Guest posts are great source of content to a blog and I have accepted quite a good number of guest posts on Netmediablog in the past, but recent experiences have made me reconsider accepting guest posts. Every webmaster knows the importance of contents but then there should be a mutual understanding between guest authors and webmasters for this to work.
Guest authors see guest posting as a great source of traffic and an awesome backlink strategy and this has made so many of them selfish. Most of them only care about their backlinks and nothing else matters. Adding content to a site is not enough to earn one a backlink, of course I write my own contents always but it won’t be fair to accept a guest post from an author who does nothing to promote his own content, some won’t even share the content you published for them on their own social network, some won’t even fill up their author’s bio properly. All they care about is backlink, backlink, backlink.
It’s no news to hear that some webmasters are shutting down their guest posting policy; others are making it much more difficult to accept guest posts to combat spam. This may be as a result of Matt Cutt’s response to a question concerning guest posting in one of his video series when he was asked “Is Google going to hammer websites for links acquired by guest blogging?” Matt explained that Google is preparing to move against sites that feature guest posts with poor content and links.
I receive an average of 10 guest posts every week and I only publish a handful of them as a result of low content quality and links, most of such guest posts don’t even pass my plagiarism tests. This is my first reason for considering shutting down guest posting on Netmediablog soon.
Another reason why I want to stop accepting guest posts is the attitude of guest bloggers, most of them see guest posting as their right of gaining a dofollow backlink, I have always explained that my out -going links are nofollow, but most times after publishing their content they will come back demanding a dofollow link going against our earlier agreement. I am stating it once more here out-going links on my guest posts are nofollow but if you are really interested in acquiring a dofollow link, of course I use a CommentLuv premium plugin, share the posts on the social networks and gain a dofollow link.
The reluctance of some guest bloggers to promote their guest posts on the various social networks they belong is appalling. How can you publish post for someone who wouldn’t take some minutest to promote the post? Is this not selfishness? What is the essence of publishing a post you won’t help to rank in the search engines? I am definitely going to review the conditions I have on my guest post page to include a compulsory share/promotion of any guest post published on my blog.
Comment management is yet another reason why I am considering stopping accepting guest posts on Netmediablog. Some guest bloggers do not reply to comments after publication, it is not fair to publish an article without following it up, you have to stick around for some days to respond to comments made on the post. You should promote the post so it will rank and you will immensely benefit from it as well. I will not accept any guest posts from any author who will not stick around to respond to comments made on his post after publication.
Google is taking authorship very seriously but some guest author’s are not. You know a serious guest author from his author bio, I have noticed that if any serious guest author wants to be identified with his content, he will quickly fill up the author bio and place his Google+ link so Google can associate him with such posts, but most do not worry about this, even when they fill their author bio they don’t bother about adding their Google+ profile link to be identified with their post. Even if I am going to accept any more guest posts, the author bio must be completely filled including the author’s Google+ profile link.
So from today if you are really interested to publish a guest post on my blog, you must show some seriousness in promoting your posts after it has been published and of course i will only accept guest posts with quality content and links. Stop mailing me asking me to publish your rubbish contents even after i have told you i won’t. This blog represents quality and will only publish quality contents, i am more interested in adding value to my blog and providing my readers with quality content than giving you a backlink.
Thanks.
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Can you imagine an author telling me that my guest post guidelines are tough. They are selfish I swear.
Well if it has to be tough for you to maintain a standard because of your audience so be it.
Great article Nwosu. I have just about a week ago decided to open my website for guest blogging; this article has given me very good insight into what I should include in my guidelines. I personally do not agree with not giving dofollow links; but hey, chances are I will also get to that stage (lol). I guess this is a natural result when a blog gets too popular; I still need guest posts desperately, as I cannot produce enough content myself yet; also financially not yet able to hire good writers…
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Hello Nwosu,
What a nice post and a good way to unleash your anger on those selfish guest authors :D
I hate it when you accept a guest post and the guest doesn’t promote that post. Before i accept any post from any author, we must come to agreement on; You must always reply to all comments before my next publication date or i’ll delete your link…
and you must promote your post on Google plus and facebook… My guest bloggers do agree to this terms before i publish them…
They will abide to the terms or their link juice will be removed from their bio section :D . Thanks
Hi Nwosu,
I am offering guest posting opportunities to people I trust. I love receiving helpful, relevant content, but like you said, any moment you feel like you are being used, well, goodbye to the opportunity.
