- Evidence of a real publication
- Metrics that meet your requirements
- A topic and article that fit your brand
“Send relevant sites and prices” leaves a supplier guessing about your readers, market and what the price should cover. A guest post brief template gives them enough information to propose a specific publishing arrangement and flag anything they cannot meet.
Start with the reader's problem, preferred publication type, article language and budget per placement. Identify which requirements are mandatory, which can change and which details stay internal. You can refine the article outline after choosing a suitable opportunity; you do not need a finished manuscript to ask for quotes.
1. Decide what each reader needs to see
Prepare a short public summary, a supplier-facing request and an internal planning note. These are recommended working documents; the sharing controls of your chosen tool still determine who can access them. Calling a document “private” does not restrict access by itself.
| Version | Include | Keep out unless deliberately shared |
|---|---|---|
| Public recruitment summary | Business category, intended readers, market, article language, format and an approved budget range | Private contacts, confidential plans, buyer website and exact target URL |
| Supplier-facing brief | Enough product context to judge fit, requirements, exclusions and a consistent quote request; brand name only if you choose to disclose it | Internal negotiation ceiling, confidential customer information and unapproved URLs |
| Internal planning note | Buyer website, exact target page, campaign priorities, competitor research and who approves changes | Do not forward this note wholesale with the public request |
A publishing domain you deliberately name in an inquiry is different from your own website or a competitor's URL. State whether suppliers should quote only for that domain or may propose similar alternatives. Review the whole message: a distinctive product description can reveal a brand even after its name is removed.
Define the audience through a task, such as agency owners managing client approvals. For a fuller fit check, use the reader-to-target-page framework. “English-speaking technology readers” alone is too broad to explain why your resource belongs in a particular article.
Download the fill-in English brief and the fictional completed example.
2. Copy this guest post brief template
The template below is a request for supplier proposals. It is not a cold pitch to an editor or a complete writing assignment. Replace the bracketed fields before sending it, and remove any field you are not ready to share.
Subject: Publishing request — [topic / reader / market]
Business context: [nonconfidential product category and reader problem]
Audience and market: [reader role, use case, countries or regions]
Article language: [language of the published content]
Preferred format: [Guest Post / Link Insertion / either, quoted separately]
Topic and suitable site types: [topics, sections and exclusions]
Mandatory requirements: [conditions a proposal must meet]
Preferences: [flexible conditions and acceptable alternatives]
Minimum Ahrefs DR, if required: [threshold, or no fixed minimum]
Budget: [currency and range per placement; explain what it covers]
Content responsibility: [buyer draft / supplier writing / quote both]
Target resource: [purpose; exact URL shared only when approved]
Timing: [deadline if mandatory; otherwise ask for estimated lead time]
Editorial and link terms: [request guidelines, disclosure and attributes]
Please return the domain, proposed section, format, price breakdown,
content scope, estimated publication time, quote validity and exceptions.
For Link Insertion, include the exact article URL and proposed passage.
Mark unavailable evidence or unconfirmed requirements explicitly.
A budget range needs a unit and scope: per placement in USD, for example, with writing quoted separately. If you are setting a maximum, say whether it covers the supplier's entire bundle or publication alone. Your internal negotiating limit need not be the range you share publicly.
Keep platform charges separate from supplier fees. The placement and content cost guide explains how to compare a supplied-draft quote with one that includes writing. This template does not establish a market rate.
3. See a completed English brief
This fictional teaching example describes a SaaS brand serving US marketing agencies. Its budget is an invented buyer requirement, not an actual supplier offer, market average or recommended price.
Subject: Guest post request — client approval workflows for US agencies
Business context: Project-management software for small marketing agencies.
Audience and market: US agency owners and client-services managers.
Article language: English.
Preferred format: One Guest Post. Quote any insertion alternative separately.
Topic: Practical client approval workflows, feedback and project handoffs.
Suitable sites: Agency operations or relevant business-software sections.
Exclude: Unrelated consumer topics and generic article directories.
Mandatory: Relevant editorial context and an English-language article.
