The Ultimate Guide: How to Find Blogs that Accept Guest Posts

There’s a lot to be said about marketing in today’s web landscape. There’s a massive overflow of content that at times feels suffocating (quantity over quality rules), with everyone trying to be the next big thing in any way they can.

This brings to mind the oddly familiar tree falling in the woods without anyone there to hear it conundrum, doesn’t it?

Know where you stand

Approaches and strategies to marketing can vary wildly depending on many factors, with the most prominent being:

Brand recognition – if your brand is already known, you can go so far as to just put your logo on an ad without any context, and you’ll probably get your message across. This high level of brand awareness can be seen in companies like Google, Apple, Nike, McDonald’s, etc. All worldwide brands that require little to no effort to promote further.

Dedicated staff – the bigger you are, the easier it is essentially. Large companies enjoy the luxury (read finances) of having entire marketing departments, or at least teams of people dedicated solely to building up their image through campaigns, social media, endorsements, etc. Someone who’s just starting out is probably putting on a one-man show, doing everything the job requires, which means the results can’t be the same.

Budget – money makes the world go round, after all. There is no rule about the amount you need to spend in order to get back more, but usually, if you spend a decent sum, you’ll be featured in people’s (potential customers’) lives more. One ad a day on Facebook isn’t the same as multiple TV ads, an email campaign, promotions featured on Google and YouTube, etc. There is always the chance your content will go viral, but there’s also a chance you’ll win the lottery, and, in that case, you won’t need to worry about work or marketing.

There certainly are more factors to consider, but these are the ones that make the most difference between people that have access to certain assets and those that don’t.

When seeking a blog to contribute guest posts, evaluating the blog’s security measures, including robust DMARC configuring, becomes paramount. This ensures that your interactions are shielded from potential email threats, establishing a trustworthy environment for successful collaborations.

(Un)conventional methods

After reading through the list above, you can probably pick up on the theme here (not everybody starts from the same place). It isn’t there to be discouraging, but instead to give you perspective. You simply can’t apply the same strategy in every situation. There is no universal truth or cheat code that will get you clicks by default. Furthermore, it can be detrimental to your business/blog/project if you’re pushing against the tide with a strategy that was successful for a large company, and you’re just a start-up.

First, you’ll get discouraged, then you’ll burn out, and chances are failure will be right around the corner. What you need to do is try using a different way to separate yourself from others positively. To put it short, you’re looking to be unique; do something that will ultimately get you noticed without having to flood the web with anything and everything with your name on it. Might we suggest guest posting?

Since you’re opting for the low-key, subtle approach and not just throwing money at an issue there are things you’ll need to know in order to do it right.

To start off, you need to actually create quality content that won’t come off as just a cheap sales pitch. Additionally, you need to research the best sites to host your content since not all of them offer the same benefits.

We’ll delve deeper into how to find the perfect sites in just a bit, but first, let’s go over some of the main benefits of guest posting (if you aren’t sold on it already).

Building the brand

Again, we start with the “brand”. Building up your brand through guest posting is all about good exposure.

Let’s say you’re just starting up a website about antique clocks. You know everything there is to know about them, but since your site is relatively unknown, there isn’t much traffic. After a bit of searching, you’ve found a site of a business that sells and repairs antique clocks (which already has a foothold in the field) – this is your perfect host. Once you partner with them, publishing your content (that has several links to your pages) will net you views from their visitors, which will, in turn, lead those visitors to your site and possibly turn them into your audience.

From there, you have the option to build upon your niche by posting on antique clock decorating or collecting sites, netting you an even wider audience, and so on.

The point is to always build within your niche first since these visitors will most likely be interested in what you’re publishing. After all, there isn’t much sense in writing about antique clocks on a culinary site.

Know your stuff

Never forget that the sites hosting your posts are putting their reputation on the line, at least if we’re talking about reputable sites since some will publish anything if it gets them clicks.

On the other hand, if you’re being hosted by a site with high domain authority (we’ll cover this later) and do well, your credibility will increase, making your publications the ones to look for on specific topics.

Over time, you’ll find yourself to be the one doing the hosting because of the high traffic flow. This can be universally applied to products and services as well as articles and columns. Word of advice, though – credibility is hard to gain but very easy to lose, so always be mindful of what you’re publishing.

Google Authorship

Did you know that, just like our solar system orbits the sun, so does the web revolve around Google? We’ll spare you from any further bad jokes about how important it is for Google to recognize your content as worthwhile, and we’ll focus on one thing in particular – Google Authorship.

If you’re using Google+, you can have your picture come up alongside every article you’ve written. However, something else is even more important – Google Authorship improves your ranking in the search results, a crucial metric if there ever was one.

This will represent just one of the multiple steps on your way to the coveted first page.

Relationships

You’ve probably heard the phrase “it’s not what you know, but who you know”, and while we certainly feel that it’s important to know something, knowing someone is equally as important.

By using guest posting as a marketing mechanism, you create connections with people from your field and wider that can prove to be helpful in the future. Through these connections, you’ll also be upgrading your craft – you’ll want them to be satisfied, so you’ll push yourself to up your game even further.

