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3 Quick Ways to Find Hidden Guest Blogging Opportunities

written by Rae Hoffman
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3 Quick Ways to Find Hidden Guest Blogging Opportunities

Guest posting is a great strategy for building an audience — no doubt about it.

If you regularly write guest posts for legitimate blogs that feature quality content, your posts can be an amazing source of traffic and inbound links.

Guest blogging just works … when you do it right.

But finding quality guest posting opportunities can be a chore. Everyone who needs guest posting gigs is searching Google for terms like “guest posts.”

That means the bloggers that rise to the top of that search are completely inundated with guest posting requests. Your request will probably get lost in the shuffle.

Your job is to ferret out the guest blogging opportunities that no one else knows about.

Here are three quick ways to do great research that will move you one step closer to those powerful, yet lesser-known opportunities.

Topsy

I love Topsy.

I use it to come up with new blog post ideas, but you can use it to find guest blogging prospects as well.

Topsy searches the social web (Google+ and Twitter) for popular topics. By doing a search for “guest post” and limiting your search to articles shared within the recent past, you can find new guest post possibilities before your competition does.

If I wrote a cooking blog, I might search Topsy for [“guest post” cooking] and use the left sidebar to narrow down the results. I can ask Topsy to show me the links that were shared on Twitter within the last 13 days, and sort the results by date. At the time of this writing, Topsy showed me 37 results for that particular search parameter, and that means 37 new prospects who might be willing to publish a guest post from me.

Topsy also gives you social sharing information at a glance. By examining how many times each blog post was shared on Twitter, you can ascertain which opportunities might translate into the best exposure for you and your brand.

Google+

Although Topsy does search Google+ for shared topics, it does so very poorly. The search that I ran above (for a guest post on cooking) showed me only three links shared on Google+, even using the “all time” filter.

But when I run the same search using the actual Google+ interface, I get a lot more results. That means more guest blogging opportunities for you — and probably in places that no one else is looking.

Once you find some good bloggers to connect with, you can use your Google+ account to comment on the articles, then add those bloggers to your circles. This a great way to connect with your target bloggers in a non-threatening, gentle way.

Then you’re set up well to build your relationship with them via social media interactions. A solid relationship with a blogger means that when you do finally reach out to him or her to ask for a guest posting gig, they’ll recognize your name — and that means you’ll be considerably less likely to go straight into the circular file.

Bing

Yes, there is another search engine!

Bing attracts about 165 million searchers every month, and is often listed as the second-largest search engine in the world.

Here’s why you should care about Bing — the Bing engine ranks their search results differently than Google. Why is that important? Because you can use the same search strings in Google and in Bing, and you’ll find vastly different results.

This means you can find some hidden opportunities for guest posting that your competition hasn’t discovered — because they’re not looking in the right place.

Searching the phrase [“guest post” cooking] at Bing brings up over a quarter of a million results, and in most cases, the overlap with Google results is pretty minimal. The top 20 results for that same search on both Google and Bing only show two overlapping results.

Over to you …

So, those are just three quick ways to find unique, out-of-the-echo-chamber guest blogging opportunities.

It’s important to research places like this for many reasons, not the least of which is finding and connecting with the new generations of writers and content producers coming online every day.

How about you? Are you spending time with any lesser-known outreach tools or communities?

Here’s you’re chance to drop them into the comments below, and make them just a little bit less lesser-known. 😉

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Reader Comments (54)

  1. Thanks for the ideas Rae. Searching for opportunities in places that others are not makes a lot of sense. It is certainly clear right now that there are a lot of people wanting to contribute guest posts to all sorts of blogs, so finding less competitive blogs will be a big help.

  3. Bing, Google+ and Topsy?

    To be honest, I’ve never used of of them till now because it’s already set on my mind that ‘it’s useless’ while it’s actually NOT! Now I’m feeling that I’m loosing something huge by not using sites like this.

    Thank you so much Rae for making us know these facts.

    Best, Anup

    • I was underestimating the power of these tools. I am considering writing a guest post for a while, but I was lost on trying to find good opportunities.
      Really good article and thank you for sharing!

