I decided that in order to start becoming a player in the blogging and internet entrepreneur realm, I had to get off the bench. (Sorry.  Sports metaphor.)  What I mean is, I had to reach out to people who are already doing it and doing it well. What’s the worst that could happen?  They’ll say no?

Listen up, cupcake, in case you didn’t already know this, you’re going to hear a lot of rejection when you choose to become your own boss.  It will never be a cakewalk. Something I remember dear, old Mother Douglas telling me as a young lad,  ”A close mouth never gets fed.”  If you never ask, for fear of getting rejected, you’ll never get anywhere.  And also, remember, there are dozens of reasons why people aren’t able to write you a guest post.  They’re doing YOU a favor.  Not the other way around.

Here are a few more tips for you to remember when you start reaching out to people for guest posts: (Most of my interactions are through Twitter and email, so that’s what I’ll use as my points of contact)

• Don’t worry about trying to get guest posts from people on Twitter in your niche who have tens of thousands of followers.  Follow those with 5,000- 7,000 or less.  Look for the bloggers in your niche that have around the same number of followers as you.  I keep it at the 5,0007,000 range because if you go down into the 1,000 follower range, you’re more susceptible to be followed by people who are doing nothing but trying to sell you something, ONLY.  And most of the time, they’re not providing you with anything of value.  Don’t get me wrong me wrong.  There are exceptions to the rule, but the majority are MLM’ers or bots. (Nothing wrong with MLM, just not my bag, baby.)  You’re looking to build relationships.  Now if you like the content that the people with mega-followers have, of course, you should definitely follow them (i.e. Seth Godin, Darren Rowse, etc.).  But, I’ve found more value from those who have fewer followers who are also trying to build relationships, too.

• Be weary of people with 0 tweets, but have thousands of followers.  They either bought their followers or they are a bot.  (I hate both.)

• Always, always, ALWAYS be polite and professional.  Even if the blogger is not able to help you out, send a thank you email.  They may not be able to help you today, but if your paths cross again in the future, you could help each other.

• Never start off an email with “Yo bro”.

• Bloggers are really busy people so don’t feel slighted when someone you admire  isn’t able to do a guest post for you.  I’ve been rejected more times than people have said yes. (It’s high school all over again.)

• Follow more people  who follow you, than who don’t follow you. Remember, just because people have huge numbers of followers doesn’t always equal influence.

• DO NOT stalk your favorite bloggers. ‘Nuff said, there.  It can get kind of tiring standing outside of Chris Brogan’s and Darren Rowse’s houses.  (Not…that…..I would…do anything….like that.  -ahem-)

I could list many more things, but I’ll stop here.  There was a little tongue in cheek there, but these tips are necessary.  Do you have any tips to share, whether you’re looking to guest post on a blog or what YOU look for in a guest post?  Please comment.

Later.

Image credit: Filomena Scalise