How Guest Blogging Can Destroy Your Blog and Reputation

Written by Zac Johnson
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There’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan of guest blogging. Not only do I boast about the must follow tips that you need to use when writing and accepting guest posts, but I also have a page full of all the guest blogging that I’ve been recently doing as well.

Here’s Why Guest Blogging is Awesome

Think of all of the amazing blogs out that there that are in your niche. Now think about how much it would cost to buy a sponsored post or advertising on all of these sites? It would cost you a ton of money, and probably still not be as effective as an actual post on the blog. When you put the time in to create an author account on other blogs and submit amazing content, you can get free attention and publicity on other well known blogs and sites at no costs at all, plus you also get a link back in the author section of any blog content you write.

The concept behind guest blogging is simple… a large site will accept your guest blog posts if they are high quality and unique. As a writer, this is the only job you have. However, when you are a blog owner and accepting guest blog posts on your site… then you are opening up doors for more problems.

The Dangers of Guest Blogging for You and Your Blog!

As great as guest blogging might seem to be… it doesn’t come without it’s damaging potentials! Let’s break down a few of the areas that you must keep an eye open for when writing and accepting guest blog posts.

Duplicate & Copied Content

There is nothing worse than accepting guest blog posts on your site and having people submit articles that they already submit to other sites or even just copied from elsewhere. First off, this will provide NO value to your blog at all, and it will also be seen as duplicate content to the search engines… which isn’t good either. One of the best ways to combat duplicate content before even allowing it onto your blog, is by using a duplicate content or plagiarism checker. There are many options for checking for duplicate content on sites and articles that are submit for guest blogging, such as copyscape.com, duplichecker.com and plagiarisma.net.

Sponsored Based Blog Posts

Another problem is the growing supply of people getting into guest blogging just so they can sell back links to advertisers in the footer area of their article. In some cases this is fine, but in others it can be a big problem. First off, when you accept guest posts from people who just want to sell links, there is a good chance you are more vulnerable to receiving duplicate and non-original content. Another problem is that the content will probably be lacking in quality. It’s easy to notice when people are selling text links in the footer of their guest posts, as it will usually have obvious anchor text with words like “debt consolidation” or “brand name coupons“.

How to Keep Your Guest Blogging Content Valuable

As easy as it is to hate on the dangers of guest blogging, there is also plenty to love about it if you do it right. Follow these steps and you will find that your chances for receiving duplicate content and low quality postings will decrease dramatically.

Only Accept Content from Bloggers You Know

The blogging niche is a very tight community and reputation can take years to build up, but only a few seconds to take down. Well known bloggers will gladly accept guest posts from other bloggers who already are commenting on their blogs and have a decent showing online. Accepting guest posts from people you know will almost guarantee only the best content.

Guest Post Guidelines

If you’ve ever thought about accepting guest posts on your site, then you need to set up a guest post guidelines page. This is a simple breakdown of what you expect from all of your guest posts and content. I have one listed on BloggingTips.com, where I was getting 5-10 requests daily for guest posts. It was getting quite over whelming and I was getting a lot of crap and duplicate content from people trying to sell guest post links. I slapped a $50 placement fee on their for all future guest posts due to time and quality issues. You can bet that wiped out almost all of the quests I was getting from unknown people, yet I can still publish content at no charge for everyone I’ve made connections with and know won’t waste my time.

Outsource for Original Content Writing

It’s not always easy to come up with new writing ideas of even coming up with enough time to write all the content on your blog. If you are simply looking to generate more content for your web site or blog, another alternative is to outsource through some of the top content creation marketplaces like Blogging.org and TextBroker.com. Through these sites you can post any type of writing jobs that you like, then one of the thousands of writers on the market place will complete your writing request and you can approve or deny it based on it’s quality. You can also pay as little or as much as you want per article. These are excellent resources for any type of creative writing or content building.

Guest Blogging: You Get What You Put Into It

As you can see, there are plenty of different ways to look at guest blogging… the good, the bad and the ugly. However, in the end it all comes down to what you put into it. If you focus on writing really great content and building up your reputation and appearance across multiple sites, you can build a nice source of traffic and incoming links from high level blogs. If you want to slack your way through with crap content and selling links, you will make a little money but also piss some people off in the process. The same can be said for blog owners, you need to make sure you are on top of your blog content quality and only post the best and most useful stuff.

Here are some other guest blogging related posts:

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36 Replies to “How Guest Blogging Can Destroy Your Blog and Reputation”

  1. Slapping $50 for every unknown guest bloggers is a good idea, Zac and come to think of it, I think I should do the same but with a lower price simply because most of my sites does not have a high authority like bloggingtips. I had been receiving inquiries to guest post on my sites and some of them just simply shoot a low quality article which I find it very time consuming to moderate.
    My recent post How to make your blog worth to be commented

    1. This quickly dropped the amount of guest posts I was receiving, yet a lot of people still ignore it and send me requests to go live with their posts.

