Rules for Guest Posting on others Blog

How to make your Guest post Legit on others Blog

Google is known to penalize sites for selling links, which have excessive number of guest posts and keyword rich anchor posts as well as sites that have too many sponsored posts.But it has now become official. Google released an update for their link schemes document which states three things like

·        Buying and selling links that pass PageRank. This include exchanging money for link, or post that contain the link; exchanging goods and services for links; or sending a free product to someone in exchange for writing about it and then including a link.

·        Excessive link exchange like Link to me and I’ll link to you and partner pages for the sake of cross-linking.

·        Large-scale article guest posting and marketing campaign with anchor text links which are keyword-rich.

Automated programs and services to create links to your site

We all know that few sites are getting affected because of these new rules, but now many top blogs will be affected. The sad thing is that these top notch blogs cannot correct the posts because they have promised bloggers Dofollow backlinks. If they make them Nofollow once again as Google suggests then the bloggers can lose trust with these top notch blogs.Well, this blog post can become controversial, but I will name some blogs who can do well to change their guest posts and their sponsored posting policies.

Here are a few blogs that I think will be affected

·        www.Comluv.com

·        www.Shoutmeloud.com

·        www.Hellboundbloggers.com

·        www.Bloggingtips.com

Hopefully, these blogs will not get affected as they are huge blogs with a lot of followers.

Why Blogs May Get Penalized?

As the Google document has clearly states, blogs which publish content that is termed as Guest Posts with anchor texts that arekeyword rich will get penalized.I have gone through many guest posts on ShoutMeLoud, Comluv and other sites with anchor texts like Tech Blog, Blogging Tips and SEO Company etc. I would suggest to these bloggers change the anchor texts to the name of their domain rather than giving keyword rich anchor texts.

Some Top Blogs Saw It Coming

We don’t call them probloggers for nothing some bloggers saw it coming some months back and they already taken steps to avoid penalty from hitting their blog. Blogs like ProBloggerand DailyBlogTips previously published guest posts daily.Now none of them accept any guest posts. You can verify from these blogs as well.

What is the Next Thing In Terms Of Link Schemes?

I feel that the next update will hit comments section.There are many people who are using spamming blogs for getting backlinks, as many blogs offer Dofollow comments. Google can punish blogs that give Dofollow comment links.

How To Be Safe?

Well, what I follow with my blog is that I allow few guest posts. If I publish 10 or 11 blog posts, I allow one or two guest posts.This ensures high quality guest posts are published as well as ensure that my blog does not get any penalty.When it comes to some sponsored posts, you should try not to pass PageRank.But if a very good offer comes, you should consider it.

Don’t Accept Guest Posts Unless You Follow These 7 Rules

What you may not know is that search engines might start penalizing sites that accept guest posts or discount posts made by specific authors because a lot of junk content is being guest posted on the web. Even high authoritative blogs such as the New York Times or Huffington Post are allowing guest posts, and many of those posts are filled with mediocre content and spam my links.

Google generally doesn’t like guest posting.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should not allow guest posts on your blog. Rather, it means that you need to be pickier. Don’t just accept guest posts because you think it will increase your traffic. Accept them because the content will benefit your readers.

Here are 7 rules you should follow if you plan on accepting guest posts:

Rule #1: Authors must have a track record of writing great content

I get a few dozen inquires each week for guest post contributions. Do you know why I don’t accept most of the posts? One reason is that I want Quick Sprout to remain my personal blog, which means I need to be the main writer. The second reason is that most of the authors don’t have a track record of writing awesome content.

Many of these guest authors have never written a guest post, which isn’t a big deal… but many of them don’t even have a great track record of writing awesome content on their own blog.

Here’s what I look for when authors offer me a guest post:

• Spam – I Google their name to make sure they aren’t pushing out spammy content throughout the web.
• Links – I make sure they aren’t linking out in their bio or within the content to spammy websites.
• Depth – look to see how detailed their past content is. I usually look for authors who write content that is at least 1,000 words, if not 2,000. You can’t put much advice in a 400 word blog post, so avoid writers who are just trying to crank out content for links.

Rule #2: Watch outgoing links

This is probably the most tricky part about evaluating guest posts. Some blogs like Search Engine Watch are known for removing all links while other ones like Huffington Post keep almost every link you add.