Preferences: An established agency-operations section; alternatives welcome
if you explain the reader fit. No hard country-traffic percentage is set.
DR: No fixed minimum. Report available Ahrefs DR with source and date;
if unavailable, say unknown.
Budget: USD 120–220 per placement, publication only.
Content: Buyer can provide a draft. Quote supplier writing separately,
including the proposed length, review process and revision scope.
Target resource: A client approval workflow guide. Exact URL stays internal
until a suitable opportunity is shortlisted and sharing is approved.
Timing: Propose your lead time and quote validity; no fixed launch deadline.
Terms: Share editorial guidelines, disclosure and link attributes. Paid
links should be appropriately qualified; no ranking guarantee is requested.
Reply: Domain, section, format, publication price, writing price if offered,
lead time, validity, audience evidence and any unmet or unverified condition.
The requirements distinguish a confirmed language from a preferred section and an unknown metric. They also make room for alternatives without authorizing a domain substitution after you have agreed on a placement.
If a supplier proposes an insertion instead, request its article URL and separate price before comparing it with the new-article offer. The two-format comparison explains why a domain's guest-post price does not establish the price or suitability of an existing-article edit.
4. Add the target page and writing brief when ready
Describe the resource's purpose early enough for a supplier to judge relevance. Share its exact URL once disclosure is approved and before finalizing the content and placement. A supplier may need that URL to confirm feasibility or price, so an initial response without it can remain provisional. If you cannot share what they need, ask whether they can assess a nonconfidential description.
After selecting the opportunity, turn the request into a writing brief: agreed target URL, reader takeaway, article angle, publisher guidelines, word count, sources, draft deadline and reviewer. Specify who writes, who approves and what revisions are included. Let the publication's actual requirements inform article length rather than imposing a universal word count.
Agree on the reason for the link before choosing anchor text. Google's link best practices advise descriptive, concise wording relevant to both the source and destination, with context around it. A demand for an exact commercial anchor in any article does not demonstrate that fit.
An English supplier message can request an article in another language. Keep the language of correspondence, the final article language and the target market as separate requirements.
5. Ask suppliers to answer in the same format
Put each proposal against the brief's original conditions. A supplier's “yes” should be attached to a particular domain and arrangement, not interpreted as agreement to every field.
| Supplier reply field | What you need to compare |
|---|---|
| Domain, section and format | The actual proposed location; identify a requested site versus an alternative |
| Price and included work | Currency, publication fee, writing/revision scope and anything extra |
| Timing and validity | Estimated publication lead time and when the offer expires |
| Evidence | Relevant article samples and available audience/metric sources with dates; mark unknowns |
| Editorial and link terms | Approval process, disclosure, proposed link attributes and restrictions |
| Exceptions | Requirements not met, still unverified or dependent on later approval |
If one supplier includes writing and another assumes you supply it, record that difference before comparing totals. If a required metric is unavailable, leave the proposal unverified on that requirement. Missing data is not a passing result or a zero value.
Do not build a paid-link brief around promised ranking credit. Google's spam policies identify buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. For advertising or paid placements, its outbound-link guidance prefers rel="sponsored", while accepting nofollow to qualify paid links. Discuss publishing value, audience fit and the actual terms rather than requesting guaranteed rankings.
Once a proposal is shortlisted, use the supplier confirmation checklist to agree on permission, delivery and payment terms before paying.
6. Review the English version before publishing
Read the final message as if you were the supplier. Check the product category, intended reader, countries, article language, currency, fee scope and mandatory conditions. Remove private details that found their way into the prose. Keep a dated copy and request a revised proposal if your requirements change; a useful brief creates a common reference, not a promise that every supplier can fulfill it.
In Linkquire, review and approve the English supplier brief before publishing the request. Registered suppliers can read that text; the platform separately prepares an anonymous public summary. Separate buyer-website, target-page and private-note fields stay hidden, but information you put into the supplier text is readable there. A specified-site inquiry can expose the selected publishing domains. Follow the buyer request workflow to check the preview, update it after edits and publish only the version you intend to share.