The Ultimate Guide On How to Start Pitching Guest Posts
Even If You Feel Like a Complete Newbie

The other day I was talking to my friend Tim about his business.

Tim is a fitness coach, actively trying to sell more of his online fitness programs.

Since I believe guest posting is the quickest way to build an email list that buys, I asked Tim if he had started guest posting.

He said no and then he asked:

"Don't I need a lot more content on my blog before I can guest post?"

“Why do you think you need content on your site first to guest post?” I asked.

“Well if I have enough content, influencers I’d reach out to would realize my work is good and is likely to provide enough value to their audiences,” said Tim.

Tim’s reasoning is sound. But it comes from the flawed assumption that influencers assess your guest post fit by reading your blog in-depth.

The reality is very different.

I mean place yourself in their shoes for a second.

Imagine that you are a popular and busy influencer.

Would you have the time to go read the blog of everyone who pitches you a guest post?

Probably not.

The truth is influencers try to assess the fit of the guest post based on what is written in the pitch.

In the situations where they do visit your site, they are most likely only looking at your home or about page. 

But before you go polish up those pages up check out the four critical areas influencers are assessing on those pages, so you know exactly what, you need to improve.

When influencers visit your online headquarters, they are trying to assess how well you fit with them in four different areas.

The first thing most influencers try to assess is who you help. Specifically if you help the same people they do. Or at least, help some subset of the people they help.

Here are some questions to ask and answer to make sure that when influencers visit who you help is crystal clear to them:

The second thing influencers try to assess when they visit your online headquarters is what problems you help your audience with.

Here are some questions to ask and answer to make sure that when influencers visit what problems you help with are crystal clear to them:

The third thing influencers look for is how you help your audience.

Here are some questions to ask and answer to make sure that when influencers visit how you help your audience are crystal clear to them:

Let's bring it together with an example of my guest posts. The method I use to help my audience grow their email lists is guest posting. Since most influencers I pitch to don’t usually cover guest posting, the fit is usually obvious.

I say usually obvious because it can all go south if you aren’t a match for the next and final criteria.

The fourth area influencers try to understand are your values.

Specifically, they are trying to confirm that you don’t have any of their deal breakers.

For example here is what it was for one influencer I guest posted with recently:

So of course this influencer won’t be taking any guest posts from people who only care about making money at any expense possible. If that is you, you shouldn’t bother pitching that influencer.

Here are some questions to ask and answer to make sure that when influencers visit your values are crystal clear to them:

A short while ago I was chatting with Priya.

Priya is a personal finance blogger. She has been trying to for months to get guest posts accepted.

Even though she’s contacted over 20 bloggers, she's been largely ignored.

The radio silence she has been met with has  sent her into dark spirals of self-doubt about her business (her words).

I've read Priya’s content so I know it is solid.

I suspected her issue was pitching the wrong host sites, so I asked Priya:

“What is the most important thing to look for when finding a blog for guest posting?”

Without missing a beat she replied: “finding a site where your guest post can add value to the audience.”

"Aha!" I exclaimed. 

While finding sites where your guest post can add value is certainly important, it should never be your only criteria for finding the right sites for guest posting!

Here are a few reasons why you should never stop screening a site the moment you determine you can add value to its audience.

Just because you can add value to a site with your guest post, does not mean it is a site where your ideal audience hangs out.

Let me give you an example of one of my students Leila. 

Leila helps stay-at-home-moms rejoin the workforce by finding remote work opportunities.

Recently she pitched an influencer who like her was in the career advice space.

But unlike her, his site's focus was on helping young professionals who already have a job get their next promotion or a raise.

While her advice on finding remote flexible work would add value to the blog, young professionals are simply not her ideal audience.

Because of this, the blog was simply not a good guest posting opportunity for her.

Unfortunately Leila and the influencer realized this only after three drafts and constant butting of heads. 

Spend the time screening host sites before the pitch so you don't end up wasting time and energy like Leila.

Just because you think you might be able to add value, does not mean you can solve the specific problem a site’s audience may be having.

Let's go back to our example of Leila for a second.

Even though both stay-at-home-moms and young professionals are interested in finding remote work, the problems each audience faces in finding remote work are completely different.

Stay-at-home-moms often struggle with a lack of confidence that lucrative remote work opportunities exist.