So, what should be your stance on links within guest posts? Let authors link out as many times as they want to as long as those links are benefiting your readers. The moment those links don’t benefit your readers, remove them.

It doesn’t matter if those links go to the author’s site or even your competitors’ site. As long as the links help educate your readers, people will want to read your blog.

Here’s a general guideline to follow:

• A bio should only contain 1 or 2 links – either to the author’s website, Twitter handle, or his/her blog.
• A blog post should contain a minimum of 4 links – I don’t have a maximum number of links that should be in a post, but I do have a minimum. People have written blog posts on almost every topic out there, so instead of regurgitating the same old information, link out to the sites that have already covered it.

Rule #3: The content must be detailed and unique

I would never accept content that isn’t detailed or unique. What I mean by detailed is that the content needs to be at least 1,000 words with no fluff. You can always make a post meatier by adding details and steps, so why not take an extra hour and write a better blog post?

I also won’t accept a blog post on a topic that has been beaten to death. For example, most people know that Google PageRank doesn’t matter. So, why accept another blog post that talks about why PageRank isn’t important?

Lastly, guest authors who contribute to dozens of blogs have a tendency to continually spin content. They’ll take the same post topic and continually spin it so that they can guest post on more blogs. To combat this, use free services like Copyscape, which will point out any duplicate or similar articles. All you have to do is upload the guest post to a private URL and run it through Copyscape.

Rule #4: Be picky

Even if a guest post is good, it doesn’t mean you should publish it. The content needs to be great! If you don’t set strict standards from day one, your blog won’t be read consistently.

Here are my criteria:

• I won’t accept posts with spelling or grammar errors. If a post has those, it means the author didn’t spend too much time on it. (I know, I have a ton of grammar errors on Quick Sprout. I need to improve my grammar skills.)
• Make sure you believe in the post because if you don’t, your readers won’t. No matter how good the writer is, don’t accept content you don’t believe in. For example, at KISSmetrics, we had the option of publishing a post on how A/B testing is useless. It was from a well-known analytics expert. But we as a company believe A/B testing is powerful, and everyone should do it.
• The content has to fit in with your blog theme. For example, Quick Sprout is a blog about marketing and entrepreneurship. I won’t accept any guest posts outside of those two topics, no matter how well they are written or from whom they are.

Rule #5: Don’t give out author accounts

The biggest mistake you can make as a blog owner is to give out author accounts. You don’t want someone to have a login to your blog in which they can post content on whatever they want, whenever they want.

Why? Because you shouldn’t trust most blog authors. I’ve seen reputable ones plagiarize, add in spammy links into old blog posts and even delete pieces of content when they shouldn’t have. This happens because some authors are desperate, and they will do almost anything for money. If someone bribes one of your authors with a lot of cash, most likely they will take the bribe.

If someone is requesting an author account, something is off. It’s easier for a blogger to send you his/her content in a text document and have you deal with the headache of formatting the post and adding it into your blogging platform.

On the other hand, if you want to give people author accounts to save you time, make sure they only have the ability to save content as a draft. Publishing privileges should be saved for you or someone on your team.

Rule #6: You need to fully own the content

It doesn’t matter who writes the content, but you need to own it. If you don’t own it, people will start publishing the same piece of content on their own site or even on other people’s sites.

If a guest author wants to link to his/her guest post from his/her own site, that’s fine. Giving them credit for writing the post or letting them showcase their masterpiece isn’t an issue. The rights to the content is the issue. As long as you own it, you can do whatever you want.

I usually don’t do anything with content that is guest posted on my website. I just like to own the rights as it decreases the likelihood that the contributor will spin it. Or if a journalist wants to cover or republish the piece, which happens more often than you may think, you can give them authorization without having to reach out to the author.

Rule #7: Authors need to help build and support your community

My favorite part about blogging is creating a community. It is a community that reads the content published on your blog, learns from it, and contributes by commenting. In many cases, its members’ contributions can teach you things that you never knew before.

If you want to continually build your community, you need your guest authors to contribute to it. They need to contribute not just through blog content, but also through replies to comments. Any time someone comments on a post they write, they need to respond to the comment. It doesn’t matter if they write just a simple reply as long as they acknowledge that someone has commented and respond to it.

By doing this you will encourage more people to come back to your blog, which not only helps with social sharing and traffic, but it also helps with creation of brand evangelists.