If you are a blog owner that is accepting guest posts on your site, are you actually reading your guest blogger’s post before publishing? If not, you may be hurting your blog and your own reputation.
An occasional guest blogger is suppose to being a fresh angle to your site. They aren’t there to be another filler post.
As the blog owner or the primary editor, you have to ask yourself these questions:
- Are you familiar with what the guest writer has written?
- Is the post’s subject relevant to your site?
- Is the information shared within the article correct?
- Does the post have potential to add value to your site or will it hinder the website?
- Is the article unique and have quality above similar blog posts covering a similar subject?
Are you familiar with what the guest writer has written?
If you’re not familiar with what the guest writer has written, you need to brush up on and research. This is not just for your own knowledge, but to also ensure that the article falls within your site’s focus. For knowledge sake, its important, especially if you are replying to comments. If you don’t know, you end up looking stupid. Yep, I know, it is some tough love, but you have to be willing to learn in order to grow as a blogger.
Is the post’s subject relevant to your site?
You need to make sure your post’s subject is relevant to your site. If you’re not sure, go back and revise your original site focus. If you start accepting guest posts outside of your site’s focus, you get further away from your goals. Sometimes this can result in two things: either it alienates your readers, or you find that you need to re-construct your site focus to include more topics.
Is the information shared within the article correct?
Some guest writers are looking for a little traffic, a backlink, and sometimes in shadier parts of the guest blogging game, they are trying to make money posting for another company. The issue is that sometimes they will happen upon your site and within 3 minutes, think that their article will fit on your website. They don’t care if the information is entirely correct and if you don’t catch it, your readers will.
Make sure the information is correct before publishing a guest post. Make sure the article makes sense to you.
Does the post have potential to add value to your site or will it hinder the website?
If you blog a lot on particular topics and you receive a guest post similar to what you have written in the past, you really have to think whether it will add value to your site or not. If the article is too close to some of the other blog posts in topic, you may end up having older more loyal readers recall the other posts and ask you why it was re-written.
Is the article unique and have quality above similar blog posts covering a similar subject?
This kind of coincides with the previous question. You need to establish a standard depending on your ambitions for your website. If you are wanting to compete in a niche with a lot of competition, you need to step up your game and expect a higher standard in your guest blogger’s posts. If it means refusing more guest writer’s, then so be it.
You’ll be better off without them if they are just delivering articles that are mediocre and have nothing different from your competition.
Are you accepting every guest blogger? Are you reading your posts submitted by guest bloggers before publishing? What are some of the issue you’ve had with some guest writers’ articles?
What a great message Nile!
I see too many people these days playing the “guest blogger game.” I get tons of emails asking if they could be a guest on my blog. The thing is, I don’t know who the heck these people are! It doesn’t even warrant an explanation to them. To me they just want to ride my coat tail.
On the other hand, I have had guests bloggers who are people I know very well. They come to my blog, they have blogging ethics and most of all, they enhance my blog. I love it!
But you are spot on girl notifying people that we need to read the post of a guest, do a little research of who they are and what blogs they have written.
I am so glad you wrote about this topic!
-Donna
I have been telling myself to get around to let some else do the writing for a change on my blogs. It would have been smart for me to have invited other bloggers to contribute articles to my blog over the last few months when I was away for long stretches of time. Relevant content would have been published while I away, not to mention the potential of attracting new readers from the guest blogger’s following.
In the incoming week, my intention is to get clear on what I want from guest blogger submissions and perhaps create editorial guidelines. I will be sure to read their post before publishing it. Thanks for sharing this information Nile.
Its is a nice post about the ways to identify good guest bloggers. I too get a lot of guest bloggers request to write on the blog. But some of the content they provided are not relevant to my site. So i rejected most of them.
Hey Nile…very well addressed the things…and yes I agree with your thoughts that we should be careful in the case of guest posts and we should check out the quality of content in the post and whether its niche to the blog or not and the main thing is to be for concerned is that whether that material of content will be interesting one for your reader and whether the blogger who is posting a guest blog is quite concerned to his own blog or not that is whether the blog he/she owns is of good quality or not…so all in all two major things needs to be concerned which are the quality of the content of the post and the quality of the blog that guest blogger owns….
Thanks for sharing such a helpful write up full of info…..so its Appreciated…Good job
Keep Posting
hi thanks for this article the idea about the guest post publishing is nice and more innovative
Hi Nile.
Another very important thing I check are the external links. I always check the Domain Authority and Trust Flow on Moz and Majestic.
If they look spammy I steer well clear.
I don’t even bother with that. It usually is in their guest post inquiry form. If they work for a company… it’s an automatic NO.
I am a picky, picky guy these days Nile on the guest posting front.
