Hi Todd,

I hope you are doing good. I have sent an article to post on your site (http://brokegirlrich.com) and it has posted in second week of January, 2014.

Here is the url: http://brokegirlrich.com/?p=466

Due to some technical issues and other issues, I can't keep my link live and author bio with this article. I would be thankful, if you kindly remove my link with author bio. 

You can keep the article live but kindly remove the link.

To begin with, my name is not Todd. Nor am I a boy. But beyond that, WTF? If this weren't already shady to begin with - it's just sort of the icing on the cake. I know I mentioned I learned my lesson previously, but I figured I'd just add this final piece of the puzzle for other new bloggers who are considering guest posts. 

That being said, this whole mess came from a girl named Amy Lewis, so if a girl by that name contacts you - I'd pass. Ugh. 

I started at $100 when I was really small and accepted $150 with Crystal, but the majority of my advertising now is significantly higher than this. The higher rates really weeded out the crap and now I pretty much only have to deal with higher quality clients.

Also, I write my posts. I give them the option of submitting if their emails have indicated their English is good, because as Frugaling said most are not English natives. I point out that posts written by me have a personal slant and more engagement. I rarely get advertisers wanting to do their own posts now. And I charge extra for me to write it, on top of my advertising rate.

Hope that helps.

   Thanks for the info.  I had no idea.  The writer who contacted me appeared to have a CV that linked her to the Kansas City area, but like I said, her writing did not seem like that of a native English speaker.  I got another similar solicitation just a couple days ago that I think I'll be ignoring.  Thanks again for the info!  

Whether it's a guest or "sponsored" post, I highly recommend resisting the urge to publish it, as you will likely take a beating from Google. The search engine has been decreasing ranks to those that accept this journalism, as it degrades the accuracy of Google's search results.

Just my two cents,

Sam

Its interesting to read your thoughts on rates.

How significantly did your rates change as your sites grew in readership, PR ranking, Alexa ranking, etc?

I always only offer options such as 1 link or 2 links, 1 year or 2 years and have different rates for these. I never do permanent links and I push for no follow instead of do follow. I have an advertising tab these posts go under and I push for higher rates than $100 (although that was a good start!)

I simply tell them there are limited sponsored post spaces available on my site and if they want one, these are my terms and fees. I rarely get rejected. Sometimes they try to negotiate but the worthwhile ones always pay, dodgy spammers don't want to. 

annielogue said:

The last time someone approached me, I said it would be $100. They paid, and I posted it with a "sponsored content" label.

Next time, I'll ask for more money.

 

Annie

Next time, I'll ask for more money.

Annie

Thanks

Have any of you solicited a guest post only to not be sure if you should publish it? 

I have a few guest posts going up this month about different ways people paid off their student loans. Last month I did a similar thing with debt stories in general and had no issues. This first guest post I received was from someone I never really had any interaction with, but she sent me a link to her site and I thought it was ok - I was actually excited to have someone from completely outside the PF blogosphere writing about their student loans. 

The post I got back from her is weird. The grammar is so off that I'd almost think she was a spammer - but there's still a coherent story line. I didn't expect the writing to be excellent - I mean, I did go read her blog. She's not William Shakespeare or Janet Evanovich - the writing there is a little rough, but more coherent than what I received.

The final thing I'm concerned about is that her niche seems to have something to do with being handicapped and I sort of wondered if her incredibly weird post has something to do with an issue I just don't see? 

Currently, I just edited the heck out of her post. I'm not super excited about it, but I'm also a little stuck. I can either try to scramble to write something myself tonight or just go with it. It's also not awful with all the edits... any advice?  

 

Don't ever feel like you're stuck. It's your blog and you have 100% control over what you publish. It's great that you hold yourself to a schedule, but there's no need to stress "to scramble to write something" by a certain time.

And if she's including a link to a company, the law group in this case, you should either get paid or tell them to gtfo.