Guest Posts: Please Stop the Madness

How many requests do I receive from folks who wish to add their content to THE Canadian Personal Finance Place? This week, over ten, and most weeks, at least 5 of them, are asking if they can write a Guest Post. That is the same answer I give most guest post requests: NO! Stop the Madness! They are all from folks I do not read, nor do I know of them. If I ran a corner store, someone I did not know walked in and said, “I’d like to run your store today, can I?” I would give the

I realize that most of the How to Create Hype About Your Site newsletters say this is one of the best ways to get traffic to your site (I hope you didn’t pay money to get that advice), help your page ranking and solve world hunger, however, speaking as the person at the other end of the TSUNAMI of e-mails on Guest Post, please cease the Cold Call e-mails. Stop the madness.

The few guest post requests I have agreed to over the past year were referrals from other bloggers who I know and trust, who asked me as a favour to help out a new set of bloggers. The Post about the Side Effects of Credit Card Balance Built-Up fit with my point of view and did not heinous inundate the reader with links to sites and weird graphics with hidden crap in them. Yes, I am fully aware of the dirty tricks many of these alleged “guest writers” pull if you let their content onto your site, which is why I don’t usually allow guest posts.

I have discussed this with other bloggers (and believe me, I am not in the minority on my opinions of the Guest Postgame). Some of them now will reply to all Guest Post requests with a form e-mail saying that they charge for guest posts, and they still reserve the right to refuse any content they feel is inappropriate to their site (the charges range from $20 to over $100). I like this idea, but I am always afraid someone might take me up on the offer.

Stop the Madness Advice on Guest Posts

Let me give some free advice on how to get your guest post accepted by a site (no, this does not mean you should use these on me, and no, I am not guaranteeing these will work; after all, this is free advice):

• Do not send e-mails to bloggers you do not know. Most will send you to the SPAM box and ignore you.  You need to have some relationship with the blogger before approaching them about a guest post.
• Do not send content as part of your initial contact. I have people sending me crap as part of their pleading e-mail asking if they can guest post. I delete those even quicker until I want to see what you can write; don’t send anything. Don’t mention how we can make some beautiful together; you aren’t Humphrey Bogart (or Claude Rains).
• Please get to know the blogger. It is Networking that works the best. If I know of you or know someone who will vouch for you, I am much more inclined to think about your guest post offer.  How to get to know someone? Include a link to their content in your blog, and leave comments (that are not simply, “Hi, I really like your content”; I delete those comments quickly, too) on their site. Ask them questions in the comments, show you are reading their site and are interested in what they write.  Once you can fake genuine interest, you will likely get a favourable response.
• Write good content for a while. You might just get noticed that way.
• Figure out what the site you want to Guest Post thinks. For example, sending me an offer to write a post about how great Pay Day Loan places are will not fly (and you will get a rude response from me).
• Think of Guest Posts like a Job Hunt, cold calling does not work at all (or incredibly rarely), and you need to build up your network of contacts so people know of you, and will think of you in a good light (not with a “who the heck is this” point of view).

Stop the Madness!

I apologize for sending you a rude “get lost” e-mail when you sent me a guest post request; I got miffed at this whole thing for a while. If I have not replied to you, take the hint: you need to build up credibility with me before I answer you.

It has taken me many years to build up the meagre readership; I don’t need a weird guest post to alienate my few readers; thus, I shy away from them.

Stop the Madness FAQ

Link Building Articles

• Link Building a Tutorial (Internal) a useful discussion of how to make sure your articles are well linked to each other.
• Link Building a Tutorial (External) the compliment of how to build internal links.
• Twitter Etiquette? (is that a thing?) Now that it is called “X” maybe there is no etiquette left?
• Guest Posts: Please Stop the Madness this is not the way, to quote the Mandalorian.
• Blog Carnivals are Done for building links, that is certain.
• Fix Those Broken Links there is no point in having a link if the Google Spider can’t find where you want it to go.