All the things You Must Know

Not solely is visitor running a blog properly and alive, it’s nonetheless extremely efficient. On this publish, you’ll study all the things it’s good to learn about visitor running a blog. 

However first, let’s be certain we’re on the identical web page.

Visitor running a blog is the follow of writing and publishing a weblog publish on one other individual’s or firm’s web site.

For instance, I wrote a visitor publish for Develop & Convert a number of years in the past:

Visitor running a blog is a win-win for each the author and the writer.

Advantages for the author:

• Construct hyperlinks again to their web site
• Develop relationships with editors and publishers
• Expose their model to a brand new viewers
• Construct their status and place themselves as a thought chief

Profit for the writer:

• Leverage the experience and expertise of writers. For instance, we couldn’t have written about Zapier or Pet Eager’s firsthand search engine marketing expertise with out visitor writers.

Getting your first visitor publish revealed will be daunting. I’ve been there. Following the steps beneath will make the method simpler and maximize your probabilities of success.

1. Discover visitor running a blog alternatives

Most individuals use Google search operators to seek out blogs with “write for us” pages. Nonetheless, if everybody’s following this tactic, then everybody’s discovering the identical alternatives. Competitors can be rife, and publishers could ignore your pitch. 

You don’t must restrict your self to this small pool of blogs. Even when they don’t promote it, most blogs can be pleased to publish a visitor publish so long as it’s good.

So right here’s find out how to discover related blogs to pitch:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content material Explorer
2. Enter a broad key phrase or phrase associated to your area of interest
3. Choose In title from the drop-down menu
4. Run the search

Right here, you possibly can see greater than 2 million potential alternatives. That’s too many, so let’s slim the listing down by making use of these filters:

1. Area Ranking (DR) from 30 to 60
2. Click on the One web page per area filter
3. Click on the Exclude homepages filter
4. Click on the Exclude subdomains filter

Then click on on the Web sites tab. 

These are the potential web sites you possibly can pitch.

2. Develop visitor publish concepts

The blogs you pitch will need successful content material concepts. So how will you provide you with good visitor publish concepts? 

Listed below are some methods you possibly can use:

Copycat Approach

Three issues are true:

1. Each weblog desires extra search visitors.
2. To get search visitors, it’s good to goal matters individuals are looking for.
3. Each weblog has extra matters to jot down than sources to cowl them.

So why not assist your goal blogs out? Discover matters they need to be rating for and pitch them these matters.

Right here’s find out how to discover them:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Aggressive Evaluation software
2. Enter the area of your goal weblog within the Goal part
3. Add the primary three steered competing domains within the Opponents part
4. Click on Examine

This report reveals you the key phrases the competing domains are rating for, however your goal weblog isn’t. 

Undergo the report and search for key phrases which are related to your goal weblog. For instance, this looks like a possible matter to pitch:

Refresh Approach

Refreshing outdated content material can present an enormous visitors increase, as seen once we up to date our publish about free search engine marketing instruments:

Your goal weblog will doubtless have outdated content material that has declined in search visitors. Pitch them an replace.

Right here’s find out how to discover pages with declining visitors:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Website Explorer
2. Enter the area of your goal weblog
3. Go to the Prime pages report
4. Set the Examine filter to Earlier 12 months
5. Kind the Visitors change column from lowest to highest

This can present you pages in your goal weblog which have the biggest decline in search visitors for the reason that earlier 12 months. Undergo the report and look out for appropriate matters, particularly these with declines in visitors and key phrase positions.

For instance, SmartBlogger’s publish on membership websites has dropped in each key phrase positions and search visitors:

When you have been writing for SmartBlogger, this might be an excellent matter to pitch.

Robin Hood Approach

Fashionable blogs are standard for one purpose: They’ve nice content material. Lesser-known blogs are lesser-known for the alternative purpose: They’ve but to publish tons of nice content material.

So why not take content material concepts from the highest blogs and provide them to lesser-known ones? 

We name this the Robin Hood Approach, named after the English people hero who stole from the wealthy and gave to the poor.

