Guest Posting Guide – Your Easy to Understand and Actionable Guide to Guest Posting Using Free Tools

Warning: Acquiring the skills that you will learn on this guide will help triple or quadruple your earnings as a freelancer – mine grew 5x as much!

If you are truly serious about making money and giving your family a life filled with abundance and financial security, then be sure to take action on this guide.

Learn it. Read it a couple times until you have a full understanding of how the process works.

When you become familiar with the process of guest posting, you’ll be able to apply it on the different facets of your online career like acquiring clients, relationship building, and growing your brand – all of which can explode your earnings!

Table of content

• Do you want to increase your earnings?

• The gist of it. What does it mean to guest post.

• Why use guest posts out of all other marketing methods?

• The free tools that you will use

Step 1 – How to uncover niche related websites that will most likely accept guest posts.

Step 2 – How to scrape data.

Step 3 – How to remove the URL extensions so you’ll be left with the domain name (and the TLDs) only.

Step 4 – How to obtain the statistics of the websites on your list.

Step 5 – Guidelines for creating a high converting guest post pitch.

Step 6 – Guidelines for writing quality content.

• Wrapping things up

• What’s next?

Do you want to increase your earnings?

If you’re reading this, then the chances are good that you are an online freelancer that isn’t satisfied with your current earnings.

You want to earn more. Way more than what you’re getting from your clients right now.

You’re probably not a newbie at freelancing online too, however, you’ve reached the point where you need to increase your earnings, because with the current skill set that you posses, the numbers (your earnings) just won’t add up.

Your expenses are slowly catching-up to the amount that you are earning, and the solution you’ve thought of to counter this is to learn a new skill so you can start getting additional work.

#YoureInTheRightTrack

While there are certainly other skills that you can learn that can help you get more jobs, learning about how to guest post and the entire process of it is one of the best skills that you can ever acquire.

Not only is the skill in demand because of the benefits that an entity can acquire from using it, guest posting is often times a good compliment to an existing skill that most freelancers have as well.

Learning how to guest post straight-up opens new possibilities for an online freelancer.

How, you might ask?

It’s like this…

Since the core of guest posting is really relationship building through proactively doing outreach to other people online, you can use the skill in other applications like looking for possible clients (and how to pitch them effectively), building a network of freelancers where you can get jobs from (or share your jobs to), or building relationships with webmasters so they can help you with your PR (or your clients’), among others…

The possibilities are endless, and learning the mechanics of guest posting is at its core.

That being said, if you want to explode your career as an online freelancer to get more jobs and more money, then you have got to learn the nitty gritty of guest posting.

Let’s hop right in.

The gist of it. What does it mean to guest post.

If you are new to internet marketing and aren’t quite familiar with how guest posting works (or what it is), then I’ll help shed some light on that.

In layman’s terms, to guest post means to write for another person’s website.

Since the website where your post is going to be published on isn’t yours, you are considered as a guest on the website and its community. Thus, you are posting your article as a guest. Or guest posting.

Capiche? 🙂

Why use guest posts out of all other marketing methods?

I cannot tell you how important it is for you to know the answer to this question. This is especially true if you are working for a client.

It is quite normal for a lot of your clients to ask why you should run a guest posting campaign, when you can do social media, paid ads, or video marketing (among others).

If you don’t know how to answer that question effectively, you might end up losing the opportunity of working with your client because they’ll decide to go with video marketing, so they’ll hire a video marketer, instead of hiring a person with a skill set like yours.

These are the massive benefits that a business can have through guest posting.

a. They’ll solidify their brand image as an expert in their industry.

Since the business owner’s target audience can see their articles published on reputable websites, it’ll give their audience the impression that they are an expert in the industry. Otherwise, why would other websites feature the business, right?

In addition to that, since the audience can read the articles and learn from the tips, they’ll experience first hand how amazing the ideas that you shared are.

* Note – this will only happen if you’re publishing high quality posts.

b. Your website will rank better on Google’s search results page.

While there are a plethora of factors that Google looks into when determining which website should rank the highest on their search results, one of the most important ranking factor are links.

The more high quality websites link to you, the more Google will view your website as relevant and worthy of ranking.

