List of Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts & Contributions

What is Guest Posting?

For those of you who are not quite familiar with content marketing, blogging and SEO, guest posting is an act of writing and publishing a blog post or an article on someone else’s blog or website. Your work may or may not be compensated financially. This purely depends on whether the website/blog offers a financial incentive for your contributions.

There is a little difference between guest posting & being a contributor. Guest posting is more for those who are looking to contribute a one-off post, whereas being a contributor may require some degree of commitment (e.g. producing 2-3 posts per month).

Whatever you prefer to call this process, ensuring that your posts are published only on reliable, quality and reputable websites is an absolute necessity if you wish to reap the rewards of guest blogging.

Wait a minute, didn’t Matt Cutts declare the death of guest blogging?

Oh, sh*t, you’re right, he did. We’ve spent over 50 hours crafting this post, and all of this has to be trashed now…

No, wait a second, there is a huge distinction between crappy guest blogging and quality contributions of your original, well-written and comprehensive content to authoritative, trusted and reputable blogs.

That’s where we should draw the line.

I’ll explain what Matt meant.

Overtime, guest posting (also known as guest blogging) has gained somewhat a negative reputation due to it being abused by “black hat” SEOs. Instead of focusing on long-term commitment and long-lasting relationship with the blogger, so called SEOs used guest posting only for building backlinks (most times on low-quality websites), usually spinning articles all over again and republishing them on different blogs.

Sure, most of us know that guest blogging has been hit by spammers, publishing low-quality articles on shitty blogs. But, does that really mean guest blogging is totally dead? No, not at all.

But Matt said…

Wait! Matt said, but then he clarified.

In his original post he said:

“So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy.”

But after being swept away by over 650 comments (presumably from quality guest bloggers), he added the following:

“I’m not talking about multi-author blogs. High-quality multi-author blogs like Boing Boing have been around since the beginning of the web, and they can be compelling, wonderful, and useful.”

So, what’s the takeaway?

Simple! Don’t be spammy, don’t post horse crap on crappy websites, don’t accept horse crap (if you are the one receiving guest posts), don’t spin articles, don’t use guest blogging as your only SEO strategy, don’t automate the process, don’t post on irrelevant websites and don’t post the same article on multiple blogs.

Instead, be authentic, credible, write high-quality stuff and focus on long-term benefits of contributing your work to 3rd party websites.

I think we can draw a line here. I hope you have an understanding of how low-quality guest blogging is different from high-quality contributions.

What are the Benefits of Guest Posting/Contributing?

It would have been a crime to write this post and not to mention the main benefits of guest blogging. At the end of the day, you aren’t writing articles for 3rd party websites just because you have the time to do so. Although you may want to sound like a philanthropist when pitching articles, deep down in your soul, you are expecting something in return, whether it’s some nice referral traffic or a boost in your brand’s exposure.

Here are 11 main benefits of guest blogging for other websites:

• Reach a wider audience: Contributing your work to external websites would mean that more people will see your work. Imagine this, if you get your article published on Forbes, 10s or even 100s of thousands of people would read your article, and if the subject is directly correlated with what you do, people will come back for more (often directly to your website).
• Generate quality referral traffic: Quality posts that get seen and read by 1000s of people are likely to generate a ton of quality, targeted referral traffic. You know where this can lead to. Yes, more exposure and more sales.
• Build long-lasting relationship: If you’re not one of those people who guest post just for links, you are likely to publish multiple articles on a single blog. This, in return, will tighten up the relationship with the owner of the blog and may lead to further partnerships.
• Become an influencer: Being featured in authoritative websites and blogs would make you an influencer in the eyes of your potential audience. People would look up to you as an expert in your niche, and will often cite your words as the words of “The Almighty”.
• Build up your social media presence: Wondering how to build up your social following without posting d*ck pics? Guest posting is the way to go. For instance, when someone shares your article, you would often get tagged and mentioned.
• Increase authority of your website: People are more likely to trust and buy from the brand that has a powerful web presence. If your product gets a decent review from The Next Web, would people have more confidence in purchasing that product of you? Sure thing.
• Become more confident: Imagine getting featured in Forbes, Wired, Inc and Entrepreneur? That would definitely tell you something about the quality of your writing and your expertise.
• Increase exposure & brand awareness: Similarly to increasing authority of your website, guest blogging can expose your brand to a much broader audience.
• Inbound links (backlinks): Should I really explain this point? Okay, you can also get a quality, powerful backlink from your profile bio. The vast majority of sites will allow you to add a link or two in your byline, which usually appears at the bottom of every post.
• Build an email list: An influx of referral traffic to your website can lead to a growth of your mailing list. If, and only if you can convert that traffic to your regular subscribers.
• Money, money, money: Some people manage to build an entire business of contributing articles. Solvid (that’s us if you didn’t know) is a good example. We’ve gotten several monthly paying clients just from publishing quality articles on The Next Web, Site point and Life hack. Yes, we’ve worked our socks off to get there, but it all pays off.

