How to Find Guest Posting Sites? : 14 Free & Paid Methods That Work in 2024!

There is no doubt that guest blogging is one of the most common and effective link building techniques in 2023. Aside from helping to level up your SEO, guest posting also gives you a great opportunity to reach a wider audience and share your brand story.

However, finding the right sources to post your content will take a lot of your time and effort if you don’t know where and how to look.

Here, we have shared how to find guest posting sites that will help strengthen your backlink profile and dominate SERPs.

Why Guest Posting Matters

Guest posting is a multifaceted strategy that offers many benefits – ranging from improved SEO and traffic to enhanced brand authority and industry relationships.

Here is why this should be an integral part of your link building campaign:

• Enhanced Organic Traffic

When you publish articles on authority and relevant websites, you will gain valuable backlinks. They are so important because they are one of Google’s major ranking factors to determine the credibility of your site.

Also, when you publish guest posts on reputable websites within your niche, you tap into their existing readership. As a result, you get to enjoy increased traffic, many of whom transform into your loyal followers sooner or later.

• Increased Domain Authority (DA)

Domain Authority (DA), developed by Moz, measures the reliability, trustworthiness, and expertise of a website on a scale of 1-100.  Usually, a higher score indicates a better chance of ranking.

When a high-DA website provides you a backlink, it passes a small portion of its authority to you. So, the more you gain these inbound links, the higher your DA score gets.

• Expanded Network

Guest posting also offers opportunities to build meaningful relationships with other bloggers, industry influencers, and website owners. This collaboration fosters mutual respect and trust.

What’s more, engaging with a wider network means more opportunities to learn from other experts in your field and sharing your own knowledge. This is a great way to stay updated with industry trends and continuously refine your expertise.

• Strengthened Content Marketing Efforts

You launch your content marketing campaign with an aim to establish your brand as an industry authority. By contributing well-researched, informative, and engaging guest posts, you can position yourself as an expert in your field where the readers will be more likely to trust and respect your insights.

How to Find Guest Posting Sites? : 14 Effective Methods

You can’t just reach out to some random sites and ask them to publish your content. Instead, you have to find niche-relevant sites that not only accept content from other authors but are willing to provide dofollow links to you.

Also, you may already know that Google favors links that come from relevant websites. So, no matter what the sources are, you have to make sure that they belong to the same industry as you.

However, if you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. Here, we have shared how to find guest blogging opportunities that can help level up your outreach game.

Free Methods

1. Niche-Related Outreach Campaign

You need to hunt for the authority sites in your niche for guest blogging.

How to find them easily? Search engines could help.

Google the relevant key phrases and list down at least 100 high-quality websites in an Excel sheet.

You have to check out at least 50 search result pages and skip sponsored ads, YouTube videos, forums, Q&A, and spammy sites.

Let’s say you run a bakery shop. If your niche is cake recipes, you can Google “classic cake recipe,” “trending cake flavors,” “cake recipe without egg,” and “chocolate cake recipe.”

For the “classic cake recipe,” keyword, Google shows this:

After creating a list, visit each of them and look at the “Contact Us,” “About Us,” “Guest Posting,” or “Write for Us” pages. These pages usually contain their guidelines for guest blogging (if any).

Also, Google the following terms to see if they allow blog outreach services.

• site:domain.com “submit a guest post”
• site:domain.com “guest post by”
• site:domain.com “contribute an article”
• site:domain.com “want to write”
• site:domain.com “submit your post”
• site:domain.com “become a contributor”
• site:domain.com “accepting guest posts”

If you don’t see anything, that means the website doesn’t allow guest blogging.

Note: Many trusted sites allow guest posts but don’t have the above pages. If you stumble upon them, email and inquire if there is any scope for you.

2. Google Search

When wondering how to find guest posting sites, search engines are the way to go.

Start with your keywords and their variations. A simple search on Google will show you hundreds of blogs that publish guest content.

Use your keywords + any of the following search terms:

• + “guest blog”/” guest post”
• + “write for us”
• + “guest article”
• + “guest post opportunity”
• + “this is a guest post by”
• + “submit an article”
• +“submit a guest post”
• + “submit a blog post”
• + “contribute guest post”
• + “contribute to our blog”
• + “guest column”
• + “contributing writer”
• + “suggest a post”
• + “want to write for”
• + “become a guest blogger”
• + “become an author”
• + “guest poster wanted”
• + “accepting guest posts”
• + “guest blogging guidelines”
• + “contributor guidelines”
• + “writers wanted”
• + “send a tip”
• + “guest post by”
• + “guest author”

From our previous cake recipe example, the queries will look like these:

cake recipe + “guest blog”

cake recipe + “write for us”

cake recipe + “guest article”

You get the idea.

If you Google [cake recipe + “write for us,”] the result will be:

After Googling the full list, replace “cake recipe” with another keyword and repeat the process.

