Becoming a guest contributor on a popular website is a great way to build your personal brand. Publications are always looking for new contributors. However, pitching guest blogging proposals is hard and becoming a guest contributor at popular websites can be time-consuming.
Each website has different requirements and instructions for guest blog contributors. Some publications require topic pitches, some full articles, and some require abstracts.
How to be a guest blog contributor
To help you save time on sorting through the requirements and gathering information, we scoured the top websites. We reviewed their submission guidelines and instructions on how to be a guest blog contributor.
Remember, it is important you submit an authentic and original article on a topic that is relevant to each of these website’s readership. And before you submit anything, make sure you spend time reading the website’s articles so you understand what the website likes to publish.
Make sure your guest blog articles are polished, researched, and compelling. The better you write, the less work it is for editors. Ensure you have a firm grasp of your topic. You may want to follow up in a firm but polite way with a brief follow-up email if you haven’t heard back in a week or so.
Here’s a quick overview of the publications and how to contribute to the website with instructions and guidelines.
1. Huffington Post
About: Huffington Post is a publication that covers news, blogs and original content about U.S. politics, entertainment, style, world news, technology, and comedy.
How to contribute a guest blog article: According to their contact page, visit this Google Doc page to submit your blog idea and your bio. They are looking for succinct, shareable and satisfying articles. Here is a helpful blog post on how to become a regular contributor. If you are a current contributor to Huffington Post, read this article.
2. Forbes
About: Forbes.com is a website that focuses on news and information about business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and affluent lifestyles.
How to contribute: Submit story pitches to ideas@forbes.com.
3. Fast Company
About: Fast Company is a popular online business publication that covers technology, ethical economics, leadership, and design. Fast Company’s audience is progressive business leaders. The publication is looking to inspire readers and users ‘to think beyond traditional boundaries, lead conversations, and create the future of business.” This is according to their About page.
How to contribute a guest blog article: According to their guidelines for submitting articles, your articles should be between 750 and 900 words and be exclusive for Fast Company. They need to be complete and unpolished articles that are intended for Fast Company’s audience. Articles should have a tone appropriate to Fast Company and be written by a person, not a PR department. They are only accepting articles for their leadership section. Guest blog articles should be submitted to Associate Editor Rich Bellis at rbellis@fastcompany.com. They don’t want pitches, abstracts, outlines, press releases, or interview offers.
4. Entrepreneur
About: Entrpreneur.com is a publication for business owners who are starting and growing their businesses. They cover actionable information and practical tips for start-ups.
How to contribute a guest blog article: To learn how to contributor, visit their contributor page. They discuss what editors look for in contributed stories (and what they want to avoid.)
5. Inc.com
About: Inc.com is an online publication that writes articles for small businesses. They provide entrepreneurs with advice and tools.
How to contribute a guest blog article: Visit their contact page to learn more and under “contributing to Inc.” they say to be a regular columnist, email contributors@inc.com.
6. Business Insider
About: Business Insider is a business publication that covers industry topics such as financial, media and technology.
How to contribute a guest blog article: According to their contact page, you should email contributor@businessinsider.com. According to how to contribute to Business Insider page, you should send a final draft of your article, a proposed headline, a brief bio, and links to other articles you have published. You may want to review their authors’ page to get an idea about what other contributors are writing about.
7. Business2Community
About: Business2Community is a publication that covers breaking news and top trends in social media, digital marketing, content marketing, social selling and social business.
How to contribute a guest blog article: To contribute, visit the website’s contributor page. You will then need to read their contributor guidelines and fill out their online application form that includes your contact information, your website, and three writing samples that show that you know the topic and you have quality blog posts.
8. Social Media Today
About: Social Media Today provides news, trends and best practices on social media and digital marketing.
How to contribute a guest blog article: To contribute, there are two ways. You can register with the website to create posts that go directly to the website. They are looking for bloggers who want to provide exclusive posts that meet Social Media Today’s standards. You can also set up your account to take in posts from the RSS feed of your blog. Social Media Today can pick from those posts to post on their blog. To become a contributor, learn how to become a contributor and fill out their contributor application Google form.
9. Mashable
About: Mashable is a publication that prides itself on being the “go-to source” for technology, digital culture, and entertainment content.
How to contribute a guest blog article: To contribute, visit their submit news page. Fill out the form on the page to submit a pitch, tip or article. They will ask you what type of submission: exclusive story, a news update, a hot tip, an editorial suggestion or other.
10. PRDaily.com and Ragan.com
About: PR Daily is a daily news website that delivers news and advice about the PR, marketing, social media and traditional media worlds. Ragan.com delivers practice advice, real-world solutions and field-tested strategies for today’s communicator.
How to contribute a guest blog article: To become a contributor to PRDaily.com and Ragan.com, visit the submit news page. They are looking for basic contact information, topic and your article. They will want to know if it is an aggregated news story, original story or column, a previously published blog post, a tip or other.
What other popular websites would you add to this list?
Are their certain websites you like for guest blogging? What are your favorite websites to contribute guest blog posts to? If you want to guest blog for Knowledge Enthusiast, please read our guest blog guidelines.