Right here’s find out how to execute the Robin Hood Approach:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Website Explorer
2. Enter the area of a high-DR weblog in your area of interest
3. Go to the Prime pages report
4. Toggle SERP titles on

Look by the report and see if there’s any concept that resonates. Put a novel spin and pitch it to a lesser-known weblog.

For instance, when you’re writing for a private finance weblog, this looks like an excellent matter to be impressed by:

A possible thought to pitch will be “free (or low cost) issues to do on a date.”

Splintering Approach

Our hyperlink constructing information is so complete it spans 5 chapters:

Every chapter could possibly be a publish on its personal. 

So we will break this publish into “splinters” and create standalone articles. Every of those splintered articles will be pitched as a visitor publish.

Since we already did the analysis by creating the unique piece, the “splintered” articles would doubtless not take a lot time to write. 

Perspective Approach

You may simply reuse a subject by switching up the angle. 

For instance, let’s say we wrote a visitor publish titled “Finest Distant Jobs for College students.” We will cowl the identical matter for various publications by way of a number of views:

3. Pitch the blogs

This step is each the simplest and probably the most nerve-wracking. It’s straightforward as a result of it’s merely an electronic mail you ship. It’s nerve-wracking as a result of your destiny is within the different occasion’s palms.

It doesn’t must be that anxiety-inducing, although. Listed below are some suggestions to enhance your probabilities of getting your pitch accepted:

Learn the rules

If the positioning you’re pitching has a “write for us” web page or writing tips, learn and comply with them. For instance, that is what CoSchedule expects:

Discover the right electronic mail

If the publication has a “write for us” web page, then it’s doubtless it’ll present both an electronic mail deal with or a type. 

In any other case, you’ll want to seek out it.

Publications and blogs are usually managed by a managing editor, head of content material or, in the event that they’re a small web site, the proprietor themself. So that you need to first be sure you determine who that individual is. 

You may normally discover them by visiting the “groups” or “about” web page. For instance, a fast scroll on our “workforce” web page reveals you must pitch to our head of content material, Joshua Hardwick:

If the “workforce” web page is uninformative, then a search on LinkedIn or Twitter normally suffices.

When you’ve recognized that individual, use an electronic mail discovery software like Hunter to seek out their electronic mail. Add their title and web site, and Hunter will do its magic:

Write an incredible outreach electronic mail

A number of years in the past, I wrote a visitor publish for Develop & Convert. Benji Hyam, the co-founder, was so impressed with my outreach electronic mail that he did an evaluation.

Publications get quite a bit of emails. You must stand out; in any other case, your electronic mail can be ignored.

About to publish the first visitor publish on our web site since March 2016. Within the final 1.5yrs we’ve had 100s of company posts requests & 1 good pitch.

— Benji Hyam (@benjihyam) November 7, 2017

Reasonably than search for a template which you could copy-paste, you need to perceive the ideas behind what makes an excellent outreach electronic mail.

You may take a look at Benji’s evaluation of my electronic mail to see what publications predict. You’d additionally do properly to learn the publish beneath and comply with the ideas it lays out.

4. Write the visitor publish

In case your pitch is accepted, then it’s time to write.

I like to recommend beginning first with the define. Some websites could request this. However even when they don’t, a top level view will assist flesh out your ideas, set up the publish, and forestall clean web page syndrome. 

To create a top level view, it’s good to know what subtopics to cowl. The simplest strategy to discover these subtopics is to have a look at the widespread key phrase rankings amongst top-ranking pages and eyeball the listing for subtopics.

Right here’s how:

1. Enter your goal key phrase into Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer
2. Scroll all the way down to the SERP overview
3. Choose the top-ranking pages you need to analyze
4. Click on Open in and select Content material hole

For instance, if we analyze the subject “internet online affiliate marketing,” we’ll see that the top-ranking pages additionally rank for:

• what’s internet online affiliate marketing
• find out how to develop into an affiliate marketer
• find out how to do internet online affiliate marketing

These would make good H2s for a weblog publish on “internet online affiliate marketing.”

