Guest posting has always been a great way to build Google ranking and make connections with bloggers in your niche, but lately experts have been praising it even more than usual. With all of these Google updates, people are starting to realize that their scams and cheap tricks are going to start working less and less, and that participating in activities such as buying links is going to hurt their site more and more. (Penalties from Google are a huge deal, and they’re hard to get lifted).
As a result, more and more writers are offering free content to websites that can really help drive traffic to your site and keep it updated on a regular basis. To make sure that you keep your writers happy, and to ensure that working with guest posters isn’t a pain for you, follow these tips to make guest posting a positive experience for you, the site owner, and the writers you work with!
Up-Front Expectations
The best way to get a bad reputation in the guest blogging community and to have some strained relationships with writers is to not give your expectations up-front in a very clear and concise manner. Clearly indicate that you do not accept syndicated content if you do not, clearly indicate a minimum word count if you would like to implement one, and give writers expectations in terms of what types of articles to write.
Emailing a writer who has just sent you an article for posting that their post does not fit in with your site is often a draining experience for both parties, and can lead to uncomfortable professional relationships. But, at the same time, you need to watch your own back and make sure that only the best quality is being posted on your site. Writing a short list of posting guidelines in a word document and saving it as a PDF file to give out to any potential writers is a perfect way to make sure that the writer is a good fit.
Beware Bad Guest Posters
My site on geek culture and gadgets gets guest post submissions on a daily basis, and I can assure you, sometimes it’s better to have no posts at all than to have a poorly written post. Many writers who submit posts are often coarse in attitude, have unrelated content, and are not able to fluently speak English. The fact of the matter is that a great amount of internet traffic is from individuals who speak English, and therefore, most major sites require that writers can speak perfect English. Oftentimes you can tell from the email that a guest poster has sent you whether or not they meet this standard.
Do not jump on guest posters if you’re new to the blogging field: I remember the first time someone sent me a guest post – I honestly didn’t care if it was good or not, because it made me feel like a professional! But, the fact of the matter was, the post that I published was not up to par with the rest of my content, and I saw a reader lash-back. Do not fall into this trap – only accept guest posts from highly qualified individuals.
Be Polite, Not Pressured
When someone submits an article, you always want to make sure that, regardless of whether or not you are going to publish the post, you are courteous. Never respond angrily or in a sarcastic manner to guest posters, always make sure that you respond the way you would want someone to respond to you.
At the same time, however, many spamming writers will try to pressure you into thinking you have to publish their post by using phrases such as “let me know when you will publish this” and “publish ASAP please.” (These are actual phrases that I have copied from emails that I have received.) Let me give you a tip:
AVOID THESE PEOPLE. ALWAYS.
If you give into this pressure, then they will send you another unrelated or sub-par article. And the longer you let them submit articles, the harder it becomes to nicely tell them that they are not a good fit for your site. I have had some rather unpleasant run-ins with these kind of people, so I urge you to just reply with a form letter saying that you are not accepting guest posts at this time. They are not pleasant to work with, and their content is not written well – if it was, they wouldn’t need to pressure publishers into posting it.
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Michael Aulia @CravingTech.com says
Yeah, most of “guest posters” are simply article marketers who are looking to get free SEO backlinks for their clients (and yea, they are getting paid).
You can quickly see this with the low quality shallow articles around 300-400 words.
Tuan Do says
Yes I guess 80% of guest posters submit low quality articles to our sites. I receive those guest posts very often as well and I hardly reply them because it will take a lot of time. That’s great as you still can have some good guest posts on your site. :)
Michael Aulia @CravingTech.com says
I use a templating in Gmail (the Canned Response) to reply, which is only like a couple of clicks :D
Dev @ Blog Marketing says
I get dozens of email every day from guest bloggers who are looking to get backlinks and they really don’t add any value to the blog.
Great stuff, Jack.
Tuan Do says
Oh Devesh, are you launching a new site? Could you reveal something about it?
BizRock says
Today is a lot of guest bloggers who only want backlinks from your blog. That is OK if their guest post is good for your blog, but often times they are not..
Thank you for sharing at BizSugar!
Kyle Kam says
Interesting read here, Jack. Guest posting really requires time to be called a “quality guest posting.” It’s sad, because guest bloggers nowadays are just focusing on the backlinks they’ll get, not the quality of their posts.
Sanjib Saha says
I think you should look for the posts that are beneficial to your blog. When you have the option to choose among the many articles, choose the best one which is related to your blog. Publish it! But yes, do a lot of research before publishing, because most of the articles are re-written now-a-days.