Given the huge Google Penguin update in the Spring of 2012 and the rolling Panda updates that occur once a month, guest blogging has become the #1 way for people to acquire backlinks to their sites. The SEO industry has gone into overdrive to ping all bloggers whether they can guest post their “free and unique” content in exchange for one or two links. I get 5-10 requests a day from spammers or complete strangers, and it’s getting old real fast!
I absolutely love great quality guest posts that provide a unique view point or something I have no expertise on. Given Financial Samurai doesn’t employ staff writers (can’t afford it!), I try and argue points from the other side to ensure I get as much balanced content as possible. Posts such as “Socialism Is A Means To A Brighter Future” is one such groupthink abolisher which has been quite a hit based on the number of views.
When your answer to all things illogical is “everything is rational,” it’s sometimes hard to understand why someone would complain about not being able to get ahead if they only work 40 hours a week or less. It’s hard to understand why someone would not enjoy being in debt after deciding to spend way more than they earn for a long period of time. Haven’t all the goodies provided more comfort than the discomfort of debt? If they didn’t, you’d stop spending!
HOW GUEST BLOGGING WILL RUIN YOUR SITE
Let’s say you started a site 10 months ago and finally get a Google Pagerank of 4 from 0. You are super pumped, as you should be because the largest search engine on the web deems your site to be valuable in their subjective eyes.
With a Pagerank of 4, you start getting flooded by freelance SEO’s who want to put up guest posts on your site. Many of them are willing to pay you money as well! You’re thinking, free content + money = a no brainer! Accepting such “guest posts” is easy money IF the content is original, non-spun, and has something of value to add. I firmly believe you can do what you want on your site and nobody, not even God or Google can tell you otherwise.
Where the trouble begins:
1) You start accepting way too many guest posts. The reason why readers come to your site is for you, not so much for other people. Readers want to hear your voice, your opinions, your details. Staff writers are fine, so long as they stick around and share their story as well. It’s when you start receiving random guest posts from random people who share nothing about themselves, never comment, and never return that really starts to put a damper on your site. Accepting too many guest posts dilutes your site’s voice.
2) You start accepting low quality guest posts. Perhaps you are hungry for content, or perhaps you are getting an offer too good to refuse. If you start publishing poor quality guest posts, you are going to ruin your site’s reputation quickly because everybody can tell you are publishing the guest post for financial reasons. I recommend everybody to at least spend some time editing each guest post and adding your own opinion in an “editor’s note” at the bottom. This way, you stay involved with your readers.
3) Your guest posts contain links that are irrelevant to your genre. The SEO folks should be contacting sites relevant to their client’s sector, but some of them still don’t. If you have a guest post on a home security system, but your blog just talks about your love life and never about real estate, renting, homeowners insurance, etc, your guest post is irrelevant unless your ex is a psycho killer! If you are accepting guest posts from strangers outside your community, make sure they are relevant.
IF YOU WANT TO HOST GUEST POSTS THAT AREN’T REALLY GUEST POSTS
1) Have the writer at least read the last three of your articles so they can try and match the quality of your content.
2) Spend some time editing the article further for basic punctuation, spelling, and grammar.
3) Add an “Editor’s Note” at the bottom to provide your thoughts on the topic.
4) Make sure you don’t overrun your site with guest posts. Once a month or a 10:1 ratio or higher is a reasonable guideline.
5) Keep posts relevant.
STAY VIGILANT ABOUT YOUR CONTENT
There are freelance writers who make $10 to write a 300 word article on five steps to tie your shoelaces. The SEO company paying for this $10 article is then offering more money to bloggers to host this article because their client is paying them even more. Such crappy articles, which are probably spun dozens of times, exist because bloggers are willing to publish such articles.
The only way we can root out web spam is for bloggers to just say NO to crap! How many times have you done a web search for something only to find the most thin, useless article ever? If I’ve torn my meniscus, I don’t want some 300 word article on what to do. I’d like thousands of words of substance, and will pay an action for such substance!
If you are offered a deal you just cannot refuse, just don’t overdo it. Keep such “guest posts” to less than 10% of the number of monthly posts (10:1 ratio or higher). Of course if the guest writer is someone you’ve heard of, or part of your community, welcome them with open arms. Just make sure you differentiate between a real guest blogger and one that just flies by night.
