I published a guest post about guidelines bloggers must adopt when accepting guest post by Tushar few days back. This post is is in my draft for few days and it seems a perfect time to follow up on the previous post.
Though i seldom guest post on other blogs but i do receive requests from people who submit their guest post here (The request is increasing too). That’s why i see people making a lot of mistakes when they submit their post.
It’s totally fine to make mistakes, well who doesn’t? But some mistakes are too obvious and you shouldn’t be making them when you want to enjoy all the benefits you have by guest blogging. In fact, these are costly mistakes which you must avoid at all cost.
Mistake #1
Asking unnecessary question Like ”Do you accept guest post”
This question alone will eliminate any possibility of getting your guest post accepted. First of all, seeing this question means you are not a reader of my blog.
If you regularly dropping by Findmyblogway, you should know i have my guest post guidelines page title “Write For Findmyblogway”. I believe it is big enough for everyone to notice and read. How do you expect any blogger to publish your guest post when you don’t even bother to read his/her blog?
By reading the blog, you will know some of my posts are written by guest bloggers and that’s pretty clear i accept guest post in my blog. If you are not a reader, obviously you will just submit and disappear. I will expect no follow up from you.
Simple Tip: Read the blog you want to submit your guest post. Make sure you follow the blog and have a understanding what the blog owner is looking for. Don’t ask stupid question and jeopardize your chances of having your guest post accepted.
Mistake #2
Fail to Comply Guest Posting Guidelines
I have shown my frustrations before in this post when people fail to comply guest posting guidelines. The most common one is there is no follow up on the post conversation.
The guest posting rules are there for you to follow. If you choose to submit your guest post, that means you have agreed to the guidelines and there is no reason for you to ignore it. There maybe many nice bloggers around but please don’t test people’s patience.
Even you are bent on getting the backlinks directed to the blog, earn it instead of throwing it away just because you fail to comply on the guidelines.
Simple Tip: Read the guest posting guidelines for god’s sake. Know what is expected from you before you blindly submit your post. I can’t stress how important this can be.
Mistake #3
Guest posting in irrelevant niche
For bloggers who accepted guest post, their main concern is whether the submitted guest post is on-topic. For example, i am looking for post related to blogging, social media, SEO, and internet marketing. As long your submitted guest post falls within the categories and i find it to be acceptable, it will be published.
But wait, this blog is a blogging blog. If you are just looking for some backlinks from a PR4 blog, you got it. But if you are looking to increase your traffic or targeted visitors, i don’t see how you can do it if you have a different niche from mine.
People comes to FMBW for blogging tips and tutorials, not looking for some baby products, cars or anything else. Make sure you get that relevancy to enjoy the full benefits of guest blogging.
Simple Tip: Niche site owner focus on backlinks as what they want is search engine traffic. If you have a decent blog and increase your traffic and subscribers is a priority, submit your guest post to an authority site of your niche is the way to go.
Mistake #4
Poor guest post pitching
This means the email you send to the blog owner is crap. Yes i saw quite a number of them. Below are a few of them:
- Lack of personalization
- Expect the blogger to check your past articles
- Lack of confidence
- Lack of a specific post topic
- Give blogger no reason to accept the post
The worst mistake of poor pitching is lack of personalization. Again this has to do with whether you are a reader of the blog that you want to submit your guest post. If you are a regular reader, you should know the blogger’s name very well. Failing to address the blogger is a bad mistake. It gives people an impression this is a very general email that you can submit to any blogs.
Simple Tips: In order to write a perfect guest posting pitch, remember this six rules -
- Be polite
- Be considerate
- Be sensitive
- Be confidence
- Be thankful
- Be human
Mistake #5
Poor quality post
You must have learnt it somewhere you must always submit your best post to other blogs instead of second rated post your blog does not need. Not only your post must consist of details and information, but it is advisable to take care of the formatting of your post. You should not expect the blog owner to do that for you.
Besides formatting and structuring of your post, you need to proof read the post to ensure there are no spelling and grammatical errors in the post. You also need to take some effort to craft a decent headline. Why i say “decent”? It is because i understand not everyone can write a great headline that attract readers but the least you can do is to show some effort.
Lets take a look at this two titles:
1. Blogging Mistakes
2. 7 Blogging Mistake That Will Jeopardize Your Blog to Earn 1000 Readers Daily
I don’t have to ask you which one stands a better chance of getting the guest post accepted. #1 is too general and that is a mistake i commonly see when people submit their guest post to me.
Though it is not a must but you can do the blog owner a favor if you submit your post in html format so the blog owner can directly paste and publish without much fuss. If you are not familiar with html, you can always draft your post in WordPress and save the html format.
Simple Tip: Do your research and pack as much information as possible. Make sure you proof read and edit your post before you submit your post. Besides that, don’t worry too much about getting rejected. It’s all part of learning process.
Conclusion
It’s no secret there are a lot of benefits guest blogging in other’s blog. You just need to get it right. If you are focusing on using this strategy to grow your blog, just do it. Learn from people like Onibalusi can help you to avoid all the costly mistake mentioned above.
What mistakes have you seen from your guest bloggers?
Do you have anything else to share?
As always, i like to hear your thoughts. Please leave us a comment and start the conversation.
Before i end this post, i like to share a post i read recently in Write To Done which you may find it useful.
How to Land a Guest Post Without Fail: 21 Secret Tips
Be sure to give it a read to boost your guest post acceptance chances.
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Cheers,
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Twitter: bloggersethics
for me, i think i made one mistake an year ago. I always have written different kind of article and i submitted the same to ShoutMeLoud but that did not get accepted. so, i make sure that i write keeping the blog where i will be guest posting it
Tushar recently posted..The All Time Favourites Blog Debates- Time to End it?
