This is a guest article by Dan Harrison who’s a keen guest blogger and founder of the BlogSynergy guest blogger matching service. Dan runs a number of blogs, with his flagship website being about eco-friendly gadgets at EnviroGadget.com.
If you didn’t already know why guest blogging is so great, it’s a great way to get fresh content for the host blog, it helps boost your profile within your community and it’s a fantastic way to get more visitors to your own blog. There are plenty more reasons too, but essentially it’s a worthwhile activity.
When I first got started with guest blogging, I found it hard work to find blogs to write for. There were no lists of host blogs for me to contact, so I had to do my own research. After a year, I’ve become a champion of guest blogging and I’ve found a number of methods to find guest blogs that have proven to be very successful. So here are my 5 simple ways to find guest blogs.
1. Blog Catalog
Blog Catalog is basically a directory of blogs. Loads of them. Absolutely thousands of them! If you find the niche that matches your niche, you can start contacting them asking them if they would be interested in you writing them a guest article. For example, I typically contact blogs in the Green and Eco niche. Don’t forget to explain what a guest post is, as they might not know!
2. Search on Google
If you’re smart with your search phrases on Google, you’ll get lots of results for guest blogs. There are actually many blogs who advertise that they want guest posts, which makes your life much easier. I’ve had lots of success with phrases such as those listed below:
- guest blog posts
- write for us
- guest blogging opportunities
- I do accept guest posts
- guest post guidelines
When you find a blog that wants guest posts, look for phrases on their page that mentions their guidelines. A great example is the Blog Engage guest posting guidelines. Additional phrases I’ve found include guest posting here and become a guest blogger.
3. Create lists of guest blogs
There are next to no lists of blogs that want guest posts. However, if you start creating one for your niche on your blog, over time, you’ll find people contact you wanting to be on that list. If you boldly advertise your list of blogs for people to see, you’re more likely get people asking you to be on that list.
Here’s another free tip for you, “lists of guest blogs” is a commonly searched phrase on Google for guest blogs, but it turns up very few relevant results. It wouldn’t take much to rank your list for that phase! 
Now Twitter lists are starting to become popular, and all kinds of people are creating lists for all kinds of groups. I’ve started one for guest bloggers @BlogSynergy/guestbloggers. Just get in touch with me if you want to be on that list! However, there’s no reason why you couldn’t create your own list on Twitter for your niche. It will also help grow your Twitter follower count too.
4. Twitter Search
Up until now, I’ve been using Twitter search for the phrase guest post, as Twitter users frequently tweet messages such as:
An article about XYZ – Guest post by @SomePerson – http://bit.ly/abcdef
Which means the blog on which that article was posted is after guest posts! Therefore you can check out the article in the tweet, then look for information about writing for that blog too.
5. Using a service such as BlogSynergy
Ok, sure I’m a little biased on this last tip. However, I created BlogSynergy so that it would be easier to find other guest bloggers in my niches.
BlogSynergy helps you find both writers to write for your blog, or you can find blogs to guest blog for. It’s currently a free service, and you can add as many of your blogs as you wish. All blogs are categorized along with relevant tags (keywords), which helps you find related blogs. The system also allows you to define the requirements of any guest posts for your blog, such as word count, style, topic, link rules, etc. The system also handles sending messages between bloggers too. I hope to see you on BlogSynergy!
I hope you enjoyed this article. You can follow me on Twitter @DanJHarrison or you can follow updates about @BlogSynergy specifically.
Author: Dan Harrison (1 Articles)
I think guest posting is increasingly becoming the #1 way to get exposure and quality links. Not only do you get an in post relevant link (assuming the article is relevant to your site) but the blog owner gets some fresh new content for the search engines. It really is a win:win situation.
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