  2. Zac, this is a wonderful post. I can think of any other value I can add here. I just wanted to thank you for writing this
    My recent post The Most Important Affiliate Marketing secret

  3. Guest blogging is a great way to source content, but you are right, it is up to the blog owner to pick only the highest quality blogs for their website. There is also no point in posting any old content if it is not relevant to the audience of your site.

  5. Guest blogging can be a great way of getting new content to your site, for free. But you need to chacke everything you post, all links, the uniqueness, grammar, everything.
    My recent post Some Mobile Phone Users Problems

  6. I guess everything still boils down to unique and original content. Its what all the google updates focus on and it will always be. If you outsource because you don't have enough time or ideas to deliver good post, you must still counter-check the guess writers' work.
    My recent post What’s the Real Use of Social Networking Sites

    1. Quality content and getting people to share it around and post comments is the best way to go. Blog posts with no comments are no fun. 🙁

  7. Thanks God there is someone who wrote about disadvantages of guest posting. Because people usually write about its positive sides, and I personally think that there are also negative ones (you mentioned all of them above). I have already seen some guest posts that were full of mistakes, and were not interesting at all, and of course, i changed my opinion about the blog a little bit
    My recent post Photography WordPress Themes

    1. As great as guest blogging is, there is going to be some disadvantages. I could write a whole book on guest blogging. Look forward to it in the next few months! 🙂

  8. Guest blogging can be fun and help you a lot. Sadly like you said there is a lot of bad things along with it. This is why I am always careful with who I let guest post on my blog. I make sure that they are well known in the blogging world and also have set guidelines in place to limit bad things happening from it. I also read all guest posts too and see if there is bad content or things that I do not want to be shown on my blog.

    1. The safest bet is to hire a group of other blog writers and friends that you personally know to write for your blog. It will cost more, but you won't have to worry about the quality and content issues.

  10. I love guest blogging, I write all my posts myself and was fortunate to have a post published on one of Zac's sites. Just recently I have been receiving plenty of emails asking me to consider articles as guest posts that are weak and look to be exactly what is mentioned here, people writing posts then selling links back to 3rd party sites. Usually their content is nothing more than a 800 word regurgitated piece of nothingness, something that will not benefit our site, if anything it will more likely have a detrimental effect to it.

    Cheers
    Andi
    My recent post Protected: How To Make A Podcast For FREE.

    1. I know some high end blogs end up hiring someone to manage all of the guest blog posts to make sure they are high in quality. If you are pushing enough volume and traffic it's definitely something to consider.

  11. I love this concept of guest posting. It is something which has worked for me personally. 100% recommended.
    Guest Posting has always been a vital part of my online marketing campaign, as it helps you build credibility, as well as build relationships with movers and shakers within your target market.

    My recent post Be Careful of Blog Comment

    1. I also love guest posting. It's always great to gain some extra reach and subscribers for your blog. It's all about growth and the time you put in.

  12. As for me, I hate duplicate & copied content! As a guest writer for some blogs, I always work with original texts only. That's my rule! It takes time but it's my reputation, my life moto – less speak more content))
    good luck with future posts!

    1. Nothing is worse than getting an email saying your content is found elsewhere, or even worse that someone submit replicated content to your site. What a pain!

  13. "You get what you put into it", that's basically the meat of this post. Guest blogging, like all other things in business is all about putting in the work, whether its accepting the right posts or creating the highest quality content. Its what you put in that matters
    My recent post Comment on A Game Review App – 101 iPhone App Ideas That Could Make You Rich by 101 iPhone App Ideas That Could Make You Rich – The Full List – iPhone App Templates – MyAppTemplates

    1. Definitely. There are also plenty of guest posting services out there as well… some are great and some are crap. It's all about testing and see what works best.

  14. Thanks for the tips. I've accepted some guest posts and usually I would just google a few sentences to make sure it wasn't already posted somewhere. I will definitely check out the sites you've listed.
    My recent post A Shoutout to some of the recent sites I've worked on.

  16. Hi very interesting site here. Can some one give me advise. I wrote a very high quality article and now I am struggling to decide: should I post it on my own blog which is PR 0 and not many people will see my article or should I use it as a guest post somewhere to get a link from high PR site?
    Thanks.
    My recent post Silver mining Video featuring Hecla and Coeur mines

  18. Well, It is true that there are dangers when it comes to guest blogging. But also, it is important that sometimes guest bloggers are quite insightful or even helpful whenever they leave comments. The only thing you can do is brows your blog often to check if there are spams or nonsense comments.

    Good article.

    Thanks! hope to read a lot of insightful articles like this.

  20. Very interesting and useful post. The Dangers need to be always kept in mind. Website administrators should carefully review and approve guest posts from other bloggers. Thanks for the share!

  21. Its really great post you have here. If you want to promote yourself then dip your hand in your pocket and pay for an ad banner or prominent search engine placement. While you are guest blogging to introduce yourself to a new audience, you need to remain relevant to the blogger’s site. Thanks

  24. Hi its really awesome, I'm agree with all the points mentioned above. But how to check whether the content is copied or not?? as I'm not satisfied with copyscape etc
    My recent post Happy Canada Day Wishes 2013 | Canada Day 2013 Wishes

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