RB
Hi Nile,
Personally due to a high volume of guest posts im receiving each day, I couldn’t read every post, i usually outsource it for duplicate check and grammar check.
Unfortunately, you should be reading them or just not accept them as they could be dragging it down if the information is incorrect.
This is a great idea. This is the first one of these posts I have come across on your blog, but I like what you are doing here. Keep up the great work!
Excellent message Niles! I stopped taking guest posts and part of the reason for that was how much time I had to spend editing articles people were sending me. In fact I spent so much time reworking the last article I received from a writer I ended up adding my name as the co-writer of the article!
Thanks for sharing this information with us. Months before i lost interest in blogging and started accepting guest posts. Most of the times i posted the guest posts with out even reading it. But after some time when i checked the graph of my blog it was going to a steep death. So soon i stopped accepting guest posting and started focusing on writing unique and fresh contents. This is a brilliant message for every bloggers who are accepting guest posts.
I totally agree, guests posts should be checked for quality and relevance. When you say “unique”, did you mean uniqueness compared to the other posts in your particular blog? Coz that could be tracked, although tedious. I was thinking how does the blog owner ensure that the guest post is not a duplicate article existing in some other sites, which I guess, is harder to track.
I do this Nile and would recommend this to every blogger who accept guest articles on their blogs for the purpose of publishing . Its very important to accept a post that is relevant to our blogs and falls in the blogs niche . If this is not done then blog might be penalized by search engines.Thanks for sharing the information.
-Pramod
I usually don’t accept guest posts in main niche, but in blogging niche I do make some exceptions for high ranked, or at least highly praised members of the community. It really helps me in avoiding the spammy guest posts. Furthermore, I always spend more time on guest posts than on my own written posts.
Nile,
Its good to be here again and you just shared what I have been silently debating within myself for sometime now. When I opened the floodgates for guest posts, I received the worst type of trash one could ever think of! Most of the entries were from bloggers who wanted backlinks or traffic and were curiously not interested in sharing value. I had to make the standard stricter and any guest entry that does not meet the criteria is simply trashed!
Thanks for sharing this. I learnt something new.
Do have a great week!
– Terungwa
I have published few guest posts in last few month but had a share of bad experiences too with the guest bloggers trying to scam the Google…Now I have reduced the frequency of accepting guest post and doing a through checking before publishing it…
Hi Nile…the title made me laugh as wow do people really not read guest posts they publish on their site….? I toy with the idea of having guest posts and then I hear such horror stories that it kind of puts me off…great advice here though,,, but for now I am staying on the fence 😉
I’ve spoken with some bloggers who think that posting a lot of guest articles on their site will lessen their work load. In fact, that’s sometimes the main objective for some bloggers.
You make a really good case, Nile, for the fact that opening the door to guest bloggers could actually be more work. Not only do you have to research your own articles, but then you have to become familiar with ones written by guest bloggers, too. This can be tough because you’re probably not as familiar with their special interest as you are with your own.
Your reputation is on the line for the work of others, and that can sometimes be a much bigger responsibility than you think. This is an eye-opener, Nile. Thanks.
It can be hard to get the right balance between a good guest post and a post that meets your own requirements. I was recently invited to attend a tech event, and in exchange for attending I was asked to write a post about the event. I agreed to this and then found that I couldn’t attend. So I sent someone in my place. at the event the company point blank refused to answer questions that would have formed the basis of the article. It left me in an awkward position, and the person who attended had to write the piece based on their PR fluff which did not fit the tone of my site but we’d agreed to write about the event. After a lot of running about and emails back and forth, we posted the article. It’s no where near what it should have been, and it wasn’t the article writers fault, just that everything that could go wrong, did…
We learned a lot from the whole experience to say the least.
I have been working on guest blogging gigs. This is a good thing because it just gives me the reputation I need since the blog admin will know that I am really serious with my intentions as a guest blogger.
Hey Nile,
Firstly blog design is cool and girly.
Coming to the above post , I usually get huge amount of guest posts every day so it is really tough for me to go through each and every article. So what I have made is I approve known author’s posts instantly and approve the rest later by reading every sentence in the article.
Of course we shouldnt approve it directly as u said. There are lots of things to be considered before we approve guest post.
Thanks for such a nice post
Regards
Tushar
Usually people don’t read the guidelines before doing guest post and that is the main cause they have to face rejection in their mission. I think every blogger should read the guidelines carefully before post any content in the shape of guest posting. In this scenario your share information is very helpful and effective to know about the technicalities and important important to be successful in this field.
Quality content, how important this is, but many a times, we get lost in the happiness of a guest blog that we just do not see whether it will be truly useful for our readers.
