The world of guest posting seems to be growing at a rapid rate like we haven't seen in a long time, and I bet most of you have considered the benefits of being a guest blogger. With Google taking aggressive action against blogs and web sites who have focused their efforts on low quality link networks and always using the same anchor text, it was only a matter of time before guest blogging became the next most sought after way to build incoming links to sites and blogs and increase traffic.
With all of that said, it's also now more important than ever for blog owners to keep a careful eye out for the content they are allowing on their blog. As guest posting continues to rise, so is the demand for writers and link builders to make money by selling link building through guest blog posting services.
The bottom line is, not all guest post writers are the same. Some are excellent and really care about their reputation and the content they submit to blog… while others are in the game for just a quick buck.
It's time to focus on the lower end of the guest blogging spectrum and break down seven reasons why you might be a horrible guest blogger.
One of the easiest ways to get an automatic denial from any quality blog accepting guest posts, is that you load up your blog post with way too many outbound links. The majority of blogs will allow one or two links within the footer of the article, and sometime an extra within the content of the blog. There is nothing worse then sending a blog post to someone and the first thing they see when they open it up in a word document, is a slew of blue text links to all of your sites and ad links. This is one of the best ways to get your guest blog posts denied.
2. Your Article Doesn't Make Any Sense
The only thing worse than reading through a guest post submission that is poor in grammar, is reading one that simply doesn't make sense at all. Of course there are writers from all around the world and not everyone can write in perfect English, but there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what isn't. No respectable blog is going to post content that doesn't read well and they are various misspellings through out the article. If you are going to be focusing your efforts on guest writing, but are a poor writer, then you may want to outsource your writing through other content providers.
3. You Are Just Selling Links Through Posts
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of guest posting in the past few months we are also seeing a big rise in the paid guest blogging services being offered. The truth is, many of the guest posts you are receiving on your blog are simply for paid link advertising. How many times have you seen a footer that said “This guest post was written by Adam James, who specializes in debt consolidation“? Usually this isn't a problem, but when you start receiving guest posts with more than 2 or 3 links setup this way, it's quite annoying and doesn't go over well with many bloggers.
4. Never Leaving Comments on Your Guest Posts
Blogging is a two way conversion. Whoever is writing the content for a blog should have the decency to stick around and follow up to any comments and leave some input of their own. This point is made specifically for the guest writers out there who are selling links through their posts. You will almost never see them write or leave comments on any of their posts, as they only wanted to get their links placed and get paid from their clients.
5. Providing Absolutely No Value to the Blog
Every once in a while a new guest blogger will do a post that is just disappointing. All blog owners are open to accepting new content from writers and hoping to bring some new life and writing to our blogs, but when we receive articles that provide no value at all or is just rehashed and spun content, that's just a complete waste of time. Spend the extra 5-10 minutes to think up a really great topic that people are interested in and relates to the readers of the blog you are submitting content to. Do this and your blog posts will be accepted at a much higher rate.
6. Complaining About the Publish Date
You've read through a guest post, took the time to fix some spelling errors and formatting, then took the time to schedule it into your blog post. After doing so, you follow up with the person who wrote the post and tell them it will go live in a week or two, only to get an email back a few minutes later from the writer saying they need it published within the next few days. Once again, this is due to a guest blogger who is selling links and needing to get paid by their clients. It's nice enough that many of the blogs out there will post someones content, but now we need to work around their schedule as well? I think not.
7. You Don't Follow Guest Blogger Directions
Probably one of the worst signs that you are a horrible guest blogger is that you simply don't follow directions. Many blogs have guest blogging guidelines clearly written out (Ms. Ileane even has her guest blogger instructions as an audio podcast) on their site about how many words to include in your article, how many links you can use and what topics should be written on. Even after writing all of this very clear and easy to read information, people still submit articles loaded up with links, are very short on real content and sometimes submit articles that are just completely non-relevant at all.
How to Go From a Horrible Guest Blogger to a Valued Blogger
Believe it or not, but there are some really amazing guest blog post writers out there, and many that will always get their content approved right away. What makes these guest bloggers stand out from the crowd and never be considered a horrible guest writer? It's simple… they take the time to write quality content that is catered to the sites they are submitting content to, they always follow the submission guidelines and most importantly, they are sticking around to not only comment on their own blog posts but they will also spread your links around the major social networks and other blog posts they might be writing on other blogs. It's all about providing quality content on a consistent basis.