Submitting your first guest post

Submit a guest post is the intake, described as "Pick where it is going, then either bring in a Google Doc or write it here. We check your links with you, then it goes to the site's editors."

Two numbered steps, and the second one waits for the first.

Step 1: choose where it is going

Submit to website is a search box: "Click to choose a website, or type to search by name, domain, or slug."

Only sites accepting guest posts appear, which the box says. A site that has paused submissions, or that is private, or that has not turned guest posts on, is not in the list.

If the site you want is not there, a line underneath asks the obvious question and answers it: "The site you write for isn't here yet?" with Invite a website. That sends them a personal link, and is covered in inviting a website to Rankbench.

The rules gate

Choosing a site shows you its rules and asks you to accept them before you can go further.

Read them properly. This is the cheapest ten minutes in the whole process, because most rejections are a writer answering a brief the site never set. Look for the topics they accept, the topics they never accept, the minimum length, how many links they allow and where those links may point.

You agree that you have read them, and your submission is pinned to that version. If the site changes its rules later, yours are still judged against what you accepted. See writing your guest post rules for the owner's side.

Where a site has published no specific rules, you agree to follow general editorial standards instead, and the form says so.

Step 2: start the article, two ways

Until step 1 is done, this step tells you so: pick the site above first, then choose how to bring the article in.

Bring in a Google Doc. "Paste the share link. The document must be set to 'Anyone with the link can view'." That sharing setting is the single most common reason an import fails. See importing from Google Docs.

Write it here. "Open a blank draft in the Rankbench editor and write or paste directly. Everything saves as you go." See writing in the Rankbench editor.

Neither is better. Use the Doc if you already write there and want your own revision history; use the editor if you would rather see the site's rules beside the draft while you write.

What comes next

The page tells you: "Next you will review the links Rankbench finds, add domain metrics, and send the package for editorial review."

That is review and send.

Arriving from a shared link

A site can hand out a public submission address of its own, its "Write for us" page. Landing there, you see the site's name, icon and topics, its Domain Rating where it has one, what its editors look for and how it works, and a Start your guest post button that stays in view. The page takes the site's own colour where Rankbench knows it, and once the site has published three guest posts, the latest three are listed under Recently published here.

That page keeps your place. After you sign in you come straight back with the site already selected, so you do not have to find them again in the search box.

A few other states are possible on that page: a site that isn't taking guest posts right now; a publisher that takes them by invitation, which tells you to open the invite from its email; and "This page isn't live", for a link that leads to no site taking guest posts.

Where to go next

Importing from Google Docs or writing in the Rankbench editor, depending on which route you took.