  4. Great ideas Rae. I stumbled across PostJoint.com a few weeks ago – that seems like a great place to find and post guest blogging opportunities. However the main disadvantage is that your not targeting specific ‘quality’ sites – it’s more reliant on people finding you. Worth a look though!
    – Sam

  5. I’m a creative individual. I write songs, poems, and books. I have written a handful of guest posts and found some moderate success and changes in traffic, but writing guest posts takes away from the time I put into writing and editing my books or recording music, or just keeping up on my own blog. I also discovered that I often receive more traffic increases when others write guest posts for me. Just a few days ago on my blog, http://www.danerickson.net, I announced that I’m looking for quality writers to guest post on my site. I’ve got a couple takers and hope to find more. I want to share my platform with others and allow them opportunities to guest post. Plus, that will free up a bit of my time for editing my forthcoming second book and writing my third.

    • Dan – thanks for your comment. As an aspiring writer who is more likely to be asking for guest posting opportunities, it is encouraging to hear from those who look for guest posters – and they are not the ogres that perhaps we imagine (or is it just me?).

      Great post Rae – I’ll definitely return to it when I search for opportunities in more detail.

      Thanks,
      Andrew

  6. I have found that guest posting is not only a great way to reach a new audience and build links, but it is an effective way to get subscribers to my blog. I increase my RSS and newsletters subscribers every time I write a guest post.

  7. Everyone tend using Google and what if we’ve not find that what we’re searching about, I never think using Bing. I like your ideas of finding guest blogging opportunities over Bing that our competitors lack, and it surely help to find more blogs for my guest blogging campaign.

    Thanks Rae.

  8. I so appreciate these unique ideas. Thank you! I inadvertently discovered another way of finding guest post opportunities. Write about and link to a blog you like. Tweet the post to the blogger, too. You may be asked to write a guest post. Don’t underestimate the value of linkups, either, especially if there aren’t a huge number of links. The host of the link up will appreciate you taking the time to link and may offer you a guest post or be more willing to accept one from you.

  9. My new jam is http://bottlenose.com to keep track of what’s trending among your followers. In my opinion, they take topsy’s data and bring it to another level because of the way they visualize the data. I’ve been able to make some awesome connections using it as a dashboard for this kind of stuff, and while I wouldn’t go over to it 100% the more I use it, the more I’m loving it.

  10. Thanks for the tips! I’ve been struggling with guest posting, trying to get some things accepted and used. Maybe this article will help. Looking forward to trying it out.

  11. This is the first time I’ve heard of Topsy. I normally hire freelance writers and pay them to guest post on behalf of me. This way I save my time and focus more on my websites. Guest blogging is best to get traffic from other sources. But, its very difficult to get your posts accepted from top blogs or websites.

  13. Wow, I never even thought of using a different search engine besides Google!
    Way to think along the edge of the search engine box Rae! I’m going to start comparing different engine results right away! Just goes to show you how much of a sway Google has in my brain thinking. Well played Google, well played.
    Thanks!

  14. Thank you so much!! Your timing couldn’t have been better for this post!! I will definitely use the tools you suggested!! My focus is school fundraising and it’s a very specific niche! Thanks for the help!

  15. I have never heard of Topsy. I will defiantly check it out. I am always trying to spread my customers reach through their blog content. Thanks for the tips.

  16. Great post Rae! I wasn’t aware of Topsy – thanks so much for sharing. The main lesson I got from this post is one that seems to be widely known, yet not widely practiced. Do the opposite of what the majority does. Be different!

  17. Rae and all the commenters: Great ideas, and thanks for the suggestions. I am always impressed about how helpful we are sharing our ideas with each other. I am a member of the group Finance Bloggers on LinkedIn, and guest posts are a common way we interact. Best of luck to all of your in your endeavors.

  18. Good topic Rae,

    Here’s a couple tips I found that work pretty well to find fresh guest posts opportunities:

    1. Find the top 10 blogs in your niche.
    2. Find the top 10 blog writers from those blogs
    3. Search Google for “by %name% ”
    4. Make list of all the blogs where these writers have published articles.

    …and there you have it your guest post opportunity list.

  19. I’ve had a lot of success writing thoughtful comments on leading bloggers’ sites and my co-author and I have found many opportunities to talk about our book on thought leadership that way. I imagine this is like the “try before you buy” perspective for bloggers…if someone takes the time to write something considered that contributes to and extends the conversation, and not just “great blog post,” then you’ve already shown yourself to be different from 99% of other people!