When you Google these key phrases, you may need to browse the 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th page to find the relevant blogs.

Copy and list them on an Excel sheet for further analysis.

This is a superb way to build a huge niche-related list. Then you have to filter them out one by one considering other factors like authority, backlink profile, domain age, and price.

3. Google News and Alerts

Google has a news aggregator that shares the latest news coverage from thousands of websites. There are hundreds of categories, which means you can tailor any type of news you want to your interests.

Also, you can set up alerts to receive new articles in your mail for any topic.

If you search “cake recipe” on news.google.com, you will get this:

Can you see some of the articles were posted 4, 16, and 19 hours ago? This is a unique way to find fresh content. This also means the web admins are active right now.

Go to these websites and look for guest posting-related pages. If you can’t find any, get in touch with them through the “Contact Us” pages.

When you get new articles in your mail after setting an alert, apply the same method here as well. This is a highly effective way to find many guest blogging opportunities.

4. Content Aggregators

A content aggregator site displays hundreds of latest and popular news and article headlines from all over the internet using RSS feeds. It is an XML file containing a summary of the latest posts of a website.

Content aggregators curate content based on keywords (e.g. technology, business, or health) and websites (e.g. TechCrunch, Reddit, or Mashable.)

When you click the post title, you are redirected to the original source. As a result, you can follow your favorite websites in one place. They also give you the ability to make a custom aggregator based on your preferred keywords, topics, and sources.

Now, the question is – how to find guest posting sites using the aggregators?

The process is simple. Let us break it down for you.

AllTop is our favorite aggregator. It displays popular sites and their article headlines. You can find almost every type of content under different categories, such as news, tech, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, business, and more.

For our cake recipe example, you can select the “Food” category under “Lifestyle.”

If you find any cake-related content, go to the website and request the admin to publish your article. If they agree, you may have a chance to appear on AllTop too through their sites.

Flipboard is another popular website that curates stories about news, entertainment, technology, travel, food, and sports.

You can apply the same process to Flipboard for guest blogging opportunities. Find the viral articles in your niche, go to the original sites, contact the owners, and convince them to publish your blogs.

Here are some top content aggregator sites to get started:

• AllTop
• Feedly
• Flipboard
• Digg
• Pocket

5. Guest Posting Chrome Extensions

Suppose you have visited a niche-relevant website and wanted to reach out to the admin but couldn’t find the “Guest posting” or “Contact Us” page. How would you reach out to them through email with your content idea?

In that case, email-finder extensions for Chrome will be of great help. They will retrieve email addresses from any website and save you a lot of time.

Hunter is one of the most popular email finder extensions. When you visit a website, it will show who and how to contact with one click, including their social media links.

Here is something important to know. The influential websites get so many emails in their inbox that they don’t bother to open them regularly. In that case, you need to find the contact information of other responsible persons like the author, HR, publisher, or owner.

These are some of the best email-extracting Chrome extensions you can use:

• Hunter – Email Finder Extension
• Email Finder by Snov.io
• Email Hunter
• Email Extractor
• RocketReach
• Email Finder

6. Blogger Outreach Tools

An Outreach Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool can help make your link building campaign a success through guest posting. They automate most of the outreach tasks.

For instance, BuzzStream is an excellent CRM tool to research websites, build a qualified list, send convincing emails to verified addresses, and track your progress.

Using several metrics, they filter the different websites and find out the most credible and potential contacts to reach them quickly.

If you want to speed up your guest blogging strategy, blogger outreach tools are your savior.

These are the most popular tools you can try:

• BuzzStream
• Pitchbox
• Ninja Outreach
• Snovio
• ContentMarketer.io
• Traackr
• Respona
• Buzzsumo

7. Directories

There are mainly two types of guest blogging directories available – regular and hybrid.

Let us explain both.

If you Google “Guest posting directory,” you will find many digital marketing websites that have listed hundreds of sites that post articles from other authors.

Here is an example.

You can filter them by their traffic, keywords, categories, DR (Domain Ratings), and popularity. However, going through all these sites one by one, verifying them with different metrics, and finding out the best ones will take ages.

However, you can search niche-related sites directly. For the bakery blog, you can Google “Food guest posting directory.”

You may find that some have not updated their content for a long time and some don’t exist anymore.

8. Social Media

Social media is not only for sharing cute cat images or hearing gossip. There also lies an amazing guest blogging opportunity for you!

If you are a Twitter (rebranded to X) user, you might be familiar with hashtags (#). When you add a # sign before an unbroken word or phrase, Twitter makes it clickable and includes all statuses that use the same tags.

Hashtag is a popular way to find trending posts on Twitter. For example, if you search “#guespost,” “#guestblogging,” or “guestarticle,” you will see many bloggers, authors, and website owners sharing related posts to your niche. You can DM them and check if they are in your industry.

