List of 300+ Websites That Accept Guest Posts & Contributions | Solvid

Disclaimer: This list in no way guarantees that all or any of the websites listed below will accept your content, guest post or contribution. This post/list shall only be treated as a go-to resource for those who are looking to contribute their work to various media publications. The vast majority of these sites would require you to show some expertise & have some experience before allowing you to submit guest posts/contributions. So, take your time and ensure that your content is of top-notch quality before reaching out to any of these websites/blogs.

Also, it’s worth noting that by the time you read this post, some websites might have changed the rules and guidelines for guest blogging, have completely closed external submissions, decreased or increased in Domain Authority and/or Alexa Rank. That being said, we’ll try our best to keep this list updated and provide you with the most accurate, comprehensive and reliable source.

Before we jump over to the main part of this article, let’s go through the definition of guest blogging, how it can help you and things to be aware of.

What is Guest Posting?

For those of you who are not quite familiar with content marketing, blogging and SEO, guest posting is an act of writing and publishing a blog post or an article on someone else’s blog or website. Your work may or may not be compensated financially. This purely depends on whether the website/blog offers a financial incentive for your contributions.

There is a little difference between guest posting & being a contributor. Guest posting is more for those who are looking to contribute a one-off post, whereas being a contributor may require some degree of commitment (e.g. producing 2-3 posts per month).

Whatever you prefer to call this process, ensuring that your posts are published only on reliable, quality and reputable websites is an absolute necessity if you wish to reap the rewards of guest blogging.

Wait a minute, didn’t Matt Cutts declare the death of guest blogging?

Oh, sh*t, you’re right, he did. We’ve spent over 50 hours crafting this post, and all of this has to be trashed now…

No, wait a second, there is a huge distinction between crappy guest blogging and quality contributions of your original, well-written and comprehensive content to authoritative, trusted and reputable blogs.

That’s where we should draw the line.

I’ll explain what Matt meant.

Overtime, guest posting (also known as guest blogging) has gained somewhat a negative reputation due to it being abused by “black hat” SEOs. Instead of focusing on long-term commitment and long-lasting relationship with the blogger, so called SEOs used guest posting only for building backlinks (most times on low-quality websites), usually spinning articles all over again and republishing them on different blogs.

Sure, most of us know that guest blogging has been hit by spammers, publishing low-quality articles on shitty blogs. But, does that really mean guest blogging is totally dead? No, not at all.

But Matt said…

Wait! Matt said, but then he clarified.

In his original post he said:

“So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy.”

But after being swept away by over 650 comments (presumably from quality guest bloggers), he added the following:

“I’m not talking about multi-author blogs. High-quality multi-author blogs like Boing Boing have been around since the beginning of the web, and they can be compelling, wonderful, and useful.”

So, what’s the takeaway?

Simple! Don’t be spammy, don’t post horse crap on crappy websites, don’t accept horse crap (if you are the one receiving guest posts), don’t spin articles, don’t use guest blogging as your only SEO strategy, don’t automate the process, don’t post on irrelevant websites and don’t post the same article on multiple blogs.

Instead, be authentic, credible, write high-quality stuff and focus on long-term benefits of contributing your work to 3rd party websites.

I think we can draw a line here. I hope you have an understanding of how low-quality guest blogging is different from high-quality contributions.

What are the Benefits of Guest Posting/Contributing?

It would have been a crime to write this post and not to mention the main benefits of guest blogging. At the end of the day, you aren’t writing articles for 3rd party websites just because you have the time to do so. Although you may want to sound like a philanthropist when pitching articles, deep down in your soul, you are expecting something in return, whether it’s some nice referral traffic or a boost in your brand’s exposure.

