Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Moms, Beware Guest Posts

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My posts may include paid links for which I earn a commission.

Let me say before I make everyone angry, I am generally an advocate of guest posts. I see value in them for the following things:

  • Sending link juice to my friends’ sites
  • Exchanging posts with colleagues
  • Posting valuable information from experts
  • Directing my traffic to sites they would genuinely find valuable

What I do NOT like are people who pretend to be fellow mom bloggers who are actually just SEO specialists generating fake profiles to get keywords dropped into my site. Think it doesn’t happen? Guess again.

Twice in the last month I was approached by people I didn’t know with the following pitch: “Hi, Tricia, love your site, I’m a fellow mom blogger, coupon cutter, blah blah blah, just like you. I see that you take guest posts and would love to do one about X topic. Here are a list of some others that I have done. All that I request is a link back to my bio.”

So I check out their Guest Posts on other mom blogs and every one of them has a keyword stuffed link back to another site that has nothing to do with the mom or blogging. It’s either cosmetic dentistry or some kind of lead generation site. I decide to check out the “blogger” and Google their name. No LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, Facebook account, or personal information comes up. Nothing but this “profile” of theirs on a commercial website.

Profile Picture This is a cute profile picture, right? If the “profile” has a picture of a woman who  looks like a blogger, it’s probably legit? Wrong, I got the picture on the left from www.freedigitalphotos.net. I could easily make up a whole profile about that woman and convince other bloggers that it is me and get them to link to my “profile” page or site in general stuffed with great keywords.

Another clue that I shouldn’t have missed is that I have been getting search results for “dentist guest post.” Obviously people looking to drop guest posts on every blog that they can to get links back. I have absolutely not problem with that if the person is actually a dentist and genuinely wants to provide content in exchange for links. When that person is actually an SEO specialist pretending to be a mom blogger, I consider that sneaky. In addition, I question whether the information in the blog post is even accurate.

So beware the guest blog post requests that you receive. If you don’t mind giving away links to liars, by all means accept all of them that come your way. But if you value your traffic and want to encourage REAL blog post exchanges, do some research on your “blogger” before you blindly give them link love and exposure.

Comments

  1. Fun update. I just got an email from the first person that did this to me back in November asking why they have not heard back from me. The first email specifically stated that the person was a working mother of 2 at a dentist’s office. I just called the dentist’s office and they verified that no person by that name works there or has ever worked there. The email address is from the dentist’s office domain. Which means they either have their internal IT person making this crap up or have outsourced their SEO to someone who is making it all up.

    • I’d bet that they’ve hired an SEO company but they didn’t share that with their employees. There is a huge problem of the blind leading the blind when it comes to “SEO” and link building.

      It is common to delete comments from spammers who obviously do not even know the difference between an email address and a URL or don’t know how to use some bot tool so the comments have instructions on what they were supposed to do.

      Fortunately we don’t get much of that any more since we started using the new GrowMap anti-spambot plugin that Andy @CommentLuv wrote that blocks bots. (Info on where to get it and why it is better than Akismet on the G.A.S.P. tab in my blog.)

      Over time we will get these issues sorted out by doing what Tricia did here: blogging about them and asking for input from other bloggers.
      .-= Gail Gardner´s last blog ..Small Business Internet Marketing- Where to Start =-.

      • Thanks so much for all of your input. I haven’t seen the GrowMap anti-spam plugin. I will definitely have to check that out. My 10-year-old daughter now has her own blog and I have to worry about the spam comments more than anything else!

  2. Oh I so feel your pain, Tricia! Like Gail noted above, I was struggling with those types of guest bloggers at MyBlogGuest. There’s no escape from them!

    The only weapon is to be warned and ignore them if they come to you). This is just like with all other kinds of spam – nothing new to an active blogger and networking. We have email spam, blog comment spam, link exchange spam, social media spam… and now guest blogging spam.

    Just use your common sense!
    .-= Ann Smarty´s last blog ..Guest Blogging Versus Blogging for Yourself =-.

  3. This is why I paid for CopyScape and scan all submitted guest articles for duplicate content first, but if the content is really good I don’t mind the writer taking a backlink or two as credit.

    Note though that many guest blog posts on My Blog Guest are indeed guest articles with ‘advertiser’ links embedded in the author byline I have found.

    Most of my guest authors I provide a WordPress account too unless it is a sponsored post, or a one time guest post and not a relationship being built.
    .-= Justin Germino´s last blog ..The 5 Gmail Features You Need to Know About =-.

    • Do you feel any differently whether the person is truly who they say they are or lying about who they are just to get the backlink?

  4. Uh, right. So, err, what do I do if I want to write a guest post for your blog? 🙂
    I never knew that spamming had become so sophisticated because this is another form of spamming. And I thought twitter was annoying enough with every random word ends up getting a bot auto follow you and start spamming you with strange links.

  5. Hi Tricia,

    Now I finally understand why Ann Smarty @MyBlogGuest is so opposed to people seeking to write blog posts for links. Until this post I have not seen this behavior myself. I have not had any requests from strangers to publish posts on my blogs.

    What few guest posts I’ve published have been by invitation to specific bloggers I already know. I suspect when I have published more guest posts I will hear from more companies trying to place links.

    Just as many “SEO” companies don’t really know what they’re doing, adding links to businesses in posts that have nothing to do with that post on blogs that have nothing to do with the link is NOT the best way to build links in the first place.

    The links are probably valuable to them but LYING to get them would immediately land them on my “not worth my time” list. NO, I would NOT publish their posts.

    I clearly understand the value of building links which is why I approve comments if the commentator at least makes an effort to write about the post and all my blogs are dofollow with KeywordLuv and CommentLuv installed. I do approve comments in my primary blog that I would delete in a business blog because I prefer to educate those who are going about link building and commenting incorrectly.

    I do publish guest posts on NoBogies.com and ExecGiftsBlog.com that are distributed by UAW and those posts contain links which are almost always related to the subject of the blog. I have had quality posts come in that had links for vaguely related businesses – but they didn’t lie about it and if the post is high quality I will publish it.

    Everyone knows that people distribute posts and articles to get links. If someone wants to write an excellent post for one of my blogs and link to their unrelated business in their bio or mention whatever they want to link to as a VALID example of a strategy they’re explaining I have no problem with that.

    I often link to the business of someone who reads my blog and comments. I use businesses I personally know as examples. One of my most favorite bloggers works for an SEO company and part of her job there is to place content for link building.

    I trust her completely and allow her to publish her articles in the blogs I manage because what she does benefits everyone involved:

    1) The blogs get quality content which she promotes across Social Networks and links to from other sites.
    2) The company she works for benefits because she can accomplish more in less time.
    3) The businesses benefit from having links placed in quality content in RELATED blogs

    The content she provides is much better than average and she improves it with images and even adds links to my related posts and the posts of other bloggers we collaborate with – all herself as I give her Author access.

    The big issue for me is the people contacting you trying to pass themselves off something they aren’t and lying to get links. At least in this case they provided examples and you were sharp enough to realize what they were doing.

    If they were honest and their posts really good I would consider publishing guest posts even with an unrelated link or two, but I never reward unethical behavior in any form.
    .-= Gail Gardner´s last blog ..Business Blogging Tips- Top Advice from 31 Bloggers Totally Free Download =-.

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