On the other hand, you can search your keyword on Facebook and see all the relevant content people are sharing. You may find some viral articles as well if you are lucky.

You can text them to know if they are the owners, or visit their sites and mail them via the Contact Us page.

Usually, people share interesting stuff on social media. The content is mostly from renowned websites.

If you pitch to the web admins correctly, you can post your article on their site and win powerful backlinks.

LinkedIn is another popular business networking platform where you can find many link builders offering professional guest blogging services. You can connect with them and discuss whether they have any potential sites where you can post articles.

Besides, you can use visual content platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok to look for article-posting sites.

Many websites have official accounts on Pinterest. It is also the perfect platform to find influencers. So, you can contact the web admins here without visiting the site.

Pinterest is also the right place to find countless blogs for specific niches, such as food, diet, health, fashion, home décor, and handcraft.

If you are on Instagram or TikTok, look for influencers who share similar content to you. If they have a personal blog, approach them with your content.

9. Competitors’ Backlinks

Do you want to know the guest blogging strategies of your competitors?

Use Ahrefs or Semrush to sneak into their backlink profiles. You will see all the source sites with their DA and anchor texts.

However, you have to go through the whole list to figure out which ones have been outreached. Filter the links based on high DA scores, in-article, and blog sites. This will help narrow down your choices to a few hundred links.

Is it possible to replicate their strategies?

Yes, if these sites have published your competitors’ guest articles, they will most likely agree with you too.

Connect to them and pitch your proposal by mentioning that they have already accepted similar articles. Also, don’t forget to offer quality content.

Secret Tip# Open at least top 10 search result pages for each keyword and go through their link profiles for a good number of authoritative sources.

10. Complimentary Local Sources

Till now, we have focused on posting content on niche-related websites, meaning some of them have the same keywords as you.

How about going for complementary sites?

They are in your industry but not your direct competitors. So, it can be easy to convince them to post your articles. For instance, if you sell custom-designed cakes, a coffee shop, café, or fast-food joint can be your top choice. Nowadays, most of them have blogs.

Make a list of such businesses in your area and introduce yourself to them. Don’t ask about guest posting directly; build a relationship with them first.

Wait for a while, and when you think they know you and your business well, approach them with your idea. Also, write an informative and interesting article for their audience that they might like.

Suppose you have made a new cake with a unique flavor, like exotic food fusion, and you know a neighboring coffee shop. Why not share your fresh design and recipe with the owner to post it for their visitors?

Also, don’t forget to add your link in the article for the interested visitors. Some of them might want to check out your website. With one post, you can earn valuable backlinks and potential referral customers.

11. Crowdsourced Content

If you are working with an uncommon niche and can’t find guest blogging sites easily using the above methods, you can try online communities, Q&A, discussion boards, and social groups. Blogging experts may offer you the right direction.

Quora is our number one choice. It has many content marketing-related topics such as “Guest Blogging (72k+ followers),” “Guest Posting (9k+ followers,” and “Blogging (1.5M+). Can you imagine how many members are talking about this industry?

If you dig deeper into each topic, you will see many also want to know how to find guest posting sites just like you while other marketers have answered them (some with a list of the sources).

You can read these topics and find out the potential sources. Ask them if somebody can tell you how to find guest post opportunities by mentioning your website.

What’s more, Reddit has numerous digital marketing subreddits with a great follower base, such as r/GuestPost (6K+), r/GuestPostingService (1.4K+), r/SEO (241k+), and r/linkbuilding (7.7K+).

If you look into r/GuestPost, you will see some members posted that they have a large volume of guest blogging websites.

The best part is that most of the Reddit members are active. If you ask a question, they usually comment within a few hours.

On the other hand, WhatsApp has hundreds of active guest blogging, link building, and SEO groups. They are free to join, but some of them require invitations.

These groups connect thousands of sellers and buyers together. You will find advice, recommendations, and even great sources for posting content.

How do you discover these groups? Well, a simple search on Google shows this:

Join as many groups as you can, participate in the discussion, and ask where to post articles in your niche.

Here are some User Generated Content (UGC) sites to use right away:

• Quora
• Reddit
• WhatsApp Group
• Slack community
• Discord

12. Niche-Specific Forums

Similar to crowdsourced content sites, a forum is another friendly place to discuss various issues and find solutions. Most of them are niche-specific e.g. health, technology, business, digital marketing, and entertainment.

Sign up for some of the best communities in your industry, join the discussion, and network with other bloggers.

Some members often seek guest blogs and will welcome your request if you pitch them with quality content.

For the bakery niche, you can Google “best baking forums” and might find resources like  baking-forums.com, Help Me Bake, The Fresh Loaf, and Breadtopia. All of them are dedicated baking websites you can use.

