In the last couple months I've gotten several emails from people asking me to write for their blog. I've ended up writing for some and not writing for others. What made the difference?
The four elements below were common in those emails that I responded to in the affirmative.
1. Be flattering
Praising the blogger is a great way to start out a guest post request email. All bloggers love to be told that they're doing a great job, right?
You should say something in your email about why you're asking the person to write for you. Is it because their writing style is great? Is it because their content is amazing? Is it because you're hungry for as many words as possible from that blogger?
You don't need to lie or pile it on too deep, but just be honest and I guarantee the blogger's attention will have been piqued enough that he/she will keep reading your email.
2. Explain the benefits
Now that you've got the blogger's attention, your job is to convince him/her to blog for you. I mean, if I spend the time writing content for your blog, I want to know it will be worth my time, right? I've found that cold, hard stats are the single best way to convince someone.
Do you have X number of visitors, subscribers, followers, or friends? Do you have a high pagerank site that will give me a valuable backlink? Do you get a certain number of comments, shares, or retweets on each post? Let the blogger hear those numbers! They're still the best way to convince and sell.
3. Be specific about the topic you want written
There is one blogger who emails me every week or two and asks me to give him a few paragraphs about my thoughts on a particular subject. This blogger doesn't have a huge following, but I honor every request. Why? Because he asks me very specific questions and it takes me all of 10 or 15 minutes to write my responses.
One of the hardest parts of writing for someone else's blog is coming up with something to say. If you say, "I would like you to write 500 words on how you made your first $100 online," that instantly frees up a significant amount of the time and energy the blogger needs to spend on writing for you.
4. Make it as easy as possible
This continues the thought from tip #3 above. The less time the blogger has to spend and the easier it is to submit a guest post, the greater the chances of that blogger writing for you.
Ideally, all the blogger has to do is send you his/her content and you do everything else. You would find appropriate links and photos and do all of the formatting.
If you'd like the blogger to do a bit more than that, be specific and tell them exactly what they need to do. I got a great email from Ruud, the editor of the blog here at Search Engine People, that told me exactly what he wanted me to do. He had screenshots of how to log in to post my article and how to add my author bio. This streamlined the process and made it quick and easy for me to submit this post.
Your turn!
By reading this post you have entered into a binding unwritten contract to try what I wrote about here.
Ok, while that may or may not be entirely true, but you should still do it anyway. Having someone else write for your blog is mutually beneficial; you get free content that you didn't have to produce, and the guest writer gets exposure to your audience. But you can increase the chances of someone agreeing to write for you if you follow the above-mentioned four points.
What do you have to say on the subject?
- Have you ever written and asked someone to guest post for your blog?
- Have you ever guest posted for someone else's blog?
- Have you ever been asked to write for someone else's blog? Did you accept? Why or why not?
I read and respond to every comment I get on any of my posts, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got to say!
* Leader images with work by Werwin15, Shavar Ross
