Guest blogging is a great way to tap into an existing, engaged audience. But in order for this strategy to really produce great results, you need to do two things:
- Find potential guest blogging opportunities.
- Do your due diligence on these blogs to ensure they’re high quality (so that your name isn’t forever associated with a low-quality blog).
And that’s exactly what you’ll find out how to do in the two mini checklists below. Take a look…
Checklist 1: Finding guest blogging opportunities
Here’s how to find potential opportunities…
Ask your network if they know of any opportunities. You can message your colleagues directly, or post on social media to get a wider response.
Run a general Google search for a list of guest blogging opportunities in your niche. That’s right, sometimes people in your niche will simply compile lists, which shortcuts your research time. Example search: “list of dog blogs accepting guest articles.”
Run a specific Google search to uncover blogs that likely offer guest blogging opportunities. Simply search for your niche keyword (e.g., “dog training” or “gardening”) alongside the following words:
- Guest articles
- Guest blogging
- Submit article
- Article submissions
- Article submission guidelines
- Guest author
- How to submit an article
- Guest blogging guidelines
- Guest author guidelines
E.G., “Gardening submit article” (without the quotes).
TIP: Naturally, you can simply search for your niche keywords alongside the word “blog,” but not every blog will accept guest articles. In that case, you may still consider writing to the blog owner to propose a content swap.
Once you uncover potential blogs using these steps, then move onto the next step…
Checklist 2: Reviewing blogs for quality
Now let’s make sure that the prospective guest blogs on your list are high-quality sites where you’d be happy for your name and articles to appear. Go through these steps:
- Check the quality of the content. In other words, is the existing content all high-quality content? Is it well-written, well-researched, accurate, and engaging?
- Look for visitor interaction. This includes discussion on the blog itself, as well as likes, shares, and comments on social media. Be sure to actually read the comments to be sure it’s thoughtful interaction (versus spam).
- Research the blog owner and blog. Run the blog name and owner’s name through two Google searches. Walk away if you see a pattern of complaints or other red flags, as you don’t want your name or content to be associated with this person.
- Check that the blog has been around for a while. Unless you are certain that the blog owner is well-established in the niche, skip any new blogs. For example, you don’t want to guest blog on a one-month old blog that suddenly changes focus and lowers its quality next month.
Now let’s wrap things up…
Conclusion
So, there you have it – the two-step method for finding and reviewing guest blogging opportunities. Put these checklists to work for you ASAP, and you could have a big list of potential guest blogging opportunities before you head to bed tonight!