    In the same vein that we’re less likely to do big favors for people we don’t know (or is that just me?), I’m not so sure that identifying a blogger and saying, “Hi, I want to write a guest post for you,” without some sort of previous connection or demonstration that what you have to say/offer is actually worth it, is a good strategy. Not for the top bloggers, certainly. Depends on how desperate some are to find “content” for their blog, I guess.

  20. Great advice Rae,

    Guest posting is something that i’m looking right into at present. Your advice is spot on, i’ve already managed to find a potential website to guest post for.

    Cheers

  21. Hi Rae,
    Do you have any guest posting offers available in your website? If yes, I would be interested in knowing more on how to go about it. Please share details when you get a chance.

    Thanks!

  22. I just don’t get this one single thing — guest blogging is beneficial for both sides either way. So why should anyone try to LOOK for it as if it’s some sort of secretly hidden treasure? Why don’t those bloggers that accept guest posts advertise this, and those that don’t — do not.

    I encourage people to do this and have a guest post page on my blog. Why not? I offer my posts, and they offer me theirs. It works! Now I’ve just recently started a new blog so we’ll see how it will go here, but the strategy is same as always.

    And FYI, Bing is horrible. Just putting it out there. 🙂

  23. Excellent post, Rae!

    These tips will definitely make it easier for a blogger, particularly a new one, to find some opportunities to guest post. Let’s face it, we all want more exposure, and guest posting is a great way to get it.

    It also provides for a great opportunity to build relationships online, which is what should be our ultimate goal. As those relationships grow, so does our influence. And our income should follow right behind.

    Thanks for sharing. I’ll be putting these to use myself!

  24. For me guesting posting is more than any SEO traffic . Without reader all the content on my blog was useless but guest posting is a real deal for targeted traffic and I made it too …

  26. Great stuff! I’ve read about guest blogging but hardly knew it was worth anything. I get caught up creating posts for my blogs. This is a good reminder. Thanks!

  27. I normally use Google search engine but I have never used Bing. Using blog forums to search for blogging opportunities will also be of great help.

  28. Thank you for these hints on how to find opportunity for guest posting. I have been trying to figure out where and how to get started with guest blogging. This post has done it for me.
    Thanks

  29. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
    This will definitely help my team at Synechron to identify and capture guest blogging opportunities to reach out to the target prospects / customers in a more effective and efficient manner.

  30. I have began to offer guest posting on my blog http://www.therealsupermumblog.com/ in the hope of finding high quality articles that well help my blog and offer a fresh new voice BUT I am inundated with advertising links. While I understand a link is why they want to write a guest post and yes as they remind me I am getting FREE content BUT I dont want my blog covered in advertising links, they make the posts look cheap and really annoying when your offering to help others too by allowing them to use my blog.

  31. Awesome awesome! We’ve been looking for some great guest blogging opportunities! It’s getting more difficult to find guest platforms.

  32. Thanks for these links. I really like the idea of using Bing because it provides different results to Google, yet no one uses them! Harsh, but effective.

    The thing to bear in mind is that a blog that lets anyone submit guest posts isn’t going to be as valuable as a blog that doesn’t advertise the fact. So instead of writing 10 guest posts for mediocre sites, you’d be better spending your time contacting a few high-profile blogs and creating two or three really good posts for great sites. The quality of the links back will be much higher.

    However, these’ techniques described here are just as valid – just don’t search purely for “[guest blog] ” – try to be a bit more creative and find what the major ranked blogs are.

    Thanks for the post – really useful and thought provoking.

  33. Wow! that’s a great ideas! I will surely gonna use this tip[s to find blogs that accept guest blogging opportunities. Thank you so much

  34. Holy cow, Topsy looks awesome! And I knew my Google+ account would come in handy for something! Thanks for putting this together.

  35. FizzNiche and My blog guest are also cool places. What I have seen from my experience during consultations with bloggers that it is the lack of reaching out rather than finding guest blogging opportunities opportunities. Almost 2 out 3 bloggers responded that yes they know a few places but never tried them out 🙂

  36. I think guest blogging is slowly but surely taking over the role of article marketing for backlinking. These blog links seem to be a lot stronger and article rankings seem to be sliding. Thanks for the info though as I had no real idea on where to find these opportunities. I suppose it counts a lot on whether the blog owner decides your writing is up to standard or not.
    Chris

  37. I have found that guest posting is not only a great way to reach a new audience and build links, but it is an effective way to get subscribers to my blog. I increase my RSS and newsletters subscribers every time I write a guest post.

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