Currently “Guest blog spam email” seems to be the bad marketing tool of choice in my inbox.

From which I’m taking lessons on How Not to Get A Guest Blog Spot.

Pretend that this is your last email

Don’t send an email pretending that you’ve sent an email before.

subject: re: blog title scraped from your site

content: I wanted to follow up on this one more time before I move on. Are you ok with me giving you a free article to post on your site? Let me know and I’ll send you some topics to choose from. Thanks!

I use gmail so I can easily search to see if you’ve sent me an email before.

You didn’t. You get no attention.

Use the wrong name

subject: guest post for yourwrongname

content: Hi yourwrongname, I’m a big fan of your site and would like to write a guest post. let me know. Thanks!

At least do the basic research to find my name. As a hint, it is in the email address you used.

Research to find out what I write about

subject: Awesome guest post?

content: Hey, Just checking in again to see if you got my last email about our Luxury Watch Guide. Look forward to hearing from you.

Watches? I don’t blog about watches.

And just in case anyone is reading, I do not blog about robot vacuum cleaners either.

Did you notice any guest posts on my blog?

subject: Hey, Are You Around?

I sent you an email a few days ago about wanting to submit a guest post to your website, but I have not heard anything back. I’ll understand if you are not accepting any more guest posts on your website, just please let me know!

I have never accepted guest posts on my site. Why would I let you know!

Use an email from a domain that works

I received an email from someone and when I used the domain name in their email to see if they were for real, their domain name didn’t exist.

Not a good sign.

Main Lessons

If you do want to write a guest blog post for someone:

• figure out what their name is
• read their web site to learn what they write about
• make sure you can actually add value
• make sure they have posted guest posts in the past
• create some unique titles and content proposals
• include the unique information in the email
• pitch like you were pitching for a magazine
• don’t spam
• write from a business email
• include links to previous articles and your website in the footer