Great post Nile. This is very informative to me because I am just about to set up guest blogging for a website I have. Also helps so I know what other bloggers (like yourself) are looking for in a guest post. I could imagine that it for sure needs a good look over, whether it being incorrect content, duplicated, or non-informative can destroy your rep.
I agree with your points Nile.
Yes, we’ve to read the post submitted by a occasional guest blogger as it my damage the reputation of the blog in many ways. The content written by guest blogger may not be relevant to the site’s niche and it may even contain link back to spammy sites. So, if we are busy with any personal work, we should allot some moderators to do that for us.
it is simply let me see your article first for me
and about the link that’s ok if it’s relevant and no more than 2 links in one article
This is absolutely correct and important Nile. We should must read all the stuff of guest post even a single line. Thanks for sharing this idea.
Excellent suggestions here. I always go through a pretty extensive vetting process when setting parameters for guest blogging.
Guest post has been be using by most of blogger and website owner to get backlinks or promote their contents on their blogs. After having a lots of Google algorithm update guest post has become a most popular way for promotion of content.
Nile, This is an essential thing to do. Even if the guest post is a relevant subject and fits with my site, I would still check for grammar and spelling mistakes. Remember that a guest post reflects on you directly.
I had my first request for a guest post on my business website from somebody who is very shrewdly trying to get an early start on her internet marketing before she even opens her business and is trying to find some places to post guest blogs and get her name out there. I agreed to let her guest post as long as I approved the content of her post. When she submitted the draft to me it was just not good. The style was mediocre but the content was mostly wrong. I could have sent her back to proof her work if the style issues had been the major problem but I wasn’t about to let bad info go out on my website. I gave her some brief feedback and offered to reconsider letting her guest post down the road once she improves her writing style. It would almost be malpractice to have let her post her content sight unseen.
I would also recommend to check it periodically. At my social network, I have seen few members, publishing content at my website first, after a week they publish it on another blog or article directory.
The biggest issue I’ve had with guest posts on my site would fall under this category: “Is the post’s subject relevant to your site?”
Sometimes I get a well written article but it is clear the guest author has not researched my site or does not know my audience. In cases like these I have to reject the post.
I host many guest bloggers on my site and luckily have never had a problem. On one occasion I posted something I wasn’t completely thrilled about because I liked the person who sent it to me and just didn’t have the stomach for telling them what I didn’t like about their post. In the end they got no comments and never asked to guest post again so I haven’t had to contend with the issue again.
Lately I have been getting A LOT of email from people who want to guest on my site but clearly have NO IDEA what my blog is about. Just this past week someone had a “great article on a new facial cleansing bar that my audience would just love!” NOT!! LOL
Good stuff as usual Nile! Thank you!
I almost hate to look at comments to approve. In 50 comments only one of them is not some robot generated spam and it is not getting better.
Yes relevancy is the worst. So many articles that are not matching the exact style. Often when I ask for sth funny people pass the opportunity. I would love to bring a series of some hilarious stories from around the world but people much more prefer to write easier stuff 🙂
Guest blogging one of the best way to get good backlinks and also a prominent way to keep your blog updated with posts which are relevant too. I too get many mails from bloggers asking me too write on their blogs.However numerous a times, we lose all sense of direction in the joy of a visitor blog that we simply don’t see if it will be without a doubt suitable to our blog or raders.
This article clearly promts about the negativity it can create.So it is always better to check the content of the guest blogger before posting.
Nice article and thank you for sharing
These Are really impressive tips admin its really helpful for newbiews and its really awesome thanks for share with us.
Yes you are absolutely right that we should read the complete guest posts before publishing. I shall keep in mind the above mentioned tips and secrets before publishing a guest post to my WordPress Blog.
I have definitely seen some “hot messes” happen when someone did not check what their guest blogger write, first. It’s incredibly important to make sure that your guest have – to a great extent – your same values. It;s also important that your guest blogger will not do anything to damage your reputation on your own site.
These were great recommendations! I have to keep them in mind when I start to do guest posting!
Thanks for sharing such a great article on guest post publishing.
I’m glad Google has taken a bigger interest in guest blogging… hopefully less spam from now on!
We accept guest posts on our own site, albeit much less frequently than we did before Matt Cutts “stuck a fork” in it. While we were already pretty selective based on style / voice as well as quality of content, we’ve had to get extra diligent about seeing samples before we’ll even ask for the blogger to start writing.
The other issue is that we need to be absolutely sure it is original content, because the latest Panda updates are hammering duplicate content even harder than the original revs of it.
They even made it official this week and called out poorly written guest posts as problem content. I’m glad they did this, because we used to get 15+ requests a week. Most of those requests were nearly impossible to interpret in the first place! If the pitch letter isn’t even readable, it’s an automatic “no go” on the post.