Here are 11 main benefits of guest blogging for other websites:

• Reach a wider audience: Contributing your work to external websites would mean that more people will see your work. Imagine this, if you get your article published on Forbes, 10s or even 100s of thousands of people would read your article, and if the subject is directly correlated with what you do, people will come back for more (often directly to your website).
• Generate quality referral traffic: Quality posts that get seen and read by 1000s of people are likely to generate a ton of quality, targeted referral traffic. You know where this can lead to. Yes, more exposure and more sales.
• Build long-lasting relationship: If you’re not one of those people who guest post just for links, you are likely to publish multiple articles on a single blog. This, in return, will tighten up the relationship with the owner of the blog and may lead to further partnerships.
• Become an influencer: Being featured in authoritative websites and blogs would make you an influencer in the eyes of your potential audience. People would look up to you as an expert in your niche, and will often cite your words as the words of “The Almighty”.
• Build up your social media presence: Wondering how to build up your social following without posting d*ck pics? Guest posting is the way to go. For instance, when someone shares your article, you would often get tagged and mentioned.
• Increase authority of your website: People are more likely to trust and buy from the brand that has a powerful web presence. If your product gets a decent review from The Next Web, would people have more confidence in purchasing that product of you? Sure thing.
• Become more confident: Imagine getting featured in Forbes, Wired, Inc and Entrepreneur? That would definitely tell you something about the quality of your writing and your expertise.
• Increase exposure & brand awareness: Similarly to increasing authority of your website, guest blogging can expose your brand to a much broader audience.
• Inbound links (backlinks): Should I really explain this point? Okay, you can also get a quality, powerful backlink from your profile bio. The vast majority of sites will allow you to add a link or two in your byline, which usually appears at the bottom of every post.
• Build an email list: An influx of referral traffic to your website can lead to a growth of your mailing list. If, and only if you can convert that traffic to your regular subscribers.
• Money, money, money: Some people manage to build an entire business of contributing articles. Solvid (that’s us if you didn’t know) is a good example. We’ve gotten several monthly paying clients just from publishing quality articles on The Next Web, Sitepoint and Lifehack. Yes, we’ve worked our socks off to get there, but it all pays off.

The Dos and Don’ts of guest blogging

Although there are numerous benefits of contributing content and being a guest blogger, you should plan your journey carefully when deciding to utilise this strategy. All great things come with pitfalls.

Let us go over the dos and don’ts of guest blogging.

Dos:

• Do read the guidelines: Different blogs have different requirements for contributors and guest bloggers. Some may only accept posts that are less than 600 words; others may only accept articles if you are a known individual in your niche. Hence, always check the guidelines on a case-by-case basis.
• Do create exceptional content: No reputable blog would accept a poorly written post, especially from a guest blogger. Do your background work, support your claims, provide arguments, check your grammar and spelling mistakes. No one is perfect, but if your article is terrible, it will not get featured. Simple as that.
• Do show your expertise & experience: Ideally, you would only want to blog on subjects that you have an in-depth knowledge of. So, if you know your niche well enough and have sufficient knowledge of the topic – show it!
• Do write for the audience: Don’t go wild with SEO jargon if you are writing for a small business blog. The audience would not understand a word. Instead, tailor your content for the audience of that blog.
• Do create original content: Only write unique content that has never been published on other websites/blogs (even your own). If your post is accepted, you should still avoid republishing that piece.
• Do find out what works best: Identify what type of content does best on that blog. Is it top-10 lists or in-depth guides? You can evaluate that by the number of shares and comments a post has gained.
• Do craft a perfect byline: In order to present yourself in an appealing way, you need to write a decent profile bio. Do include your notable achievements and previous contributions.

Don’ts:

• Don’t be spammy: Don’t send mass emails to 100s of blogs at the same time asking for guest posting opportunities.
• Don’t spin articles: Spun articles are so damn easy to spot. They are terrible and don’t read well.
• Don’t use the same article: Avoid posting the same article over and over again. If you are serious about quality guest blogging, you should only post a single piece on a single website.
• Don’t make guest blogging your only link-building strategy: The primary reason why Matt Cutts has declared a death of guest blogging is due to it being treated as a go-to place for easy links.
• Don’t post on spammy and low-quality websites: You would want to avoid spammy websites at all cost. Not only they can damage your reputation as a writer, but also get your website in trouble with Google.
• Don’t stuff your article with links: Editors are picky. It will take them no more than a minute to identify a self-promotional link. Unless it’s necessary to include a link (perhaps you are citing someone), don’t stuff them in. If you wish to have a link back to your website – use the byline.
• Don’t accept poor guest posts (for blog owners): If you don’t want to look sketchy – don’t be sketchy! Only accept quality guest articles that can potentially bring value to your readers.

How to be the perfect guest blogger?

