Guest Blog Outreach Emails: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Guest blogging is an incredibly popular form of link building, one which has made outreaching for locations incredibly hard as the competiveness has increased. Are blog owners tired of receiving endless emails asking for links from internet marketers jumping on the band wagon?
Guest blogging is a great way to build links, but as more people have caught on it’s harder to receive a positive response. One aspect of outreach that lets many marketers down is the initial email, which is often boring, generic and doesn’t inspire the blog owner. Here are a few examples of outreach emails ranging from the engaging and inspiring to the downright awful.

Example 1: The Good

This is the kind of outreach email you should be writing. Bear in mind, there’s no “right way” to do it; you generally tailor your outreach email to the tone of the recipient’s site. For example, a personal blog is perfect for going down the ‘ego’ route. Compliment the blog author on one of their latest posts, if they had a travel blog you could say something like; “really enjoyed your post on visiting India, the toilets really did look awful!” A comment similar to that shows you’ve taken the time to read their blog posts and that you’re actually human! Always pass comment on something that a robot couldn’t possibly know or generate. Humour is good too.

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Hey Steven,
I’ve just been reading your latest post on your trip to Blackpool and I was in stitches when I read about you and your friends taking a ride on the donkeys! It must have been so embarrassing! I Tweeted it to my friends, I know it’s something they’d appreciate too!
I’ve recently just visited Brighton and have some really good stories I think your readers would enjoy. Would you be interested in featuring a humorous piece? I write for The Travel Site www.example.com check it out, you never know you might find a post you enjoy on there too!
Look forward to hearing from you soon,
Steph

Example 2: The Bad

Some people find that writing template emails and firing them out to numerous blog owners in their niche is a quicker way to contact multiple bloggers quickly. Whilst this is definitely true, there’s often no personality to the email and no personal address. This can come across really spammy and although you probably will get comeback from someone, the quality of their site is usually questionable (why as a blog owner, would you host content from someone who has no interest in your website?). The following template is one to avoid (unless you’re purposely looking for a low-value location).

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Dear Sir/Madam,
I was browsing through your travel blog and really enjoying your posts. I was wondering if you accept guest authors as I can offer you an article on travel. I write for The Travel Site so would link to there from my post.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Best regards,
Steph

Example 3: The Ugly

Now for the awful method of outreach: the spam-tastic approach filled with typos and bad grammar. Misspelling the blog owners name is the ultimate insult too! Not only will you receive little response, you’ll also most likely anger blog owners and earn yourself a pretty bad reputation in the blogosphere. Avoid this method at all costs (unless you really do want to irritate people).

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Hello Stven,
I’ve been looking thrugho your blog and love the posts. Can I write a bglo post for you on something travel related?
Thanks,
Steph

There’s no one method of outreach that’s tried tested and works on everyone, much like asking someone on a date. You have to tailor your outreach to the individual, do a little background research and poke around on their site to get a feel of the tone. Although it takes more time than sending out generic emails, it’s time well-spent.

Steph

Steph Staszko is the Outreach Co-ordinator at Web Vitality and spends her time networking with fellow webmasters and blog owners to aid marketing campaigns. She loves exploring new ways of contacting people and discovering methods of working with other sites to achieve results.