The larger your site grows, the more at risk it becomes. In the end, Google may very well end up penalizing you and taking you out of their search algorithms for an extended period of time. Traffic is the key to generating sustainable long term revenue, not vanity metrics. Google WILL drop the hammer on you, especially since you are well aware of their policies after the 2012 carnage. Think long term and defend your Prime site like Sparta!
START A MONEY MAKING BLOG
It’s been six years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive income stream online now. The top 1% of all posts on Financial Samurai generates 31% of all traffic. The average age of the top 1% posts is 2.3 years old. In other words, after putting in the hours to write some very meaty content over two years ago, 10 posts consistently generate a monthly recurring income stream that’s completely passive.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog. It’s one of the best things I did in 2009 to help earn extra money and break free from Corporate America!
Regards,
Sam
Photo: Chichen Itza End Of Your Blog, SD.
Sam, I have to agree that guest posting is dangerous but sometimes rewarding. I haven’t allowed guest posting yet but I know that it’s part of the Yakezie process and will be opening it up. I’m 4-5 months into the Yakezie challenge and have asked to write on a couple other blogs.
I could understand why somebody would say no, it’s their pride and joy which they don’t wish to risk damaging for the sake of another website’s benefit.
I’m sitting on the fence and agree that it’s a balancing act.
John, normal guest posts from people you’ve heard of, or who you want to develop relationships with are great. It’s the spammy crap that you might eventually get targeted with as you grow that is truly annoying and detrimental to one’s long term blog authority.
Too many guest posts on a particular blog can get too much at times. As you mentioned above, I return to the blog to hear about the owners views because i enjoy them! Not to see some crappy 300 word article from a random SEO expert just so the admin can gain a few bux.
I tend to look elsewhere when I see this sort of thing.
Is it as cheesy as putting your Debt Recovery services in the comment field?
Absolutely. Considering it is a related topic then there’s no cause for complaint.
I really wish we had the ability to like comments on here.
I totally hear what you are saying! I was following this one blog for around six months when he first started. Pretty interesting stuff about his life and then he got a Pagerank. Now at least twice a week, he’s posting really crappy “guest posts” that have nothing to do with his site by SEO freelancers!
I stopped going to his site because it’s so boring now.
It’s sad how a blog can so quickly lose its voice for the short-term sake of money. It’s like trying to run before learning how to walk.
Earlier this year I started getting a little burned out with my food blog and started accepting guest posts. I haven’t worked any agreements for a paid one, but the ones I’ve published varied from mediocre to excellent. 2 of my top 10 posts were guest posts and 5 of the top 20. But there are a few that I wish I had never published and two that I absolutely refused to. One was a F.U.D. piece that contained false information. I refused it and then wrote my own post on the topic.
That’s great 2 of your top 10 were guest posts. Try to get more of them. But, it also might be saying that you need to write more awesome posts so you can dominate your own top 10!
I had a really bizarre spammer guest post inquiry once about vending machines lol. That one hit the delete box within half a second. I agree with your points on being selective and steering clear of the spammers and junk content.
Might have been good content though Sydney for big bucks! Doesn’t hurt to ask! :)
I think you are totally wrong. Guest post is helpful. no doubt. even you also accept guest post.. now it’s clear that you don’t have any idea about google SERP. read more what google want and then publish this type of boring articles.
You are exactly the type of anonymous spammer who contacts me for crap. Leave me a lone. The article you sent last week is not relevant to my site and is really bad. Your fake model picture on Google+ is fooling no one. Your biography is also fooling no one.
Sooner or late, I knew somebody would write this about guest posting.
I’ve been doing SEO as part of my job for a few years now, and before that I worked for a software company that did the same thing google do now back when both companies were new start ups.
Spammers deeply misunderstand the whole google SERPS thing. There’s no magic set formula that you can run by, and that’s why they complain when google keeps changing the game. That’s part of how the whole thing works, it’s an evolving thing, and it always was – it’s based on neural network maths.
Sure, you used to be able to take shortcuts, and I did myself too, but never at the expense of good, quality content, because I knew at some point google’s ‘bots would get smarter. Those shortcuts helped my sites rank quickly, but now those shortcuts have been removed, sites that relied purely on this, have of course tanked in the rankings, whereas those with good content haven’t really suffered.
