Email (Photo credit: RambergMediaImages)
The emails are relentless sometimes. Three or four a day and I’m not even that big of a blog yet. If I’m getting this many guest post requests from lame commercial sites now, I perish to think what it will be like when I actually have enough readers to warrant the term audience.
Let me set you apart. Odds are, if you are reading this, you are welcome to email me about guest posting. You’ll likely even get a response. I’m talking about the people who are only interested in what I can do for them and then try and play me like they are doing me the favor.
Most bloggers have seen the emails I’m talking about before. If not, sooner or later you will. Luckily, they all sound the same so they are easy to spot. It’ll go something like this:
Hi Admin (because I’m too lazy to even look at the signature on all of your posts),
My name is Moon Unit and I’m a freelance personal finance writer. I just read your site (aka found out you have a page rank of 5) and think you have some really great information on it (I haven’t read any of it, can I take your page rank out on a date?). I was wondering if you’d be willing to publish an article that I would write exclusively for My Family Finances (few people ever fall for the articles I plagiarize anyway). I promise that the content will be unique (and when I say unique, I mean no one dare write anything this obvious or boring). The best part is the content will be completely free of charge (Strangely, I feel unmoved by the “best part” of the offer). All I ask in return is that you’ll let me include a few links back to my site ChaseYourReadershipAway.com.
I refuse to respond to these emails and neither should you. There are no upsides to accepting these types of guest posts. In fact, there are only downsides.
Accepting a Post from These People Can Hurt Your SEO
Last Spring Google introduced a new algorithm into their assessment for Page Rank. Those updates created a penalty for sites that link to other sites with poor quality content. I can go into some more specifics if you’d like (just shoot me a request in the comments section), but based on the dozens of sites I’ve checked out from these writers, every one of them has had the potential to hurt my page rank. Why would I take the risk?
I Refuse to Publish Copy on My Blog
I used to get paid to write copy; I refuse to publish it. If you don’t know what copy is, take some obvious content and try to write 400 words on the topic; make it as boring as possible. Only once in my life have I enjoyed reading copy and it’s not likely to ever happen again. I would never subject you to reading copy on this blog.
Some “Freelance Writers” are Making Money Off of You
Companies pay online marketers to improve their site’s SEO. Often, these “freelance writers” spamming your email earn a paycheck for every link that they place on your blog. Perhaps this is little consequence, but for me, it’s like rubbing salt into the wound. First they want a link to boost their SEO and then they collect a check for it behind the scenes.
They Know All of This, but Conceal It From You
For me, this is the worst part. They are aware that your SEO can be hurt. They don’t care about your readership. It’s all about getting the link on your site to boost their presence on Google or collect a paycheck from the company they are working for. It’s a scam and they want you to be the sucker.
Hopefully, I haven’t chased you away from guest posting. You actually read this blog and care about the content here. You’ve left me thoughtful comments. I’ve read your work on your own blog and it’s very engaging. We are friends and your articles are welcome here.
Top Family Finance Posts of the Week
It’s good to rant sometimes. Before I go ignoring 35 percent of the emails I received this morning, here are the top family finance articles of the week!
- If you are disciplined, credit cards can be a great asset to your family’s finances. Work Save Live has the details on why credit cards aren’t bad.
- You can’t put your student loans into deferment forever and when you do start to pay them back, you need to know where to send the check. Narrow Bridge provides a great rundown on student loan servicers. Take a moment and get to know the companies you’ll owe money to for the next 10 years.
- Ever wonder what happens to the people who take from the mini bar in the hotel room and don’t have a clue that they need to pay for it? The Free Financial Advisor gives his personal experience with the goodies that are temptingly stashed away in your hotel’s refrigerator.
- What’s the biggest expense for soon-to-be-parents? It’s usually a toss-up between car seats and the crib. Femme Frugality walks readers through important considerations to avoid overspending on a crib.
- It’s usually easier to marry two people than to marry two people’s finances. Finance Fox runs through the big issue with couples and managing the family budget.
- If you want to work in a professional career, you need to have a college degree. However, the degree won’t get you a job. You’ll need to get experience. Money After Graduation shares a great tip on how to gain the experience you need to get the job you want.
- Have you ever wanted to throw in the towel on your financial responsibilities? See Debt Run talks about conquering the temptation one tasty bite of elephant at a time.
- Getting more out of your budget is all about managing your expenses. Married with Debt has a trick for getting ahead on your credit card payments.
- Add Vodka knows lots and lots and lots of people selling stuff. Check out her unsent letter addressed to all her favorite would-be entrepreneurs.
- Fido costs some serious money. Eyes on the Dollar explains why your pet costs way more than you think.
