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This guide is by our awesome moderator Don Sturgill

Articles are easy to find. Link-builders everywhere want you to publish their work on your website. The problem is that some articles hurt you in the long run. You’re better off not publishing anything at all.

That’s a gap Ann Smarty saw, years ago. Her brainchild, My Blog Guest (MBG) has one mission: Helping you succeed at either finding great content, getting your articles published on quality websites, or both.

I won’t try to convince you of that, though; the proof is in the pudding. The only way you will know, for sure, that this isn’t just another marketing scheme … is to join up (absolutely free) and test the waters.

The first step is to registration. You won’t need a credit card for this; there is no fee. You will need about 10 minutes to get your website(s) cleared for publishing MBG articles and to get your social media information working for you.

Ready? Let’s do it!

Here’s how to get started with My Blog Guest

First, travel to the My Blog Guest home page.

How to Find Free Articles

Do you see that orange sign? It’s true! Click it and open the door to great content.

That takes you to the Quick Start page.

How to Find Free Articles

Scroll down for an overview of where you’re headed. Then go for the orange again. You’ll see this button at the bottom of the page:

How to Find Free Articles

Next comes the first Registration page – the place to enter your social media profiles.

Find Free Content

Enter your profile ID’s here, not the URL’s of the site. I found the best way to hook up to Facebook is to use the “Login with Facebook” button at the top.

When you’re finished, click on the Next button on the bottom right:

Find Free Content

Now comes the really good part … entering your website (or sites).

Your are now headed to the Blog Registration page.

Find Free Content

(If you are a writer, not a publisher, use the Next button. This article doesn’t cover how writers can get the most out of My Blog Guest, but here’s an article that does!)

Quality publishers should choose orange: Add Sites.

Find Free Content

This part is self-evident. Add your first website, choose the appropriate Category, and add tags. Now, check out the words in green: Connect to Direct system. This is a special My Blog Guest tool (one of several). MBG Direct allows you to receive articles directly from writers. It’s a cool tool.

Moreover, we’re not talking about others being able to publish on your blog without permission. You retain control and there is no breach of security. MBG Direct simply allows authors to send work directly to the Drafts portion of your WordPress blog.

Here’s a link to find out more: MBG DIRECT

Just in case you missed the DIRECT option, though, you will get another chance after adding a site:

Find Free Content

Choose Yes or No. Your choice. My vote is “Yes.”

Blogs need to be verified. It’s a simple process, one you’ve probably used for Google Analytics or another service provider.

Find Free Content

Choose your preferred method and select the Verify button.

Once that’s completed, you are an official My Blog Guest publisher and may begin requesting articles!

Of course, many of our members (agencies especially) have more than one website to register. Simply rinse, wash, and repeat the process until you have finished listing the internet properties you want to offer as a publishing platform for great articles.

Then, come join the fun.

Here’s how that works

The MBG website is under development. Ann and her team are committed to keeping it as the premier spot on the internet where writers and publishers can meet and help one another out. The screenshots I’ve used in this article, and the one you see below, show how it looks right now. The pages could change  overnight, but the principles remain.

Find Free Content

In the header, on the right (yellow arrow) are the primary navigational choices. You can check your MBG mail Inbox, check out the wealth of available articles in the Articles Gallery, browse Infographics, see articles that have been awarded to you (My Articles) … and more.

Get click happy – whether you are a new member or a seasoned member. The treasures you will find on My Blog Guest are abundant. For the savvy user, this is one powerful platform.

In the boxed navigation area, All Articles (green arrow) will give you access to a huge database of articles. You can browse at your leisure or search for specific criteria. Your initial view of the articles provides basic information: title, description, category, tags, and statistics.

If you want to see more, select Preview. That will reveal a portion of the copy, the byline, and link information – but it won’t show you the entire article. In order to see that, you must click on Offer (free!). That will let the author know you believe his or her work is a good fit for your website. You can (and should) explain a little bit about why you think that is so. If the author approves you as the prospective publisher, you will then be able to review the entire article.

Remember, though, even after being awarded the article, you are not obligated to publish it. If you want it changed, communicate with the author. If it simply won’t work for you site, you can reject it. Just be sure to respond. Never let an article languish in your Articles Given to Me box. Show the writers you care, and they will reward you with more and better articles.

Google-verified Articles

Do you prefer working with authors who are proud enough of their work to put their name on it? Check the Google-verified Authors area to see work from those who are using Google’s authorship markup. Okay, to be fair, some writers are not at liberty to take advantage of authorship and must write under a pseudonym. That was my situation as a corporate writer. You can still find great content elsewhere on MBG, but this is an excellent place to begin.

Article Requests

This feature (blue arrow and header) allows publishers to take the lead. You don’t have to scroll through hundreds of articles, looking for what you want. Simply use Article Requests to tell writers what you’re looking for, then wait for the inquiries to pour in.

And just as it is with other articles from My Blog Guest, if you take a closer look and something about the piece isn’t acceptable, you can either ask the author for changes (preferred method) or simply reject the work altogether. Either way, you’re never obligated to publish a My Blog Guest article. Our hope is that you will want to publish it, but you can always refuse.

Elite Articles

The Elite Articles Gallery is my favorite spot on MBG! Of course, since I’m the Elite Articles editor, I’m a bit prejudiced. Every article here must pass a quality inspection – MY quality inspection.

And while it’s not so nit-picky no one can succeed, it’s tough enough that one author said he felt “like he had won an Olympic medal” when his article made it through multiple re-writes to gain Elite status. If you don’t have time to page through the slush pile, hoping to find an article that meets your high standards – take a look at Elite. And if you have any suggestions, observations, requests, or complaints … just let me know. My job is to help make your job easier.

Every article must end somewhere

There is much more to be said about MBG. My aim here has been to provide an overview, not a deep dive. My Blog Guest has tools you can use to find and follow authors, to be notified when your favorites writers have a new article available, or to subscribe to notifications about new releases in your favorite categories. On MBG, you can participate in Forums to learn and help others learn, you can make friends, develop strategic alliances, and even get strategic advice directly from our own Ann Smarty.

There’s a bunch more that could be said, but you’ve enough information now to get started.

Let us know which area, tool, or concept of My Blog Guest you want to know more about. And any time you have a question about membership, just email the Admins: info@myblogguest.com

Not convinced yet?

That’s only because you haven’t tried it. There is an article waiting on My Blog Guest just for you.

Sign up, sign in, and go claim it.

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Don Sturgill is currently the Elite Gallery editor and G+ Community Moderator for My Blog Guest. Don is a freelance content writer, and is the author of Roadmap to Freedom – a field manual to get entrepreneurs from idea stage to action stage. He lives in God’s Country – Oregon, USA.

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2 Responses to “How to Find Free Articles and Website Content”

  1. Don Sturgill

    Thank you, Rifat. Much appreciated. This one looks primarily at publishers. Right now, I’m getting more active as a writer of My Blog Guest articles (to go in the Gallery) so I can do a better job helping the writers too. I found MBG as a corporate writer and saw the power of this platform. The tools available are of real value … now to learn how, and help others learn how, to use them.

    Reply

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