In fact, you often see people complaining that their site has good content and it’s so unfair that google panda has done this or that, but visit the site and you’ll see their content is ALWAYS thin.
From my own little experiments recently, it seems that google is finally making headway against all the spamming that’s going on and that’s only good news for people who produce serious content, as it will eventually rise to the top. It also means I don’t need to worry quite as much about SEO anymore.
In fact, spammers are now inadvertantly doing us all a favour. With the amount of trackbacks I now get, I don’t even need to do any serious linkbuilding. Of course, I don’t approve them on my site, but the links are still there on theirs, so my point to @Selena is: I don’t think you know much about SEO either. If you wrote good content, people would willingly publish, share and link to your content, which is kind of the whole point of this network.
Matt, regarding trackbacks, are you talking about scraped content? This is also another big point of contention, especially if your scraped content is ranking higher on the scrapers site in Google than your own! That’s when things are unacceptable. Not sure how valuable your linkbacks are on scraped content. Thoughts?
I really hope the quality of SEO related posts skyrocket. That’s good for everybody!
This is still Matt, (I’ve joined Yakezie!)
Kinda both really. There’s a trend for some people to add relevant links to the end of their articles, in the hope that they get linked back I guess, and many of these blogs are of variable quality to say the least, although once in a while there’s a decent one.
Regarding scrapers, I’ve never felt it was too much of an issue. I haven’t done it on my latest project, but previously, I’ve put backlinks to a post, in the middle of the same post, so if content is scraped, at least there’s a link point back to the original source. Also, with platforms like wordpress, a post is time stamped upon publishing, and pinged, so again, it’s likely google will know which article is the original. Plus you can always add the author markup for Google+ and publish each post on your G+ profile.
Scraping sites use more than one source too, so a pattern or “footprint” emerges which identifies the site as a non-unique/curated site.
As for the backlinks generated, yeah, there’s probably very little value there from scraped sites, but the other ones a little more perhaps
It’s definitely getting worse. I do wonder if the recent Google updates will mean some of the better companies start paying writers more to create better quality content (or is that wishful thinking?)
I think b/c there is SO much money involved in search, that companies will be forced to adapt and improve their writing. So, not wishful thinking at all, but an inevitability.
Do or die. Simple as that.
Defintiely wishful thinking!
You’re right about staying vigilant about your content. Once quality slips it takes a lot of work to get back to where you once were.
On a side note, when I first started my site, I read that it was really, really good to get listed by the open directory project. I tried and they didn’t list me. When I went back to look at what was listed a few months ago, I’m finding spammy ad sites in their ‘special’ directory! Is it still supposed to be good to get listed in this directory?
I donno Marie. I’ve never bothered, and the literature I have read says no. I would say don’t bother b/c you don’t want your site associated with spammy crap.
And what’s up with the keywords “500 word post”. Is that some magical number which will lead a spam site to virtual riches? Why 500?
Must be SEO industry standard, which hopefully can be raised and improved upon.
This is a great topic. I’ve only been writing for two months and have several people try to buy space for their articles. If the article is great and fits my site I wouldn’t mind it. However, as you said, it’s not worth the couple of bucks you get from having them post. If people see too many articles like that you’re going to lose money because less people visit your site.
It’s easy to go the easy route, but the problem is, take too many easy routes and it will be hard for your site to get to the next level, where the real benefits start pouring in.
I probably get 3 or 4 spammy guest post requests every day. I can’t imagine what those of you with higher PR sites have to deal with. I welcome guest posts from other bloggers, but I’d never post a junk article from these emailers just for the sake of publishing more content.
I have stopped reading a few blogs that just flooded their sites with “guest posts”. Selling links inside an article written by you with quality content will not affect your readership so much. I am limiting real guest posts from known bloggers to once a week too, so my readers don’t get lost with no real follow up.
I have to say I CRINGE for the blogger who hosts crap content. If it turns me off, it has to turn other readers off. There is so much good content out there, and only so much time during the day to read.
Sounds like a good plan Pauline. The temptation will grow as your site ranks higher and higher. Hope you can find a good balance!
HI Sam, I’m really glad you wrote this article. It’s a reminder that there are more important things than a short term approach to a few bucks. Building a reputable site takes years for most, don’t screw it up with greed for a few bucks. It can turn your site to crap too fast. Although I understand how tough it is to turn away what looks like “free money.”