When you’ve created your define, all that’s left is to fill within the “gaps,” i.e., write the precise publish. If they’ve one, be sure you return to the rules, learn it fastidiously, and comply with it to a T.

The place related, don’t neglect to incorporate hyperlinks again to your personal content material. Don’t overdo it, although; one to 2 hyperlinks ought to suffice.

5. Promote your visitor publish

It is best to count on some back-and-forth because the writer edits and sends suggestions about your draft. As soon as they’re happy, they’ll inform you of a publishing date.

Don’t simply disappear when the publish is revealed. Comply with up! Thank the editor. And if there’s a remark part, keep round and reply.

Assist promote the publish by sharing it on social media too:

You may even go the additional mile by selling the publish in related communities. In my case, Benji did it for me by submitting it to GrowthHackers. However I stayed round to reply feedback.

It was doubtless the explanation why it obtained a lot engagement:

It was even the #2 publish in that 12 months’s year-end roundup: 

All the things above will get you 90% of the way in which. However visitor running a blog shouldn’t be a mattress of roses. So I’m sharing the information beneath that can assist you overcome a few of the widespread roadblocks.

1. Pitch extra blogs than you possibly can deal with

The merciless actuality of visitor running a blog is that even when they’re good, your emails will be rejected or ignored. That’s no fault of yours—publications are simply too busy.

So right here’s a controversial tip: pitch the identical matters to a number of blogs. Then provide the article to whoever replies first or has the next authority (when you get a lot of replies).

This fashion, you’re by no means missing for visitor posts. You received’t even must be anxious about rejection, for there can be one other weblog prepared to just accept your concepts.

When you get multiple reply, merely inform the reality:

Sorry, you weren’t responding for a number of days, so one other weblog took this concept. I’ll be in contact with extra article concepts that’ll be simply as good.

2. Write for blogs which have by no means linked to you earlier than

Our research of 1 billion pages reveals a robust correlation between natural visitors and the variety of backlinks from distinctive web sites (referring domains).

That could be one purpose why you need to write for blogs which have by no means linked to you earlier than.

To seek out distinctive web sites, hit the Spotlight unlinked dropdown and add your web site as you’re following step #1:

These instruments will make your visitor running a blog course of extra environment friendly:

1. Ahrefs – Analysis visitor publish alternatives, discover content material gaps to pitch blogs, construct your outlines, verify backlinks from visitor posts, and observe your visitor publish rankings.
2. Hunter – Discover the e-mail addresses of web site homeowners and editors.
3. Pitchbox – Ship outreach emails at scale.
4. Ahrefs’ free AI writing instruments – Generate outlines, titles, and proofread your drafts.
5. ChatGPT – Generate visitor publish concepts, create outlines, flesh out posts, proofread your work, and extra.

Listed below are some incessantly requested questions on visitor running a blog:

How does visitor running a blog assist search engine marketing?

Hyperlinks are an necessary Google rating issue. By writing a visitor publish, you possibly can construct hyperlinks again to your pages and, due to this fact, increase their efficiency in search engines like google.

Is visitor running a blog unhealthy for search engine marketing?

In 2014, Google’s former head of internet spam, Matt Cutts, revealed a weblog publish proclaiming that “visitor running a blog is completed.” Nonetheless, he was primarily referring to low-quality visitor running a blog revealed on low-quality websites for hyperlinks. 

Writing a priceless weblog publish for a longtime web site with a related viewers will nonetheless assist your search engine marketing and is unlikely to harm it.

Can I get referral visitors from visitor running a blog?

A number of years in the past, our chief advertising officer, Tim Soulo, requested 500+ bloggers how a lot visitors they obtained from their visitor articles.

The typical referral visitors throughout 239 visitor articles was solely 50 visits.

So sure, you will get referral visitors from visitor running a blog—however don’t set your expectations too excessive.

Closing ideas

This information comprises all the things our workforce has realized about visitor running a blog over the previous few years. I hope it’ll assist take your expertise to a brand new stage. 

Did I miss out on something? Let me know on Twitter or Threads.