However, each forum has specific rules you need to follow. Otherwise, they will ban you forever.

Paid Methods

1. Freelance Marketplaces

How about you let professional freelancers find you the best guest posting sites? They are specialized in outreach campaigns, and they usually have a network with hundreds of authority websites.

• Upwork:

Upwork is one of the largest freelancing platforms that has so many outreach experts you can count on. No matter what type of site you have, you might find high-DA websites for you.

If you search “Guest Posting,” you will see many top-rated SEO experts.

Some of them have been offering link building services for over a decade. You can text them and discuss your needs. However, check out their hourly rate before you hire them because some of them might be expensive.

You can post a job with your requirements, and the interested candidates will bid on your project. They will share their resource lists and pricing to publish your article.

• Fiverr

Fiverr is another marketplace for guest blogging services. If you search “Guest post,” you will see 2.4K+ gigs – the services that the sellers offer.

Similar to Upwork, they will write and publish unique articles on high-DA sites for you. You can choose on which site they can post and how many inbound links you want.

However, there are many low-quality and spammy websites with high authority scores (manipulated by blackhat links) – SEO practices against search engine guidelines.

So, you need to look into their traffic, link profiles, content quality, and penalty before you select them.

Note: When you talk to the freelancers, ask for their recent portfolios. Also, check what other clients have said about their services. You will find lenient feedback below the seller’s profile.

These are top marketplaces you can work with:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• SEOClerks
• PeoplePerHour
• Guru.com

2. Outreach Agency

If you can’t rely on Google resources or freelancers and are looking for professional help, you can work with a link building agency. They will thoroughly analyze your website to find out the perfect solution that will help you gain links and improve your SERPs.

There are both dedicated and full-fledged agencies. The type of service you need will depend on your website, requirements, and budget.

For instance, LinkBuilderPros.com is a result-driven link building agency that specializes in custom guest blogging. Our team of experts have deep knowledge of trending SEO practices and know which methods are working and which aren’t.

We have collaborative partnerships with many authoritative websites for different niches. Over the years, we have helped hundreds of websites earn quality links and improve their rankings through guest articles.

What Makes a Good Guest Blogging Website

Until now, we have tried to answer your important question “How to find guest posting sites?” with several free and paid methods.

If you have selected a handful of sites by following the above ways, how do you know they are good choices?

You can’t reach out to a random site and ask them to accept your content and give you the link. Even if they publish it, how could you know that this backlink will benefit you instead of damaging your ranking?

Well, here are some guidelines you can follow while selecting the source site.

• Relevant to your niche
• A natural and strong backlink profile (white hat and relevant)
• A significant amount of quality content
• In-article dofollow links (if you target your keyword to rank)
• A decent number of visitors
• No sponsored or paid tag
• High domain authority (at least DA 20)
• No PBN or link farm – a group of sites created solely to boost ranking and authority by hyperlinking to each other.

How to Post Guest Blogs?

After finding and qualifying the right website, it is time to approach them. Here are some simple techniques you can follow to submit a guest post:

• Email them through the “Contact Us” page.
• Show them how your content will benefit their audience.
• If they ask for money, you need to decide how much the link will be worth considering their traffic, DA, content quality, and domain age.
• When they agree to your rate, discuss your requirements and their terms; i.e., the number of links you want, dofollow/nofollow tag, permanent or temporary, and payment method.
• Format your guest blog similar to the source site.
• Include other relevant external links to make them more natural (Don’t be greedy and link to your site only)
• Write an attractive author bio with your site’s URL and social profiles. (If they have an author bio section)

Wrapping It Up

That’s it about how to find guest posting sites that will benefit your link building and ranking. When searching for the best opportunity, you will see some sites are in your niche while others cover general categories like technology, business, internet, sports, health, and entertainment.

If you want to rank, typically, backlinks from niche-relevant sources will help the most. On the other hand, a general website with high DA can primarily increase your authority.

We have included both free and paid methods. Obviously, paid tactics work faster because outreach experts such as agencies or freelancers will handle your task.

If you follow the above guidelines, we are confident that you will be able to receive backlinks from quality sites and grow your link profile.

FAQs

Q. What is the meaning of a guest post?

Ans. It means writing and publishing content on someone else’s niche-relevant website to reach a wider audience, demonstrate authority, get backlinks, and improve ranking.

Q. What is a free guest posting site?

Ans. The website allows you to publish your content on their sites without charging money. Mostly, new blogs offer this opportunity, but some high-traffic sites accept free submissions, too.

Q. Is guest posting free or paid?

Ans. It depends on the quality of the source sites and their domain ages. Some websites allow free posting, while others ask for payment.

Q. What is another name for guest posting?

Ans. Guest Posting is also known as guest blogging.

Q. Is guest posting safe?

Ans. Yes, it is safe only when you post content on relevant and quality sites, and the links are placed naturally.