Case Study | The Birth Of A Freelance Blogger – Chapter 1 Part 4: Why It’s Okay Being Rejected To Write For Copyblogger

I am not going to lie in your face and tell you I liked being rejected to write a guest post for Copyblogger. It’s not a nice feeling. If your hopes were up quite high and you dreamt of getting published on Copyblogger, I suspect it to be even harder. Yes I wanted to be published on Copyblogger. Yes I still dream about being published on Copyblogger. And yes, I won’t give up until I have been published on Copyblogger.

This was my optimistic pitch:

“Hi Brian/Sonia,

I just read your update line at the top of your guest posting guidelines page. I understand that your content calendar is full and that you may not be accepting guest posts at present, but I thought I’d give it a shot nevertheless. The worst that can happen is that you turn me down.

I have recently started my site FreelanceBloggingLife.com. This is my personal writer’s site where I offer my freelance writing services focusing specifically on freelance blogging. The blog side of FreelanceBloggingLife.com is an online documentary of becoming and living the life of a successful freelance blogger, with complete transparency where I am sharing my journey right from the start, what strategies I learnt and implemented, what results I have and will be getting, what I will stick with and also what I won’t stick with after learning valuable lessons.

I am quite interested in doing a case study post for you guys about my personal transition from being a regular and normal guest blogger as a regular contributor to sites like kikolani.com, WeBlogBetter, ProbloggingSuccess and Firepole Marketing to being a paid freelance blogger, making a living from doing what I’m passionate about – guest writing. 

Although I have only recently made this transition and I am still in the very midst of “making it” as a freelance blogger, I have quite the story to tell that got me from being a normal guest blogger to being a freelance blogger, going at it full time.

For the title of the post I thought of something in the lines of “Case Study: Massive Action Taken Transitioning From Guest Blogger To Paid Freelance Blogger”

Please let me know if you’ll be interested.

If you would like to see some of my work published online, feel free to have a look at some examples here:

http://freelanceblogginglife.com/hire-me/

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Ruan Oosthuizen

FreelanceBloggingLife.com”

Although I was quite excited and confident about the pitch, I always realized that the chances that they will reject my proposal are quite big because as mentioned in the first line of my pitch, I saw a notification that they don’t currently accept unsolicited guest posts. Nevertheless, I still decided to pitch. I want to get in front of other audiences and the sooner I can achieve that, the better.

Here’s the reply I got from Copyblogger:

“Hi Ruan,

Thank you for your interest in guest posting for Copyblogger. Unfortunately we don’t accept unsolicited guest posts at this time. We have a pool of guest writers we work with, and we have a full queue of posts for the site.

Best regards,

Kim Clark

Director of Customer Support”

At least they didn’t say my pitch totally sucked, right? Then again, they are nice people, would they have said so if it really did? I’m not sure but I doubt it.

Is It The End Of My Blogging Dreams Now That I have Been Rejected To Write For Copyblogger?

As mentioned earlier, I’d lie if I said I wasn’t disappointed. Am I giving up? Not even close! I have but only started! I will write for Copyblogger in future. It can be within the next three months or it can be another two years before they’ll accept my pitch, but write for them – I will make sure I do before I put down my pen…

What Has Being Rejected To Write For Copyblogger Taught Me?

If one thing at least, this experience has inspired me to keep on keeping on. It made me realize that no matter how good a pitch you think you have or how good an article idea you think you have – you may be the only one to think that at the time. Key to remember is that shouldn’t stop you from keeping on trying.

I learnt that some of your biggest goals you set as a freelance writer may not be reachable as soon as you have planned. It may not come as easy as you might have thought. I mean let’s face it. If I should have gotten this guest writing opportunity right away and I was to tell the successful story as it happened – can you imagine how many proposals Copyblogger would be getting? As a result, technically speaking, they should be obliged to give anyone who pitches a shot, right?

One thing I’ve taken from this experience is that the day when I do get accepted to write for Copyblogger, I will most definitely have some other story to tell and I will certainly have more experience not only as a freelance writer but I will also be making a decent living as a successful freelance blogger.

Have You Been Turned Down?

Have you been dreaming to perform a certain task and when you finally got the guts together and did it, you got rejected or failed miserably at it? How did it make you feel? Did you quit? Or did you go on to perform an even bigger task which turned out to be an even bigger achievement?

I’d love to hear about your experience; share it with us in the comments below!

My best of freelance blogging success to you!