The Dos and Don’t of guest blogging

Although there are numerous benefits of contributing content and being a guest blogger, you should plan your journey carefully when deciding to utilize this strategy. All great things come with pitfalls.

Let us go over the dos and don’t of guest blogging.

Dos:

• Do read the guidelines: Different blogs have different requirements for contributors and guest bloggers. Some may only accept posts that are less than 600 words; others may only accept articles if you are a known individual in your niche. Hence, always check the guidelines on a case-by-case basis.
• Do create exceptional content: No reputable blog would accept a poorly written post, especially from a guest blogger. Do your background work, support your claims, provide arguments, check your grammar and spelling mistakes. No one is perfect, but if your article is terrible, it will not get featured. Simple as that.
• Do show your expertise & experience: Ideally, you would only want to blog on subjects that you have an in-depth knowledge of. So, if you know your niche well enough and have sufficient knowledge of the topic – show it!
• Do write for the audience: Don’t go wild with SEO jargon if you are writing for a small business blog. The audience would not understand a word. Instead, tailor your content for the audience of that blog.
• Do create original content: Only write unique content that has never been published on other websites/blogs (even your own). If your post is accepted, you should still avoid republishing that piece.
• Do find out what works best: Identify what type of content does best on that blog. Is it top-10 lists or in-depth guides? You can evaluate that by the number of shares and comments a post has gained.
• Do craft a perfect byline: In order to present yourself in an appealing way, you need to write a decent profile bio. Do include your notable achievements and previous contributions.

Don’ts:

• Don’t be spammy: Don’t send mass emails to 100s of blogs at the same time asking for guest posting opportunities.
• Don’t spin articles: Spun articles are so damn easy to spot. They are terrible and don’t read well.
• Don’t use the same article: Avoid posting the same article over and over again. If you are serious about quality guest blogging, you should only post a single piece on a single website.
• Don’t make guest blogging your only link-building strategy: The primary reason why Matt Cutts has declared a death of guest blogging is due to it being treated as a go-to place for easy links.
• Don’t post on spammy and low-quality websites: You would want to avoid spammy websites at all cost. Not only they can damage your reputation as a writer, but also get your website in trouble with Google.
• Don’t stuff your article with links: Editors are picky. It will take them no more than a minute to identify a self-promotional link. Unless it’s necessary to include a link (perhaps you are citing someone), don’t stuff them in. If you wish to have a link back to your website – use the byline.
• Don’t accept poor guest posts (for blog owners): If you don’t want to look sketchy – don’t be sketchy! Only accept quality guest articles that can potentially bring value to your readers.

How to be the perfect guest blogger?

By the time you read this part, you’ve probably realised that guest posting/contributing isn’t an easy way to gain backlinks. You should be prepared to work your socks off to get published in an authoritative publication.

But, how do you go about creating that “perfect” guest post?

Step 1: Get to know the blog’s content and audience

Identify which content performs best on a particular blog and what type of content gets the most traction. Identify the style of other posts, how well they are written and how detailed the posts are.

Step 2: Read the guidelines

How long should the piece be? There is no point writing a 2,000-word article just to find out that the limit is 1,000 words.

