and growth happening in your niche and given that you already are an expert in your field, you are the perfect person to write about it! Submitting guest posts through a mainstream news publication is a great way to show that you are up to date on what is happening in your field, and that you are focused on continually educating yourself and growing and learning.  This looks good for prospective clients. The downfall to news sites submissions however, is that they are often time-sensitive, so if it doesn’t get accepted in time when you send it in (or gets rejected), it will likely be a dead post you can’t submit anywhere else.  Keep this in mind when you are choosing where best to send your posts.

Try Magazine Style

You have likely visited several sites that are of a magazine-type style, focused on a main theme, but covering lots of topics and subtopics.  Finding one of these sites within your niche can be very beneficial because it gives you more creative liberty in what you submit and can allow more opportunities for you to have your pitch accepted.

Do a Review

There is a final, select category of websites that present an opportunity for guest posting: review sites.  This is pretty self-explanatory, in that you submit to these sites when you are reviewing a product or service.  There are sites that are specifically dedicated to providing only reviews, but much of the time, the reviews are done on niche sites as part of the online content that is regularly published. For example, Outside Online regularly does gear reviews, and service-based websites may be happy to accept a testimonial style review based on your experiences with their service. If you are thinking about submitting to a site that is not solely filled with reviews, try the following:

• Find a site within your niche and check to make sure they have reviews as part of their online content.
• Prepare an outline of a review of a relevant product or service. Be aware that the negative or positive reflection in your view will be an important factor in whether your guest post is accepted.
• Reach out to the site to let them know that you would like to offer them a review that is relevant to their content or based on your experience with their service.

While guest posting can seem like a time-consuming process that requires a lot of work for a lot of rejections, narrowing your submission focus to a more strategic area is a great way to boost your chance of success.  If you are still not having much luck however, feel free to reach out to Article Writing Co.  We knew the right guest post opportunity, and can help you with some tips and pointers, or even write your pitches and posts!