Introduction
Guest blogging can hone your influence over the target audience and offers many benefits from SEO and marketing perspective. We have already covered guest blogging benefits, best practices, mistakes to avoid and how to get started and scale a blogger outreach campaign in separate posts. This post focuses on some of the best platforms and guest blogging sites. However, the list is not exhaustive and one should not limit his/her research only to these sites.
Important Things to Consider When Picking Guest Blogging Sites
Choosing the right blogging site is important and depends on a variety of factors, including the type of topics you are dealing with, likes and dislikes of the target audience and the type of visitors a blogging site attracts. While bloggers should remain true to their writing style, they also need to maintain a balance between their own voice and the knowledge level and interests of the target audience.
Ideally, the target audience of a blogging site should be same as your own blog/business. Although some differences might be there such as demographics, the main thing is the common interests. For example, if you mostly blog about gaming gear, it’s better to stick with blogging sites that specifically target gamers than average PC users.
You can have a fair idea about the type of visitors a site attracts by exploring the site. You can also ask the site owner for more details if you are still unsure. It’s better to be on the safe side than not being sure if your content can engage the target audience of a particular site/blogging platform. Popular or high-ranking blogging sites are not better in all cases. Sure, high-traffic blogging sites are likely to attract more visitors, but the kind of traffic they attract also matters.
Choosing a specialized or niche site with a loyal following is better than opting for a high-traffic but general site with low engagement rate. Loyal and responsive audience of highly relevant niche sites is more likely to learn more about you and generate traffic. Tools such as Amazon’s Alexa can help a lot in this regard and make it easier to differentiate between high and low authority sites.
Top 10 Guest Blogging Sites
Medium
Medium is a great platform for a wide range of topics, including science, technology, health, business, culture, politics and work. It does not target visitors with ads or sell their data to anyone, which creates trust and loyalty among readers. The site is made for curious readers who want to explore new ideas. With more than 120 mn readers and a loyal following, Medium is ranked among the most popular sites. The bloggers also have to come up with great content to make it to the site and reach new audience.
Business Insider
As the name suggests, the site primarily focuses on business and finance, technology, retail, lifestyle, strategy, executive lifestyle and Intelligence. It also covers lifestyle topics including entertainment, travel, food and health as well as sports, political and defense news. BI is viewed as a reliable source of advice by many industries, so it also expects top-notch and pro-level content from guest bloggers and business leaders.
Copyblogger
A highly recommended site for those who have expertise in online content marketing and can deliver highly relevant, practical and well-written content. It’s not easy to make it to their certified writers list, but for those who do, the rewards can be huge. Copyblogger offers access to its educational content and marketing resources. Its main focus is to deliver marketing guidance that help businesses create great online content that supports growth and drives traffic.
Social Media Examiner
The site is for those who can produce well-researched and detailed content and keep up with one of the largest social media communities. The site does not want to risk its reputation by publishing low quality and generic content so being able to post there takes some effort and patience.
TechCrunch
The technology and startup news site allows guest bloggers to pitch their high-quality single story in order to become a regular contributor. That’s why you need a stellar first story to get noticed and give them something wonderful.
OutBrain
The site helps more than a billion people discover products and services and content of their interest, making it one of the largest platforms to get your message across. It connects businesses with consumers through engaging content and works equally well for both advertisers and media companies. But the platform also expects guest bloggers to deliver quality content and has strict guidelines. You have to be a real expert in your field with a proven track record. Different content categories include native advertising, performance marketing, online marketing, conversion optimization and content marketing.
PandaDoc
The target audience of PandaDoc includes sales and marketing, HR and finance people. If marketing, leadership, sales enablement, automation, finance, document management etc. is your niche, the site provides a solid platform to reach highly targeted individuals. PandaDoc is an AIO document automation solution with advanced functionalities that help businesses close more deals. PandaDoc is open to guest posts and making it to their blog is relatively easy than other sites discussed above.
WebandDesigners
The site is open to guest posts related to web development, web design and associated niches. Being a crowdsourcing forum, they expect content that focuses on solving problems and sharing connected resources with the world. Whether you want to share high-quality resources and freebies such as wallpapers, buttons and PSD templates or want to write tutorials about Fireworks, CSS, Photoshop and PHP, WebandDesigners is a great platform for individuals and also rewards them for their creative work.
SitePoint
SitePoint was created to help web developers stay on the cutting edge of technology and provides them with unlimited access to different resources for a monthly fee. It also offers advice and training for modern web technologies and connects accomplished web developers with the world. It’s major content categories include JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Design and UX, WordPress, Entrepreneur, PHP, web and mobile.
Lifehack
Lifehack helps people balance their life and live up to their maximum potential. It covers almost all aspects of our daily lives, making it a great platform for bloggers or businesses that revolve around lifestyle and life improvement. Some major content categories include fitness, communication, health, infographics, work, success, relationships, quotes, leisure, happiness, success, money, motivation, psychology, food and drink, lifestyle, parenting, productivity and technology.
Conclusion
Guest blogging is becoming part of digital marketing strategies of a growing number of businesses. However, being able to successfully implement guest blogging requires some research and consideration. Choosing the right blogging sites in one of the most important elements of the strategy as there are thousands of blogging sites, all claiming to be the best.
When picking guest blogging sites, bloggers and marketers have to create the right balance between numbers and the quality of incoming traffic. Investing time and effort into researching high-authority sites carries huge rewards, but at the same time one should also not totally ignore comparatively lower authority platforms that attract highly relevant traffic.