By the time you read this part, you’ve probably realised that guest posting/contributing isn’t an easy way to gain backlinks. You should be prepared to work your socks off to get published in an authoritative publication.

But, how do you go about creating that “perfect” guest post?

Step 1: Get to know the blog’s content and audience

Identify which content performs best on a particular blog and what type of content gets the most traction. Identify the style of other posts, how well they are written and how detailed the posts are.

Step 2: Read the guidelines

How long should the piece be? There is no point writing a 2,000-word article just to find out that the limit is 1,000 words.

Step 3: Pitch your post

Before you proceed with writing the actual article, it’s worthwhile pitching an idea first to see whether this would be something they would publish.

When pitching, keep your email short (200 words or less), provide multiple headline variations, give a brief description of the article, a quick bio of yourself (what you do, where else have you been published, achievements, etc.) and a few links to example posts.

Here is a great email pitch template by Local SEO Checklist.

Step 4: Draft an article

Make sure your post is formatted according to the style of the blog, including any relevant images (everyone loves images). Usually, blogs would ask you to submit the article in HTML or Markdown format, in which case you should host images on your own website and input the source links.

Step 5: Craft a perfect byline (bio)

If you wish your guest blogging to be successful, the way you present yourself may be the determinant factor. Illustrate your expertise and knowledge of the subject, add a link or two back to your website and add any relevant social networks.

Step 6: Revise

Double or even triple check your article, read it out loud and give it to a friend or a family member to read. Does it flow well, is it coherent, can an ordinary person understand what you’re trying to say?

Step 7: Submit

At this stage, your input is not over yet. An editor may ask you to carry out any necessary amendments.

Glossary of terms & what it all means (just to define every fancy word I used in this post)

As you will notice below, I use some fancy terms and phrases like DA (Domain Authority) & Alexa Rank, which may seem senseless to some of you.

If you ever get overwhelmed by the terms I’ve used in this article, specifically in the tables below, refer to this part.

Website: No need to explain that. That’s just the name of the website.

DA (Domain Authority): A metric introduced by Moz that calculates the strength of the website on a scale from 1-100 (100 being the strongest). The metric is calculated upon the number and quality of inbound links, linking domains, MozRank and MozTrust.

Alexa Rank: The algorithm that is based on the amount of estimated traffic that a particular website gets. The lower the rank is, the more traffic a website gets (i.e. 1 being the most popular website).

Difficulty: This is our metric :). This “algorithm” is based on our own experience, the number of guest posts that we see featured on a particular website, the level of difficulty to get your article featured on that site, quality standards and the actual review process.

Link: The actual wording used on a blog or the action required to get your article posted on a particular website.

Oh, that was a long introduction.

Let’s see the actual list, shall we?

Business, Finance & General Marketing Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts and Contributions

Are you a passionate entrepreneur or small business owner who wants to earn some attention via guest blogging? If so, this list is exactly for you. Not only you can gain an immense amount of knowledge from these sites, but can also contribute by sharing your knowledge.

The following list consists of websites that cover general business, strategy, finance and general marketing topics. I would not suggest jumping onto Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur and the gang before you secure some guest posts from publications with lower barriers.

Digital Marketing, Social Media, SEO & Content Marketing Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts and Contributions

This list is more for those who have an in-depth knowledge and experience in either digital marketing, social media, content marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM). The vast majority of these websites/blogs cover all aspects of digital marketing, some are more inclined towards technical SEO while others focus on advanced content marketing. So, make sure you check the content of each website before pitching or applying to contribute.

Again, I would not recommend jumping onto sites like Search Engine Land, Hubspot or Adweek until you get covered by less demanding ones.

Blogging, Lifestyle & How-To Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts and Contributions

This list is more diversified than others. The following sites generally cover most topics mentioned in the title, but it’s still worthwhile checking out every blog on a case-by-case basis. For instance, Lifehack & The Huffington Post are more generalised than others. They cover anything from web development to yoga. Whereas Daily Blog Tips & Shout Me Loud focus on teaching novice bloggers. Hence, it might be worthwhile doing a quick background check before pitching these websites.

