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The ultimate checklist for guest articles

How do you write a successful guest article?

Simple – with our checklist!

In content marketing, publishing guest articles is a popular way to increase one’ s reach and awareness. But it’s hard to get started: How do you find the right guest blogs and how do you strike the right note? In our blog you will find the ultimate guide for successful guest articles. And as a free download we provide you with a handy checklist.

The 2 perspectives in publishing guest articles

The publisher who makes his blog available to the guest author as a stage must first of all be aware that a guest article can have more than just positive effects. Although it provides easy access to new content, not all content is the same. Because a guest article that cannot be integrated into the blog without barriers causes only one thing: a lot of work.

From the authors’ perspective, the main motive for writing a guest article is to increase their visibility and awareness. If a well-known blog with a high reach publishes a guest article, the reputation of the blog is also transferred to the guest author. But the performance must be correspondingly: To achieve a positive effect for the author, guest contributions need to be of the highest quality.

Step 1: Finding the right blog

No matter how good your guest post may be, if you don’t find the right blog to publish it, the effect will be close to zero. To prevent this, you should carefully consider the potential guest blogs that exist in your niche. Make sure that the topic you would like to cover in your guest article hasn’t already been covered in detail umpteen times. In addition, your guest article will only attract attention if the blog has a certain degree of popularity in conjunction with an active readership. Once you have found a blog that meets all these criteria, you should check it to see if guest articles can be published there. The easiest way to do this is to check whether guest contributions already exist or to send an email to the editor and ask him if he would be interested.

TIP: DON’T MAKE TOO MANY COMPROMISES WHEN SELECTING A BLOG, OTHERWISE YOU WILL END UP WASTING RESOURCES THAT YOU COULD HAVE USED MORE EFFECTIVELY.

Step 2: Developing ideas

Great, you have found a suitable blog! But that is only half the story. In a second step you should start to develop some article ideas. This is the only way the editor of the guest blog will be able to choose the most suitable article from your selection. When coming up with ideas, make sure to consider the benefits of this article for the reader. If the benefit seems too small to you, change your idea until you see a clear benefit for the reader. Already during the idea generation process, you should think about what your article should achieve. Formulate goals (keyword: SMART) that can be clearly classified as fulfilled or not fulfilled in retrospect. Such goals can include, for example:

to win new readers
to win new customers
or to increase your brand awareness

TIP: THE SELECTION YOU OFFER TO THE BLOG HOST SHOULD CONTAIN DIFFERENT TOPICS, NOT 3 VERY SIMILAR ARTICLES.

Download for free!