Step 3: Pitch your post

Before you proceed with writing the actual article, it’s worthwhile pitching an idea first to see whether this would be something they would publish.

When pitching, keep your email short (200 words or less), provide multiple headline variations, give a brief description of the article, a quick bio of yourself (what you do, where else have you been published, achievements, etc.) and a few links to example posts.

Here is a great email pitch template by Local SEO Checklist.

Step 4: Draft an article

Make sure your post is formatted according to the style of the blog, including any relevant images (everyone loves images). Usually, blogs would ask you to submit the article in HTML or Markdown format, in which case you should host images on your own website and input the source links.

Step 5: Craft a perfect byline (bio)

If you wish your guest blogging to be successful, the way you present yourself may be the determinant factor. Illustrate your expertise and knowledge of the subject, add a link or two back to your website and add any relevant social networks.

Step 6: Revise

Double or even triple check your article, read it out loud and give it to a friend or a family member to read. Does it flow well, is it coherent, can an ordinary person understand what you’re trying to say?

Step 7: Submit

At this stage, your input is not over yet. An editor may ask you to carry out any necessary amendments.

Glossary of terms & what it all means (just to define every fancy word I used in this post)

As you will notice below, I use some fancy terms and phrases like DA (Domain Authority) & Alexa Rank, which may seem senseless to some of you.

If you ever get overwhelmed by the terms I’ve used in this article, specifically in the tables below, refer to this part.

Website: No need to explain that. That’s just the name of the website.

DA (Domain Authority): A metric introduced by Moz that calculates the strength of the website on a scale from 1-100 (100 being the strongest). The metric is calculated upon the number and quality of inbound links, linking domains, MozRank and MozTrust.

Alexa Rank: The algorithm that is based on the amount of estimated traffic that a particular website gets. The lower the rank is, the more traffic a website gets (i.e. 1 being the most popular website).

Difficulty: This is our metric :). This “algorithm” is based on our own experience, the number of guest posts that we see featured on a particular website, the level of difficulty to get your article featured on that site, quality standards and the actual review process.

Link: The actual wording used on a blog or the action required to get your article posted on a particular website.

What are the other methods to find guest posting opportunities?

1. Google Search

Google Search persists to be the most popular way to find anything on the web. Same applies to finding blogs to contribute to.

So, begin the process with using advanced query strings. For example, to find out digital marketing websites that are on a lookout for contributors, we’ll use the following string: digital marketing “contribute”

To make the job easier for you, we’ve prepared the list of 10 popular strings:

Your Keyword “contribute”
Your Keyword “guest post”
Your Keyword “write for us”
Your Keyword “become an author”
Your Keyword “guest posting”
Your Keyword “submit post”
Your Keyword “submit article”
Your Keyword “submit an article”
Your Keyword “tip us”
Your Keyword “submit a tip”

All you need to do is to place your keyword.

2. Competitor Backlinks

This strategy can be so powerful if you have the right tools under your belt.

First and foremost, you would either need access to Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs or BuzzSumo. These are one of the best backlink analysis tools available on the market. You can simply input any URL, and the tool will give you the list of backlinks a particular site has.

Not only you can sneak behind the link building scene of any website, but you can also find some great guest posting opportunities. All you need to do is to go through the links and identify the sites that accept guest posts and contributions.

3. Twitter 

Similarly to Google Search, you can use pretty much the same strings to find guest post opportunities on Twitter. When someone is featured on a reputable blog or publication, they will often share the post with their followers. That’s where you can sneak behind. For example, do a Twitter search for a query digital marketing “guest post”, and it will show you the latest tweets that include your keywords.

All you need to do is scan through results by clicking on the links and evaluate which websites accept guest posts.

To Conclude

Although guest posting can be a powerful way to gain traction, build awareness, trust, reputation and links, it’s incredibly important that you stick to the best practices that don’t violate Google’s guidelines.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this huge post. We’ll keep this list updated where possible, and if you notice something weird (perhaps a mistake) feel free to point out.