Following the Rules:

1. Have you reviewed the blog's guidelines for guest posting? Review them again. Ensure you have met or avoided each item.
2. Is your word count within limits? Review the articles submitted by other guest bloggers or the author. Ensure you're not too brief or too long. Find a happy medium.
3. Are you images wonky? Ensure your images, quotes, videos or other media are very much like those before you or the author. You might want to run them by the author ahead of submission.

Your Prized Backlinks:

1. Are you linking appropriately? Only link back to your site where allowed.
2. Is your context correct within the Author box? Use the format requested, nothing else. If it's just a homepage link, make it so. If anchor text is allow, use it cautiously.
3. Did you include appropriate link externally? Link out to authority sites to show your research. Again, follow those before you or the author within previous posts.
4. Did you link to other popular articles within the blog? Internally link to other related and popular articles within the blog. This shows the author you did your homework and helps his/her SEO. They'll love you for it.
5. Did you use keyword anchor text or branded anchor text? Some website owners that allow guest posts only allow a link back to your site. That's okay! Brand yourself! Link with your website title! (This may or may not be keyword related like mine - Pure Residuals - branded anchor text shows diversity and is natural within SEO.)