There’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan of guest blogging. Not only do I boast about the must follow tips that you need to use when writing and accepting guest posts, but I also have a page full of all the guest blogging that I’ve been recently doing as well.
Here’s Why Guest Blogging is Awesome
Think of all of the amazing blogs out that there that are in your niche. Now think about how much it would cost to buy a sponsored post or advertising on all of these sites? It would cost you a ton of money, and probably still not be as effective as an actual post on the blog. When you put the time in to create an author account on other blogs and submit amazing content, you can get free attention and publicity on other well known blogs and sites at no costs at all, plus you also get a link back in the author section of any blog content you write.
The concept behind guest blogging is simple… a large site will accept your guest blog posts if they are high quality and unique. As a writer, this is the only job you have. However, when you are a blog owner and accepting guest blog posts on your site… then you are opening up doors for more problems.
The Dangers of Guest Blogging for You and Your Blog!
As great as guest blogging might seem to be… it doesn’t come without it’s damaging potentials! Let’s break down a few of the areas that you must keep an eye open for when writing and accepting guest blog posts.
Duplicate & Copied Content
There is nothing worse than accepting guest blog posts on your site and having people submit articles that they already submit to other sites or even just copied from elsewhere. First off, this will provide NO value to your blog at all, and it will also be seen as duplicate content to the search engines… which isn’t good either. One of the best ways to combat duplicate content before even allowing it onto your blog, is by using a duplicate content or plagiarism checker. There are many options for checking for duplicate content on sites and articles that are submit for guest blogging, such as copyscape.com, duplichecker.com and plagiarisma.net.
Sponsored Based Blog Posts
Another problem is the growing supply of people getting into guest blogging just so they can sell back links to advertisers in the footer area of their article. In some cases this is fine, but in others it can be a big problem. First off, when you accept guest posts from people who just want to sell links, there is a good chance you are more vulnerable to receiving duplicate and non-original content. Another problem is that the content will probably be lacking in quality. It’s easy to notice when people are selling text links in the footer of their guest posts, as it will usually have obvious anchor text with words like “debt consolidation” or “brand name coupons“.
How to Keep Your Guest Blogging Content Valuable
As easy as it is to hate on the dangers of guest blogging, there is also plenty to love about it if you do it right. Follow these steps and you will find that your chances for receiving duplicate content and low quality postings will decrease dramatically.
Only Accept Content from Bloggers You Know
The blogging niche is a very tight community and reputation can take years to build up, but only a few seconds to take down. Well known bloggers will gladly accept guest posts from other bloggers who already are commenting on their blogs and have a decent showing online. Accepting guest posts from people you know will almost guarantee only the best content.
Guest Post Guidelines
If you’ve ever thought about accepting guest posts on your site, then you need to set up a guest post guidelines page. This is a simple breakdown of what you expect from all of your guest posts and content. I have one listed on BloggingTips.com, where I was getting 5-10 requests daily for guest posts. It was getting quite over whelming and I was getting a lot of crap and duplicate content from people trying to sell guest post links. I slapped a $50 placement fee on their for all future guest posts due to time and quality issues. You can bet that wiped out almost all of the quests I was getting from unknown people, yet I can still publish content at no charge for everyone I’ve made connections with and know won’t waste my time.
Outsource for Original Content Writing
It’s not always easy to come up with new writing ideas of even coming up with enough time to write all the content on your blog. If you are simply looking to generate more content for your web site or blog, another alternative is to outsource through some of the top content creation marketplaces like Blogging.org and TextBroker.com. Through these sites you can post any type of writing jobs that you like, then one of the thousands of writers on the market place will complete your writing request and you can approve or deny it based on it’s quality. You can also pay as little or as much as you want per article. These are excellent resources for any type of creative writing or content building.
Guest Blogging: You Get What You Put Into It
As you can see, there are plenty of different ways to look at guest blogging… the good, the bad and the ugly. However, in the end it all comes down to what you put into it. If you focus on writing really great content and building up your reputation and appearance across multiple sites, you can build a nice source of traffic and incoming links from high level blogs. If you want to slack your way through with crap content and selling links, you will make a little money but also piss some people off in the process. The same can be said for blog owners, you need to make sure you are on top of your blog content quality and only post the best and most useful stuff.
Here are some other guest blogging related posts:
