How to Land a Guest Post on a HUGE Blog—Now

I recently got the biggest opportunity I've ever had in my year-and-some-change of blogging: I wrote a guest post for the hugely popular blog, Zen Habits.

There's a good chance you've heard of it, even though it's not in the health niche, per se.  With maybe 150,000 subscribers (as in 10 times even the largest health blogs I know), Zen Habits is one of the most popular blogs on the web.

The results were pretty much what you'd expect.  Several thousand visitors to my blog, 300 new RSS subscribers, a couple interview requests, links from new blogs in new niches, and increased Google traffic due to the link.

In other words, the most exciting several days of blogging I've ever had.

Guest Posting as a Traffic Building Tool

In the food and health blog niche, guest-posting serves more of a fill-in role than a marketing role.  We help each other out when someone's going on vacation.

But in other niches, guest-posting is known as the best way to grow your blog.  If you have 1000 readers, every new post you write might reach another 10 or 20.  When you write for another blog that has 1000 readers (or 10,000 readers, or 100,000 readers), you have the opportunity to multiply your readership overnight.

You also get a backlink or two out of it, usually with exactly the keywords you want, and as an SEO strategy you can't beat that.

Five Steps to Landing a Huge Guest Post Spot

So here's how you make it happen.  These are the steps I followed to land my guest post opportunity.  Use them; they work.  One final piece of advice before you get started: Don't limit yourself.  I was sure Leo (the guy behind Zen Habits) would say no.  But I asked anyway, and look what happened.

1. Find the right blog.

You definitely want to go big (as in, bigger than you).  The question is how big.

Pick a blog just a little bigger than yours, and it's likely you'll succeed.  It's not too hard to build a relationship with that blogger and get them to read your post, and if it's good, they'll post it.  Maybe you'll even exchange guest posts.

Pick someone huge, someone where it seems that a single link from them would absolutely MAKE your blog, and your chances of success go down (but my example is proof that this doesn't mean you shouldn't try).

"How big?" really isn't the question I think you should be answering.  "What blog could I write an absolutely killer post for?" is better.  The perfect topic (and headline) can get you on a blog that it feels like you have no business being on.

2. Develop a relationship.

The bigger the blogger, the tougher this is.

Leave comments on their blog.  Reach out and retweet their stuff, or link to them in a post.

The point of this step is so that when you pitch them your post idea, you're not a total stranger.  Of the guest post requests I get, so many are automated, from people I've never interacted with before, or from businesses that have almost no tie to No Meat Athlete's content and are simply looking for a backlink.  That's no way to get a guest post spot.

3. Come up with the perfect post idea and pitch it.

If this step is easy, you're on the right track.  Ideally, the choice of which blog to target was dictated by which blog you could write a great post for, and chances are, you already have a few ideas for posts in mind.

Now it's time to do some homework.  Watch what the blogger links to and retweets to get an idea of what he or she finds interesting.  Look at the titles of their posts and the subject matter.

Use this information to solidify exactly what you'd like to post about, and come up with a catchy (if tentative) title for it.  Cosmopolitan, anyone?

Finally, make your pitch.  Use what you know about the blogger to do this as appropriately as possible.  If you're close enough with the blogger that email isn't going to weird them out, then do that.  Otherwise, send them a tweet.

When I pitched Leo of Zen Habits on my idea to write a post about trail running, I knew he didn't respond to emails, but that he did use Twitter.  So I crammed my pitch into 140 characters or less, rather than annoy the guy by invading his email inbox.

Once Leo gave me permission to email him some details, I included a link to a similar post I had written for my blog, to give him an idea of what my writing style was like.  He gave me the green light, I cheered so loudly my wife thought I was crazy, and it was onto the next step.

4. Write the post.  (And make it damn good.)

This is the time to write your best content.  When you have the forum of a much bigger blog to spread your message, the post you write is more important than any you've ever written for your own blog.

Make it good.  First, since you haven't locked up your guest post spot until the blogger has approved your post, make it fit their style.  If they use a lot of subheads, use subheads.  If they favor lists, write a list.

Be yourself, but fit their mold.  You're a guest, after all.

It took me five days to write the Zen Habits post.  Leo had given me a few ideas of what he'd like to see, and I made sure to include all of them in my own style.  I did something I rarely do for my own blog—actual research.  I edited meticulously, and I even paid for a stock image to include, like the ones I saw on Zen Habits.

Finally, don't forget to write your tagline. "So and so writes the blog XYZ and does so and so."  Only make it good.  Ideally, use the keywords you care about in your backlink, rather than your blog title. (I didn't know this yet when I wrote my guest post.)

Or, even better, if you think the blogger will allow it, link instead to some of your best content in the tagline.  A landing page, perhaps.  Letting readers know they can click over and get something awesome, rather than just your blog homepage, will increase the number of people who visit your blog from the big one.

And what about links to your own blog in the actual content of your guest post?

If they're extremely relevant, I say go for it.  But I wouldn't do it more than once, for fear of sending the wrong message to the blogger and having your post rejected.

5. Once it's accepted and published, promote the hell out of it.

When your post is in the spotlight of a much bigger blog, you have a bigger chance of going viral than ever before.  So do everything you can to help with that.

Link to it.  Tweet about it.  Ask for retweets.  Share it on Facebook.  Email your friends and brag.  Post it on forums that you belong to.  Beg people to go check out your name in lights.

Now, Do Something

The only way you'll get the chance to guest post on a bigger blog is if you take action.  Bigger bloggers aren't going to ask you to guest post.  You have to go get it.