The Big Mistakes of Guest Blogging

Link building and SEO both have the potential to be an enjoyable and edifying experience for everybody involved. That said, it takes more than a little bit of skill, not to mention common sense, to be an effective guest blogger. Knowing what to do will point you in the right direction. However, a thorough understanding of what not to do is also going to be critically important as you go forward into the brave new world of link building.

The Outreach Email

The outreach email is the first step toward getting your work out there for the world to see. At some point in your initial email, you want the blogger in question to have that Leonardo DiCaprio moment from Django Unchained: “You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.” You can be certain that bloggers view outreach emails with as much trepidation as they do excitement, so coming across as professional, competent, and respectful is the first step toward a longer working relationship.

So what are the qualities of a terrible outreach email? Let’s have a look at an example and then take it apart to see what makes it so bad.

To whom it may concern,

You’re a well-known blogger, so I know you know quality content when you see it. I’d like a moment of your attention so that you can consider me as a guest blogger. I know that the content my client, [Company Name Here], has to offer will interest and benefit not only yourself, but your readers.

Kind regards,
[Insert Name Here]

Where to even begin? For starters, this email is almost hilariously generic. Problems start right away when the outreacher uses “to whom it may concern.” It’s almost always a good idea to know the name of the person you’re writing to. If first impressions are everything, then it reflects the fact that you’ve done, quite literally, the minimum research required. It’s also a sign of respect, which is critically important in this business.

Things don’t get any better from there. If you don’t know the name of the blogger you’re writing to, you certainly can’t know for sure that they’re “well-known.” While you want to come across as respectful, you never want to sound like a sycophant. All you need to do is let the blogger know that you respect them enough to have learned their name and done some research about their blog.

So what’s next? It’s generally considered bad form to mention the name of your client in your outreach email. If you’re new to outreach, you might be putting your clients in a bad light with your first few (potentially terrible) outreach emails. Keep your cards close to the vest for starters, then work from there.

One final note on this, and it’s pretty obvious: this email, as we noted above, is terribly generic. It doesn’t mention any of the specifics of what the guest post will cover, which of course will just cause more doubt about whether they actually know what the blog is all about. If they don’t know the name of the person they’re emailing, there’s no way to be certain that their content will be a good fit.

So we’ve got red flags everywhere, and this is only step one.

The Guest Post

Suppose you somehow get accepted with a terrible, generic, or excessively sycophantic outreach email. How else can you shoot yourself in the foot? This is the point where having at least some imagination is going to come in handy. One of the most frequent complaints among bloggers when it comes to guest posts is the use of frightfully obvious keywords. You’ll generally want to keep these in the body of the text, rather than pasted into subheadings. You come across as an amateur when each of your keywords is a subheading. As essential blogging techniques go, this is one of the fundamentals.

Next up: grammar. If you don’t proofread your guest posts, you’re just asking for public ridicule. Honestly, it only takes a few minutes. If you’re too lazy, there are even automated tools available such as Polish My Writing that you can use if you’re pressed for time. Generally, though, web-based tools like that should be used sparingly; there’s no substitute for just taking the time to correct any grammatical or punctuation errors yourself.

Here’s another big one, and it’s truly a shame that it even needs to be said. Don’t ever, ever copy content from elsewhere. If you’ve found work in online marketing, there’s a very good chance you’ve been to college, and before that, grade school. Plagiarism didn’t work in school’s microcosm of life, so don’t expect to get away with it in the real world. There are plenty of tools available for bloggers to check the authenticity and originality of the content they receive. If your work doesn’t pass a Copyscape test, it’s certainly not going to pass muster with your blogger.

Other Considerations

For the most part, what we’ve covered here has been common sense. To recap: do research before you begin your outreach, proofread your content, and don’t plagiarize. Simple enough.

That said, there are a bunch of other things you’ll want to avoid, as well as some generally helpful tricks, that you’ll want to keep in mind if you want to find success in this field. Ever heard the phrase “it’s all about who you know”? Of course you have. It applies readily to a career in online marketing. Generally speaking, bloggers are going to be more likely to respond favorably to someone who they were introduced to by a mutual connection. Something to be constantly aware of is how best to leverage your industry connections. What this means is you might want to bookmark LinkedIn for quick access to your contacts.

Another big part of this is to remember to keep records of who you’ve reached out to, and what their response was. There’s no better way of burning a bridge than to reach out to the same blogger a bunch of times with the same lousy pitch. Keep a spreadsheet or notes; do whatever you have to do to remember who you’ve reached out to, and who would be receptive to further communication in the future.

One last thing: don’t be a mercenary. Don’t send multiple proposals to the same blogger just because your first pitch was turned down. Move on, learn a thing or two, and start looking elsewhere. There are, as that tired saying goes, plenty of fish in the sea.

resource: http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/10/24/big-mistakes-guest-blogging/