Ok, so this is happening now. I’ve shared my concerns about guest blogging going mainstream and thus becoming synonymous to “link building” (which in itself may sound absolutely normal but this aspect should not become the main purpose of guest blogging).

Here’s the first sign of that happening: guest posting email spam (ala link exchange spam). Here’s what arrived at my inbox just a few hours ago:

[all the names and details are deleted because these are private no matter how I treat the message]

Hi,

My name is [something], I represent a growing list of professional bloggers, and I want to see if you need guest bloggers for your blog. I can connect you with a topically relevant blogger that will be a perfect fit for your audience. Below are 3 examples of blog post done by some of our professional bloggers:

[insert links to posts of questionable quality here]

The guest blogger will write an interesting post per your instructions, and of course you would get to pre-approve all post and have the right to refuse or request/make edits to the post before it goes live.

If you are interested in this free service, I would be more than happy to send you some sample story ideas and connect you with a quality blogger in your niche.

Thank you for your time,

Red flags:

  • No personalization (Who are you talking to? Which site of mine are you referring to? etc);
  • Boring cliches (“perfect fit”, “quality blogger in your niche”, etc): reminds me of “We will place you at top position in Google” spam we are all familiar with;
  • Evident lies (I doubt that’s really a “free” service).

Lessons learned:

Post image by jepoirrier

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Joseph

Founder at MyBlogGuest
Ann Smarty is the founder of MyBlogGuest. Feel free to contact her if you have any questions about the platform.

38 Responses to “Guest Blogging Spam – Please Don’t!”

  1. David

    I know its not why you built your guest blog platform, but i would guess a large number of other blogs would be more than willing to accept such an offer. I guess it comes down to the intentions of the blog, if it is for traffic/content then surely its a tempting offer.

    I agree the laziness of dear sir/madam/doctor/madam messages but it drives the knife into you back when they say I found your details (notarealaddress@blogaddress.com) and thought your website (obviousredirection.com.au) would be a perfect match.

    Also it is technically a free service because they are being paid by their clients to write the posts 🙂

    Reply
    • Geoff Jackson

      Hi David,

      You're quite right, not only are a large number of other blogs willing to accept such low quality junk, but many, are creating and setting up new blogs in mass purely for this purpose.

      Reply
  2. Hesham @ Famous Blog

    Good one Ann, this is what we need!

    I agree with David!

    I discovered that they actually got paid to do this while they guest blog for free and get links to their clients and promoting their services or products, and this is not acceptable by the law of guest blogging 😉

    This is why I am going more personal soon, I will not accept guest bloggers who are not using their personal names and/or using a personal avatar and profile image! so.. NO company names or company logos anymore!

    I also hate it when someone guest post and never show again or bother to reply a comment or answer a question from the readers who need help!

    I was wondering why people hide themselves till I discover it, writing and publishing a review is different than guest blog, so I think we should get paid for that as hosts!

    Ah! I also have received a few emails recently from bloggers who are inviting me to guest blog on their (Brand New) blogs, and almost all of them are talking the same like "guest blog for our community/readers" to get exposure!!!!! I say to myself : WHAT?!

    I immediately deal with these email by telling those guys that they should actually guest blog on my blog to get readers and build their blog community first, then maybe I will guest post for them (I actually convert all of them to a guest bloggers 🙂

    Some time I got bored being reading a lot about guest blogging, maybe because so many bloggers write about same topic these days, but the problem is they don't provide a good advice or real explanation to guide bloggers to do it the right way like what you have done here!

    Thanks a lot Ann, you never bored me with writing more and more about it!

    Reply
    • Geoff Jackson

      Hi Hesham, I signed up for guest blogging at Famous Bloggers and although I have received a log in to your platform, I am unsure where I can locate the area I can write a piece for you. Are you currently reviewing your guest blogging set up and this is simply unavailable right now?

      Thanks

      Reply
  3. Ann

    Ann,

    Funny you should mention this. I just got a generic email like this before. It just deleted it because it was impersonal and he /she did not even get my name right or signed so I new I was working with. After seeing your example, I think it may be an auto generated email.

    Reply
  4. Arnie | Vertical Mea

    Like both Davids said, whatever lazy SEOs can exploit they will. Started with on-page stuff years ago, then directories, then comments… Not that we aren't all hustling for links, but automated spam is just wrong.

    Reply
  5. Wynne

    If anything it demonstrates what amatures they are. I don't understand, I mean how difficult could it have been to personalize the message. At least that way they would have flown under the 'red flag' radar. Just plain stupid.

    Reply
  6. David

    Off topic but i think with Akismet i would have closed my WordPress blog years ago, it seems to atleast stop the content spam, but even Postini can’t seem to stop all the email request spam 🙁

    Another point is to use Copyscape to see if they are reusing the same post elsewhere and ensure they are not ripping off someone else’s post and posting it to your guest blog 🙂

    Reply
  7. Thu Nguyen

    I would regard this e-mail as spam already unless it's someone I have contacted first on the blog I wanted to guest post on. Obviously everyone wants link juice but it seems it wouldn't hurt to try to shoot some possibilities where some bait might respond. Very similar to direct mailing.

    So thanks for this lookout. I haven't received any of these yet but as guest blogging becomes more and more mainstream as you mentioned, it's also going to take down a lot of innocent victims. Glad to have seen this.

    Reply
  8. Matt Keegan

    Ugh. The spammers are trying to take over guest blogging.

    That is why I'm part of your service, Ann. I want to have at least a passing familiarity with contributors, working with people who are like-minded when it comes to contributing quality content.

    Your service allows me to screen people easily, while also making it simple for me to disregard the serial spam bloggers.