Fair and smart post here, thanks for sharing ;)
Ryan
This is a good strategy to keep them busy and serious else they will just run away once they gain their backlink. Thanks for contributing
Thanks Ryan, i just have to make it a post so any guest author reading will understand my position. I hope i haven’t been too hard on them?
Thanks Sonia for your awesome contribution, you cant go ahead receiving low quality content just because you want contents, always remember to check them for plagiarism as most of them are rewritten posts from somewhere else. If a post cannot add quality to my blog i wont publish it.
Hi Nwosu, I am sure you cant turn me down on future as well. I guess I did a fine job and responded actively to all the comments on my GP with you earlier. :)
I am reluctant to accept GPs because most guest bloggers present shoddy, recycled content and look for nothing more than dofollow backlinks.
Hello Nwosu,
Indeed a Very Good Article.
Really Accepting Guest Posts Nowadays is a Very Risky Task.
Thanks for Article :)
Ambika you are awesome, i am actually waiting for the completion of your post, the series 2…cant wait to publish for you again.
What was your experience about guest posts?
Nice article,, the reason given sounds good.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nwosu,
Most of the bloggers submit the guest post for the sake of dofollow link without even following the guest post guidelines,i omit some post which doesn’t follow my guidelines and also receive mails from respective guest blogger by mentioning “its urgent” please publish my post this kind of activities hurts a lot.I’m just planning to stop accepting the guest post or may i try to give opportunity for real bloggers not for the spammers meanwhile nice update from you
Eyes opened…
I have published 7 guest posts yet on my blog. But all of them like no one likes to comment on them. You are write they are using us only to get backlinks. I will modify my guest post policy soon
Thanks for sharing bro
Great post Nwosu, you quote some valuable points and it is for those very reasons why I myself have tightened the strings on guest blogging on my blog too. I now publish less than 3 guest posts per month and rather create my own content, mainly because of none engagement from the guest writers with commentators, I’ll usually also remove their links in the author box. I think more and more bloggers will be making it harder for guest writers to get their pitches accepted.
Thanks, i hope i haven’t been hash on anybody, i just want to build a quality blog with quality links and quality contents.
I have received so many of such emails, and i wont hesitate to hit the delete button on such posts.
Thanks boss for dropping by, i hope you can achieve your aim with little effort following the guides in this article.
And that is the only way they can be serious and add value to their contents. Thanks for your contribution.
Desmond, you are Right, most of them are very selfish and only care of the backlink they will get. I think is time i take this action too
Thanks Donatus, its totally not worth it and i hope my new measures will get them serious.
You are a kinda of lucky you have not met guest author who will blast your link to thousands of social links.
Why will anyone do so? Well i also have to be careful in choosing who i am publishing for.
I always used to read your blog posts as it is unique in nature :)
Yeah, accept your views, most of the bloggers are doing guest blogging just for backlinks. They just forget about the reputation of the blog and just fill the post with some useless and irrelevant words.
This is the reason am not accepting the guest posts. But i used to submit quality guest post on other blogs and taking care of comments with immense patience.
Hope, I’ll present a good and worthy guest post for you in the future and am sure you’ll accept it.
Thanks for writing such a nice post for your readers!
I have personally followed your blog and i know the quality you put in to it, surely if your guest post meets the criteria on http://netmediablog.com/submissions/ i will definitely consider it.
hi there nwosu. thanks for sharing your point of view about guest blogging. actually, accepting guest bloggers is not yet my problem because only i only have one blogger who is interesting guest posting and I haven’t received any request from her since her first guest post.
my problem actually is how can i encourage other legitimate bloggers (not spammers) to guest post on my blog..
