How We Constructed the Buffer Visitor Posting Program

Six months in the past, we observed an attention-grabbing phenomenon. Every week, we (the Content material workforce) would obtain overflowing inboxes crammed with requests to publish articles on the Buffer weblog. This was in every single place, from our emails to our LinkedIn accounts. 

Normally, we’d pay these messages no thoughts – visitor posts simply weren’t part of our content material technique. So what modified?

Properly, we have been additionally understaffed on the time and in search of methods to extend our content material output. It felt like the appropriate time to rethink and ask ourselves: what if we arrange a visitor posting program?

Now, this isn’t a brand new factor to the Buffer Content material workforce – there’s precedent. In 2012, we usually had writers like Matt Ragland share their distinctive views on the weblog.

Over time, this apply modified as we leveled up as a workforce and have become extra centered on content material targets and we moved away from working with visitor authors due to the modifying time it took. And, in fact, there’s an almost decade-long hole between then and now, so we additionally confronted the distinctive problem of determining the way to replace that previous program for at present’s Web.

Nonetheless, the concept was taking form, and in just a few weeks, the Visitor Posting Program was born, to rousing success. We’ve printed 17 visitor posts which have introduced in over 26,000 pageviews to the weblog, with some items performing in addition to in-house content material. We’ve additionally had a lot success from the preliminary article asserting this system, bringing in over 45,000 pageviews and 350 signups.

You is perhaps on a Content material workforce going through the identical questions we confronted whereas growing this system. So, on this article, I share how the Visitor Publish Program got here to be and the way we’re fascinated by its future.

Conducting analysis and setting benchmarks

We dove into the most effective practices of profitable visitor posting packages. Our analysis wasn’t nearly setting guidelines; it was about understanding the way to outline our targets and create one thing helpful for us and our writers.

In crafting our visitor posting program, we turned to industry-leading Content material groups for inspiration. Visitor posting assets like Convertflow, Shopify, and Zapier supplied various approaches tailor-made to their distinctive viewers and model voice.

We additionally sourced recommendation from our community of Content material professionals, which boiled down to a couple key suggestions which have knowledgeable how we method this system.

1. Defining targets: We set clear targets for visitor posts so we knew what to reject or settle for from the beginning. In the end, we determined that we’re after extra various views to share with our viewers and high-quality content material. This readability has helped form our method to this system.
2. Prioritizing experience and expertise: Our analysis underscored that high quality contributors typically include a worth. Nonetheless, since we didn’t have the funds for paid writers or the posh of gatekeeping, we’ve clarified that we don’t pay for visitor posts however deal with them as a possibility to show your writing to our present viewers. This implies we obtain many pitches we will’t publish, however it has helped us preserve the standard we try for on the weblog.
3. Streamlined modifying and publishing: We created a strong course of for submissions, edits, communication, and distribution. Due to our strict processes, we’ve been capable of publish the strongest content material out of all of the pitches we obtain. Sturdy pitches and publish examples have change into essential in guiding contributors towards our requirements.
4. Beginning small: Initially, we reached out inside our networks for high-caliber contributions. This helped us set a benchmark for high quality and experience earlier than scaling up. We plan to standardize this course of and repeat it extra incessantly to get high quality writers within the door.

These insights have been instrumental in growing a visitor publish program that was not only a submission portal for random pitches however a platform for useful, expert-driven content material.

Organising tips and FAQS

After conducting the analysis, we used the data we gathered to stipulate the weather of this system.

First, we repurposed our present weblog tips and elegance information. It is because altering our type for visitor posters would conflict with our want for excellent content material just like what our readers would anticipate on the weblog.

In our Visitor Posting tips, we share details about:

• Publish size
• Voice, tone, and elegance
• Mechanics round emoji utilization and capitalization
• The kind of content material we’re in search of – and what kind of pitch is almost definitely to be accepted. We’ve since included examples of nice pitches.

We additionally developed some FAQs that may come up, equivalent to “What ought to I write for the Buffer weblog?” and “What does a typical pitch appear like?” We additionally included steering on our viewers classes and the anticipated timeline for working with us.

Setting these tips has helped us internally know when to reject a pitch outright. Nonetheless, we depart room for instinct when pitches that don’t match our tips nonetheless really feel like our viewers will love them.

Automation has been instrumental within the strategy of growing the Visitor Posting Program. We use just a few instruments to gather and handle visitor posts.

• Submissions are despatched in Typeform. We acquire names, contact data, and the pitch.

• These submissions are then despatched by Notion, by an integration with Typeform that was pretty simple to arrange.

• Communication is dealt with with a mixture of Gmail and Zapier. We ship acceptance emails manually and automate rejection emails due to the sheer scale of pitches we obtain. These emails element potential fixes and depart room for brand spanking new pitches.