Note – my explanation above about how Google decides which website will rank the highest  in their search results is just a simplistic way of describing it. You can bet that there is more to it than just that. However, let’s leave it at that for now since the main topic of this guide is about guest posting only.

If you want to learn more about what makes a website rank, you should read more about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

d. You’ll get more traffic.

When determining which websites to pitch your guest post on, one of the metrics we look into is the website’s traffic. After all, what good is there for your work to be published on a website, if the website has very little to no traffic at all, right?

That being said, should your guest posts get accepted and published on the websites that we’ll describe as “qualified”, you can expect a decent number of readers to view it.

Of course, the more eyes there are on your write-up, the higher the chances that they’ll click your link and be routed to your website.

e. Longevity

Unlike paid ads where they’ll put down your content when the budget you’ve set has ran out, that’s not how guest posts work at all.

Once your article goes live, it’ll stay there until the end of days.

The webmasters or the editors don’t usually remove guest posts (or any kind of articles)  since it can have adverse effects on their website.

That being said, there is longevity to this marketing method. Can you imagine the kind of benefit you’ll get if you’ll manage to guest post on hundreds of websites?

Now that you’ve gotten a handle on the basics of guest posting, it’s time we start talking about the actual process.

The free tools that you will use.

I told you right? The tools we’ll be using are all free. You don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars worth of monthly subscription fees.

These are the tools that you’ll be needing to execute the guest posting process from start to finish.

a. SEO Quake

For scraping the URLs from Google’s search results page. This extension has tons of other nifty features. It can tell you the domain’s age, together with other data that can give you more insight about a website’s overall quality.

b. Similarweb

We need this to view the website’s estimated monthly traffic. In addition to the website’s monthly traffic, however, it can also tell you from which country a website’s traffic is coming from and what the source of the website’s traffic is (whether it comes from the search results, social media, referral, etc…), among others.

c. 99WebTools

We need this tool to obtain the website’s Domain Authority and Page Authority.

d. Microsoft Excel

This is the platform that I use where I sort out and “clean” the scraped URLs.

Step 1 – How to uncover niche related websites that will most likely accept guest posts.

There is more to using Google’s search engine by simply typing in your keywords when searching for something.

Google has advanced search queries that you can use. Here are some examples:

“Keyword for your niche” + “Guest post”

“Keyword for your niche” + “Write for us”

“Keyword for your niche” + “Become a contributor”

Using these search queries will make Google’s search engine come back to you with niche related websites that will most likely accept guest posts.

In addition to the 3 that I shared above, here’s a list that’s way more comprehensive.

* Note – Do not expect Google’s search results to be 100% accurate and relevant to what you are searching for. Rest assured that there are going to be pages that shouldn’t be on there.

Step 2 – How to scrape data.

You will need to install SEOQuake for this.

The good news is, installing the tool is pretty simple.

Once you’ve installed the plugin, you should be able to see SEOQuake’s icon on the top right part of your browser.

At this point, all you need to do is to go to Google’s search box, type in your advanced search query (ex. “Business Tips” + “Guest post”) then hit “search”.

* Note – this is the advanced search query that we used, “Keyword for your niche” + “Guest post”. You simply need to replace the part where it says “Keyword for your niche” with any keyword (or keyword phrase that is highly relevant to your niche.

This is how the page should look like if you’ll try to use the search box using our sample search query.

Pretty amazing, huh?

The button on the screenshot above that I told you to click will show you the URLs of all these results.

This is what will show up once you click it.

To copy everything, simply do this:

• Click inside the box.
• Long press the “ctrl” button then press “a”
• Long press the “ctrl” button then press “c”

Now that you’ve managed to scrape the data, paste everything in your MS Excel sheet.

Step 3 – How to remove the URL extensions so you’ll be left with the domain name (and the TLDs) only.

Now that all the URLs are in your Excel sheet, it’s time you remove all the extensions of the URL so only thing left becomes the domain names and the website’s TLDs.

Here’s how you can do that:

a. Click column “A”

b. Click the “Find & Search” button. You can find this on the top right part of your Excel sheet.

c. A pop-up will appear. You will need to add the characters “http://” on the portion where it says “Find What”, then press the “Replace All” button.

d. Repeat step “c” 3 more times. But this time, you need to replace “http://” with, “https://”, “www.”, and “/*”

Following the step above will remove whatever kind of extensions your URL has.