* BuzzFeed – Although there is no editorial review for posting articles on BuzzFeed’s Community, all posts have “no-index” tags in place. If you wish your post to get featured in the Community category or even on one of the main categories, use the feature “Suggest for Community Feature”.* WikiHow – Anyone can submit how-to guides & tips to WikiHow, but all of your pieces should be extremely detailed and comprehensive. Otherwise, the post will not go through the editorial process and will not be available for unregistered users. It is also worth noting that you should not link back to your own website, as editors are very savvy and will take the link down.

Technology, Gadgets & Computer Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts and Contributions

Are you a tech guru or complete geek? This list is definitely for you. The following websites cover everything from general tech news and innovations to in-depth software reviews. So, if you run a tech company or just developed a new software, and are confident that it could potentially revolutionise the market of technology, why not reach out to some of the sites below?

As you can see, there are some very high-profile publications on the list, such as Wired and Tech Crunch that are very picky about what they publish. So, belt up and use your secret gun when pitching these guys.

Web Design, Web Development & WordPress Websites/Blogs That Accept Guest Posts and Contributions

Are you a web developer or perhaps a WordPress enthusiast? The following list will suit you well. The vast majority of these sites cover more or less all topics related to web design, coding, web development and WordPress.

However, it’s worth to keep in mind that several websites like Sitepoint and Smashing Magazine are extremely picky in the content they publish. One of the reasons being the financial compensation they offer for quality articles. That’s cool, isn’t it? You can get the needed exposure and get paid for it! That’s a dream of all bloggers & SEO!

* Smashing Magazine – Although it’s incredibly challenging (depends on your experience) to become an author for Smashing Magazine, they pay writers for articles. You have to have a decent background of writing extremely detailed & comprehensive guides/articles.* Sitepoint – Similarly to Smashing Magazine, Sitepoint pays contributors at least $150/article. But, your guide/article must be of top-notch quality with a great level of detail.

* Codepen – Although it’s straightforward to get your articles posted on Codepen (just create a profile and start posting), all posts’ links are set to “no-follow” (which don’t pass ‘link juice’). That said, your article can be promoted, and all links would become “do-follow”.

Picked, Trusted and Tested

This is the list of chosen publications that we’ve personally tested for our business or our clients’ businesses. That’s not to say we don’t trust Forbes or Ink or Harvard Business Review, we certainly do! But, it’s an extremely challenging and exhausting process to get featured on either of these. Although we must admit that Forbes is gradually losing (maybe not gradually) its status of being one of the most reliable sources. All of those pop-ups, endless ads and quotes are just too annoying.

What are the other methods to find guest posting opportunities?

1. Google Search

Google Search persists to be the most popular way to find anything on the web. Same applies to finding blogs to contribute to.

So, begin the process with using advanced query strings. For example, to find out digital marketing websites that are on a lookout for contributors, we’ll use the following string: digital marketing “contribute”

To make the job easier for you, we’ve prepared the list of 10 popular strings:

Your Keyword “contribute”
Your Keyword “guest post”
Your Keyword “write for us”
Your Keyword “become an author”
Your Keyword “guest posting”
Your Keyword “submit post”
Your Keyword “submit article”
Your Keyword “submit an article”
Your Keyword “tip us”
Your Keyword “submit a tip”

All you need to do is to place your keyword.

2. Competitor Backlinks

This strategy can be so powerful if you have the right tools under your belt.

First and foremost, you would either need access to Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs or BuzzSumo. These are one of the best backlink analysis tools available on the market. You can simply input any URL, and the tool will give you the list of backlinks a particular site has.

Not only you can sneak behind the link building scene of any website, but you can also find some great guest posting opportunities. All you need to do is to go through the links and identify the sites that accept guest posts and contributions.

3. Twitter 

Similarly to Google Search, you can use pretty much the same strings to find guest post opportunities on Twitter. When someone is featured on a reputable blog or publication, they will often share the post with their followers. That’s where you can sneak behind. For example, do a Twitter search for a query digital marketing “guest post”, and it will show you the latest tweets that include your keywords.

All you need to do is scan through results by clicking on the links and evaluate which websites accept guest posts.

To Conclude

Although guest posting can be a powerful way to gain traction, build awareness, trust, reputation and links, it’s incredibly important that you stick to the best practices that don’t violate Google’s guidelines.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this huge post. We’ll keep this list updated where possible, and if you notice something weird (perhaps a mistake) feel free to point out.