Blogging is like Coca-Cola. To reach more people, Coca-Cola needs to use other platforms to access customers. Similarly, guest blogging helps generate leads for your content.
You can rely on your current network or tap into larger audiences to reach potential customers who are unaware of your company. Great content and strategic distribution can connect you with millions of subscribers and fans.
Maybe you’re thinking guest posting is a minefield, a waste of time — or just something you can’t do. Well, after some detailed research, we found some case studies with very positive results.
The startup that acquired 100,000 users through an aggressive guest posting strategy, or the man who gained 1,000 email subscribers from a single guest post.
So here’s our complete guide to Guest Blogging: Who to approach, how to approach them, and how to maximize your leads and results if they say yes. But before we start getting into the benefit of guest blogging, you need to realize:
Guest posting requires a significant amount of time and effort to create content that is suitable for another blog. It involves outreach and optimizing your outcomes.
No need to be famous, even unknown writers can have columns in top online magazines. Start from the bottom and work your way up to prestigious publications like Wired. Success awaits those who persevere.
Discover how startups have grown through guest posting and other writing opportunities. Read on for successful case studies.
100,000 Signups To An SAAS Business By Guest Blogging
Buffer’s Leo Wildrich attributes 100,000 signups to guest blogging for 9 months. Leo utilized tools like BloggerLinkup to find platforms seeking excellent content. With over 800 posts and vast experience, Leo can create high-quality, 800-word posts in just a couple of hours, generating significant website traffic.
Writing online for Fast Company, he is well-versed in the intricacies of his metrics and the projected subscriber count for a specific website.
“[Since we] have a 2% conversion from free to pay, that means we get two people paying. What do two people paying to mean? Well, we have a lifetime value per user of roughly $250. So that means every article we write equals $500.”
—Leo Wildrich
Buffer’s success lies in their ability to generate $500 by writing a certain number of quality words for a specific website. They have become a content leader by consistently producing high-quality content, showcasing the foundation Leo established. Buffer serves as a prime example of the benefits derived from guest blogging.
Generate 36,733 Email Subscribers Using Guest Blogging
Gregory Ciotti successfully used his blog to attract users for HelpScout, gaining an impressive 9,000 subscribers in just 9 weeks and a total of 36,733 email subscribers. His suggestions were as follows:
- Ensure you have a solid CTA (more on these later)
- Choose the right subjects through solid research — Repurpose existing content to avoid ‘burnout’
One Guest Post — 700 Visitors In One Day And One Client
Chris Street regularly writes and was impressed with a post he published on SocialMediaToday.com. In addition to numerous shares, Chris received 700 website visitors in a single day from the post, resulting in a new client on a 6-month retainer.
Chris achieved an impressive result in just a few hours by selecting Social Media Today as the right medium, which receives 1 million monthly views.
Over 30,000 Hits From 5 Guest Posts
GrooveHQ produces an excellent weekly blog detailing its exceptional growth journey (currently aiming for £100,000 monthly revenue). Alex frequently shares candid and enlightening insights about the company’s progress on his blog. His guest posting outcomes were remarkably impressive.
Groove approached popular blogs such as Buffer, Kissmetrics, Onstartup, Shopify, and angelhacks, with a combined audience of over 1 million. Later, we will discuss Buffer’s outreach strategy and how they benefit from guest blogging.
Hundreds Of Visitors Every Month From An Old Guest Post
Peep Laja’s Conversion XL blog, known for its quality content backed by data and research, receives over 100,000 monthly visits. Guest posts on OkDork, Smashing magazine, Censtationgirl, and Funnelexperts.com contribute significantly to its traffic. An older article in Smashing Magazine also continues to drive hundreds of visits monthly.
‘Guest posts are essentially high-quality advertisements. If you want readers to check out your blog and start following your stuff, you need an epic guest post. Writing epic posts is of course hard work, which is why you should avoid writing for small blogs. The ROI is going to be much smaller if you do that, not worth it.’
— Peep Laja
444 Visits From A Guest Post
Brian Dean is a top traffic generation expert. In a Quicksprout video, he reveals that he received 444 visits from a guest post, resulting in 71 subscribers.
Brian’s a fairly high-profile guy and always writes very high-quality content.
Quicksprout attracts over 500,000 monthly visitors, which makes it an excellent platform for exposure. We are surprised that the number of referrals is not higher, but we attribute this to Brian’s failure to implement any of the remarkable ‘expanded guest post’ techniques (listed below).
One Guest Post For 1,000 Subscribers
Nathan Barry is a highly productive author who creates beautiful and valuable books on multiple topics. He frequently contributes as a guest writer to various websites, with one of his most successful guest posts being for Smashing Magazine.
