BBP 118: Expanding Reach Through Guest Posts with Sarah Jane Burt

Shownotes:

In this episode of the Blogger Breakthrough Summit podcast, Sarah Jane Burt provides valuable advice on how to get started with guest posting. She highlights the importance of finding blogs with overlapping audiences, thoroughly researching potential blogs, and understanding their submission guidelines. Listen to learn how to get your guest post pitches accepted!

Synopsis

Ready to take your blog to the next level? Today, we’re diving into the world of guest posting with some golden nuggets of wisdom from the amazing Sarah Jane Burt. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to expand your reach, Sarah’s tips will help you navigate the guest posting landscape like a pro. So, let’s get started!

Finding the Right Blogs for Guest Posting

The first step in guest posting is finding the right blogs to submit your content to. Sarah emphasizes the importance of choosing blogs with a similar or overlapping audience. For example, if you write about vegetables, a general gardening blog could be a great fit. Key points to remember:

• Look for blogs that accept guest posts, often indicated on a dedicated page.
• Ensure the blog’s audience aligns with your content.
• Start with blogs you already know and love.

Preparing Your Pitch

Before you start pitching, do your homework. Many blogs will have a page outlining their guest posting policy. Sarah advises:

• Target blogs with an audience slightly larger than yours, but not overwhelmingly so.
• Read the blog to understand its style and popular topics.
• Follow submission guidelines meticulously to increase your chances of acceptance.

Crafting a Winning Pitch

A well-crafted pitch can make all the difference when trying to get more guest post spots. Sarah suggests:

– Highlight how your post will add value to the blog’s readers.

– Offer an SEO angle to make your pitch more appealing.

– Show your expertise but focus on the benefits for their audience.

Tips for a Successful Guest Posting Strategy

Guest posting can be time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort. Some additional tips from Sarah include:

• Be prepared for a numbers game; not every pitch will be accepted.
• Use keyword research to identify gaps in the blog’s content.
• Offer unique and valuable insights that complement the existing content.

Bottom Line

Guest posting is a powerful strategy to expand your blog’s reach and build your credibility. By following Sarah Jane Burt’s expert advice, you can navigate this process more effectively and increase your chances of getting your content published. Remember, it’s all about finding the right fit, crafting a compelling pitch, and adding value to the readers.

https://youtu.be/WYVV4Ldo4Xc

Related Content

• How to Have Your Guest Post Accepted
• 5 Benefits of Guest Posting (besides driving traffic)
• How My First Guest Post Ended Up in a Book

Transcript

[00:00:00].00] – Liz Stapleton

Hey there, fantastic bloggers. Welcome back to another episode of the Blogger Breakthrough Summit podcast. I’m your host, Liz Stapleton. And today we’re diving into some golden nuggets of wisdom about guest posting from the amazing Sarah Jane Burt.

[00:00:19].24] – Sarah Jane Burt

How to get started. So the first thing you need to do is find blogs that you can submit your guest post to. So just a few parameters for this. Should have a similar audience or an overlapping audience, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a blog that’s just like yours. Let’s say that you are a gardening blog, and this blog is about maybe growing vegetables, specifically. That audience overlaps with the general… Or let’s say it’s the other way around. You write about vegetables, this is a general gardening publication. There’s going to be people that are interested in vegetables is in there, so you have an overlapping audience. It may not be everyone in their audiences for you, but there’s some people in there that are. They need to accept guest blog posts. So a lot of blogs that regularly accept guest posts will have a page on their blog that says how to submit a guest post, all the parameters, the rules. Some may not, but you might see that they have guest posts on there, or you might reach out. Maybe they’ve never considered having a guest post. You might reach out and ask if they’re open to it.

[00:01:35].13] – Sarah Jane Burt

But obviously, do that work first before you start pitching, because if they’re not even open to guest blog posts, you’re wasting your time there. You I’m trying to find blogs that have an audience that’s bigger than yours, but not so big right off the bat. If the only place you’ve ever written is in your blog and you’ve got 15 blog posts in there, you’re not going to go pitch Forbes, right? Because they’re looking for people that have a history of publishing in publications with lots and lots of readers. You want to find a blog that it’s likely they’ll say yes based on your publication experience. But let’s say maybe you have published in some bigger publications, then you can go for those bigger publications. But you really want to just focus on where your audience is, where you’re likely to get in, what fits with the content you talk about and the content that’s on their blog. I think a great place to start is with your favorite blogs and publications. You also will find that out in the survey, so you can use that information. That’s a great place to start. Look at the things that you already like and know.

[00:02:59].02] – Sarah Jane Burt

It’s easier to to a place that you know than a brand new place. So some tips. This can be a super time consuming strategy because you can be writing pictures all day. It’s also a bit of a numbers game. Just statistically, you might pitch to 10 places and only get accepted to one. So consider that when you’re picking which publications to pitch you, don’t waste your time pitching the ones that might not be a good fit. Read the blog. Actually, read the blog or publication to get a feel for the style of the content and the types of topics. Your pitch is going to be way better for it. If you understand what people have written about, you understand what content does well on the blog, you’ll be able to pitch, make a better pitch. Follow their submission guidelines. Some blogs have really, not complicated, but a long list of things that you have to keep in mind, like you’re only allowed to use two links to your own content. You can’t talk about a topic that’s already been talked about. They don’t want how-to content or they only want how-to content. Look at that stuff before you come up with pitch ideas.

[00:04:19].04] – Sarah Jane Burt

In your pitch, take time to show them how it’s going to add value for their readers. If they have a bigger audience than you, you need them more than they need you. Really talk Talk about how it’s going to add value for their readers, not necessarily how great you are, although that’s a piece of the pitch as well. Here’s a pro tip. If you can offer an SEO angle, this often makes it easier to get the guest post. Everyone’s concerned with SEO, so if you can write a post that will bring traffic to their page, they’re more likely to say yes. So how do you do this? Look at the posts that have been made, look for common themes. Think about those subtopics that have been posted about and think about what is missing here. Where are the gaps? Then once you get those topics, you can do keyword research and say, Okay, there’s this many people look up this keyword. There’s definitely traffic potential here. I want to write a blog post around this keyword. Here’s my suggestion.

[00:05:25].08] – Liz Stapleton

All right. Thank you for hanging out with me today. I hope you found Sarah’s tips as enlightening as did. Get out there and start pitching and be sure to join us next time to learn about tracking your most important business metrics.