You can join guest blogging communities like http://myblogguest.com/ and you can meet reputable guest bloggers, or you can create a page on your blog with a visible link asking people to write for you.
Amen, Nwosu. I have loads of requests for guest posts and I plainly say no backlinks to sales websites but then they present me with articles filled with them. It’s just a waste of my time.
Adrienne Smith accepts guest posts but only from authors she invites. That might be a good compromise for you. I agree with you 100%, no need to pollute your quality blog with a garbage post from a guest author just trying to get a backlink.
Thanks Carolyn for your comment and i have decided to maintain a standard, if any guest post wont add value to my blog and to my readers then i wont bother publishing such a post. Thanks for your comment.
The worst thing of any guest bloggers is his/her inability to respond the comments. It really looks cheap to see others responding the comments on a post written by somebody else.
Accepting guest posts from strangers is really risky, however the posts from fellow bloggers will help you to make your blog better. Simply make sure that the guest authors really want to guest blog on your site.
The rules are there on my page, if any guest blogger is not ready to meet them, then such a person shouldn’t bother sending a post because i wont also bother publishing such. Thanks for your comment.
Hi Desmond, i have also been thinking of this for a while. I do get lots of requests daily for guest post opportunities but once their article is published, they forget everything, no sharing in social networks, no commenting, nothing nothing.
Though most of them do promise to make the article viral if i publish it, but they dont keep to their promise.
Very soon, i will stop accepting guest posts on my blog also.
Thanks for posting this article. Its very useful.
Thre is no doubt that guest posting is very important and can raie your blog in your early time of your blogging career. But yeah, it is good to accept guest post from known ones rather than publishing low quality post.
Great information Nwosu.
Regards,
Amrik!
Well it will be nice if a guest author follows up and help make his article rank well in search engines, it will also benefit such a fellow but this is something most of them dont care about provided they have received a worthy backlink from you. Thanks for your comment
Thanks Amrik for your comment, i hope this measure will help improve the quality of guest posts submitted on my blog.
That’s truly a fair play. We have right to choose or reject according to what best benefits our blog. We can’t risk the blog reputation just for some free content. I’m with you Nwosu! Thumb up!
I am glad you could see it same way as me, i actually took a lot of time to consider this and since then i think they have learnt that Netmediablog is not a dumping ground for some low quality contents. Thanks for your comment…
I’m considering the same, I get too many guest bloggers that don’t come back to reply to comments or submit post that really don’t add any value.
Don’t hesitate to throw away such posts because it will only drag your blog down with it…..thanks for your comment
exactly the same reasons why I stopped accepting guest posts on my blog, I don’t wanna give away any link juice maybe after the google Pagerank udpate I will reopen the doors for guest bloggers ;)
thanks for sharing this awesome post
Thanks Anis for your comment…and when is the Google update supposed to take place?
I am 100% agree with you my friend that guest post is not just the way ti get only back link but its the responsibility of guest author to promote it, reply to comments and show some professionalism by completing all the related things. But, this is not a right way by just to not accept any guest post. On the other part there are also some bloggers who create some majestic content , promote it on social networks as far as can and also create backlinks for their guest post also. In the end i suggest you to accept only those guest post which are from some serious and good bloggers with high quality content in that way your quality will remain intact and you can also publish some great content from some great bloggers.
You are right bro… I recently removed auto register and now am in control of users. Imagine over 170 register users some don’t even have a post in their account. So i deleted them. Which tool do you use for checking if the content is unique?? I use smallseotools.com and any post below 85% unique content sees the trash
I use same tool but Google mostly, i copy some random portions of the post and search it under ” ” that way i will search for an exact match.
Thanks Anjum for your comment, i have already tightened the grip on this issue and it will remain so.
It’s a painful experience. However, accepting guest posts on your website is still the best way to enrich the site.
Provided the quality of the content is good and the author is also willing to play his own part in helping such post rank.