Let’s proceed to the next step.

Step 4 – How to obtain the statistics of the websites on your list.

There are several guidelines that marketers use to determine whether a website is worth linking to.

Others go indepth with their research on the website by checking their prospect website’s backlink profile, all just to make sure that they don’t have several low quality sites linking to them.

In short – the “No bad neighbors” rule.

That’s a good guideline to look into, btw.

However, let’s not go too deep down on that rabbit hole. Simply because going that route can be a bit too technical especially for those who are new to the industry.

Instead of going too deep on analyzing your prospect website’s link profile, I urge you to check out the website’s Domain Authority, estimated monthly traffic, and the other guidelines that I’ll share with you below.

To view your prospect website’s Domain Authority , you can use this free tool from 99webtools. All you need to do is copy and paste the list of websites on your Excel sheet, into the empty box on 99webtools.

After you click “check”, the tool will tell you the Domain and Page authority of the websites.

I’d also like to mention that I personally do not accept/qualify websites that has a Domain Authority that’s lower than 25. Anything that has a DA of 24 and lower, I remove from my list. This is just a rule that I follow, however. Other marketers have stricter guidelines, while other don’t even care about a website’s Domain Authority anymore.

* Note – there is a limit of 50 websites/lines for every search that you make. That being said, you might have to do this several times if you’re doing everything by batch.

To view your prospect website’s estimated monthly traffic, you can go to similarweb.com.

The thing with similarweb is that you can’t run websites in bulk. You have to do it one by one.

Well. That’s the downside that I don’t like about using Similarweb.

However… If you’ll use the tool, you’ll be mindblown at how amazing it is.

You’ll be able to uncover several amazing data about your prospect websites.

Check these out.

The “Traffic by countries” data can do you wonders especially if you are targeting a group of people from a specific country.

Here’s an important note that you need to remember when using the “Traffic Sources” section. If you’ll see that the website’s source of traffic are referrals, you need to be very careful with linking to that website.

You need to give that website a closer look.

There’s a good chance that they may be blindly linking to other websites, or spamming their way to build their links.

That right there is risky – that is, if you’ll link to them. Simply because linking to websites with bad neighbors can cause your website to be penalized by Google.

Alrighty!

At this point, you now have several websites on your list with their Domain Authority and estimated monthly traffic listed.

Note – if in case you missed it, the DA that I usually go with is 25+. If you are new to reviewing websites, then I urge you use the same figure for now. As for the monthly traffic, I don’t go with websites that have less than 10k traffic.

In addition to checking the website’s DA and monthly traffic, I urge you to consider these additional guidelines when trying to qualify websites:

• Make sure that the website’s overall niche is highly relevant to yours (or your client’s).
• The website should only be publishing high-quality articles.
• It would be nice if the website has been up for several years. However, do not simply disregard websites that are just months old.
• There shouldn’t be anything on the website that is porn or gambling related.
• Make sure that the website looks professional.
• Make sure that the website is mobile friendly.Avoid websites with intrusive pop-ups.
• Avoid websites that have too many outbound links. Especially if the links are pointing to shady / low-quality sites.

Others go a bit more in depth with how they screen websites. However, if you’ll follow the basic guidelines that I’ve shared, more likely than not, you won’t get in trouble with getting penalized by search engines due to building your links.

Step 5 – Guidelines for creating a high converting guest post pitch.

These are the points that I consider when creating a guest post pitch. If you’ll follow these points, you’ll be way ahead most freelancers who claim to be “outreach experts”.

a. Do not EVER us “Sir”, “Ma’am” or “Madam”. You’ll just sound spammy. No one will ever open your email message. Just use the person’s first name. If you can’t find that info, then simply use “Hi”, or “Hello”.

b. Personalize your outreach pitch.

c. Make it short, crisp, and straight to the point. Ideally, your pitch should just be 3 – 4 paragraphs.

d. Show samples of your previous work. That way, they won’t have to do the digging if they want to learn more about the quality of your work.

e. Depending on what their guest posting guidelines are, give them 2 – 3 ideas that you’d like to write about.

f. No grammar errors please. Proofread your pitch 3 – 4 times. Better yet, have someone else proofread it for you just to make sure that you have your blind spots covered.

g. Talk about benefits. At the end of the day, the question that the webmasters will ask before they decide whether or not to accept your pitch is, “What’s in it for me?”

