Maggie Patterson

Are you ready to start guest posting?

Before you can really get going, you’ll need to channel your inner super spy so you can sleuth out some seriously sassy guest posting targets.

This is probably going to be one of the most time consuming phases of the guest posting process, but it will be well worth it.

Are you ready to get all bad ass like Sydney Bristow? (Yep, I was just waiting to drop in an Alias reference.)

Where Should I Guest Post?

A lot of marketing experts and blogging gurus will tell you to only go after “authority” sites with lots of traffic.  Solid advice because you totally want the maximum number of eyeballs on that post and driving traffic back to your site.

But it is also misleading, as you are often going to need to a certain level of credibility in your niche to be accepted to post on these sites. Not to mention, a smaller, highly focused site can go a long way to helping you reach customers in your sweet spot.

If you are just starting out and have never had a guest post published, focusing only on higher authority sites is likely going to be a recipe for frustration. Insert banging head against desk here.

Smart entrepreneurs like you don’t have time for that. You need to be making progress and building up a body of work for your “as seen on” page.

Start with some smaller, more targeted sites ones and then work on pitching the big kahunas.   This gives you time to learn the guest posting process and avoid rookie mistakes. I’m all for the stretch goal, but you don’t want to choke on your first big mission, right?

Already been guest posting for a while? This means you have published posts you can share when you are pitching, so look for targets where you can play a little bigger. Maybe a more general site in your area of expertise or even a higher tier business site.

Keeping Track of Opportunities

Before you jump in, you want to create a place to keep track of any and all opportunities you find. Create a spreadsheet and include details such as site address, contact, link, guidelines, page rank, Alexa rank, any story ideas you have and notes.

How Do I Find Guest Posting Opportunities?

There’s many ways to go about researching opportunities, but my favorite way to find guest post opportunities is to reverse engineer the process. Find top bloggers in your target market and go to their media pages and see where they have guest posted.   Check out where your competitors have been guest posting. By using this approach you’ll save yourself a lot of research as you’ll know most of those sites are open to guest posting.

Another sure-fire way to find them is Google. Use the main search and the blog search function and then topics you want to write about as your keywords.  Simple.

Try using a few different tactics to seek out your information such as:

• Questions – how to, why, what

• Tips – tips for, five easy steps for, three tips for, top 10

• Common Search Terms – use variations on common search terms people would use searching for information on this topic. For example, for guest blog posting, I may search for blogs focusing on PR, marketing, online marketing, blogging, search. Think of all the adjacent areas.

Also, you want to go back to your story ideas from the storytelling worksheet. Do you have an idea outside of your niche that you feel passionate about and want to pitch? Look for specific targets using your story ideas. Perhaps you want to write about tips for working moms, as most of your clients are busy moms.  So you’ll use search terms related to working moms like work/life balance, mom blogs, and more.

Next Steps: Determining Your Top Five

You’ve done all the hard work, so now you want to pick five of your targets that you’ll work on preparing pitches for.  The rest of the targets you can file and save for later as you don’t want to create a situation where you pitch 10 at once and spend two straight weeks writing guest posts. (Unless you have time for that, but I’m guessing you likely don’t as you have a business to run.)

Great research will help you feel much more confidence about the pitching process, so time spent before your start pitching is time well-spent.

There are probably a million and one reasons why you should be guest blog posting, many of which we had a heart to heart about in this post.

I’m willing to bet there’s a billion more reasons why you’ve not already started.  I totally get it. Many of them are legit like what on earth would I pitch? How do I pitch so I don’t become the object of a nasty tweet or even worse, blog post railing against bad pitching?

Totally legit. You want to go pro, so let’s lay some groundwork so you can get going already.

Start at the beginning – before you can pitch, before you can write a post, you need a story.  And not just one your mama wants to read.

It needs to connect with real trends, issues, fears, while not being the same old, same old.

Your story doesn’t need to be revolutionary. But it does need to offer something unique.

That’s why you actually need to do a bit of planning now before you get into the weeds of pitching and posting.

Pulling Your Story Together with Grace and Style  

When it comes to PR in general, this is where a freak out is most apt to occur. It’s totally natural and entirely expected.

Storytelling is a process.  That’s why corporations spend thousands and sometimes millions of dollars on things like strategic corporate messaging and brand strategy. These are some fancy terms for learning how to create and tell stories.

