Guest post prospecting

[Gavo]

Am currently struggling with the link prospecting process for guest blogging.

Right now, I've been using link prospector or just plain old Google to do link prospecting, However, this can be a really tedious process and finding the right opportunities to pursue for outreach seems to be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Is there anyway in which to make this process much, much more easy and efficient, so that high quality and relevant opportunities can be found in quick timing?

Also open to tips/advice on a completely different approach, for example trying out guest blog networks (e.g http://myblogguest.com) or something similar to attain sound opportunities.

Much appreciated!

[SamuelScott]

First, I'd forget about doing guest blogging for the sole purpose of gaining links. Matt Cutts, Google's head of web spam, told us in clear terms that online marketers should stop doing this. (I'd add that people should not have been doing this in the first place.)

Rather, I'd focus on contributing to online publications for the purpose of increasing awareness and coverage of your company, website, product, and/or service among a specific, targeted audience. Don't worry about the links. They'll come naturally themselves as long as you do online PR in the right way.

For more, I'd suggest looking at my Moz post on the topic: http://moz.com/blog/an-introduction-to-pr-strategy-for-seos

In short, I'd focus on the websites from whom you would want links even if Google did not exist.

[MoosaHemani]

Sam nailed it completely!

If you are putting too much effort in guest blogging for the sole purpose of getting links, you should stop right away and consider shifting to Sam’s suggestions.

If link is not the only purposes and you are aware of all the real benefits of guest blogging then I believe investing time on publication is way better because it will take your less time and give you more readerships.

Hope this helps!

[JaneCopland]

Hi,

Samuel is correct that Google has announced a crack down on links they have reason to believe were posted in guest blogged articles for the sole purpose of gaining links. There has been a lot of debate about whether they really have the ability to detect this if it is done very well, but one key indicator of guest posting being a main tactic employed by a website is if a majority of the site's links are from blog posts. This is especially true if a number of these posts have "guest", "sponsored", etc. in the header or footer or the articles.

Writing for others' sites can still be done well, and I know some companies are very good at scaling lead generation for potential posts / links (most of this is proprietary technology). In the long run, Samuel makes a good point that the safest route (especially for SMBs) is to focus on awareness from a PR angle and enjoying the links that come from it, rather than chasing guest post opportunities.

[Gavo]

Thanks everyone who has contributed to answering this question of mine.

Samuel, great article and something that definitely makes us think what we are doing to better improve our PR for sites.

Thanks Jane for your comments and making clear the possibilities as too recommendations of routes to go down!