What To Do Before Accepting Guest Posts
Should you Accept Guest Posts on your Blog?
The process of writing content for another company’s website is known as guest blogging, or “guest posting.” Guest bloggers typically contribute to comparable blogs in their field in order to attract visitors to their website. External links to high-authority websites can help them grow their online visibility.
As an owner of a blog who accepts guest posts or looking to accept guest posts from writers, certain things are to be noted to avoid hiccups along the way. It is okay to be a bit wary but these steps should ease your fears. Accepting guest posts is a great way to expand your blog without putting in a lot of effort. When their content is published, guest posters will share it and promote your blog. Marketing at no cost! That free marketing could result in more social media shares and, hopefully, links to your website.
Accepting guest blogging services has numerous advantages for any company. You may establish yourself as an authoritative figure in your market, build ties with other thought leaders in your profession, and expose your brand to an altogether new audience by allowing others to share their expertise on your company’s websites.
Things to Look Out for or do Before Accepting Guest Posts
It is completely okay to be a bit skeptical when it comes to accepting guest posts or if you are thinking about accepting guest posts. You should look out for these signs to avoid making mistakes when it comes to accepting the kind of guest posts you post on your blog.
- Ensure that the writer has a great track record for quality content It is essential to know if the writer you are about to publish on your blog actually has good quality content worth publishing. The writer shouldn’t be someone who is often fond of plagiarism or spamming, you have to ensure that this person is worth publishing. Most writers may have never written a guest post before but that does not mean that they will not have great content. You must ensure that the content of the writer has the potential to draw traffic to the site. You don’t want to publish a person whose content is so sub-par that they cannot even cause traffic for their own blogs.
- Pick and choose meticulously. You have to be very careful or picky about the guest post you choose to accept at all times. Sometimes you may receive a lot of good-quality guest posts but that doesn’t mean you have to publish them all. You have to sift through all of them and pick out the ones or one that stands out the most. The one that is the most unique and has the potential to attract new viewers or cause traffic to your site. It is quite often difficult to ascertain whether a guest post has this quality but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to do so.
- Don’t share author accounts with anyone else. Giving out author accounts is one of the greatest mistakes a blog owner can do. You don’t want someone to have access to your blog and be able to post whatever they want, whenever they want. Because you shouldn’t put your faith in most bloggers. I’ve seen reputable ones plagiarize, insert spammy links into old blog articles, and even erase stuff that shouldn’t have been deleted. This occurs because some authors are desperate for cash and would do anything to get it. If someone offers a large payoff to one of your authors, they will probably accept it. Something is wrong if someone asks for an author account. It’s easier for a blogger to send you his or her content as a text document rather than dealing with the hassle of formatting and uploading the post to your blogging platform. If you want to give individuals author accounts so you can save time, make sure they only can save work as a draft. You or a member of your team should have publishing permissions preserved.
- You must have complete control over the content. It makes no difference who creates the content; you must own it. If you don’t own it, others will start republishing the same stuff on their own or other people’s sites. It’s fine if a guest author wants to link to his or her guest post from his or her own website. It’s not a problem to give them credit for writing the post or to allow them to show off their work. The problem is with the content’s rights. You can do whatever you want with it as long as you possess it. It’s less likely that the contributor will spin it if you own the rights. You can also provide permission to a journalist to cover or reprint the work without having to contact the author, which happens more frequently than you might imagine.
- The content must always be unique and detailed Accepting content that isn’t thorough or original is a no-no. By detailed, I mean that the content must be at least 1,000 words long and free of fluff. Accept no blog posts on topics that have already been covered extensively. For example, most individuals are aware that Google PageRank is meaningless. So, why should I trust another blog post explaining why PageRank isn’t important? Guest authors who contribute to dozens of sites have a habit of spinning stuff over and over again. They’ll spin the same post topic over and over again to guest post on additional blogs. Use free services like Copyscape to combat this, which will flag any duplicate or related articles.
- Figure out what your goals are Guest articles on your blog are nearly always a certain way to attract new readers to your site. So, what are your objectives for these additional visitors? Do you want them to join your mailing list? Is it more important to boost conversions or click-through rates? Do you want to increase the number of people who follow you on social media? Whatever your eventual goal is, it’s critical to think about it before allowing people to start guest writing. You may then optimize your website to make the most of the additional traffic to achieve your unique objectives. Companies often make the mistake of rushing into this strategy in the hopes of reaping all of the benefits, but their websites are often unprepared, and they wind up missing out on chances. If you want people to join your email list, include a contact form and possibly a sign-up incentive on the first page of your website so they don’t miss it. Consider having a discount or promotion at the same time you publish your first guest post to boost conversions.
- Create guidelines for guest posting. You’ll get a lot of questions regarding your expectations for posts after you open your site to guest contributions. By establishing a guidelines page, you may save time and easily address these questions. This will also inform people that you welcome guest posts and encourage them to contact you. Include details such as how long you want posts to be, some prospective topics you’re interested in, your favorite writing style, and any incentives you’re willing to offer.
