Yesterday I wrote a post where I laid out a new direction for Technically Easy. Actually, the direction I will be taking this blog is back to the original way I had intended this blog to go from the beginning. In that post I talked about how I will be evaluating guest posts more critically, and won’t be publishing such posts as often. I also talked about publishing posts less, but publishing better quality posts.
With that being said, while I haven’t abandoned guest posts because I still feel that those types of posts have their place on Technically Easy, I have changed my guest posting guidelines to help ensure better quality guest posts. The reason for such a change has been over two years of accepting guest posts, I have been disappointed at times with some of the quality. I blame myself, of course, as I am the last in the line of publication of such posts.
For those looking at writing and submitting guest posts, either on Technically Easy or another blog, I have put together some points on what I haven’t liked about guest posts.
1. Guest Posting for Links
I can’t tell you the number of guest posts I receive that were submitted just for links back to a website or blog. Many times these posts were written by someone paid to write the post and submit it to Technically Easy just for the link back.
What many of the post submitters don’t realize is that the owners of the linked site usually sent me an e-mail asking to remove the link. The reason? Google discovered that the site had an unusual linking pattern and began punishing the site for their linking practice.
Writing many posts just for a link back to a site doesn’t work. Instead a guest post should be an informative post for the readers of another blog. By writing a good post you can potentially introduce yourself to a whole new audience that may not have realized your site or blog existed before.
Guest posts should be an opportunity, not just a link back.
2. Submitting and Ignore
I have found most authors that submit a guest post simply submit the post and ignore it once it is published. This is a huge pet-peeve of mine, and I really hate how authors who write their posts can easily ignore them once they are published. This means that they don’t reply to comments on the posts from the readers.
While many times this is because they are paid to write the post from another site – as discussed in the first point – so don’t care about the comments that result from their writing. The worst part is many times they use another “author” name in the bio, but link back to their intended target site. Of course, the owner of the site, who’s name may or may not be real, doesn’t know about the article, and it doesn’t look good on them.
If I find a post that doesn’t have any reply comments from the author I remove the links. Some times the author may send me an e-mail asking about the links, which I usually reply that there were no replies to the comments. Sorry, even if they do reply after the e-mail, the links aren’t returning.
3. Not Using Proper Spelling and Grammar
I am a stickler for good spelling and grammar. While I am not the best at either, I at least have the basic knowledge of writing. I also realize that many people don’t have English as their native language, but if you plan on writing a guest post in English, you should have knowledge of how to write in that language.
This is one of the most common mistakes that I have seen by authors submitting their posts. The concept of basic sentence structure seems to be lost on many that have submitted a post to Technically Easy. Sorry, but I feel everyone that writes in a language should be close to fluent in the language. Heck, even pasting a guest post in a word processor would probably catch many of the errors.
One last thing. This is probably one of the most common spelling mistakes I see online, and it bothers me. Why? The reason is the mistake is made on such a basic word in the English language – one that you would learn at a very early age. The word is “lose”, which is seems to be written quite often as “loose.” Lose means “to not retain (keep) something” or “to not win.” Loose means “not tight.”
4. Trying to Determine the Schedule
When I schedule a guest post I schedule it at the earliest possible date I can, which depending on how many posts are scheduled, can be a week or two in the future. Sorry, but my blog, my schedule.
I won’t be moving blog posts around to accommodate a specific schedule – unless it is my schedule. While this may seem harsh, but that is the reality of blogging – scheduling posts.
Of course, I am always open to suggestions – for a fee, which I make clear on my guest posting guidelines. After all, I like things to be worth my time when it comes to scheduling.
5. Sending Out Chain E-mails
While it is bad enough I get the copy and paste comments on my blog, I don’t need the copy and paste text in an e-mail asking to guest post on my blog. The best are the ones that begin with “Dear Sir/Madam” – which one is it? If someone can’t tell, just read my blog because my name and ugly mug are plastered on every page. If an author can’t tell after that, then either I need a better picture/haircut, or the author really hasn’t visited my blog.
Also, another tell-tale sign is the fact that instead of my blog’s name in the e-mail, they include the URL. I know the URL of my blog, so using the name would show that the author has actually visited/cared enough about posting on my blog to actually write out the name. I mean they usually start the e-mail to the effect of “I have visited your blog many times and have enjoyed the content…”, but for some reason they just don’t remember the name.
Of course, there are many more things that I an add to this list, such as unique content, but I’ll limit to the above five.
Guest posting should be about the opportunity to showcase you writing skills/talents to other potential/future – readers of your website or blog. If you get paid to write articles, then that is your business, but in the end those articles you write won’t add up to much for your clients.