Young professionals, on the other hand, may be concerned about the negative impact working remotely could have on their career advancement potential.

If Leila were to guest post with a site that speaks to young professionals she would have to spend a lot of time and effort making her solutions work for an entirely new audience.

And here is the rub: even if she succeeds in helping them and attracting them to her universe, she won't be able to hold on to them very long. Because eventually they will realize her work is mostly geared towards a group they don't belong to.

If the site’s audience and their problems are very different from your own, your guest post won’t help you attract a lot of people to your email list.

Let’s go back to Leila’s example one last time. Imagine if Leila’s guest post got published--do you think the guest post’s audience would have resonated with her story and her advice?

Probably not.

Mothers resonate with Leila because in her they see another mom who has already gone through the doubt and rejection they currently face. They see in her someone who despite these challenges figured out a way to make remote jobs work.

Would a young professional resonate with Leila the same way?

Not likely. And because of this Leila would not have gotten too many people joining her email list from that guest post.

I know you are probably thinking, ok great Sana.

So what should I then look for when finding sites for guest posting?

I’m glad you asked! Here is what you should look for.

I recommend my students look at four different areas when researching sites for guest posting.

Take a few minutes to understand who the the site is focused on helping. And make sure this includes your ideal audience.

Pro-tip: Don't limit yourself to sites that only have your exact audience. If you do this you are taking  many perfecting good sites off the table, drastically reducing your potential sites for guest posting. Let me explain with an example. Let's assume your core audience focus is introverted entrepreneurs. While you should look for introverted entrepreneur sites you should also look for 1) sites for introverts likely to attract entrepreneurs 2) site for entrepreneurs likely to attract introverts.

Take a few minutes to confirm that you agree with the influencer’s most passionately held core values. Personally, I think it is unethical to guest post with an influencer if you know you disagree with their core values.

But let's put that aside for a moment. When you guest post on a site where you disagree with influencer's values you are unlikely to get the list building returns you want.

For example here are some core values of an influencer I guest posted with recently:

Say for some reason you happened to disagree with these values but somehow miraculously still managed to guest post with that influencer.

Because most of the influencer's audience agrees with her values, chances are your post would not attract a meaningful number of people to your email list.  

Even if they did join, the moment they would notice you don’t have the same values, they would immediately unsubscribe.

Confirm the influencer has a strong relationship with their audience.

When a strong relationship exists, the influencer's audience sees your guest post as the influencer's endorsement of you and your work. This alone would inspire them to join your email list.

But when an influencer does not have a strong relationship with their audience, your guest post will not attract people to your email list.

One of the best signs of strong relationships is the level of engagement with their content.

Confirm that the site you want to guest post with promotes the author’s site and/or giveaway gift.

If you don’t, you might end up like Sam. By some measures Sam had a hit guest post. But unfortunately it did absolutely nothing for his business:

Talk about anti-climactic!

Recently I was doing a Pitch Perfect session for my student Logan. Pitch Perfect a chance for students to work one-on-one with me on their guest post pitch emails.

Logan signed up for Pitch Perfect because she felt that even though she had a lot of success helping clients, she didn't feel she was selling herself well enough in her guest post pitch emails. 

She felt the culprit behind this was that she did not have the right credentials to sell influencers on her guest post.

So she did what most people do in such a situation--pack her pitch with as many credentials as she could. 

Her hope was that this would convince influencers that she was a legit expert and not just some flash in the pan coach. Ultimately she hoped this would be enough for them to let her guest post.

She has been disappointed to discover that her pitches had gotten absolutely zero response.

I on the other hand was not surprised.

You see credential packed pitches are one of the first things I look for when someone sends over a failed pitch.

Let's talk about why credential packed guest post pitch emails fail.

Even though most people think that packing a guest post pitch email with credentials, is the best most logical way to sell the influencer on the value of their guest post, that approach rarely works.

You see before an influencer can even begin to assess your pitch logically, their emotional brain needs to green-light it first.

And unless the credentials you have packed your guest post pitch email with have a personal meaning for the influencer, you can almost bet that their emotional brain will not green-light your pitch.

The reason? A busy influencer’s emotional brain sees your credential packed pitch as yet another distraction from their goals.

And distractions can kick off a fight, flight, or freeze response in influencers.

Unfortunately for your guest post pitch that could mean being harshly rejected, silently ignored, or placed in a deal-with-it-later-pile.