How to Find the Best Opportunities for Guest Blogging

Guest blogging can be an effective way to promote your business online. But you don’t want to waste time writing articles that few people will read — or that won’t attract the right audience. Here’s how to develop a winning guest-blogging strategy that will help you attract new readers and generate sales leads.

• Measure a site’s influence. It’s always flattering when someone asks for a guest post. However, before saying “yes,” check out the site’s traffic. Look at the site’s ranking on Alexa.com (the lower the number, the better — if it’s in the millions, its visitors are scarce). If you’re just starting out, a site ranked in the 300,000s on Alexa may be worthwhile; if you’re established and focused on broadcasting your brand, you may want to hold out for the top 100,000. In addition, analyze the brand or site owner’s influence on social media: Do they have at least 5,000 or 10,000 Twitter followers and frequently tweet links to posts on the blog? Does the website have 6,000 Facebook fans or just 60? All of these numbers can help you determine how large the audience is — and whether guest blogging is worth your while.
• Focus on sites that fit your niche. Whether bloggers are approaching you or you’re approaching them, it’s important to have a content strategy for guest blogging. To that end, pay attention to the sites’ audience demographics and determine whether they reflect your target prospects. If you own a high-end e-commerce fashion site, for instance, you’ll want to guest-blog on sites that focus on designer styles instead of frugal fashion.
  
• Consider using a guest-blog matching service. Rather than Googling aimlessly for blogs that accept guest posts, seek assistance. Ann Smarty’s MyBlogGuest allows you to add unpublished articles to a gallery where publishers can pick the posts they want to use. Cathy Stucker’s BloggerLinkUp newsletter distributes daily article requests. Both services are also helpful in finding guest bloggers for your company’s website, too.