It generated over 1,000 subscribers for his email list (his primary source for generating sales)
Hundreds Of New Signups From Every Guest Post
David Arnoux is a co-founder of Twoodo – a SAAS tool that enhances teamwork. In a blog post, David shared his successes and failures with guest blogging. While he hasn’t always experienced the advantages of guest blogging, he has gained valuable insights from his experiences.
After some initial errors, they began regularly publishing guest posts and eventually got the chance to write for The Next Web. Their dedication paid off as each post on The Next Web consistently generates 3,000 website hits, along with approximately 100 trial subscribers per post.
David has a similar approach to most — encouraging well-thought-out approaches and research. The team at Twoodo mapped out their ‘customer’ personas to the sites they thought about writing for:
Lessons learned, in David’s words:
“Our major lesson was that “content is king” is for those who have established authorities on subjects. To maximize our visibility in search results, we also started to apply better SEO tactics, but without ruining the content.”
— David Arnoux
Building relationships takes time and consistency, with no shortcuts. Accept that there will be hits and misses in the beginning. Decide if you’ll write one article for multiple blogs or contribute regularly to a few. Track metrics to identify the most conversions.
You need to decide what goes on your blog and what gets placed on other blogs — does the best stay or go? It’s worth the effort.
Generate 1,038 Website Visits In 2 Months
Coschedule created an extensive guide on guest blogging. Greg Digneo analyzed his 25 key lessons from guest blogging — and discovered that one of them is to write for sites with a high comment-to-share ratio.
Greg has significant referral sources like Kissmetrics and Social Media Examiner on his list. However, he emphasized that Boost Blog Traffic drives the most traffic due to its highly engaged audience and numerous comments per article. This highlights the importance of writing for both well-known and smaller online platforms.
Even some of the biggest brands online syndicate and author guest content on other sites — they know the true value of reaching another medium’s readership.
Getting Started — Finding Places To Guest Post
Before you can ever see the benefit of guest blogging, you need to find websites to accept your posts.
- Greg from Coschedule recommends using Twitter’s advanced search:
In the “All of these words” field, enter the niche that you want to write for. In the “This exact phrase” field, enter the words “write for us” - Use a variety of google searches to find great places to blog.
Brian Dean provides a comprehensive list of ways to find guest posts. - Engage with those who comment on your current articles — see if you can write for them or on their site.
- David from Twoodo recommends using the following resources to find guest posting — you’ll find those that have an engaged audience, but might be an easier target for guest posting.
If you find 50 sites to guest post on, you certainly can’t be sure all of them will give you any decent leads or links. This is why it’s important to filter. Brian from Backlinko recommends filtering the sites as follows.
Run through each one and note if the following apply:
- Does the site have an authoritative link profile
- Is the content related to your site
- Does the site only post high-quality content
- Does the site have a real following
- Can it bring you targeted traffic (use Alexa to find out their traffic rank)
- Make sure they won’t bury your link in an author bio area far below your content
- Ensure they have a significant amount of Twitter followers and Facebook fans
Relevancy Is Better That Traffic
Appearing on Huffington Post is good for exposure, but Neil Patel advises guest blogging on relevant websites with a laser-targeted audience for better results. He has found success on Moz.com, where there are many engaged readers interested in the same subject.
How To Decide What To Post
Deciding on what to post can mean n the difference between a lukewarm reception and a guest post that drives a significant amount of traffic and leads to your business. So how do you ensure what you are writing will resonate with the audience?
Let’s see what the experienced bloggers have to say:
Gregory Ciotti
Focus on the two most important types of articles when guest blogging. This will allow the maximum benefit.
Work out which posts are highly mentioned. Use a tool like Open Site Explorer to see which pages on the site have the most links:
- Go to Open Site Explorer
- Enter the domain Click on ‘Top pages’
- You’ll see what pages are highly shared and linked to.
Find out what the author pushes. A lot of bloggers or places will have their best / most popular content in the sidebar — take advantage of this.
If you know a site’s most shared and linked content — you can plan articles around the subject to ensure you maximize your opportunity in front of the site’s readers. Having a successful, shared post also gives you leverage for other sites.
Use Data To Add Credibility
Gregory Ciotti supports Leo’s idea of using data and linking to resources in posts. With so much unreliable information online, it’s important to provide valuable content to readers. Gregory emphasizes that data adds credibility to a post.
Even if nobody clicks on links to your original data sources, it lets the reader know you have researched your position and puts you a step above posts that are simply opinions.
