Important Lessons I've Learned About Guest Blogging

Since the very first time I said "I'm going to freelance," I've experimented with a lot of different idea pitching templates. Round one made me realize something: I write for a web audience therefore those books I have on freelancing for magazines use templates that don't necessarily work for my typical project. Although my first round of pitches did get the occasional bite, it took one or two rounds of experimentation to find a format that works for me.

The silver lining of my most recent slow period was the following: I forced myself to sit down and think for a bit about the practical side of the work I was doing. I also adapted a new pitch format, specifically designed for cold pitching a blog post that had quicker results. 

Guest blogging is great, and as a result I want to do a lot more of it over the long term, which is why this revelation was so important. It organically increases web traffic, and gets the word out there about whatever you have to offer. I would recommend it for both freelancers and various other small business owners. If you're either not that great at writing, you don't have a sufficient amount of time to write a guest blog post, or both, people like me (hint,hint) will happily write a blog post for you. 

So what is a guest blog post pitch and how is it different from other cold pitching formats? Glad you asked! Pitching a guest blog post to a publication, blogger, or company is a bit like applying for a regular job, because what you're really selling is both your writing abilities, and your expertise. Sometimes it leads to further blogging opportunities, and sometimes you write it, and you never work with the person you're writing for again, after the post goes live.

The way it works is simple:

• You come up with an idea, and if someone likes your idea, they give you guidelines and sometimes pay you (depending on who you're writing for)
• Once the blogger, publication, or company is done editing your work, they also feature a brief, about the author blurb, that also includes links to your social media accounts, website, blog, etc.
• If the subject matter is engaging enough the web traffic goes up on both the place where your guest blog post is being featured, and your website, blog, social media accounts, etc.

Now that we've talked a bit about what a guest blog post pitch actually is it's time for the fun part: the ingredients...

1) Research

The best way to get people's attention is to avoid the generic "to whom it may concern" style email. Read the blog in order to find out what they typically publish, and the right name and email. If you're having trouble figuring out who to address your pitch to find the contact page, reach out to the place you want to pitch something to, and tell them what your intention is and that you're wondering who you should speak to.

Places like LinkedIn are also great places to find out who works there, and find the right person, with the right job title. If you're cold pitching a company blog the communications or marketing specialists are the ones who are the most likely to be talking to bloggers directly.

Research is also important because what these places really want are bloggers on board who can prove they've done their homework, and understand what they're all about. All you need is a sentence or two that says something along the lines of:

"this would be a good fit for your site's audience because..."

0r...

"I read a blog entry on your site on...and it ties into what I want to write about because..."

2) Prove That You're The Perfect Blogger

Proving that you can write, and you've written something before is great and all, but you also have to prove you're the perfect writer for the post that you're interested in writing. There's tons of writers out there, and they could easily write about the same thing. Somewhere in your pitch there needs to be a sentence or two that explains why it should be you. Perhaps you have a personal experience with whatever you want to write about. Perhaps you teach classes on it. You might even have a day job that informs your interest in, and knowledge of whatever you're writing about.

3) Include Writing Samples

If you're reading this and you're new to writing don't fret! These writing samples can be anything. If you don't have any, there are tons of forums out there for you. Here are a few that I think are great kickstarters for beginners:

• Community and university newsletters
• New, independent writing initiatives and projects
• Medium Digest
• Wordpress, Blogger,Tumblr, and Weebly
• Student and community newspapers
• LinkedIn Pulse

Always remember that your writing samples are there to prove that you got what it takes, and can actually write coherently. 

4) A Point Form List That Explains The Flow Of The Post

The best part of including a point form list that summarizes the structure of your post is that you instantly impress the reader with the fact that you already have the entire blog post planned out.Guest blogging, like any freelance project is all about being able to get from point A to point Z without supervision. The point form list helps send a signal to the reader that you already have a solid plan, and helps them figure out whether or not your article is a good fit for their publication.

5) Proposed Headline And Call To Action

Suggesting a headline is also a great way to prove you have the whole thing planned out, as long as you make it clear that if they want to change the headline you're 100% okay with that.  The call to action is easy: you want to know if they're open to reading and publishing a draft of your post. That goes at the end of your pitch. This doesn't have to be complicated. A simple question will do, such as:

"What do you think? Should I write you a draft?"

6) Answer The Question: Why Is This Relevant?

If you have an idea for a guest blog post chances are someone else has written about it already. I know that's a bit disheartening but unfortunately it's also true.  There's also a chance that it might be a topic that's in the media a lot right now. Take a second to include a sentence or two that says something like:

I know this is something that's talked about a lot but here's why you need to publish my take on it right now...

And...

My perspective is different than everyone else's because...

If you include all of the ingredients above you'll increase your chances of getting the reader's attention, and inspiring them to take time, out of their busy day, to read your pitch. Unfortunately I can't guarantee acceptance but I can give you a pitch formula that actually gets read by others. I've tried this formula before and it's actually caused the number of acceptances that I typically get to increase.