Beware of Rules About Guest Blogging
Reading a comment today in response to a question about whether a website is needed to promote Amazon products prompted me to write this post.
A portion of a member’s reply was ‘you cannot promote much of anything unless you guest write for other people’s blogs'.
When guest writing for other people’s blogs you need to check with the owner about what is allowed and what is restricted.
It is most unlikely that including your affiliate links will be allowed.
Why would anyone spend their time, money and effort building a website to provide for someone else to include their affiliate links?
I know of one Super Affiliate who invites Guest Blogging, and clearly states the Guidelines which include ‘affiliate links not permitted’.
As a Guest blogger you can expect to get a link back to your website, and to your author’s biography. If you do not have a website then those links are irrelevant.
Please be aware that websites owners have rules about Guest Blogging, so make sure to check those rules and guidelines before you commit to write articles for other people’s blogs.
Enjoy your wonderful life. It is precious!
Recent Comments
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Good Morning Valerie,
I left Richard a reply on his comment as I thought it was a great idea to write a post to be published on other peoples website.
We of course only put a link back to our own website, no affiliate links.
How have you been these days? Here it is still nice and warm with 30C. Shugar is getting a tiny bit better every day, I think that drop of CBD oil is really helping her. We will have to take her to the clinic for an other blood test to see if her liver has improved.
Sending warm wishes from the south of Spain, Taetske
Thank you Taetske for your message. I read your and Richards comments and it is good that he drew attention to Google's rules.
My post was written because incorrect information had been given to a new member in a comment, and I felt strongly that I needed to clarify the situation about affiliate links in guest blogging. Whether or not it is read by those who need it most remains to be seen!
Thanks for asking how I am. I'm really running behind. I haven't had chance to get to my Christmas website yet, and hope to do some work on it later this week. It's early Spring here and the change in season seems to have affected my health a little. But I'll get over it, as there are good things to do and I intend doing them!
I'm pleased to know that Shugar is getting better, even though slowly. I hope she will soon be fully recovered.
Take care, and we'll talk again soon, Valerie.
Thank you for your long reply Valerie.
Sorry to hear about your health, please take care.
All the best, Taetske
Great advice! Guest blogging can be helpful, but I would focus on an offshoot of this over guest blogging...
Here is my tactic:
There are some really good high authority sites such as Yahoo, Medium, WikiPedia and others that can give you a huge backlink boost...
These are sites that are well known, visited often for the content they contain, and your name and brand/offer can be seen by a wide swath of people across the globe...
Simply find a related topic and content that is ranking well and getting traffic, look at the keywords, backlinks, and content, and create your own content...
Use the keywords, build on the content from the post you are going after, make it unique and add in your own perspective, include a link to your website/content in a subtle manner (i.e. for more information see youesite dot com) and post it on that authority site...
These posts are ranked by Google and Bing, and you have a good chance of taking over the traffic from that post you target for yourself.
Look at the backlinks and see if you can get more, or at least the ones having a lot of juice for your post...It only takes one or two such backlinks to really help your site...
How is that going to help your online marketing business? No matter what you hear, natural high authority backlinks will help you and this is a natural one...
Many people think that they can go out and buy such backlinks, and get that boost, but in reality often they are hurting themselves and their website.
But this is NOT the same...
Such a backlink comes from a trusted website with a high authority ranking from Google and Bing. It can help your rankings and traffic on your own website...
If you think about it, it is a normal part of you building your brand across the internet. There are many ways to get attention, you have to think out of the box...
Guest blogging can help, but why help someone else for little benefit for your own business when you can put a little more work in and get the benefits for your program...
Hope this gets the creative juices flowing and maybe helps a bit. What do you think?
By the way, this in no way replaces creating a steady flow of your own content on your websites...
This tip is intended to augment that content, much like video does, using psychological triggers such as scarcity, limited time offers, or social proof tactics on your websites...
Cheers!
Dave : )
Hi Dave, Thanks for commenting. You have some valid points there, especially about backlinking that happens naturally. The business of creating backlinks is a thing of the past.
I don't do guest blogging. I'm too busy writing for my own websites.
I wrote this blog post because I read incorrect information given in a comment and I wanted to intervene with correct information. The comment was from a relatively new member to a another new member. And it could be damaging! However, whether those newbies read my post or not, is another matter.
Anyway, Dave. Thanks very much. I enjoyed the information in your comment and will keep on hand for reference.
It's also worth noting that reciprocal blogging, where members guest blog on each other's sites and both link back to their own, can now be viewed as a spam signal by search engines.
Good Morning Richard,
What I read on your comment I find disturbing news. I have written a post on Guest Writers and we are now a small group of people who will write for each other websites. On both my websites I have a Guest Writer page. Michelle approached me with this idea and I liked it so we wrote for each others website. Your comment has got me confused I must say.
Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske
Thank you, Richard,
I do not think we fall into the " naughty " category of Guest Writers.
I recently wrote a post on Frontline as we nearly lost our cat Shugar. At the end of my post I put a link to Giulia's website, she has Border Terriers, she had written about Frontline and dogs.
Our Guest Writer page is to give readers more variety in and information on like minded topics so I think we are ok.
Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske
It's entirely up to you, but if you struggle to rank, it might be worth considering whether it's because Google views any links-to-me-links-to-you negatively.
WA used to promote backlinking and link circles, but stopped when Google started to penalise sites that did this.
WA even used to have it's own article directory, Street Articles, which is now defunct since backlinking is a devalued strategy, unless those links are from the highest quality authority sites. Are Backlinks Good for Rankings? Nope.
Thanks for that information Richard. There are so many rules to watch out for with managing a website, hence the need for correct information to be given especially to newbies!
Thank you, Richard, for this link.
This linking with the Frontline disaster was made with the best intentions as that news had to be put out there be it a for dog or cat lovers. I will stick to that decision as I find it important. If other people want to back out they have that right of course.
I do not have a sales website, my site focusses more on talking about things I find important hoping to reach people who think likewise.
Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske
I did some guest blogging for a site a few years ago and, yes, the rules were quite clear. I didn't belong to WA yet, so that wasn't an issue and luckily I did have a website. Great advice, Valerie. Well stated and most needed.
Thank you Sue for your comment. It's great to know you have been a guest blogger. I think it's a good thing to do when you can find an appropriate website to write for.
So true Valerie. I haven't thought to include this rule in my Content Guidelines for Guest Bloggers. I allow affiliate links from bloggers if I'm not also an affiliate of the program they are recommending. If I am an affiliate I insert my own affiliate links. Will update my content guidelines accordingly.
Thanks Lauren for your response. What you are doing with your bloggers is great, and updating guidelines means there can be no confusion or misunderstanding. Well done :)
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Thnx, VJ. We all need to respect the 'rules of the game' in all walks of life.
Thnx for sharing.
M
Thank you Michelle.