Guest Blogging
How to Pitch a Guest Post Editors Actually Accept
Most pitches are declined for reasons that have nothing to do with the writing.
Editors decline most of what arrives, and rarely because the writer could not write. The common failures are visible in the first ten seconds and are entirely avoidable.
Why Pitches Are Declined
- They ran it already: The single most common reason. The subject was covered eight weeks ago and the pitch shows nobody looked.
- It is not for their readers: A good idea aimed at the wrong audience.
- It is an advert: A pitch whose real subject is the writer's product.
- It went to nobody: Addressed to "Dear Editor" and clearly sent to fifty publications.
- It has no angle: A topic rather than an argument. "An article about email marketing" is not a pitch.
Four of those five are fixed by reading the publication before writing to it.
What a Pitch Needs
- A specific angle stated in one sentence, not a topic.
- Why their readers in particular need it, referencing something they have run.
- Why you are the person to write it — the experience behind the argument.
- A rough structure, so the editor can picture the finished piece.
- Nothing else. Short pitches get read; long ones get postponed.
Follow Their Rules Exactly
Publications that accept contributions usually publish guidelines: length, format, how to submit, what they do not want. Ignoring them is read as a signal about how the rest of the working relationship will go.
If they ask for a pitch, do not send a finished article. If they ask for a finished article, do not send a pitch.
Do not ask about links in the pitch. It reframes the entire conversation as a transaction and is the fastest way to be declined by any publication worth appearing in.
When You Are Declined
Most pitches are, and it is not usually personal. A short thank-you and a better-targeted pitch in two months does more than a follow-up chain.
Editors remember writers who were easy to deal with, and that memory is worth more than any single placement.
Pitching properly is most of the work in a placement, which is why our guest blogging service reports on what was declined as well as what landed.