As I delved into becoming a professional ghostblogger, one of the things that struck me the most was that many of my clients were dying to land guest posting gigs with big websites in their niche.

Writing a great guest post is one thing, but knowing how to pitch a guest post is another skill entirely.  Too often, bloggers will submit a guest post and never even mention the number one most important thing they should bring up!

Want to know what it is?

When pitching a site to write a guest post, say how you can help them.

Take one of my editing clients.  She really wanted to write an article for one of the HUGE daily email sites out there that reaches hundreds of thousands of mailboxes every day.

She came up with the absolutely brilliant idea of advertising one of their paid programs for them. That’s right: she pitched the editor that she would basically write a testimonial of one of their paid programs—and then sprinkled in references to her business and website.

My reaction?

GENIUS.

Here’s her exact pitch that landed her words—and website link—in front of hundreds of thousands of eyeballs:

Hi [Owner’s Actual First Name],

I’ve enjoyed the [Name of Class] class and the supportive Facebook community.

When completing just the first two exercises, I was particularly struck by my emotions triggered by the mere subject of money.

I realized that I’m still dogged by an attitude toward money I developed after I left my ex-husband and began life as a single mom.  That was 4 years ago!

Before the program, I was in total denial about my true debt and savings.

I intellectually know that this approach is no way to move forward and build an honest life with my new husband and two children.  [Name of Class] is helping me develop a new plan.

I’m writing you because your audience needs to hear how profound it is to step into the truth about your money and how the [Name of Class] program is helping divorced women do just that.   

If you or your editor find this an interesting topic, I would love to write the article.

There are other divorced and single moms in our [Name of Class] Facebook group, whom I could interview for additional insight.

Thank you for considering the article idea and thanks for creating this course!

Warm regards,

[My Client]

 

BOOM!  Who could say no to that? She hit them right where it counts—in the bank account—by offering to give them a testimonial aimed at a particular niche for which she has specific expertise.

Why is this good for the editor? Because testimonials are solid gold when it comes to selling more products and programs.

Why is this good for my client? Because a) she gets her name and website out in front of hundreds of thousands (maybe millions, I don’t really know!) of potential clients, and b) she now has an “in” with this editor.

Now that she’s written the article, she’s proven that she has good ideas and can follow through on writing them up. If she wants to pitch something even more meaty for her own business in the future, the editor will be much more likely to say yes—because, as we know, people are more likely to do business with someone they know, like, and trust!

As I said before: Genius.  And I didn’t even write it for her!  😉  I just polished up the article before it went off to the editor.