While it does bend/break a couple rules from above, his pitch showed he had looked through our guidelines, and the topic he pitched was quite specific to our site/audience and detailed. (And he’s still writing for us today.)

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Hello,

I read through your guidelines and would be interested in contributing as a website design & SEO expert on a regular basis. I understand that you do not prefer "one-off" guest blogs, however, I think you might like my latest article that I’d hope to publish on SEW.

It’s titled "Webmaster Tip: Using Footer Links to Diversify Your Backlink Profile".

The article details an ingenious strategy I have been using to avoid a Penguin algorithm penalty and gain a little extra exposure in the SERPs with a few modifications to the footer links on all of the websites we have built.

Here is a link to the blog on Google docs (take a peek): (link was here)

As a somewhat older writer, I find interesting the number of younger writers who think that putting a few cogent, coherent sentences together is due no more effort than rolling out of bed in the morning. I blame an education system that has so greatly under served an entire generation of learners. The term self-taught has never been more aptly applied to post-boomers and beyond. It is by long study and practice that effortless prose makes its way to the page. Likewise, it is only when one realizes the beauty, expressiveness, and fluidity of the English language that it’s full power can be brought forth.

Haha, that is a great request. Lot of plumbing on the roof to be fixed? ;)

Good luck busting through the gates!

My favourite guest post request came for my Plumber client last year.

[Actual post] “[client] is always the one I call when I need something fixed on my roof and I’d love to write for your site. please let me know if you’d be interesting.” ((eyebrow lift))

Wasn’t sure where to start with that one, but we all got a good laugh out of it.

Thanks for the tips – I may take your advice and see if I can’t get through the gates one day. ;)

These tips should help anyone get their point across though and hopefully website owners will start to realise there are plenty of people out there who are doing this the right way and providing great content in the process.

Everyone take note, editors are humans too who work very hard. Flattery really can get you everywhere – letting people know you are a fan and why – acknowledging what great work a journalistm writer or editor is doing to bring you all this juicy content candy also makes the entire editorial team interested in working with you. Content development is hard!

So, as Danny says, a bit of research into what the sites about and what the editor is trying to do will always get you noticed. If you sound like you’re talking to a person and not a dead mailbox, then you’ll probably make an impact.