Guest Blogging: Sometimes It’s Best To Just Say No

*This is a guest post by one of our beloved MyBlogGuest moderators, Gerald Weber*

Chances are if you’re reading this you allow guest posts on your blog. I do because I think it’s a great way to provide readers with quality content while building connections with other bloggers in (and sometimes outside of) my niche. But I do have some rules I follow when accepting guest posts.

Needless to say, I don’t accept and publish every post that comes my way. If I did, the quality of my blog would suffer, and I’d start to lose readers.

When should you decline a guest post?

• The post is an obvious link grab and nothing else. Look, it’s no secret that guest blogging is a commonly used link building strategy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is to throw together a sloppy post (usually very short and full of typos) littered with links back to the blogger’s website. Anyone who wants to contribute a guest blog needs to make sure they have something of value to add. They should be able to write a post they’d be proud to host on their own blog. If you get anything less than that, feel free to politely reject the post.
• The content goes against everything you preach. I recently had a blogger send me a guest post that was talking about how wonderful flash website design is and how everyone should love and use flash web design. Now, as an SEO I could never endorse or publish a post on my blog supporting the use of flash web design because we all know it’s absolutely terrible for SEO. It was a clear case where if I’d allowed the post to be published I would’ve been doing a disservice to my readers by giving them bad information. I had no other choice but to reject it.
• The blog post is a sales pitch. Sure, one of the main reasons people submit guest posts is to increase their visibility by positioning themselves as experts in their field. However, that doesn’t mean the guest post should be treated as an advertisement for their products and services. If a guest post feels like a thinly-veiled sales pitch, it’s best to reject it.
• The post has been syndicated across the blogosphere. This is another real life example that happened not too long ago. A bloggers submitted a guest post to one of my friend’s blog and a quick Google search showed this same post had been plastered across the blogosphere. I don’t think I need to explain this one much. This is just wrong on so many levels. Guest blogging is NOT articling marketing. Nuff said.

To summarize, we as members of the blogosphere have a responsibility, in order to preserve the integrity of guest blogging to reject those guest posts that should be rejected.

Have you ever rejected a guest post? What was your reason?

Gerald Weber is a moderator at MyBlogGuest and also the founder of a Houston SEO firm.