And just so you know, telling your prospect webmaster that they’ll receive a carefully crafted and well-written article is often times not enough anymore.

That being said, be sure to address the “what’s in it for me?” question as best as you can. You can address this by telling them that you’ll help them with more traffic since you’ll share it across your social media platforms with thousands of followers, you’ll use paid ads to help them market the post, or you can tell them that you’ll send some clients over their way, etc…

In short – make accepting your guest post pitch worth the webmaster’s time.

f. Use a punchy subject line. If your subject line is boring and poorly crafted, all the other tips I shared above becomes useless – your prospect will never open your email.

Remember that the quality of your guest post pitch is an integral part of the guest post process. Mess up this part of the process, and you’ll find yourself frustrated due to being ignored by the webmasters you’re pitching your guest posts to.

That being said, pay extra attention to how you create your guest post pitch.

Step 6 – Guidelines for writing quality content.

After having sent countless guest posts to webmasters and editors, I have found several common points that they find appealing in an article.

These are the things that they feel will make the article “click”. And that’s what I’m going to share with you right now.

Note – the tips I’ll share isn’t the be-all and end-all guide to writing quality content. I urge you to check out the website’s list of writing guidelines first, then use the points that I’ll be sharing to compliment your piece.

If they don’t have any writing guidelines listed, then, feel free to use these tips.

• Keep the word count to a minimum of 1200 words. Doing so will set you apart (somewhat) from the spammers. Spammers don’t usually like to put in the effort of writing a lengthy and comprehensive content since they are just that – spammers. That being said, the articles they usually send are 500-word articles – the word count that most people consider as the bare minimum.
• Write in a conversational tone. Address your audience as “you”, and not “one” or “some people”. Using the latter makes your write-up sound vague. It can cause a disconnect between you and your readers.
• Use images, videos, infographics, or any other elements that can help make your article “pop”.
• Avoid adding 4 or more lines per paragraph. Doing so will make your paragraphs look overwhelming. Staying within 3 lines max per paragraph is a good practice to follow.
• Use subheadings. This will make your article highly scannable.
• Link to their inner pages.
• Link to other sites. Be careful when using this tip since several webmasters are paranoid with people selling links to their websites. When linking to other sites, make sure that the sites you are linking to are highly relevant and reputable. Think Forbes.com, CNN, etc…
• Have a clear CTA (call-to-action) at the end of your posts. Instead of asking your audience to contact or connect with you, ask them something that would benefit the webmaster instead. Like asking your readers to share the post, or asking the readers to subscribe to the webmaster’s newsletter.

That way, the webmaster will have all the more reason to accept your article, since at the end of it, you are asking the readers to do something that will greatly benefit the webmaster, and not yourself.

Wrapping things up

At this point of the guide, you should already have a list of high quality and relevant websites that you can pitch on, a carefully crafted guest post pitch that won’t be ignored by webmasters, and a clear idea of how to write an article that your prospects (and their audience) will surely love.

Now that you have all the elements that you need, all you need to do is to visit each website, look for the webmasters’ contact info, pitch your guest post, and wait for their reply.

If you followed the tips that I shared with you on how to craft your guest post pitch, I’m sure you’ll have several webmasters accepting your pitch. At that point, all you need to do is to write the article based on their writing guidelines (and the the writing guidelines that I shared with you), insert your link, then send it to them once it’s done.

Now that they’ve received your write-up, they’ll either accept it, request for minor changes to be made, or decline it. For as long as the latter doesn’t happen, you’d have successfully landed your guest post and relish on all the benefits that businesses can obtain from guest posts.

Pretty amazing, huh?

I told you it was simple, didn’t I?

What’s next?

Did you find the guest posting guide helpful? If you did, I’ll be tickled pink if you’ll take 3 seconds of your time to click the share button.

I wish you success in your future guest post campaigns!