You only get one chance to get a guest post accepted.

That’s why writing a good pitch is so important. There are many different ways to write a pitch, but it needs to contain some important factors in order to work.

Here is what a good pitch should include:

• Address the blogger or editor by name.
  If you’ve been following along with this course, you’ve done your research, and hopefully even established some connect with the blogger through comments and social media.

• Say why you love the blog you’d like to write for.
  Here’s where all your research pays off. Refer to a post you especially enjoy. Choose a post written by the blogger, and not by a guest poster.

• Introduce yourself briefly.
  Mention your background, what you’re passionate about, and the name of your blog. One sentence should do it.

• Give a reason why the blog’s readers would benefit from your guest post.
  Say why the post would be useful. Maybe the topic hasn’t been covered yet, or commenters have asked questions about the topic you’re proposing.

• Introduce your proposed guest post.
  Make sure you give it a snappy title and offer the blogger a bulleted outline. Mention that it has not been published anywhere.

• Make it a no-work offer.
  Bloggers are busy. You could offer to send the post in the body of an email for easy reading, as well as attaching a ready formatted html version as a text file. Like this: If you would like to take a look at my proposed guest post, I could email it to you and attach a text file with a fully formatted html version, as well as some suggested images.
  (Don’t worry if you don’t know html. See below for instructions on how to format your post.)
  

• Link to your one or two of your best posts.
  The blogger will want to know how you write. Link to one of your best posts, making sure the topic is one that would work well for the blog to which you are pitching your guest post.

• Do a discreet name-drop.
  If you’ve already landed a guest post on a good-sized blog, name the blogger and give a link. As members of A-List Blogging, you can mention that you’ve worked with Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch in A-List Blogging.

• Finish with a call to action.
  You need to state what you would like the blogger to do next. The best strategy is to focus on getting to the next ‘yes’. For example, you could say something like, ‘Please let me know if you would like to have a look at my proposed guest post‘, or ‘ What do you think? Should I send it over?’

Keep the pitch short. Bloggers are busy and don’t want to wade through a long email.

How to format your guest post for the blogger’s convenience

As mentioned above, the most successful guest posters submit their posts in two ways: in an easily readable form such as in the body of an email or an attached Word document, and as a text file that includes all the necessary html tags. This is because copying and pasting from Word or another program can cause wonky code to mess up the formatting when the post is placed in the blog itself.

It’s easy for even non-coders to submit posts this way. Here’s what to do:

• Open up a ‘New Post’ draft page on your own WordPress blog.

• Write your guest post here. Add in all your bolding, subheads and other formatting using the toolbar as usual.

• Once it is edited to perfection, click on the tab that says ‘Text’ (next to the ‘Visual’ tab, which is where you write your post.)

• You’ll see your post all formatted in HTML. Open up a plain text file. Copy the html version of your post into the text document, and that’s it!

Evaluate some real life pitches

Take a look at the following pitches to check out whether they include any, some, or all of the features above. They are real-life examples of pitches for Write to Done.

Imagine that you are an editor and must decide upon reading the pitch whether to follow up or not.

Hi,

I am William K…
I am interested in writing a guest post for your blog.
I would like to know if you accept a post titled as “Tips for writing a perfect marketing plan for an online wholesale enterprise” on your blog.

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

Regards,
…

Would William’s pitch go into the trash pile, or would you follow it up?

I’m sure you would do what I did with this pitch:

Nothing.

It’s not worth even answering because the sender has just sent out a generic email to a heap of blogs – without even doing the most basic research – which is to find out the bloggers’s name. Another unfortunate aspect of this pitch is that three out of four sentences start with the word I.

Let’s take a look at another pitch:

Hello,

My name is Sam M…, chief writer/editor for …com. I’d love nothing more than to share some of my opinions and thoughts with the readers of your blog.

If you have any guest author guidelines, don’t hesitate to send those along in the meantime.

I look forward to hearing back from you, and hopefully we can figure out a way to work together!

Kindly,

Sam

What do you think about this pitch?

A good question to ask is: who benefits? In Sam’s pitch, there is no sense of being of service to the readers of the blog he wants to write for. He’s keen to trumpet his opinions – but what about the readers? How would they benefit?

I’m also unhappy about the phrase, hopefully we can figure out a way to work together. As an Editor of a big blog, I wouldn’t consider working together with someone who sends me a pitch out of the blue. A word that comes to my mind when reading Sam’s pitch is: opinionated.

What about this pitch?:

Hey Mary,

I’ve been a big fan of yours for a while now. LOVE your content. So good.

I wrote a post the other day called “Instant Flow: How to Train Your Mind to Think Creatively”…and it occurred to me that it would be a great fit for your audience. I know a lot of writers struggle with writer’s block and I think your readers would get a lot out of it.

To get an idea of my writing style, you can check out my recent post over at Illuminated Mind here.

What do you think? Should I send it over?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you,

Logan

What do you think? Would you take this further?

I liked the pitch and Logan got his guest post. The only thing he could have added to improve his pitch is to say that the post he’s proposing is unpublished. That’s a very important point!

Here’s another pitch:

Hi Mary,

What do you think about Tabita’s pitch? What was good, and what could she improve?

I had a look at Tabita’s guest post and it was well written and informative. She is getting a guest post slot. The tone of her pitch is lovely. I would have liked to know a bit more about her. Just one sentence would have been enough. And I would have liked to see a couple of links to her best posts.

As you can see, the good pitches showed most of the features listed above.

You can use this post as a checklist for your guest post pitches.

Author: Mary Jaksch