If you’re interested in writing a guest blog post for The Content Factory, you aren’t alone. Every month we receive dozens of emails from writers who want to post something on our blog. Understandably, we can’t accept everyone — we tend to only publish guest blog posts that are both high-quality and relevant to our audience.
So, if you’re looking to get a guest blog post published on our website, here’s everything that you need to know.
Why Should I Want to Write a Guest Blog Post for TCF?
In short:
- We receive 1,500 - 3,000 unique hits per day, from around the world (though most of our traffic comes from US-based IP addresses).
- We have a well-defined social presence.
- Our website has a DR rating of 69 from Ahrefs and an authority score of 57 from SEMrush. (Which is a good sign that people — and Google — trust us.)
- Our content is good. We’re obviously biased, but unlike most agencies, we aren’t just throwing content out there hoping to just rank for keywords — we actually want to help our visitors get better at digital marketing.
What Are You Looking For in a Guest Post?
Generally, we aren’t looking for people to write about things we’d like to write about in the near future. That means that some SEO topics are off limits, as are things relating to digital PR. With that said, those topics are pretty vast — so it can’t hurt to pitch us if you feel like your take on the subject is particularly unique.
We also aren’t looking for reviews, or posts that openly promote any software, service, or application. Lists of your favorites are okay (and it’s fine if you make your own list), but we aren’t just looking to become a hub of self-promotion. Your content has to actually be useful to our audience — even if they don’t drop neatly into your marketing funnel.
Not sure what pitches we’d like? Want to pick from our suggested list? Click here!
In general, though, here’s what we’re looking for in a guest blog post:
- Well-written content — while we edit everything that goes on our blog, we shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time on it.
- Something between 800 - 2,500 words.
- Expertise. Show our audience (and us) that you really know what you’re talking about.
- Novel approaches. While it’s okay to write about well-worn topics, if you’re going to write about something like, say, silo strategy, you should have an interesting spin on it.
- It must be unique. We aren’t looking to be a mirror of content that’s published elsewhere. Likewise, plagiarism is an absolute no-no.
As an additional note, while we don’t expect you to mirror our tone exactly, we do expect you to come off as friendly and knowledgeable — but not arrogant.
Guest Blog Posting FAQ
Do I have to pay money to get get a post published?
Absolutely not. (And we’d advise you to walk away from any blog that charges you to write for them.)
Does my website need to have a certain number of followers/a high DR/something else for you to consider a guest post?
Short answer: no, not really.
Long answer: Generally, your business/website should be relevant to our industry. If you're selling toasters, we probably don't want your guest post. Likewise, if you're just an all-purpose review website or something in that ballpark, we just aren't going to be interested in having you write a guest blog post for us.
If you ARE in our industry, we don't really have any particular metrics for you to hit — though we do expect you to be established (remember — we're looking for expertise, here).
Another caveat: if you are associated with a specific company, we will look at what sort of backlinks you have, but ONLY beacuse we're looking for shady stuff. If you have a small amount of traffic and 500,000 backlinks, or something else looks odd, we'll probably pass, as we're very careful about who we associate with. The Content Factory is a white-hat shop, and we'd prefer to associate with businesses that also fit that profile.
I emailed you — how long before I know if you’ll let me submit a guest post?
As mentioned earlier, we receive a lot of queries and it can take a bit to get through all of them. The thing is, while our blog is an important part of our company, our clients will always come first. If you don’t receive a response in two weeks, however, consider email us again.
I’ve sent my blog post over, how long before it’s published?
See above — while we’d like to publish it ASAP, it will ultimately depend on how much editing it needs, how busy we are, and what our internal posting schedule looks like. We’re usually able to give a pretty accurate estimate, but sometimes client work comes up that requires us to push our own blog to the backburner.
How much are you going to edit my post?
Hopefully not much — I’ll just clean it up, format it, and maybe shift around your links a bit.
In your suggested pitches, I see that not every pitch has a keyword. Should I find one?
Generally, we'll always provide you with a keyword. If one isn't currently listed, don't worry — we'll give you one. (As much as we're fans of teaching people how to do keyword research, we'd prefer to do our own!)
You’re going to change my links?!
We’re digital marketers — we know why you’re submitting a guest post. We’ll preserve your important links, but within reason. If you aren’t spammy, you’ll be fine.
Do I get to review content after it’s been edited?
Generally, no. Once you send over your post, you won’t see it until it’s posted. With that said, sometimes we will send something back if we’re unsure about something — and if you really don’t a change we made, we’re willing to shift things around. We’re reasonable! We’re just trying to ensure our blog has high-quality content.
I’ve sent a guest blog post in the past — can I send another?
Maybe — chances are, if we really loved your guest blog post and want another (or are open to it in the future), you’ll know.
My content was taken down, why?
So, to be clear — we’ve never taken down a blog post. But we reserve the right to do so for any reason if we deem it necessary. Maybe we discovered some plagiarism we missed the first time, or maybe something you posted elsewhere goes against our company values.
Once again — we’ve never had to do this, and we hope we never have to — but that doesn’t mean we won’t have to in the future.
Still Want to Pitch TCF a Guest Blog Post?
Still interested? Send me an email with the subject like “TCF Guest Post Request” with your pitch. Don’t have one? Check out our spreadsheet of ideas here.
Good luck!
