You may have heard about the importance of high-quality content in your brand’s marketing strategy many times before. After all, it’s an aspect of digital marketing that has been stressed again and again by marketers around the world for almost a decade now. But just because something is stated as a universal truth so often doesn’t mean that it’s always easy to put into practice.
In order to have a greater impact on your target audience and increase brand recognition, you need to explore innovative ways of getting the word out about your business. One great way of doing this is by writing guest-contributed articles on high-ranking websites with a relevant target audience. Doing so will not only help you reach new audiences but also boost your online presence, as search engines give these websites a lot of weight in their rankings.
So how do you go about creating high-quality content that makes your brand look good, helps you stand out from your competitors, and above all else drives traffic to your website, social media pages, or blog with ease?
Why is Guest-Contributed Content So Important?
Guest-contributed articles are extremely beneficial for your business as they provide a great source of high-quality exposure. This type of content is ranking well in Google searches and has the potential to draw a large number of targeted visitors to your site.
By submitting these articles to different websites, you will have the opportunity to be featured on some of the world’s most popular web pages.
How to Write a Contributed Article That Rocks
If you want to write a successful guest-contributed article, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Firstly, make sure that you pick the right topic. You want to find something that is relevant to your brand and your target audience.
In order to maximize your chances of getting published, you should also take into consideration the type of website you’re pitching your article to. Make sure that your article brings value to the readers, has a great structure and offers information that is helpful and informative. If it doesn’t, it probably won’t get published.
You should also take time before submitting an idea so that it reflects your unique perspective and voice rather than simply regurgitating information found online or elsewhere (unless it’s cited).
It’s tempting as a marketer just starting out—especially if you’re competing against other brands—but after all these years I’ve found that originality really pays off when pitching ideas because editors love hearing fresh perspectives on topics they cover regularly (and often won’t stray too far away from).
How to Find the Right Websites to Write For
Here are some things to keep in mind while looking for guest article opportunities:
- Read the website’s terms and conditions – Some websites will have specific requirements for the guest articles that they publish. Make sure that you carefully read the site’s terms and conditions before you begin to write in order to avoid any issues.
- Be sure to choose a website that is relevant to your industry – You want to make sure that the website you choose to write for is a good fit for your business. While you want to be open to writing for various websites, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin by accepting offers from a bunch of unrelated websites.
- Find websites that allow you to sign up as a contributor – You want to make sure that you look for websites that are accepting guest-contributed articles. You don’t want to waste your time by pitching articles to places that don’t take submissions from the general public.
- Find websites that accept long-form articles – While some websites will only accept short articles, others are open to publishing long-form content. If you’re just starting out and don’t have much content to show, it’s best to start with a shorter article.
Choose a publication that is relevant to your expertise and industry knowledge base but also not too promotional or self-promotional – this can be tricky! The goal of this kind of content should be providing value first (not selling).
When choosing which articles will work best for guest contributors in terms of being able consider adding some personal branding content at the beginning or end of pieces such as biographies/LinkedIn profiles links/etc. But avoid going overboard with too much self-promotion so as not to overwhelm readers with too much information.
Key Takeaway: Think Carefully About Choosing Where You Write As Well As What You Write
Use Your Credentials To Bring Readers To Your Site
A good bio will make the most of your credentials and bring readers back to your site.
A good bio is short, sweet, and to the point. It should be written in a friendly tone that makes readers feel like they’re being introduced to you for the first time.
Your bio should include information about who you are and why readers should be interested in reading your articles (your credentials).
You can also use this space as an opportunity to share a link to any sites that you have built or blogs that you write for—but only if those links aren’t already included in other parts of the article.
Pitching Articles To Websites & Editors Is Time Consuming, Difficult, and Frustrating.
If you’re serious about growing your brand and increasing your online presence, you need to start creating content for your brand.
Yet, it’s a lot of work to find the right website, write the pitch email, get in touch with someone on the editorial team, make your case for why they should publish your article, and then wait… and wait… and wait.
If you’re lucky, you might get an answer back in a few days or weeks. It’s not uncommon for editors to ignore your emails altogether—and if it takes them too long to respond? Forget about ever getting published. You’re better off just moving on and trying again with another website.
And if you do get accepted? Well, then there’s more waiting: For the article to be edited and re-submitted; for the editor to send images or other materials that may be needed; for their team to review everything before publishing it; for them to schedule when it will go live on their site… the list goes on!
And that’s if everything goes well! You could spend weeks or months working on something that never gets published at all.
So What Should You Do?
The ROI of pitching articles through traditional methods can be low compared with other options available today.
If you want to improve your online exposure and get traffic from Google (you should), no matter what site or offer you’re promoting – the principles are simple.
“Help Google accomplish its mission of connecting people with the most relevant content.”
We do this naturally with our Amps & Authority Distribution, plus our Iceberg Content method for finding near-zero-competition hyper-targeted traffic opportunities.
We build gradually and consistently over time.
So what should you do?
Keep putting out good content and keep getting it seen in trusted brands, big authority sites and work smart.
AmpiFire is the world’s first and only content amplification engine that can help you distribute unique content about your brand to hundreds of news outlets and blogs. It also acts as an extension of your marketing team, allowing you to create high-quality news articles, blog posts, infographics, audio ads and videos in just minutes!
