Guest blogging can be an important part of your strategy for building an audience for your blog. It can also be an exercise in frustration when you consistently hear “Thanks, but no thanks” from other blog owners, or worse, hear nothing back at all.

Ask anyone involved in marketing and they will tell you that publishing content is a key part of any strategy. More consumers make buying decisions based on articles than ads. The digital age has turned everyday people into product researchers, testers, and reviewers.

Pretty much everyone has received a form letter of some type in their lives. “Dear Friend,” they often begin, or with some other overly familiar greeting. Sometimes, these letters even insert your name at random intervals or mention something that the sender thinks they know about you.