- Improve Your Social Media Presence There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the additional attention provided by guest posting to boost your social media presence. It’s actually encouraged! You can do this by including buttons on your website for Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media sites you use so that visitors can readily reach them. Include your Twitter handle or LinkedIn web address in your contact form, which should also be clearly displayed on your site.
- Make certain that the content on your home page represents the best of what you have to offer. This has more to do with you than with your visitors, but it’s still significant. Consider the message you want to give to all of these newcomers. When visitors come to your page, what is the first thing they will see? Is it a good representation of your brand and business? Otherwise, it’s time for a rewrite. Consider content: if a reader reads one post and then comes to your site, they may be enticed to read more. You’ll want to make sure the articles people view first are some of your best, and it’s not a bad idea to include a few with catchy headlines (as long as the content inside the article is valuable, which it always should be).
Advantages of Allowing Guest Post Blogging
Now that you’ve understood the concept of accepting guest posts and what you are supposed to do before accepting guest posts, it is also wise to understand the advantages of accepting guest posts.
- Diverse Contents When you enable guest articles on your website, you provide your visitors with a variety of designs and materials to choose from. As a result, none of your blog subjects will be the same. Diversified content, on the other hand, attracts users with a wide range of interests. Aside from that, there are a variety of authors with a variety of interests and topics, which draws traffic from a variety of sources. Consider a visitor who comes to your website after reading a blog about a city’s greatest restaurants or culinary goods. On the same website, he might be interested in diet or health-related content. All you have to do now is work with the writers and let them participate.
- Relationship Building with Different Professionals It is a recognized truth that professionals are given first priority in all situations. The newcomers may be working their tails off to achieve momentum or a foothold in the market, but they stay unnoticed. You can interact with them directly and cooperate with them by guest posting. Aside from that, there are a lot of newbies seeking to build a name for themselves in the business world. If you can, give them a helping hand; you never know when they’ll make it big in the market. They will remember your kindness. But don’t forget to go over their content attentively and provide input on what needs to be improved.
- Generation of Backlinks Allowing guest posting has several advantages, one of which is the ability to disseminate your website’s links around the internet. Backlinks from other websites will begin to appear on your website. The more traffic you get, the better your networks propagate across the internet. You allow guest bloggers to contribute to your website, but they also write for a variety of other sites. It’s a frequent practice among writers to link their blogs together using backlinks. As a result, your website receives backlinks from a variety of sources. Google favors websites having a high number of backlinks, which results in a high SEO score. Backlinks should be monitored because Google AI prioritizes relevant backlinks. Blogs like Snabay Networking https://snabaynetworking.com/ and Network Classmate http://networkclassmate.com/ encourage the use of backlinks in guest post articles.
- Online Authority Development In today’s world of online marketing, authority is really important. It’s self-evident that marketers with more online authority are given more attention. In their blogs, even Google’s SEO algorithm indicates a better response. More high-quality blogs will help you establish an online authority. The formula is simple: the better the material you publish, the greater your online authority will rise. Guest posting also allows you to meet some of the best professional bloggers in your field. Hence your name will constantly print with their names. As a result, it’ll only be a matter of time until other bloggers begin to respect you.
Disadvantages of Allowing Guest Posts
Although they are certain advantages to allowing guest post on your blog, they are also downsides to it.
- Consumes a lot of time Allowing guest posting takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication. It takes time to communicate with a large number of bloggers, collaborates with them regularly, review, and select final content. Furthermore, this process frequently diverts your attention away from your typical web tasks. However, if you are a full-time blogger whose sole priority is the growth of your blog website, it might be a great way to promote your company.
- Guest Posting Management is Somewhat Difficult Although ghost posting appears to be an easy process, it is not. Managing numerous writers and their postings necessitates a great deal of concentration and effort. As you prepare to post on your website, you must establish a sound strategy to ensure that everything goes smoothly. A blog should be reviewed for clarity and vision before being posted on your website. Unfortunately, combing over these posts will take hours out of your day. Proper management is required when analyzing a post, providing feedback to the writer, and then re-evaluating the writer’s fix. The lack of an appropriate framework might make the entire process tiresome because you are dealing with countless postings on various topics from multiple writers.
- Spam Exposure It’s a typical occurrence for writers to skip reading the guidelines completely. They see headlines like “Writers Needed” or “Write for Us” and immediately begin putting in their work. As a result, you will be bombarded with spam. You’ll also receive a slew of other promotional spam emails. It is, however, quite reasonable if you make your email available online. My recommendation at this time is to utilize a separate email account for this.
- Obtaining High-Quality Guest Posts Is Difficult Several writers may submit blogs on subjects unrelated to the ones you provide. Others may send several articles on various topics. You don’t want to disappoint the guest bloggers or jeopardize your quality standards as a professional. If you don’t locate useful and relevant posts, the entire process of accepting guest posting can become a disaster. You must examine each received message to determine which one satisfies your website’s standards. Professionals are also busy earning money by creating paid articles. The majority of the articles are likely to come from newcomers. To make these items operate professionally, they must go through many review procedures.