Getting The Post — Outreach That Works
Now you know the potential benefits of Guest Posting, let’s check out some templates from those who have tried this. As you’ll see most have a similar theme, but we wanted to show which ones are recommended by the pros. Pick one, research it, and then start your outreach:
If You Have A Warm Intro
This is from the guys at Groove, who recommend always trying to get a warm intro. Their advice on reaching out to those you would like to guest post for:
- Put effort into generating a warm lead.
Alex recommends a simple engagement strategy that worked well for them to engage with influencers. Which are just 7 steps to being more engaged with someone! - Put their blog first — what benefit will THEY receive from the site?
- Validate yourself — point out who is, and why they should want you to guest post.
- Put a call to action in the email — e.g. ‘can I send you the post for review’ is better than ‘let me know if that sounds of interest’
What The Publisher Looks For
Ramit Sethi, a prominent figure in online marketing, sought a guest post for his blog. He shared a sample email he desired on his website.
It’s high on providing validation in the opening paragraph and ensuring that the content is relevant to the site owner.
A ‘battle Tested Email’ From Backlinko
Brian Dean always develops high-quality content — due to his step-by-step tactics In his post on guest blogging, he revealed one of his most successful outreach emails. Brian loves this approach because:
- Starts with something specific about THEIR SITE
- Short and sweet (aim for 150 words or less)
- Gives them specific topics to choose from (less work for them)
- Soft sell
- Touches on your experience and published work
The Email That Led To 200,000 + Views
Gregory from Sparring Mind runs through his rules for an outreach email, allowing us to realize the benefit of guest blogging.
- Straightforward Subject — you have to sell them on opening the email first before you even get to sell the idea of a guest post.
- Brief Personal Greeting — Dear Sir, I was born in England, and went to University… is not as near as good as a brief intro.
- Genuine Context — Explain why you are reaching and add a bit of flattery (note, if you can’t find a reason to flatter the person you are writing to, then perhaps their site isn’t the right place for your work.)
- The Desired Goal — Explain what you would like to write for the site — don’t dilly dally or skirt around the issue.
- The Persuasive Pitch — Work out WHY this will be beneficial for the site owner — explain why you are the best person to guest post on their site.
- The Close — You don’t need a signature with 10,000 social media icons and stats at the bottom. You should have validated yourself in the email, so you don’t need to brag about several Twitter followers in a footer.
Try, Try Again
Don’t expect success after the first time around. You can only expect to see any benefit from guest blogging if you add patience. If you’ve done any form of sales in your life, you’ll know that when prospecting, it’s all about the follow–up.
To optimize email outreach results, consistent follow-up is key. James Agate’s data from Moz showed that around 33% of successful guest post opportunities were secured on the second or third email.
A smart, simple follow-up in the same style as the initial approach, is worth the minimal amount of effort it takes, rather than just taking ‘no answer’ as a ‘no’. Don’t bombard or continually spam the recipient — but do tactfully follow-up to increase your chances of engagement.
The I’m A Fan Approach:
Sapph Li has provided some great resources for emailing in numerous scenarios. Pitching a few ideas — gives you a greater chance of acceptance, than simply sending one fully complete article.
Garrett Moon, a suspect, promotes Coschedule. He seeks out sites that don’t advertise guest blogging. In an email to Ash Maura, he uses a template explaining the benefits of his posts to Ash’s readers. Garrett has his own rules.
- Know who you want to target
- Know They Want You To Provide Them With Value
- Prove That You Aren’t Crazy
- Always Include Links
- Always Include An Idea
- Short Is Good, Except When It Isn’t (i.e. he doesn’t like a 2 sentence email that tries to elicit a response)
- Be A Human, Not a Template
- Simple research makes a hit
Jess Ostroff from Convince and Convert explained in a post how a managing editor had to sift through a barrage of pitches that didn’t hit the mark. From the opening line, she could tell they’d done their homework:
- She’d gone to the about page and found Jess.
- She had visited her Twitter profile and copied the line ‘chronic wanderer’ from there.
- She had visited Jess’s About.Me page and saw that Jess was living in South Florida for a short time, and then located in New York City.
All the above information had been packed into an opening that stood out a mile from other approaches (just make sure you don’t look like a stalker when you write a post like this).
From The Guy Who Gets Pitched Lots
Sean Ogle from Location 180 receives a lot of guest post pitches. He’s the one giving out the benefit of guest blogging. And like most people — he finds the majority of pitches are spammy and completely miss the mark. The advice from Sean:
Create As Much Rapport As Possible
- Engage with them on Twitter
- Comment on the blog
- Start an email conversation before you ask for a guest post opportunity.
