Visit a blog that has some commonalities to yours and a contributor who probably knows who you are… because you’ve chatted in comments, talked on Twitter, met at a networking event, have friends in common or hang out at the same forum. Get their email address and send them an email. It should include:

• A really obvious subject line: Offering to guest post on [YourAwesomeBlog]
• A paragraph that shows that you understand the author and their readers
• Some suggestions on topics that you could cover, word count, etc
• A specific time when this article would be ready by (and Lordy Lordy you better be able to deliver on it!)
• The benefit this article would have for your readers
• Thank them for their time and attention

Then review the entire email until you’re confident that:

• You don’t sound desperate
• Or that you’ll hunt them down if they say no
• You don’t sound like you’re doing them the world’s biggest favour
• Your language is good (spell-check, people!)
• You sound like you’re talking to a real person
• It’s clearly a win-win idea

So, who will you be asking to guest post for? (If it’s us, we’d love to have you…) Tell us in the comments!