• As soon as we’ve accepted a pitch, we create a folder in Google Drive for the author to ship their outlines and articles. All content material is predicted to be shared by Google Docs.

From acceptance, each side of the editorial course of is dealt with manually, as we ship emails backwards and forwards until an article is totally shaped and prepared for publishing.

Figuring out the evaluation and choice course of

We’re strict with our requirements, however the appropriate posts get by – so when you have a superb pitch and expertise with writing, your probabilities of getting printed on our weblog are excessive.

We prioritize content material that shares a first-person expertise with the subject. So, in case you’re pitching to us about rising on Instagram, there must be proof connected for us to maneuver ahead. Alternatively, an amazing pitch aggregates data from a number of sources to create a cohesive, useful piece of content material.

We’ve two classes in Notion for working by pitches:

• Pitch obtained: That is the place Typeform sends all of the pitches we obtain, made attainable by a helpful and easy-to-setup integration. I’ll normally parse by the pitches on this listing for gems each different day to maintain up with the brand new submissions, then share them with the workforce.
• Pitch accepted: If we agree {that a} pitch appears ok to maneuver ahead, that is the subsequent stage for it.

Reviewing the articles is sort of just like how we function as a Content material workforce. Our foremost inner communication instrument is Slack, the place we’ll share new updates from visitor posters. 

Between Kirsti (Lang, a Content material Author on the workforce) and I, we choose which pitches we’d prefer to deal with and transfer ahead with communication from there with our workforce lead, Hailley Griffis. We additionally loop in our social media supervisor, Mitra Mehvar, for social content material.

We work in six levels after accepting a pitch:

1. Define in progress: We request an overview that can make up 30 % of the ultimate article. This permits us to see what path the author plans for his or her article and make corrections earlier than they get too deep into engaged on the publish. As soon as we obtain an overview, we transfer it to the subsequent stage.
2. Define in evaluation: That is the place outlines we’ve obtained wait whereas we evaluation them. Though we not often have to show a publish again on the define stage, it occurs sufficient that retaining these things right here is an efficient apply.
3. Article in progress: As soon as an overview has been accepted, we transfer on to the drafting section, when the author is requested to share a date when they may have their article to us.
4. Article in evaluation: That is the place articles are moved as soon as we begin modifying them. We’ll normally tag one another in Slack with updates about new articles which were added to the Google Drive folders of any author. We very not often need to reject totally shaped articles, as we’ve normally performed a number of checks. 
5. Article accepted/scheduled: At this stage, all proofreading and modifying are full, so we schedule it in response to our content material calendar.
6. Article printed: The final section is for printed articles, the place all of the content material that has gone out on the weblog sits. 

Formalizing the method this fashion permits us to see the progress of all of the content material coming in on one dashboard. This fashion, we will spot gaps in communication and request updates in case somebody has been missed (which occurs on a regular basis on a workforce as small as ours).

Outcomes to this point

We’ve been operating the Program lengthy sufficient to have some attention-grabbing outcomes. Listed here are among the high metrics to this point.

• We’ve obtained 606 pitches to our submission type in 6 months.
• The article sharing the small print about the way to pitch and submit has introduced in additional than 45,000 web page views in natural site visitors and contributed to over 350 signups.
• We’ve printed 17 visitor posts which have introduced in over 26,000 pageviews to the weblog.

All in all, the visitor publish program has been extremely useful to us as a workforce and to our viewers. 

A few of our favourite pitches and visitor posts to this point

We’ve gotten sufficient pitches and printed sufficient posts that we’ve been capable of establish which of them are more likely to be hits with our viewers. Listed here are a few of our favorites.

1. Anna Burgess Yang: Anna wrote the primary visitor publish we ever printed, and there’s a motive we moved so quick. She supplied the appropriate mixture of details about herself (her experience) and the small print about what she would write (the pitch). Learn her article right here.

2. Akshita Sharma: With 7,000 pageviews thus far, Akshita has written the top-performing weblog publish of the visitor publish program. Whereas her pitch wasn’t pushed by private expertise, it nonetheless ticked two different containers: viewers relevance, and we hadn’t written about it earlier than. Learn her publish right here.

3. Matt Giaro: Matt’s pitch was easy and succinct whereas telling us precisely what to anticipate from his article – and he delivered. His article has introduced in over 1,000 web page views to the weblog to this point. Learn it right here.

We’re retaining this up subsequent 12 months

Going ahead, we wish to enhance the standard of the content material from the visitor publish program. In 2024, we’re trying to publish no less than one visitor publish every week. In step with this objective, we’ll even be growing the strictness of our editorial course of, guaranteeing that solely the most effective articles make their method by to our content material calendar.

Do you wish to write for us? Check out our tips, then submit your pitch!