Dear Aubia Communications,

I want to write a post for you I know will bring you thousands of new visits. Yadda, yadda, yadda …

Hi,

I am a writer, and I was wondering if you are taking guest submissions? I find the www.aubiacommunications.com interesting, and I can write something for your niche. Blah, blah, blah …

Webmaster,

I am submitting this post for you to publish to your site. I have included valuable linkbacks to my site. Please publish as soon as possible and send me the link. La, la, la …

These are typical requests from guest bloggers I receive about once a week. When I first started blogging and didn’t know any better, I would reply and see what the person was offering. Every time, it was a post full of anchored text that led to spammy links and content that in no way, shape or form was relevant to my audience. After about six months of failed connections, I started just refusing any unsolicited guest blogging request or deleting the requests.

Of all the guest posts you’ve seen on the Aubia Communications Blog, every one of those authors is someone I’ve worked with in real life. Through a personal working relationship with that person, I vetted their ability to write original and quality content for my community. I had almost moved to a sole rule that I wouldn’t host any guest blogger that I hadn’t worked with personally until a few weeks ago.

I received a rather well-written request from a potential guest blogger. She presented a well thought-out topic that would be relevant to my audience, provided examples of her work across the web, and even quoted pieces from my site. This wasn’t the usual spam request that I received, and it had been some time since I replied to an unsolicited guest blog post request. I decided to take a chance, and I reached out to the would-be guest blogger. I would come to regret that decision.

After a few emails back and forth about the subject of the post, she submitted a great blog post that I would have loved to use here. One problem – it was plagiarized. After running the content through a Google search, I found eight full lines of text copied verbatim from Forbes, Mashable and How Stuff Works.

Feeling completely disappointed in all of guest blogger humanity, I took to the ShankMinds forum to seek advice. As always in this supportive community, I was met with a ton of great tips and even found some new resources on the way.

The good, the bad and the ugly of guest blogging

After receiving several suggestions, I reached out to two members who know the ins and outs of the blogging business.

Daniel Freedman is the web strategist at The Creative Concepts Group where he works with clients in the online leaning, media, fitness and technology industries. With his social media marketing techniques and writing, he connects clients with an ever-growing list of potential customers.

Miriam Salpeter is the owner of Keppie Careers, a consultancy teaching businesses, entrepreneurs and job seekers to leverage social media marketing. She teaches clients how to inspire trust online, build partnerships, attract opportunities and earn more money. Salpeter authors marketing materials, online bios and profiles and job search correspondence and makes social media marketing accessible and attainable.

1. What value do you see in hosting guest bloggers?

Freedman: Guest blog posts can be valuable if they provide authoritative and original material from recognized experts in your field. Matt Cutts, who leads the Google anti-spam team, recently said that “guest blogging is dead” because there has been so much abuse that Google cracked down. That’s not quite true; Cutts later explained what he meant was “guest posting purely for SEO purposes is dead.” My own take is that guest blogging can be highly effective for high quality articles from well-known people who “place” posts on highly reputable sites.

2. How can a blogger identify a legit guest blog request?

Freedman: Your best bet is to approach only people already known to you or who are well established in the industry. If you are pro-actively seeking guest blog posts, include guest blogging guidelines on your site. State the obvious: prospective authors should submit only the final version of their best work. They should say something original and actionable. Just re-hashing the commonplace isn’t good enough. Googling authors and checking out their social media accounts is a must do. We also do advanced search queries to determine their guest posting volume. Finally, we use SEO tools to evaluate the quality of their site’s own inbound link profile. In other words, we see the company they keep. The logic is that if the author is using SEO tricks on his own site, chances are he is interested in you only for SEO purposes.

3. What are the warning signs of a spam guest blog request?

Freedman: Red flags include prospective guest bloggers who have written many blog posts on many unrelated subjects; they are more likely Search Engine Optimizers than industry experts. Poorly written or generic requests are a show-stopper.

Salpeter: Awkward or non-grammatical language, spelling errors, unrelated or random topics – these are all hallmarks of someone who isn’t a legitimate guest blogger and is likely just looking for some anchor text to benefit from any “Google juice” they can get.

4. What should bloggers do if they find out a guest blog post submission has been plagiarized or compromised in some unethical way?

Freedman: Many bloggers just react to unsolicited guest blogging offers. The seemingly legit prospective guest blogger who flatters you, but then plagiarizes or turns in substandard material is a tougher problem. All submissions should be run through Copyscape, or just cut and paste into Google to check for plagiarism. If the submission is unsatisfactory, just say no firmly but politely and end the relationship. Don’t prolong things with a vague message that seems to leave open the possibility of revisions or future submissions.

Salpeter: I am constantly pitched about guest blogs. I always respond with the same note: “Thank you for your interest, but I do not accept unsolicited guest posts.” I would simply respond to the “author” letting her know what you found and that you won’t be able to use it. I would never revisit her post or consider her as a guest author again.

5. Any other advice on guest blogging?

Salpeter: Something you didn’t ask is how to approach a blogger if you want to be seen as legitimate. The best thing, in my opinion, is to first find blogs with a stated policy about guest posts. Then, build relationships by using social media tools to engage and interact with those bloggers. For example, retweet their tweets, respond to their questions and join groups where they are active. Once you have an online “relationship,” that’s the time to pitch your related guest post.

Do you accept guest blogging?

Guest blogging still has a place in today’s blogosphere, but we have to be sure to research our guest bloggers. Just allowing anyone to post on your site not only hurts your rankings but also your reputation as a professional.

Taking Freedman’s and Salpeter’s advice, I’m introducing the guest blogging guidelines for the Aubia Communications Blog here. Though I know this won’t stop the spam, it might just help the legit guest bloggers.

How do you approach guest blogging? Do you have a “thanks but no thanks” policy or are you open to the occasional quality piece?

Miriam Salpeter is owner and founder of Keppie Careers, a coaching and consulting firm helping job seekers and entrepreneurs leverage social media and other tools to achieve their goals. She has appeared on CNN, and major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes and others have quoted her advice. In addition to her own blog, Salpeter writes for U.S. News & World Report and for AolJobs.com.