If you need many articles for link building (one article = one link), you’re probably often in a hurry to pitch your guest posts as fast as you can, so you send out the emails without much thinking about them.
And that is why most of your outreach efforts fail. It’s not so much that your articles aren’t good; in fact, you can’t know it, because the potential publisher hasn’t seen them – he has dismissed your pitch after reading the first twenty words of your email.
You don’t know it, because you haven’t heard from him since, but that’s what has happened, you can bet on it. You can cross him over and forget about him and his site, but soon you’ll find out that you have run out of options, at least as far as quality sites in, or closely related to, your niche goes.
The scenario then is much too known: you start pitching to less demanding sites, with looser connection to your site’s topic, and then the new Google algorithm update rolls out and bang! You’re back where you started.
OK, this was a bit catastrophic picture, but I hope you get the point: you’re after a link from a high quality site; it’s a great link, so why wouldn’t you spend a bit more time researching it and writing a decent email? Even if you’re sure that you’re doing everything right, read this text, it’s not that long, and it may show you some of the things you’re doing wrong.
Good manners don’t end with “hello” and “thank you”
The first thing that anyone looking for a blog to guest post on needs to understand is that there are real people behind those blogs, people who have put much of their time and effort into building that blog you’re taking likely.
It’s their child, and they are very protective of it. – It should go without saying that we’re talking here about the blogs that are worth your time and your effort… but we said it anyway. – These people aren’t going to publish just any article on their blog, and won’t link to just any site. So, you can imagine what they feel like when they get another poorly written and researched email from some no name who would like them to publish an article.
The first thing that comes to their mind (right after “oh no, not another one!”) is: “Can I really expect a decent article from this person who hasn’t bothered to find out my name, who doesn’t know my blog’s name and who doesn’t think that it’s appropriate to hint what their article would be about?”
Yes, this is about manners: just like you would do a small research on someone you’re about to meet in person to ask for a favor, you should research the person behind the blog. Both persons are equally real, and they deserve to be treated with respect.
So here’s a quick checklist (with the right answers):
- Do you know the name of the blogger / webmaster you’re writing to? – Find it out
- Did you mention the name of their website, or just its URL? – Use website’s name
- Did you read their guest posting requirements and did you comply with them? – You shouldn’t send the pitch if you didn’t
- Did you mention that you are offering your article for free? – Delete that
- Did you click around a few pages on their website to see what goes well with them? Have you found the best way to connect your two topics? – The right answer should be obvious
- Did you suggest a few article titles, or are you just offering the one you have already written? –
They love to be asked, and they will know what content will be better for their site, so you should think about the titles first. The exception may be if you do have an article that would really click with their content, but it should be a fantastic piece, and you don’t want to send it along with the initial email because they may feel that you’re forcing it upon them.
That should do it. Keep in mind that you’re not the only one trying to get a guest post from them, and that they’re (sadly) getting used to receiving the emails they resent. Be different, be decent and leave a good impression – the success of your campaign depends on it.
Jeff GrossAbout the Guest Author:
Jeff Gross is the owner of http://www.npromote.com, an SEO company that uses guest posting a lot when doing campaigns for clients, so you can be sure that he knows a thing or two about proper pitching a guest post.
