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Business blogs you should be writing for

GeneralCategory
7 min read
Lou Clarke

Many business owners write blogs for their own businesses, sharing them with their customers on social media. This is one very effective form of content marketing. But what about all the people who don’t yet know you exist? This is where writing blogs for popular, high-traffic business blogs and websites comes into play.

Guest blogging for someone else’s blog is a magical way to get new eyes on your business.

What does being a “guest blogger” really mean?

Normally, guest blogger means that you are writing a blog for free, for the business blogs or website that you want to be showcased on. Sure, some organizations pay for their blog posts, but your guest post has a better chance of being accepted and published if you are not coming in with a fee.

Why become a guest blogger?

Many business coaches will submit business blogs they’ve written to websites like Forbes, NBC, CBS, Yahoo, Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, and others because once they are accepted they can then use the term “as seen on ...” or “recently showcased on ...”.

This helps them not only be seen by readers who would not find them on their own, it also gives them credibility because the readers already know, like and trust the big-name website/blog.

If you’re able to link to your own blog or website from within your guest post, you get an SEO boost as well.

Overhead view of a man writing on a laptop

This is called a backlink, and backlinks are still an important part of search engine optimization (SEO). How’s that work? In short, because one or more high-quality business blogs link to your blog or website, Google decides your site must be credible and worth referring people to.

And anything that gets Google to send people to your website is good.

There are other benefits to guest blogging for business blogs. Not only are you being seen on the high-traffic blog as an expert, you can now share that you have a guest business blog on another site.

Being a guest blogger can even be a more profitable option over being paid because as long as you create a piece of content that does not become dated over time, then you could receive inquiries for potential business for months — and even years — to come.

How do readers find you from a guest blog?

Most websites and blogs allow you to include links to your own website and/or social media platforms in a guest blog. As mentioned earlier, these are called backlinks and they’re key for any search engine optimisation strategy.

Make sure you understand the rules for the website that you are writing for regarding backlinks. If you are allowed to, add links to your own blogs that relate to the topic of the guest blog you’re writing.

9 business blogs to approach about guest blogging

There are many guest blogging options for the small business owner here in Canada. Here are just a few to start.

GoDaddy Canada

BDC

Startup Canada

Forbes

CAWEE

Business Insider

Rabble.ca

RevolutionHer

Yummy Mommy Club

If any of these seem like a good fit for your business, contact them to inquire about writing for them. This could be as easy as sending them a note via their Contact Us form. But remember, you'll want to send them a pitch for the blog post you intend to write for them.  Makes sure it gets their attention and encourages them to say yes to posting it on their website.

Where else to look for blogging opportunities

Here are a few other ways to find a guest blogging gig:

  1. You can check with your local newspaper to ask about writing for them online.
  2. Your local small business centre may have some contacts for you to connect with locally.
  3. Ask your business colleagues if they would publish a guest blog from you on their website.
  4. Search LinkedIn for requests for guest bloggers.
  5. Search for other websites that would be a great fit for your writing and contact them to inquire about sending them a guest blog.
Woman sitting at a desk typing on a laptop

Before you reach out, it’s worth checking the domain authority of the site you want to guest blog for. The higher their domain authority, the better, as this has a positive effect on your credibility in Google’s eyes.

Domain authority:

  • Between 40 and 50 is average
  • Between 50 and 60 is good
  • Over 60 is excellent

You can check the domain authority of any website by copy/pasting the address (URL) into the box here.

Regardless of who or which blog you write for, make sure you write to help the reader solve a problem or to make them have a positive reaction so that they will remember you.

What should you write about?

If you want your blog proposal to be accepted by a popular blog or website, then you must write about a topic that is highly searchable, scaleable, relatable and shareable. You should also choose a topic that has a problem that you can solve in your writing. Let’s look at each of these one at a time.

Highly searchable

You want to choose a topic that has a high ranking on a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. The editors of the website that you are trying to write for want to know that your blog will bring them free traffic because of the highly searchable content.

You can research keywords using Google Keyword Planner or SemRush’s tool, paying attention to those topics likely of interest to your target website or blog. So if you want to write for an insurance blog, you’ll want to search for insurance-related keywords.

One good rule of thumb is to select a keyword or phrase that has between 1000 and 10,000 in monthly traffic and low or medium competition.

Scaleable

Choose a topic that you could write about for days and that you have already written about on your own website. If the reader enjoys your guest blog, chances are that they will come to your website to find more like it.

Relatable

Aim to write so the reader has the “me too” thoughts as they are reading your blog. You want them to engage with you through the blog, as if you get them and the situation that they are currently in.

Shareable

A great blog is a shareable blog. One that a reader will fall in love with and share it with their friends. This not only brings more people to know who you are and what your business is, but it will also bring more traffic to the website that you wrote the blog for.

And one more thing

Try to choose topics that not only solve a problem, but are related to your business and what you sell.

For example, if you sell dish soap, you would want to guest blog for a website that attracts readers who care about dish soap. You could write about the issue of how dish soap is affecting the water systems and how your dish soap is harmless to the city water.

Think of the Dawn commercial where they save a duck from an oil spill and clean her up with their Dawn dish soap.

This commercial seems to be not about their soap, as people see the duck … but it is all about their soap and how they solved a problem. We all know the brand name Dawn now and, to be honest, it is the soap that is under my kitchen sink right now.

Guest blogging pays off over time

Becoming a guest blogger takes a bit of time and dedication. But reaching out and asking strangers if you can write for them is worth the extra effort. Make sure you propose an amazing blog, because you may only get one shot at them.

The more you can get your name, your business name and your expertise out into the world, the more likely you will become popular on search engines such as Google.