If Possible — Be Their Best Case Study
If you have taken the writer’s advice — then point that out in your email — it’s wonderful for a writer to hear his action has provided real results for people.
Give Them Options Like Others
Sean recommends providing options before you write that 10,000-word blog post on something they might not like.
Systemize Your Approaches
- Follow the editors on Twitter
- Send a follow-up email the next day
- Use Yesware to track opens
If the follow-up email is confirmed as opened, follow up with a tweet to the editor. The follow-up can make a difference to your chance of acceptance.
How To Maximize Leads And Website Links From Your Guest Post
Respond To Every Comment
Neil Patel advises engaging on every single comment made — to ensure you are maximizing your interaction and increasing the chance of a user re-promoting your site. This ensures you gain the maximum possible benefit from guest blogging.
Hone Your Byline To Increase Clicks
Gregory used this tactic on Copyblogger to generate leads for his blog.
His structure: ‘It consists of 3 elements:
- Closing subheading: Let people know that the article is done and it’s their turn to do something. We typically use “Over to You” or “It’s Your Turn.”
- Ask a question: Creating two bullet points, you should use the first one to ask a simple question that relates to what you wrote about.
- Place a small CTA: In the second bullet point, offer the readers a way to “get more” with a simple CTA, such as a download from your site.
Make The Readers Feel Special For A Higher ROI
Alex from GrooveHQ managed to convert a percentage of visitors to subscribers using a targeted landing page such as below for copyblogger. This is a fairly simple technique to use and will ensure that those who visit your site from the guest post will feel continuity and are less likely to bounce.
Use The Expanded Guest Post For Maximum Conversions
Bryan Harris created a fantastic guide on how to generate more leads from a guest post. His approach shows how Greg from Mobile Mixed managed to generate more leads from a blog with a lot fewer visitors.
Greg posted to Convince and Convert and Productivityist. Productivityist generated 100 times more email subscribers than C&C. He offered valuable content on his blog and visitors could exchange their email addresses to download a video. This strategy can be used with different types of content.
Long-Term Guest Blogging — The Benefits
Once you’ve had a few successes, there’s no need to stop, you can maximize your success by continuing to guest post and work on your blog. There is truly a benefit to guest blogging over a longer period.
‘I remember when I first started guest posting, I would publish my articles on any site that would accept them such as the American Express blog. After months of doing this, I wasn’t generating any signups and felt frustrated. Luckily, I learned how to make guest posting a profitable channel. You too can do well at guest posting. You just have to give it time and continually modify your approach until it becomes profitable.’
— Wise words from a master of online marketing, Neil Patel.
His experience and analysis of several prolific guests show that he places a lot of faith in the subject. Neil gave the example of Jason DeMers who was approached by Cisco for advice, and who posted for 6 months on places like Forbes and Huffington Post.
Measure Your ROI To Ensure You Are Posting In The Right Places
Further to Brian Dean’s results, he created a detailed video on how to measure the ROI of your guest blogging. His advice:
- Check through google analytics for visits and referrals on the site
- Check if there is an increase in organic search on
- Calculate an increase in the number of Twitter/Facebook followers in the first 2 weeks after the post
- See if your Klout score has increased
- Look on google webmaster tools to see if there is an increase in branded searches for your name/company/brand
Syndicate Once You’ve Taken Off Your Training Wheels
If you produce content and successfully syndicate it with top publishers, the benefits are significant. In May 2014, Buffer achieved an impressive 1,160,520 page views and 949 new conversions through their republishing efforts.
Gregory Ciotti also succeeded in syndication:
- Gregory requested some bigger sites to syndicate his content, which worked for LifeHacker, Fast Company and Bufferapp
- Self-syndicate — use sites like Quora (Gregory received 30,000 views on a post republished there)
- Repost on medium (one of Gregory’s posts received thousands of views after becoming an editor’s pick)
- Repurposing an article on Slideshare led to 130,000 views.
The key takeaways are:
- Select where is the most appropriate based on your content and experience
- Remember that audience engagement and relevance are better than the size
- Spend time researching the right type of post to write
- Make sure you include data to give authority
- Outreach with style and personalization
- Use the byline, an expanded guest post, or personalized landing page to maximize leads and subscribers from your efforts
- Continually test and improve
- Blog consistently for 6 months + syndication and revenue opportunities
Remember, everyone started somewhere.
To wrap up, we’re not just about sharing insights on guest posting; we offer these services too, along with a range of SEO solutions. Interested in boosting your online presence? Drop by our ‘About Us’ page to get in touch and let’s make it happen!