Stories are what people engage with and attach to. Powerful, powerful, stuff, which is why you can’t skip this step.

But let’s get back to reality where you aren’t spending a cool million to hammer out your story. Back here in reality, let’s work through what may have you close to the edge. (I have Grandmaster Flash rolling through my head at this moment. I wonder if I can use a funk/disco reference every blog post.)

Here’s the three most common freak outs along with some practicalities so you can tell a kickin’ story with grace and style:

Freak Out #1: I Have No Story

If this is your deal, we need to talk. Take a deep breath.

Go back to the beginning.

Questions to Ask:  Why did you start your business? What do you do? Who do you serve?

Work through those points and you’ll start to see your story taking shape. This should not be the whole story, but gives you some clues as to where you should be heading. Read on for more on how to build from there.

Freak Out #2: What Do You Mean It’s Not New or Unique?

Know you aren’t alone, because this is probably one of the most common ones when it comes to storytelling. As an entrepreneur, we live in a bubble where we live, breathe and literally eat our own brand and value.

The result is the possibility of being so far up our own, ahem, derrieres, that we don’t really know what is going on around us. We don’t realize that our most common stories are O.V.E.R.

As you map out your story, do some homework to make sure your big idea hasn’t already been done to death or so two years ago.   Google it and then Google it some more.

Does every story you tell need to be 100% new? Definitely not, but it should be unique in some way.

Questions to Ask: What’s your unique take on this? What makes this different? What do you do better than anyone else? And what do your customers tell you?

Freak Out #3: I Have Story Overload

This may seem like a “good” problem to have, but this is a challenge as when you have too many stories it can be a clear signl that your business or ideal customer is too broad. The key for story development for your guest posting is to have laser-like focus.

Questions to Ask: What specific niche or even sub niche do I focus on? What specific types of people are my ideal customer? Who are my clients today and what type of media do they consume? What ideas resonate with them?

Your goal here is to pick two or three specific areas to focus on or types of ideal customers.

Take the rest of your ideas and park the other ideas in the “later” category.  That will give you freedom to get super clear on what stories will be impactful and timely for your customers.

Preparing to Tell Your Story 

Storytelling may not come naturally to you, but know that the stronger your brand and clarity around what you  do, things will be so much easier.  At the end of this you should have some broad story angles along with some audiences determined.  Write them out. Save them so you have them ready for when you start writing pitches.

Trust me, you want to nail this piece down so that you are able to figure out your next step…where should I guest post?  The pain of nailing this all down now will help you save time later and make you into a star that much faster.

 

Oh guest posting. The object of much discussion and even more stress by many an entrepreneur.

Pretty much every online course I’ve taken in the last year covers guest posting as a must-do marketing tactic.

It’s on the radar in a big way. But, I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of fear when it comes to guest posting.

Fear of wasting time. Fear of doing it wrong. Fear of not being good enough.

Get over it. Guest posts are good for you and even better for your biz.

Time to get out of denial and get to work.  What’s the alternative?

Instead, you’ll toil inside your business and hope that people show up.  Hide out on your own blog and wait for the traffic.  Stay safe in your bubble.

Good luck with that.

Guest Posting Isn’t Some Jacked Up Scheme

Not convinced yet?  Then I want to share something with you.

Guest posting is not a crazy scheme that Internet marketers cooked up in some jacked up mastermind. It’s a legit tactic that PR people have been using for decades, even before the birth of the interwebs. Back in olden times we called them contributed articles, pitched them, wrote them, sent them off to magazine and waited months for them to be printed. (Oh PR olden days I do not miss you! That’s a post for another day.)

The Straight Goods: Why You NEED to do This

Guest posting is a strategy recommended over and over again because it bloody well works. Corporations have implemented  it as a key part of media relations programs.  It works, it serves many goals and is super cost effective.

Got a laptop? Got ideas? You are good to go with guest posting. It truly is that simple.

Here’s the lowdown on why you should be doing guest posts:

• reaching new prospects

• street cred/social proof

• building your list

• traffic to your site

• building reputation as an expert

• preparing you for mainstream media

• improving your writing skills

Should I go on?  Few marketing/PR tactics are going to deliver this much awareness and credibility with so little time or money invested.