Gone are the days when a product or idea was easily promoted and accepted by the target audience without any reproof. Now, everything marketed is put through a baptism by fire before putting it up for the audience’s consumption.
In the current age of technology and instant gratification, content is the king, and content developers hold the reins that control a product/idea’s reception. With people finding time to be a constraint, prefer to find and consume relevant content that is concise and organized as opposed to elaborate write-ups.
This is where blogs and bloggers come into the picture. Bloggers often create their space on the web and feed content that they feel is relevant for that space.
However, the traffic entering such a site may be limited due to a lack of exposure or irrelevant content.
Blogs and bloggers?
A blog is generally a small site or a weblog that is created by an individual or a small group of persons who wish to put out informal content on to the web. These sites are usually informal in terms of writing style, and content they carry is determined by their creators. Bloggers are the individuals who blog or write posts that are uploaded on the blogs.
Why opt for guest blogging?
Bloggers choose to guest blog for 5 main reasons. They are
To enhance the viewership of his/her blog.
To enhance the guest blogger’s personal brand.
To highlight credible and useful content.
To build relationships with other contemporaries in the blogging space.
To earn an income.
All reasons that lead a blogger to opt for guest blogging are seen to be lucrative and worth the effort; however, to start off as a guest blogger by gaining suitable opportunities can be very challenging. This article will discuss the different ways to find opportunities and also the steps that will help a blogger seal the guest blogging opportunities thus found.
Ways to find guest blogging opportunities
Social media:
Among the many ways to find guest blogging opportunities, social networking has proved itself to be the most effective.
Social media search: The best social networking method to find said opportunities is to search specific keywords on a social media search engine to fetch desired results. The keywords can be blogs for us, write for us, guest posts, and the like.
Facebook search: Facebook is a mini world wide web in itself. It has individual contacts in addition to FB forums, FB pages, FB communities, and FB groups, that can help guest blogging aspirants associate with other bloggers in order to find the said opportunities. Facebook is an informal social media platform where aspirants can pitch their proposals without any inhibitions. This is also a great place to find openings put up by bloggers who wish to utilize the services of a guest blogger. Either way, Facebook is a great place to network and gain desired results.
Twitter search: Aspirants can use Twitter’s search feature to comb out guest blogging opportunities as A-list bloggers use Twitter to alert followers when new content is uploaded on their blogs. Using the above-mentioned keywords in Twitter’s search box will fetch results that can be pursued.
Reach out: Bloggers are usually part of a circle(s) or group(s) of writers on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. One of the best ways to find guest blogging opportunities is to get in touch with social media contacts to seek the same.
Business networking platforms: Professional networking sites are as effective in finding said opportunities, if not more. Sites like LinkedIn, Simply Hired, Glassdoor, Indeed, and Xing, among others, have professionals who can be contacted to seek guest blogging opportunities. Jobs are also posted on such sites for aspirants to pursue.
Search for opportunities:
Search engines such as Google can be used to find guest blogging opportunities across the World Wide Web. The keywords mentioned above can be used to search on the search engines.
Leverage forums and communities:
Forums and communities formed by bloggers or aspirant’s area of interest is a good place to find guest blogging opportunities. Each blogger has an area of interest or a niche that stands out on their blog. Following groups that are keen about such topics can give the aspirant a chance to pitch for opportunity or can find one posted by a member.
Make most of Directories:
There are various blogger directories such as Blogged, Blog Catalog, Bigger Blogs, Blogflux, Technorati, and Alltop, which will give aspirants a great idea about the topics that are trending currently. Also, popular blogs that are categorized as A-listers can be contacted personally to check for guest blogging opportunities.
Leverage the power of interaction:
Aspirants can find blogs that offer guest blogging opportunities and can leave comments in the posts uploaded by such blogs. Also, aspirants can ask and respond to questions posted in the comments section showcasing his/her knowledge and writing skills on topics of interest. Additionally, bloggers can also leave links to their blogs towards the end of high-quality value-adding interaction, so as to redirect the traffic to his/her blog while gaining the attention of the A-list blogger.
Tech tools:
Aspirants can also make use of technological tools that can help them find opportunities, pitch for such an opportunity, as well as make their proposal stand out in a clutter. Tools such as BuzzStream Prospecting Module, Guest Crew, Guestr, and MyBlogGuest, among others, can be leveraged by aspirants to achieve their objective of bagging a guest blogging opportunity.
Learn from other guest bloggers:
It is a discreet move for aspirants to make a list of successful guest bloggers and learn from their strategies and experiences. Different guest bloggers follow different methods to gain opportunities to collaborate with other bloggers. Making a list of the guest bloggers itself will give the aspirants a list of opportunity providers as a by-product. These can be put together and worked on to gain insights that will eventually transform into desired opportunities.
In addition to following the above-stated steps, the aspirant must also focus on making his/her blog a valuable resource that the A-list blogger would want to associate with. If the aspirant succeeds in finding a guest blogging opportunity and fails to curate his/her own blog as a sales pitch collateral, all the other efforts will be rendered worthless.
The blog that needs to be pitched to the A-list blogger must be organized and structured in addition to being visually appealing upon the first view. The content must be aligned to strike a chord with the reviewers so as to make the pitch a feat. Before approaching the blogger to seek guest blogging opportunities, the aspirant must first make a list of A-list bloggers whose blog content must be serviceable by him/her. The inability to create a feasible list will only result in rejected proposals, which can be quite demotivating if it continues for a prolonged period of time.
How to prepare a proposal to be pitched to the guest blogging opportunity providers?
Once the guest blogging aspirants have a list of opportunity providers, they need to prepare an irresistible sales pitch to seal the deal at hand. Here are a few steps that can be followed to ensure success.
Aspirants must find rules and guidelines that the A-list bloggers may have put up for guest bloggers to follow.
The guest bloggers should share the blog content after they get a go-ahead from the opportunity provider. In some instances, popular blogs call for guest bloggers to share posts on specified topics. After a pool of posts is collected, the opportunity providers screen-out the best and upload it as a guest post on their blogs. It is important for aspirants to understand the dynamics of the blogging space to get this equation right.
Bloggers must ensure that their interaction with the opportunity provider is personalized and yet carries a tinge of professionalism in it. This interaction will determine if the opportunity provider will take the proposal through or not.
Aspirants must ensure that he/she shares the post idea clearly to the opportunity provider, which will help the latter in decision making.
Aspirants must ensure that the guest post content is more than what the blogger anticipates and must make sure to attach any plug-ins that may make the post stand out in the clutter of posts that the editor would have received.
Getting started off as a guest blogger can be a challenge. However, once the first guest blog is published, it tends to pave the way for further opportunities. Doing the groundwork to get the opportunity and following through by publishing a successful guest blog will help the guest blogger derive all the benefits that are mentioned earlier in the article.
Author Bio :- Rahul Som is a CEO and co-founder of Hopinfirst, one of the top Mobile App development Company which provide best iPhone app development and Android app development Services. Rahul is passionate about Startups, Technology and management and blogs frequently on the topics.