Let’s say you want to pitch a guest article for a site. How do you do it? What should you say?
This is a template I’ve used and iterated on for years. But the template alone isn’t the answer:
- You need to write you focused emails
- You need to follow-up after you send an email, two, three, or four+ times
- You need to add value in each follow-up email you send
When you focus on those three elements, then you’ll write emails that get your guest articles placed.
This is the template I use, originally adapted from Ramit’s guest post template:
Subject: 3 guest article ideas: TOPIC 1, TOPIC 2, TOPIC 3
Hi EDITOR NAME,
My name is YOUR NAME and I run YOUR SITE. ONE OR TWO SENTENCES ABOUT YOUR POSITIONING, WHY YOU’RE RELEVANT, OR WHAT’S IMPORTANT. FOCUS ON BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP HERE.
I’m interested in writing a guest article for you — something you’ve never posted on or that connects to your most popular content — and I have 3 ideas that I think will teach your readers something new:
[1] Topic #1
– Some interesting, fresh idea 1
– Some interesting, fresh idea 2
– Some interesting, fresh idea 3[2] Topic #2
– Some interesting, fresh idea 1
– Some interesting, fresh idea 2
– Some interesting, fresh idea 3[3] Topic #3
– Some interesting, fresh idea 1
– Some interesting, fresh idea 2
– Some interesting, fresh idea 3I know you’re busy, so I can write everything up and send it to you in one document, which you can drop right into WEBSITE PLATFORM.
I’ll handle all editing, bylines, etc (feel free to edit) so this is super-easy for you. Plus, I promise the article will get your readers thinking and talking to each other.
As a next step, just reply back with which topic would be best for your audience (feel free to just send the number for the topic you’re interested in).
Thanks,
– YOUR NAME
p.s., I recently posted a guest article on the topic of GUEST ARTICLE TOPIC on OTHER SITE. Check it out here (LINK) to get a better idea of my perspective on this topic and how I write.
Common mistakes with guest posts
- Writing the guest post before you pitch. You want to send multiple ideas, with bullet-pointed sub-points, and let the editor suggest the best one for their audience.
- Not doing your research. First, note how you’re recommended to format and present posts on the site you’re pitching, then copy that format and presentation for your posts. Second, read the most popular posts on that site and understand how they view the world. If you’re writing something that their audience would never read, it shows that you’ve never read their site nor understood its key messages. Educate yourself on the type of content they share.
- Not sending writing samples. Until they get to know you, you’re a risk. They don’t want their team to spend time emailing back-and-forth if the end result turns out to be a crappy article. And they don’t want to disappoint you by saying “no” after you put in work writing your post. So send writing samples so they can understand if you’re a good fit.
- Underestimating how long it takes to write a good post. An average, high-quality guest article can take 4-8 hours to write. Be prepared to put in the time if you want to play the game.
- Making the editor do additional work. When you submit the final guest post, it should be fully ready to be inserted into their Content Management System and it will just magically work. This means you should write your byline, format your post, add images on your own server (but also attach them to the email), and otherwise make it 100% ready to go.