    Reply
  9. Jacob Maslow

    Most blogs don't get a lot of comments.

    You can invite the guest poster to respond to comments if you get them. It is difficult for the guest poster to check every day if there are comments.

    He has his own blog to worry about.

    I usually try to check out the blog 1-2 days later. Extremely large blogs gets lots of comments. Most don't get much.

    Multiple postings are not expected. It is a good idea if the blogs are closely related and there is a good match. I have a blog about allergies and someone guest posted about an allergy test she was selling – we don't sell that.

    Guest posting can frequently be used to go outside your normal comfort area.

    I may write a post on occasion about blogging. Would not want to do that regularly. My core competency is blogging about allergies and healthy home products.

    Reply
  10. Josip Petrusa

    I think guest blogging is great after you've built some kind of relationship. But to be approached in such a "service" manner is something I would definitely see as spam.

    As types of communication grow, spam will follow. One of the unfortunate aspects of that comes with growing great relationships

    Reply
  11. David Leonhardt

    I disagree with Josip and Thu. I see no reason why there needs already to be a relationship. If you find a blog appropriate for what you feel like guest blogging about, why not make a pitch? If the idea is sound, and the fit is good, the host blogger can decide for himself. A cold-call email is not necessarily spam. An assembly-line fill-in-the-name email is. There is a big difference.

    Reply
  12. Jacob Maslow

    I am with Ann and David.

    I do about 10 guest posts per month. Naturally, not going to make lots of close friends.

    There is a lot to be gained by posting more often to blogs with a good fit. That is something I plan on looking at.

    I also am pretty flexible about accepting posts from sites that have overlapping services. Feel that they have the best chance of referring traffic, seo impact and chance for a relationship later.

    As long as there isn’t a lot of overlap, it works well.

    Reply
  13. Ryan @ Linkbuildr

    I’m glad this was brought to attention! I’ve been getting a ton of emails like this lately and while it’s quite obvious, I can see how a lot of bloggers would take the spam up on it. This is going to open up a lot of people to lousy posts, dupe content and potentially linking to banned/bad networks .

    Reply
  14. Briana

    It’s funny I came across this right after deciding I wanted to do a guest interview series on my blog.

    I definitely think the person above is abusing the guest blogging privileges but I think people should keep it up. I’m starting mine to have bigger names in my industry give advice on stuff I just THINK I know, as well as start/build a relationship with these people.

    It is, also, a way of link building and exchanging some traffic. Like you said, not to be abused.

    Reply
  15. Jack

    I usually receives link exchanges and guest blogging emails but if the first paragraph doesn’t include my name or my domain name, I mark it as spam, because is clearly sent to a lot of people, which qualifies it as spam.

    Reply
  16. Shannon Steffen

    It really is about connecting on a human level before you throw your hat into the ring to be a guest blogger. There should never be a solicitation for "free" services – if I like you and we have engaged on a human level, then I may suggest you become a guest blogger. Quality is more important then quantity.

    Reply
  17. Paul Jenkins

    Oh no you mean all those emails I receive offering to help with my blog, and at no charge are spam, and not some kind soul who can see I need a bit of support. LOL

    Reply
  18. David Johnson

    Thanks for your perspective on this, Ann. I accidentally stumbled upon guest blogging several years ago but never pursued it as a strategy (even though it was ridiculously effective). I've just signed up for your service and am enjoying learning from your experiences. Thanks!

    Reply
  19. Sajid Saleem@nstips

    I don't believe on such type of emails, a blogger can identify the difference between fake and original content. So this thing not fit for all bloggers who provide such type of service.

    Reply
  20. Robin

    I faced this problem and stopped accepting guest posts totally in my blog. Now thinking to get some on demand. Link focused articles seriously disturbs true guest bloggers 🙁

    Regards,

    Robin

    Reply
  21. iSEOforGoogle

    Well all the good things attract the bad guys around it. So its going to be abused! But we have to make sure what the main moto of guest blogging is remains the same which is to build new relationships.

    Reply
  22. Rina As

    I agree with you, this is something that should not be done.
    conduct spam like this is very detrimental to yourself and damage the image that we build.
    Nice share..

    Reply
  23. माधव त्रिपाठी

    This is fact, I am facing this because I have a good blog with good page rank and Alexa rank, because my blog is indexed in Google. I get similar emails now and then. It is just spam, If I write paid posts I can get easily $100 to $150 but I do not do to keep reputation of my blog but guest posting is something that do this, on the name of guest posting they are selling links in bylines. this is just sad.
    I do not accept guest posts on my blog still I have posted about 20 guest posts and sadly there is only one real guest post because that has guest blogger's own blog link all other posts have paid links. Now I avoid replying them too.
    Many guest blogger's email show their published posts on top blogs, when I check their posts, I see byline is about their own blog but when they send post on my blog they will include paid links.
    I am not against their money making idea but if I add paid links in posts I can easily get $100 to $150, why I should let chase guest bloggers for free and penalty from Google as gift.

    Reply
  24. Web Design Florida

    Yes, many people use the guest blogging as link building technique. People do guest blogging in higher ranked guest blog to generate more traffic and back link on their website but this is nor efficient way for SEO purpose. Guest blogging is use for reader so we should share our information to other reader through guest blogging.

    Reply
  25. Walt D.

    I think the whole premise behind blogging should be to capture the interest of the reader and to provide and easy way to engage in the conservation.

    Reply
  26. RPL Driving

    I get this email spam on a daily basis…

    Some of the time, the quality of english is so dodgy I wouldn’t want them anywhere near my site!

    If it was a more personal email, I may consider, but spamming businesses with the same email won’t get a response from me!

    Reply

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