Should You Accept That Guest Blog Post?
Are you a blog owner that has received an email that looks something like this:
Dear Brick Marketing,
We came across Brick Marketing, and found many blog posts interesting. “Tips to Succeed in Local Search” is one of the best blog post we liked in the blog section. After reviewing your website and your target audience we are interested in publishing unique high quality targeted guest posts on your blog. The guest post will be relevant to your website and audience; in return we would like to include 2 backlinks back to .com.
Our website is based out of beautiful South Florida. Although we are fairly new to the US market, we have been in the retail point of sale business for the past 20 years in the European and Asian markets with great success.
Please let me know if you would like me to send you some guest post titles to see which one you would like.
Looking forward to your reply.
Let’s break down on why I will not be accepting a guest blog post from this site and what things you as a blog owner should look at before accepting any guest blog posts.
1. Poor grammar.
“”Tips to Succeed in Local Search” is one of the best blog post we liked in the blog section.” We are all guilty of misspellings from time to time (even the best writers can make mistakes) but this sentence should have been noticed by someone before that email went out. If this company can’t be bothered to ensure their pitch is in good shape (not to mention super generic and spammy sounding) what kind of content can I really expect from them?
2. No samples of their writing.
They don’t give me a link to their company blog, any industry publications they write for or samples of guest blogs they may have written in the past. Even if someone is just beginning their guest blogging campaign they should be able to show you their own blog as testament to their writing ability. You want to accept guest blog posts that are just as good (or better) than the content you are already creating.
3. What does this company have to do with me?
I did a quick search for the company and found out that they sell POS systems. Sure, a good portion of my readers might be small business owners that need a POS system but I doubt most of the traffic to my blog comes looking for information about a POS system. I don’t mind having guest blog posts go live from time to time, but they need to be from a company that makes sense for me to partner with. Remember, when you publish a guest blog post you are endorsing that company to your audience, not to mention giving them a few links that piggyback on the value of your own brand.
4. Can they provide real value to my audience?
You don’t have to work with the biggest names in your industry to find great guest blog posts that can provide real value to your writers. As I mentioned before, someone relatively new on the scene that is just starting their content marketing strategy might still be a fantastic writer with great insights—but you want to work with fantastic writers that have great insights! I’m afraid that guest blogging is becoming the new link exchange, where sites are accepting any and all guest blog posts in exchange for the opportunity to write a guest blog post of their own. You are allowed to be picky with your guest authors! Don’t sacrifice the quality of your blog for a link or two on any random site that will have you.
Categorized in: Content Marketing
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