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Tushar,
That probably means you are guest posting in many blogs. If that’s the case, it should be ideal if you keep a record of which blog you want to submit for each individual post.
Thanks for the comments.
Lye
Twitter: Mazzastick
Hi Lye,
For me the two things that bother me about guest posts to my blog are poor writing(grammar mistakes and obviously didn’t use spell check) and an author bio.
How do you forget an author bio huh?
Justin recently posted..Use Online Income to Meet your Financial Goals
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Justin,
I won’t totally reject a poor written bio if the article is good. I mean the guest blogger will see low traffic for his poor written bio but the article will still benefit my readers.
That’s why i didn’t include it. Thanks for sharing your views.
Lye
Hi Lye, I agree with you.
Requesting a guest post without reading the blog first is like smoking in a public area and ask people whether or not smoking is prohibited.
Imo, guest blogging is more than just about links and traffic. As it reflects the person behind that post. If done well, it will benefits the blogger in many ways!
Another great post again, have a nice day
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Duy,
Indeed, that really affect their chances straight away. I think that is very basic. You should at least what the blog is all about before you send the email.
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Lye
These are excellent tips, Lye. There are few things as frustrating as someone wanting to use your blog to guest post and they don’t even read it well enough to know whether or not you accept it.
All the best!
Ana recently posted..Best Affiliate Marketing Programs that Pay
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Anna,
Precisely, it simply takes up our time to explain they do not qualify. Sometimes it is a waste of our time.
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Lye
Hi,
Nice Info i am totally agreed with you on these words “Guest blog post is prove so beneficial for us on others blog”. But for this we need to prepare very well himself in writing and we should keep all these things in mind before offer publish our guest post which all are mentioned in this blog post.
Beside that i like some of the words in bottom of your blog post which you mentioned like that “”we should learn from our mistakes”" so i think this is very great way to motivate himself.
sam recently posted..Goa Carnival 2012
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Sam,
Guest post is a wonderful strategy to get backlinks, traffic and exposure but most fail because they can’t avoid making those mistakes.
Thanks for the comments.
Lye
In my opinion, It is necessary that you need to avoid all of the mistakes you shared! Asking question when having guest blogging can lead you to made simple mistake. And I think I made this mistake before, that is why the owner of the blog cost me to pay high amount of money!
TracyAnn0312 recently posted..simple animation software
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Tracy,
Can you please elaborate the mistakes that you made? Thanks for your comments.
Lye
I agree with Justin! It’s also very important that guest blogging should be done on the qualitative level, I mean without mistakes. Because sometimes it’s so strange to read an article, where you can see a lot of mistakes; I think that every blogger who’d like to place someone’s else post should check it by themselves
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi
Appreciate you to include your name instead of keyword the next time. Thanks for your comment.
Lye
As a reader I’ve always been impressed by the technique of guest posting but sadly in some cases, some of the guest poster after posting an awesome article completely either forgets or avoid interacting with the readers. Interacting with the readers is very important.
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Brandon,
Sadly some blogger are like that. They will simply disappear after submit their guest post. I encounter a few times and i am more strict in reviewing guest post now.
Thanks for the comments.
Lye
Twitter: AdamPaudyal
Lye, some great tips here my friend.
I love the 6 simple tips you gave about pitching guest posts.
You know what Lye, like you mentioned what really irritates me as well is the guest blogger not following up on the comments.
Later on brother!
Adam Paudyal recently posted..5 Additional Techniques I Use To Stay Motivated.
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Adam,
Exactly brother, that’s what i hate most and i have taken action and delete their links .
Thanks for dropping by.
Lye
Twitter: stevescott1
Lye,
With So many people trying to do guest posts on other blogs these days is definitely a buyers market. It is important to set these minimum level requirements for your blogs because you’re only as good as your worst post.
Great tips here on the major blogging mistakes people can make. Hopefully some these guest posters will take this information the heart and provide higher quality content for their guest post submissions. (and of course therefore get more guest posts accepted)
Steve recently posted..10 Key Things I’ve Learned From 6 Months of Building Niche Sites
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Steve,
No doubt guest posting is a great strategy to attract traffic, backlinks and exposure but i feel it has been blown out of proportion.
Now everyone is into guest posting and i really wonder how many of them is enjoying the benefits.
Thanks a lot for dropping by and great to see you.
Lye
Hi Lye!
I think that the problem with guest posting is that sometimes guest bloggers think only about their own profit forgetting the fact that they contribute to someone else. From here goes the poor quality of submitted articles.
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Eugene,
It’s this type of mentality that is setting them back. They will not see any benefits of guest blogging at all.
Thanks for the comments.
Lye
So true, except for the uninteresting post, the content itself it not nice specially when it has wrong grammars and missing edits. Make me dump them without prior notice. As a guest blogger, you should comply to the STANDARDS and be able to provide quality articles so that both parties can benefit, avoid being selfish.
Joey Diaz recently posted..Misdiagnosis leads to stomach being removed
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Joey,
It’s all part of learning. Last time i felt so happy when there are bloggers wanting to guest post here but now i am going for quality instead of quantity.
Thanks for the comments.
Lye
I am sure any one who may want to write a guest post on any site has learned a lot from this. I think that before you guest post on any site it is important that you know the requirements of guest blogging on that site. This will avoid your post from being rejected. Proper language and quality of the content are also a major factor in getting your guest post accepted or rejected.
Caesar Parisi recently posted..Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Caesar,
Definitely, we shouldn’t take things for granted and hope for the best. Guest blogging doesn’t work that way.
Thanks for dropping by.
Lye
I always have written different kind of article and i submitted the same to ShoutMeLoud but that did not get accepted. It is important to set these minimum level requirements for your blogs because you’re only as good as your worst post.
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