{"id":12565,"date":"2017-08-02T16:30:46","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T16:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/?p=12565"},"modified":"2017-08-03T16:31:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T16:31:23","slug":"perfecting-the-guest-blog-pitch-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/perfecting-the-guest-blog-pitch-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfecting the Guest Blog Pitch Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the world of content marketing, <a href=\"https:\/\/pagely.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/5-ways-get-invited-back-regular-guest-blogger\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">guest blogging<\/a> remains, at least in my mind, one of the best ways to establish your thought leadership and connect with a wider audience. \u00a0It&#8217;s no secret though: even I get dozens of pitches a week from people wanting a link back to their sites. The problem is (and this is where you benefit) that most of them haven&#8217;t done their homework and will immediately get their guest blogging pitches rejected.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve both had guest blog posts published on reputable sites and worked with guest bloggers on my own blog, so I know a little about what works and what doesn&#8217;t. Here are my tips to ensure that your next guest blog pitch gets accepted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Read the Blog!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s such a tiny piece of advice, but you&#8217;d be surprised how many people don&#8217;t read even one article on a blog they want to contribute to. Doing so does a few things for you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Helps you understand if the site even accepts guest bloggers (don&#8217;t waste your time otherwise)<\/li>\n<li>Gives you a sense of the writing style<\/li>\n<li>Lets you know whether the content is geared toward your audience<\/li>\n<li>Shows you whether topics you want to write about have already been covered (don&#8217;t pitch those)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying you have to read all the content on the site. A few blog posts, as well as the About Us page, should suffice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Only Pitch Blogs That Serve Your Audience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My blog is about content marketing, and yet I get pitches about the most unrelated things you can imagine. Sports equipment. Furniture. Medical marijuana. What gives?? Not only will submitting content to a site that doesn&#8217;t reach your audience not help you achieve your goals, but Google doesn&#8217;t like it either. So any blog worth its salt won&#8217;t accept your nonrelated content because they don&#8217;t want to be penalized by search engines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Read the Guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img class=\"fr-dib\" style=\"width: 600px;\" src=\"https:\/\/mediashower.com\/img\/4A617CDC-5FA8-11E7-A6AE-E504CFBF4F9B\/bigstock--153777875_600x.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Most blogs that accept guest posts have a page on the site that explains exactly what they want in a pitch. They may want you to introduce yourself, send samples of your writing, and give a few topics you&#8217;d like to cover. Or they may want you to submit an entire article for consideration.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t express how important it is to read these guidelines. They&#8217;re there to filter out people who ignore instructions, so if you do so, it&#8217;s at your own peril.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Get a Name<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you craft your pitch letter, please, oh please, don&#8217;t address it to &#8220;To Whom It May Concern&#8221; or &#8220;Dear Editor&#8221; unless absolutely necessary. \u00a0If the About Us page doesn&#8217;t tell you who the editor is, do more digging. You can Google &#8220;editor + [name of blog]&#8221; or search LinkedIn to find a name. This, again, weeds out the lazies from the serious guest bloggers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Keep it Short<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Your pitch letter should be a teaser, not a tome. Introduce yourself. Maybe mention an article you enjoyed reading (but say something insightful about it, because this strategy is overused). Then suggest a few topics you&#8217;d like to cover. You could include a few links to your writing if you&#8217;re not known in your industry.<\/p>\n<p>Above all, follow those guidelines to a T.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Follow Up<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Blog editors get a flood of guest pitch requests, so don&#8217;t be impatient. If, after a week, you haven&#8217;t heard back, send a second email following up. Usually this one will be the one to get a response, but if it doesn&#8217;t, consider the editor not interested, and mark that blog off the list.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Be a Good Guest<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For any blog you do get accepted as a guest blogger for, make sure you impress the editor by following instructions, turning your content in on time, and then helping promote the post once it&#8217;s live. This is the best way to be invited back to contribute again (or get a &#8220;yes&#8221; if you ask if that&#8217;s possible), which, ultimately, is the best strategy for long-term brand recognition.<\/p>\n<p>Guest blogging can be a fantastic way to get more exposure with your audience, which, in time, can lead to more sales.<\/p>\n<p>Media Shower can help with your content marketing strategy. <a href=\"https:\/\/mediashower.com\/ce2\/58901\/1708\/200\">Get a free trial<\/a> today!<\/p>\n<p><!-- Begin Media Shower Content Reporting code --><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"fr-fic fr-dii\" style=\"height: 1px; width: 1px; border: 0px;\" src=\"\/\/mediashower.com\/content?Action=tp&amp;cid=58901\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!-- End Media Shower Content Reporting code --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want your next guest blog pitch to get accepted? Of course! <a href=\"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/perfecting-the-guest-blog-pitch-letter\/\">We can help&#8230;<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":12566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[58,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12565"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12576,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12565\/revisions\/12576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}