How NOT to Get Your Guest Post Accepted (and 3 Steps to Take Instead)

So, you have written your guest post and you then decide to submit it to a big blog.

You hope to get the post accepted so that you can enjoy the benefits that follow along:

• New subscribers to your blog

• More traffic to your website

• Increasing your authority in your niche

• Spreading the word about your work

Unfortunately, your post is rejected and you feel bummed: “How did this happened? There is nothing wrong with my writing!”

Needless to say, you feel very frustrated, and you think that the blog wasn't worth of your time anyway. Or perhaps you should take a breather and have a second thought about that.

If you feel that you have been rejected for nothing, you should check these following points first before sending criticism back to the blogger who rejected your post:

Did you:

• know what people on your target blog like to read about?

• proofread your post?

• check the facts?

• read the guest posting guidelines?

• write a post that was too promotional?

• write a post that was too shallow?

If you checked the previous points and felt that any of these made you say, “Well, actually I didn’t,” perhaps it’s time to spend a bit more time on your written content before re-submitting it or writing another blog post with the same shortcomings.

Time to Turn Things Upside Down

To increase your chances of getting the guest post accepted, take these following steps:

1. Fix all the previous points (aka guest posting the easy way)

Let’s go through the list again and turn those “I didn’t” answers to “I did” ones:

Did you:

• Know what people on your target blog like to read about?

This is easy. Just go to your destination blog and a look around. What kinds of posts get the most comments and shares?

On some blogs, this has been made really easy. For instance, LifeHack publishes its most popular posts’ stats on the right-hand side of the blog.

Another way is to hire some help from outsourcing providers and ask someone to do the research for you. Ask them to list, for instance, fifty latest blog post titles (with their URLs) with comment counts and social media shares.

Finally, you can always shoot an e-mail to the blog’s editor and ask what kinds of posts perform the best.

• Proofread your post?

I perform proofreading and editing in three parts.

First, I go through the text myself and fix the obvious grammatical errors that I find.

Then, I go through the text again and read it aloud. This is a great way to make your text more readable since you are easily able to spot those sentences that don’t sound right.

Finally, I send my text for proofreading via Fiverr. Having a pair of external eyeballs on your content does wonders for it, and they can spot errors that you weren't able to see yourself.

• Check the facts?

In one of your guest posts, if you claim that “this particular food makes you younger,” can you prove it, or is that just something you say?

Take your time to dig up some extra research that validates your statement. Otherwise, leave the claim out of your post.

There are plenty of valid and credible sources that give you more information related to your topic and your statements.

• Read the guest posting guidelines?

I’m accepting guest posts on my blog again, but it amazes me that people don’t care to read the posting guidelines before submitting their articles to me.

Don’t get me wrong – good posts get submitted to me, too, but at times, it seems like people just closed their eyes when they were supposed to read the guidelines page.

Taking this step alone dramatically increases your chances of getting the post published!

• Write a post that was too promotional?

Promotion isn't bad, but when there is too much of it and it’s too obvious, it becomes a nuisance.

So rather than writing just about your product, write about the solution that helps others and then have a very subtle mention about what you can offer (for instance, include it in the byline of the post).

• Write a post that was too shallow?

5 ways to make you productive, 7 ways to feel happy…Haven’t we already seen that?

Take time to include quotes from experts, add images and add research data or Infographics. It’s time to dig up more detailed info related to your topic, and the more time you spend crafting your post, the better.

Don’t just state the obvious, go deeper, down to the source.

2. Add your own experiences

One of the best ways to improve the quality of your post is to add your own experiences to it. This gives you more credibility since you know what you are talking about.

Tell people how you felt about a particular situation and why it occurred. Also, tell others about the lessons you learned and the possible solutions that you figured out.

3. Show the action steps

Presenting a solution is fine, but you also have to show the action steps to take. This way, people can expect to get the same results as you.

The more detailed action steps you describe, the more solid your post becomes. Nothing feels better than people raving about your solution, the actions steps and how it helped them in their situation.

If necessary, add additional media to demonstrate the action steps, like a video or screenshots of an application, to show how a particular action is taken.

If you are still getting rejected…

Let’s face it – it’s still possible that your post gets rejected for whatever reason. If this occurs, you have still couple of aces up your sleeve.

First, you can offer your post to other blogs. Even if your well-written and researched post was rejected (which is highly unlikely), submit it somewhere else. Most likely, that other blog will accept it.

Also, you can always publish the post on your own blog. Since you have the piece of content ready, you can leverage it there. Just make sure you promote it properly so that others know about it.

Finally, your post can be the beginning of something new. What about writing more related to that topic and turning it into a report, e-book or even an auto-responder series? Or it could even be the start of a paid product!

Seriously consider these steps, as they are very realistic alternatives. Just don’t let the rejected post stop you!

Conclusion

A rejected post can trigger two kinds of feelings: you can be let down and feel like a victim, or you can take your posts to another level.

As a general rule of the thumb, the more time you spend on research and adding value to your post, the higher the likelihood of it being accepted. In addition, you get to enjoy the benefits that the accepted posts brings.

Over to you: How do you make sure your posts gets accepted on other blogs?