Ready to expand your reach into new worlds of readers with guest blogging? Here’s how…
A special welcome today to all those joining us from this weekend’s IBPA Publishing University in Salt Lake City, Utah. A great event with plenty of connecting – we hope this particular post on guest blogging wisdom will help lead each of you to ever more productive connections!
Guest blogging is a valuable strategy for any author/publisher marketing campaign and no matter where you are in your marketing process, it’s a step you can begin right this minute. Guest blogging extends your reach beyond your own website and social marketing efforts, plugging you into the websites and social marketing efforts of others.
You benefit from the exposure to new audiences; they benefit with new, original content for their sites. Everyone wins…
Finding guest post opportunities is easier than you might think. First, you probably already have a sense of where you’d like to blog. For example, if you’re a non-fiction author writing about cats, you may already know the top pet/animal blogs out there. If not, you need to search for them.
You can expand your search by using your keywords along with certain search terms regarding guest blog posts. In example, if you’re writing historical fiction, you can search that, or your time period, and add phrases about guest blogging.
Happily, there are sites dedicated to making finding blogs and guest posting opportunites even easier. The six sites below will offer you plenty of intel and opportunities for offering up and seeking guest blogging opportunities.
1. BloggerLinkUp.com
BloggerLinkUp is a service provided by Cathy Stucker and Special Interests Publishing. The purpose of the service is to help bloggers get exposure for their content and find content for their blogs. BloggerLinkUp provides the leads, the rest is up to you. You can list there whether you need a blog (WWW has found several blog posts through them) or when you have content to offer.
2. MyBlogGuest.com
Like the others, the process is pretty straightforward here. The author writes an article and shows it to the blogger. The blogger decides if the article fits his blog and if yes, publishes it on the site. (Optionally) The blogger and the author may arrange that the author promotes (i.e. shares) his post once it is published (and thus drives more traffic to the blogger’s site).
3. BlogDash.com
Bloggers choose to which kinds of opportunities they’re open to being pitched about. Brands find and connect with the right bloggers for their projects or campaigns. Blogdash is free for bloggers, and you can choose the kinds of opportunities that you’re open to being contacted about.
4. Guestr.com
On Guestr, blogs are listed by category, so it’s easy to connect with other specialty sites. You can post a website listing and have others pitch blog ideas to you or pitch a guest blog idea for someone else’s site.
5. Google Alerts
Finally, make sure you set up Google Alerts for your favorite relevant search terms. Paying attention to blog results that come in can lead you to potential blogging opportunities there, as well as be possible guest bloggers for your own site!
6. Alltop
Alltop displays all the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. They group these collections — “aggregations” — into individual web pages. It’s a great place to find the biggest, most influential bloggers reaching the audiences you want to reach. Hint: You’ll want to submit your own site here, too!
UPDATE: Another resource article you may enjoy: How to Use Guest Blogging to Promote Your Book that published on May 10, 2016.
Have you guest blogged or hosted guest blogs? Tell us how it’s contributed to your marketing strategy with your comment below. Have an idea for a guest post at Where Writers Win? Email info@writerswin.com
This is a fantastic and timely article. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Sandra! You’ll like today’s too on better blog headlines — that bit we all tend to forget… 🙂
I’ve done a lot of guest-posting and some hosting and it’s very effective for becoming known. Being a mystery writer I’m in a great community of writers and there are tons of blogs out there. If I see a post I like from a popular author, I make a note of the blog. I’ll be planning a blog tour later this year when book #2 comes out.
Excellent, Maggie – thank you for your insights!
Hi. Thanks for this post. I have been trying to get guest blog posts, and have had a couple “accepted.” Except that they (in a year) have not actually posted the posts, nor given me feed back like it’s not right for us or too long or whatever. Once followed up, months later, and asked for images, which they said they received and said it would be posted after the new year, but still hasn’t posted it. How do I get bloggers to live up to their promises, or am I just s.o.o.l.?
Thank you.
Hmmm… That’s a challenge and a question I’ve not heard before so going to throw it up to the group here, too. What sort of posts are you providing? Length? If you’d like to send me a sample, I can take a look, too! Let’s get to the bottom of this, Cassi. May be that the bloggers you’ll pitching have a LOT of goodies to post, or could be your content isn’t quite speaking to the reader…
Hi. Thanks! One was my birth story for Blooma, which they said they liked and asked for pictures and said “I’ll be scheduling this for after our blog re-launch on 12/1 – so stay tuned!
On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 11:22 AM, Blooma Blog wrote:
I love this, Cassi! Thank you so much – all of these are very helpful.”
The second is a post for big city moms – which i admit my post might have been a bit too deep for, but they sent this: “Hi Cassi,
Thanks for reaching out! I didn’t have anything specific in mind. Just parenting related issues that would resonate with our audience. No specific deadline or word count (although 500-700 words is great.) Just send my way with a headshot and bio when it’s finished.
Best,
Lauren Jimeson
Editor & Social Media Director
Big City Moms”
and then I never heard back. Previously, they had been very responsive.
I’ve also sent books to three bloggers who were supposed to give me a review, whom I never heard back from – it’s been 9 mos to a year.
Id love feedback if you want to read them. How do I send them to you?
Hmmm again – sounds like first one might have gotten lost in shuffle – yes, send my way at shari@writerswin.com and happy to take a look – Meanwhile are you seeking new avenues via mommyblogger.com and w/ Google Alerts?