Those Who Have Graciously Linked this Week
- Rule Your Wallet – Weekly Roundup
- Finance Fox – Finance Fox Weekly Recap
- The Free Financial Advisor – Blog Post of the Week
- Wealth Artisan’s FinCarn at Wealth Artisan
- Carn. of Financial Camaraderie at My University Money
- Carnival of Retirement at My Family Finances
- Y & T’s Weekend Ramblings at Young and Thrifty
- Carnival of MoneyPros at Simple Finance Blog
- Carnival of Financial Planning at Broke Profession
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“I would never subject you to reading copy on this blog.” Right on, and thank you! Nothing turns me off on a blog more quickly than abruptly realizing the post I’m reading is nothing more than poorly written copy surrounding a link to a business that sells services often detrimental to the blog’s alleged target market!
It’s a tough road to take, but a winning strategy in the end. There are a few blogs I’ve stopped reading due to too much copy. I hope to avoid it here.
Thanks for always having good content, John! Jefferson and I get a ton of those emails, and I’ve stopped responding. I used to say “sorry, we only accept guest posts from people we know” until someone was very rude back to me for saying that. I thought “okay…I just won’t respond at all next time!” Geesh. Hope you’re enjoying your Labor Day! Thanks for acknowledging my elephant post, and for sharing some elephant stew with me!
I got some saucy language back when I approved a link to an actual blog the emailer had, but not their commercial debt consolidation site. After that, I’ve decided that it was a complete waste of time, but no matter how many times I write about how I won’t respond to these emails, they still keep coming. I suppose it’s too much to ask them to actually read my blog.
I love Homestar Runner! I used to watch those all of the time and actually remember that one! I get lots of those requests too and they’re almost always junk. I normally just ignore them.
I’m glad I could brighten your day. Whenever I see PF copy, that episode of SB is what goes through my mind. I wish that they’d do something new though. It’s been nearly 3 years.
When I first started, I unwittingly let someone guest post a crap article on my blog. And for free! I was so dumb back then. I still have a lot to learn. But I was really dumb back then. Now I only take ones to reputable sites.
Thanks so much for the mention!
I also fell victim on one of my last blogs, but never again. Personally, I’d take the post down if I were you.
I accept guest posts but never from spammy, “free of charge” moochers.
There’s this one company called Social Monsters. They do nothing but pitch guest posts to me and ask me to publish them on the blog. They say they’re providing great free content but I know they’re just collecting hundreds of dollars for the links in the posts and using my blog’s rankings to help themselves. If you’re going to do that at least offer me a cut of the profits!
Agreed. Although, I hope you keep them busy and they never find their way to my site. I wonder if it is possible to create like a decoy site to soak up all these lame posts and keep them away? I’ll have to work on the idea.
I don’t accept guest posts from those without a blog – like you mentioned it’s spammy and the writing is not mine. I do however accept “sponsored guest posts” from those with “select” anchors/links, and where I get to write the post. Gives me more control, and I keep the same tone for all the posts.
The key to running successful ads, whether they’re posts or links or whatever is to build relationships with key advertisers. I run a spreadsheet with all the contact details, what they advertised etc etc, and I keep in touch with them on regular basis.
BTW, thank you very much for the love. Much appreciated.
Hope you had a great long weekend!
I’m hoping that I can do something similar with affiliates – should they ever come knocking. I want to avoid reposting their copy writers.
“I know a guy” who’s been doing that for a while. Get in touch? Haha.
I knew I could count on you to be helpful?
Hey – first time at your site, but can I send a guest post? Great unique content! Just kidding!
We’re pretty new to this game, just started a few months ago, but we’ve already started to get a few such requests and they tend to fall somewhere in the “uncanny valley”. By that I mean it’s hard to tell if there’s an actual person behind it or whether they are just a bot.
I get get at least one such guest post request a day. Stay away! Only you care about your blog.
Good advice for sure.
I constantly have my finger on the spam button AND the “no thank you” reply to those guest posts. Thanks for mentioning my hotel post! I should have known better….
Don’t forget to rotate the finger you use; carpal tunnel and all.
Len gets all of these type emails!
Hi John,
I can imagine this is immensely frustrating for you. Since Google updated their algorithm and nuked a lot more webspam, many SEO’s have turned to guest posting. However so have many low quality spammers. I am glad you are still open to the idea of publishing quality guest posts, rather than discounting the idea altogether. A high quality guest article will benefit site owners in the long run.
Thanks for sharing Simon. It certainly explains the uptick in regards. While I have seen good quality guest posting from bloggers, I’ve yet to be impressed by SEO.
It’s absolutely amazing how many emails you have to field on a daily basis from people that are looking for a free link to their site. Who actually allows them to do that? Thankfully I haven’t been that crazy or ignorant when I first started blogging.
Thanks for the mention too!!
I’m hoping that the whole world reads this post and learns to avoid these types of requests.
For a while I sent a polite email back saying no, and why. I’ve stopped responding now to the stupid ones.
[...] I Won’t Respond to These Emails and Neither Should You:Top Ten Family Finance Posts #11-My Family Finances (John wins longest title this week, but really good info in there) [...]