The temptation is definitely there in the beginning and it’s fine to take advantage of opportunities. I just encourage everyone not to over do it and spend some time editing and writing your thoughts out as well.
Thanks for addressing the subject of guest posts, Sam. As a control freak, I’m so particular about the content on my site and have only run a few guest posts from fellow Yakezie bloggers (like Barb Friedberg, above – hi, Barb!). I guess I keep believing that if the content is excellent, readership and revenue will grow. Great article!
No problem! It’s great to have fellow bloggers in or out of your community guest post. It’s we start hosting too much spun content that’s poor quality when things go down hill. Things definitely take time for a blog to grow, but most all of us should have plenty of years ahead! Just think of several topics you would like to dominate and rank well in, and go from there.
I’ve only been able to get one guest poster (although my google pagerank is 2 so maybe that’s why I haven’t heard from more) who is also a blue collar guy. It fits with my site well, and I have my sister go through and edit his stories because the writing isn’t always the best. I guess I”ve gotten a couple emails from companies or peopel I don’t know asking me to put something of theirs up on my site. I usually read the email but ignore them because they’re asking to put up something about real estate certification or something that has nothing to do with my site! I figure the one guest poster I have is pretty good, I might like to have more somtimes, but overall, it’s my blog and so I like to tell my tales! And like you said, when you start visiting a site and it’s only ever guest posts, I dont’ stop by anymore. I dont’ know who these people are, I liked the blogger originally, not all these other guest people!
[…] products they were pitching. Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of blogger’s completely lose their audiences and quit because their blogs became all about making money online. When money is your primary […]
Google and God is the same person, everyone knows that! =]
The best comment is the “relevancy” of the content and although guest posting works as an SEO strategy, I feel that it would only happen naturally in certain industries. Take the SEO industry, it is knowledge based and people regularly come back like you said. Take Frank though and his Fridge Freezer blog, it isn’t naturally going to get guest bloggers, but SEO has turn people into blood hounds and is why Frank will be tired of Fridge Freezer articles.
I agree with relevancy. And with Google at $800, Google really is the Internet God. Every single blogger goes through so much temptation. It’s important just not to over do it.
Somehow I missed this over Thanksgiving — but I agree. There is one site who is killing it with revenue, but the quality is just not there. It’s a decent short-term strategy, right? But probably not sustainable.
It is unsustainable in the long run. Google will hunt sites down and wreak havoc. This is history repeating itself over and over again. If we haven’t learned the lessons of 2012 by now, than goodness help us all.
This was an interesting find as I’ve just opened up my site to guest posts following repeated emails. So far I have I have a real battle in trying to explain to these people the level of content that I require. It really seems in my experience so far that people think they can simply chuck across a stock article which offers little or no ‘value’ and expect that you will place it on your blog. I have now written up a sheet of guidelines that I send out to prospective posters and am really quite ‘demanding’ in my criteria. After all it is your site, your baby and your future so I think you have to be.
I have only started to allow guest posting on my blog, and I have so far only published 1 article from a quality writer.But all of the fake registrations on my blog are driving me mad.
The 2013 Google storm has begun. Best of luck to everyone.
Just a few thoughts:
Not sure “guest posts” or sponsored posts are the #1 way to get backlinks. It’s the cheapest and quickest way. I’d toss it in a top three with infographics and embedded widgets (financial calculators and such). Bloggers should watch out for anything with “dofollow” links where the link doesn’t add relevance to the post or benefit the reader.
“Dofollow” paid links has been a Google site guideline no-no for years! They even posted a reminder yesterday: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-reminder-about-selling-links.html
Overall, these are good guidelines new bloggers should follow. I’d add don’t accept any paid guest post, advertising, etc unless it’s the links are “nofollow”. Especially if you’re serious about growing your blog long term.
Since this is a finance group – easy money doesn’t equal long term success! Just a reminder the next time someone has an “opportunity” that will help you out.
BTW – Pagerank is a useless metric only lazy, ignorant SEOs follow. The same SEOs that still make this industry look sketchy.
[…] Samurai wrote this bit on Yakezie awhile back about guest posting and how it can ruin your blog. I’m kinda guilty of that I think. Sorry, dudes. It’s neat when […]