Good connections could mean that your hosts will incentivize your posts even further by doing things like featuring them on the homepage or linking to them in their other posts.

Down the line, there’s also always the possibility of you branching out, where you’ll be able to build upon solid relationships once again.

What to avoid

Until now, we’ve focused on the positives of guest posting, but let’s quickly take a look at what you should avoid. The most obvious problem could be with finding the host site itself. We’ll go through what to look for in much detail a bit later, but for now, here are the red flags you should always be wary of:

Sites with a bad reputation – this extends not only to the content they publish but generally to how they function. For example, sites that get flagged because of a lack of certificates, or those that are noticed by malware/spyware/virus detectors, you should stay clear off no matter the potential benefits (at least until the issues are sorted).

New sites – we’re not saying new is necessarily bad; however, there isn’t much point in posting on a site of similar reputation and reach. Instead, you can spend your time and energy on growing your site and partnering with those that are already well established.

Poor content – we’re referring to you now as a guest poster. The word goes around, nowadays, extremely quickly. This is why you can’t expect others to host your content if it’s fraudulent, plagiarized, or flat out bad, at least not in the long run. So make sure you’ve checked your facts, given credit where it’s due, and wrote content at a level exceeding that of a middle school essay. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself out in the cold as no one will go forward with publishing your content.

Spam score – just as its name suggests, the spam score of a site is a determining factor in how that site is perceived on the web. A high spam score means that links forwarding visitors to your pages will be low-quality links, i.e., spam. For that reason, your SEO rating will suffer, causing your pages’ rank to drop in the search results. So, avoid guest posting on sites with a high spam score even if every other metric tells you otherwise; it’s simply not worth it in the long run.

Sites, sites everywhere

At this point, you should know what you’ll get from guest posting and what you should avoid when using this method. But now, finally, we’ve come to the part where we’ll go over how to spot a good site for hosting your posts and how to get them to offer you their hosting.

While finding a hosting site is not rocket science, it’s still a process that takes time and research to complete. Therefore, if you’re looking for guidelines, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s start off with what sites you should be targeting, specifically what metrics are crucial for the best results.

SEO rating

We’ve mentioned Google already, and here we go again. Truthfully, SEO rating is mostly universal for all search engines, but really it’s only Google that matters, regardless of what anybody says. The SEO rating is a boiled down number that represents how high your page(s) will be featured as search engine results. If the number is high, you’ll get on the first page in no time. If it’s low, you need to step it up.

Naturally, you’ll want to align yourself with the top-tier sites because those will have the most traffic and, in turn, the highest potential audience for you as well.

Just how important the first and second pages are can be clearly seen from the fact that 91% of all searches don’t go beyond the first page, and 96% don’t go beyond the second page. Essentially, if your host isn’t featured in the top results, it’s doubtful guest posting on their pages will yield many results for you.

Backlinks

While we don’t have insight into the famous Google search algorithm’s inner workings, some factors are known to have a significant impact – one of these is backlinks. For guest posting, you need to consider backlinks leading to the site hosting your content (these will make their pages rank higher) and also backlinks that lead to your site from that content.

Keep in mind that to positively affect the algorithm, the backlinks need to be “good” (no spam or sites with low scores across the board). Essentially, it’s a circle where top sites link to other top sites because they know it’s safe with only reputable sites being involved. Your goal is to get in on these connections to build your own status.

Keywords

Just like backlinks, keywords are an essential attribute that’s considered by the Google algorithm and which determines the SEO rating. To take full advantage of the right keywords, you should look at sites that use the same ones that apply to your topics – these will usually be sites that cover the same field(s) of interest as yours does.

There are various ways to choose the optimal keywords and find similar ones on sites that offer guest post hosting opportunities. The most straightforward route would be to simply type them into search engines and see what pops up, while a more advanced approach requires specialized software that singles out the best keywords to use.

Either way, you go, make a list of your top keywords and sites that use them. On top of that list should be sites that would use keywords almost identical to yours, and as you move down the list, there will be more and more differences.

Also, since you’re looking to come off as unique, don’t be afraid to try out unconventional keywords for your pages.

Domain authority

We’ve already mentioned domain authority, so it’s only fair to highlight this very important metric and expand on it further. Domain authority is an advanced metric that factors in various statistics regarding a site and boils them down to a single, measurable rating.

Since it’s an advanced metric, it won’t be based solely on traffic numbers, reach, and content quality (although those are considered). A mixture of different statistics, such as these, results in even smaller scale sites with high-quality content having an above-average rating.

The domain authority rating is above all else a “quality above quantity” indicator. So when looking at potential guest post hosts, try to find sites with a rating of 30 or more (the 0-100 range is applied).

Social media

It’s rather self-evident why you should be looking for sites with a strong social media presence. Nowadays, everything is shared, liked, and followed, and you should aim to get in on that train.

If you’re working the numbers, it’s easy to see that the greatest chances for success come when you’re guest posting on sites that already have a foothold on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. This way, you can be sure that some of that attention will be directed your way.

Look, and you will find

Knowing what to look for in sites that accept guest posts is one thing; getting those sites to host your posts is a different matter entirely. So let’s go over what you can do when searching for that ever-elusive perfect site.

Direct approach

There’s something to be said about going for what you want in a straight line. Single out your perfect site or sites; research where they stand on guest posting, and finally contact them directly. You can use cold email outreach software to reach out to them. If you’re lucky, they could offer guest posting opportunities regularly, and all you’ll need to do is fill out a predefined form.

Alternatively, try searching their site for terms like “guest post” or “contributor”. And finally, even if you can’t find any of the things mentioned, or they don’t yield results, you can always write an email or contact them through social media to get your proverbial foot through the door.

Google search

We simply can’t stay away from Google, can we? Just as we’ve suggested several times thus far, you can use Google to search (you’d be searching by keywords and/or keyphrases) for sites that actively promote the fact they accept guest posts; you’d be surprised how many there are out there.

Google has a pretty good algorithm, but nothing is perfect, so before committing to a site, even if it’s at the top of the results page, be sure to check its credentials (we’ve covered what to look for a couple of paragraphs earlier).

Besides searching for sites directly, you can also turn to “mediator” sites that specialize in listing sites that provide guest posting opportunities. These should be even easier to find because they’re designed to pop up in searches like “guest posting” or “post contributing”. List sites can contain thousands of suggestions from various fields, so you can easily find anything you might be looking for.

Social media (again)

You can also use social media platforms to pinpoint the best sites for guest posting. There are two ways you can approach this search. On the one hand, you can pinpoint the top options in your target field (the ones with the most shares, comments, followers, etc.) and contact them. On the other hand, you can look for other contributors, i.e., reputable authors, see where they publish their content, and then just contact the same sites.

So if you’re looking for a boost in your brand awareness that is centered around social media platforms, then you’ll need to be looking for these types of sites for the best results.

Specialized software

Of course, in the end, you can always use software designed specifically for finding you the optimal site for guest posting. One of the ways these pieces of software work centers around you, highlighting your ideal site and then listing similar sites that provide guest posting opportunities and attract the same audience.

This is a great way to search because you’re not trying to find something overly specific but are instead casting a wide net where the chance of success is much higher.

Free vs. sponsored

If you’ve gotten this far, you already know a lot about guest posting, but there is one more thing that requires highlighting. Up until this point, we’ve focused on guest posting in its free; some would say pure form, where your goal is to create quality content, backlinks and ultimately grow interest in your work across the board.

There are, however, sponsored posts that work in much the same way mechanics-wise but are essentially ads. These usually come in the form of “reviews” and are used to put the spotlight on a product or service instead of objectively reviewing it.

Advertising companies are always on the lookout for new content creators for these types of tasks, and the incentives they give often include things like a free product, multiple post deals, financial compensation, etc. The author’s stance on the product/service either comes as a full review or a simple plug and is always positive because of the incentives.

Since sponsored posts are becoming an ever more popular form of marketing, in case you’re looking to keep your site and backlinks free of them, try and find out where the sites you’re contacting stand on the issue. Naturally, if you’re looking to become this type of content creator, this doesn’t apply.

Blogs that accept Guest Posts

With all the knowledge about a guest posting you now possess, you’ll easily find the perfect site for your needs in the following list; there’s sure to be something for everyone.

Web Design & Development, WordPress, SEO, Digital Marketing, Tech:

• UnderConstructionPage: underconstructionpage.com/blog/
• NavThemes: navthemes.com
• WP Newsify: wpnewsify.com
• WebFactory blog: www.webfactoryltd.com/blog/
• Theme Circle: www.themecircle.net
• WP Sauce: wpsauce.com
• Google Maps Widget: www.gmapswidget.com/blog/
• ComingSoon: comingsoonwp.com/blog/
• TidyRepo: tidyrepo.com
• MyWPTips – mywptips.com
• ResizeMyImg – resizemyimg.com/blog/
• WP Pluginsify – wppluginsify.com
• Enstine Muki – enstinemuki.com/blog/
• WP Author Box – wpauthorbox.com/blog/
• BlogWolf – blogwolf.com
• WP 301 Redirect – wp301redirects.com/blog/
• The Better Web Movement – thebetterwebmovement.com
• Web Designer Ledger – https://webdesignledger.com/
• Web Designer Depot – https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/
• The Design Range – http://www.thedesignrange.com/
• Techwyse – https://www.techwyse.com/
• Digital Matters Blog – http://blog.activatemedia.com/
• Instant Shift – instantshift.com
• Web And Designers – http://www.webanddesigners.com/
• Vandelay Design – http://www.vandelaydesign.com/
• New Relic’s Blog – https://blog.newrelic.com/
• CSS Tricks – https://css-tricks.com/
• CodeBurst – https://codeburst.io/
• Smashing Magazine – https://www.smashingmagazine.com/
• Template Monster – https://www.templatemonster.com/blog/
• SpeckyBoy – https://speckyboy.com/
• BuzzFeed – https://www.buzzfeed.com/
• Blogher – http://www.blogher.com/
• WP Designer – https://wpdesigner.com/