The role of advertising on the Internet is changing. With the rising power of Google and the role of links in determining placement in the search results, a growing number of companies are seeking to buy their way up the rankings by purchasing links on other websites.
The problem with purchasing links in order to boost search engine rankings is that it is growing out of favor with Google. Any links which do not provide added value to your users but are merely there for search engine purposes are against their webmaster guidelines unless tagged with a rel=”nofollow” attribute.
There are admittedly gray zones here, but my understanding is that the content on your website should be relevant so that the search engine results can also be relevant. For example, receiving a free book as payment for a book review which links back to the author is probably ok, since a book review is useful and valuable to your readers. Adding a link for “debt consolidation” and stuffing it somewhere in the sidebar, where its only purpose is to pass page rank, is probably not ok in Google’s eyes.
A new trick up their sleeve
So, what’s better than paying a website owner to put a link back to your site? How about sending that webmaster a “guest post”, with a conveniently embedded URL associated with your targeted keywords? If you’re lucky, the webmaster will buy it and will publish your guest post, giving you a link back for free as well as providing valuable content to the users.
Except… these “guest posts” aren’t really the same as the conventional and legitimate guest post which you might receive from another blogger. They are either copy/pasted or auto-generated content which is changed just enough so that you don’t find any duplicates when you do a search. They don’t contain much value on their own, but serve mainly to direct users toward the website being advertised. In short, they are a trick by which the advertiser can exchange poor-quality content in return for a high-quality link back to their site.
I was recently approached by a debt consolidation advertiser who wanted me to provide free advertising via a “guest post”. Now this is better than a paid link, because at least the users have the potential to get useful content in return, the key word being “potential”. Here are the mistakes that she made:
- She contacted me via a comment on a post, instead of using the contact form on my site. I was tempted to delete it as spam, but curiosity got the better of me.
- She contacted me using a Gmail address (though this might be a common practice).
- She was writing on behalf of another author. If it was a real guest post, the author probably would have contacted me herself.
- The first guest post was decidedly of poor quality and contained an embedded link after I had said that that was a no-no. I told the advertiser that this could not be published as it was, and I asked them to send back a better post, as well as an author byline.
- The advertiser wasn’t happy about me removing the link, and proposed that I keep it in exchange for back links on other sites. I rejected this idea, and said that I would only be linking back to them in the form of an author byline instead of embedded within the post.
- The advertiser accepted this, and sent me a better guest post along with an author byline.
- The author byline still had the link “keyword targeted”, so I would have changed that had I published the guest post. What was worse was that I could not find the existence of this author anywhere on the advertised website or elsewhere.
- The advertiser then apologized and offered another author byline, whose profile I could actually find on the website. This new author was a male, yet she forgot to change the gender in the byline.
- At this point, this was the end of the game for me, so I pointed out her mistakes to her and I also pointed out that this was just another form of gaming page rank, which Google hates.
The person who contacted me was nice and polite the whole way through, however, she still tried to get something for nothing, which is a bit insulting to the person on the short end of the stick. I still gave her her link back in this post, though perhaps not in the form that she wanted! Let this be a lesson to her and to the company, and maybe she can provide the next blogger she contacts with some real value, instead of filler content.
Have you been approached with “guest posts” by these companies before? What do you think about these tactics, and for that matter, what do you think about debt consolidation? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Kevin, glad you’re spreading the word!
I think one of our best bets to defend is to share the author (and website in case the author changes) with the yakezie google group and see if they have a reputation. I’m all for good guest posters and giving people a chance, but it’s a constant battle to screen and get rid of the scammers.
You bring up a good point. I’ll be sharing the info with the Yakezie group; I believe most of you guys would probably spot these guys from a mile away, but it will help to keep the newer amongst us on our toes!
Kevin- You read my mind! Because I am new at this, I fell for the ‘guest post’ trick. I have been whining about my conundrum to Crystal over at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff because I have been so frustrated. In my case “Susie” was asking for a guest post on good debt vs bad debt. Wasn’t the worst post in the world, but it did have a nice embedded link. I told her that I did not want to embed a link in an article but I would include it in the intro (I was naive). She then emailed me the intro, and the article was written by someone other than “Susie”, and she pushed me to publish immediately. I told her that I could not publish an article without the consent of the author, so forget it. She has since disappeared.
I am guessing she wanted that post done quickly before I changed my mind. What a lesson learned. I feel so good that I didn’t publish her article.
Thanks for writing this post and warning others. I wish it had been around 10 days ago before I was almost taken advantage of!
Hey Kris,
I am also new at this, in fact, I nearly fell for the guest post myself, simply because I was curious, and to be honest, it was the first person who asked me if I could publish a guest post. My contact was also pushing me to publish as soon as I could! I don’t know how these people are getting rewarded, but I guess if a couple out of the hundreds of bloggers they probably contact accept, then it’s been worth their while.
I also feel good that I didn’t publish the article, though I feel a bit bad for the contact, only because she was so hopeful that I would publish, and in the end I had to tell her no. Well, these people have to learn to provide something worth publishing, and stop taking us for fools!
I felt bad at first, and then I realized I was being used. ‘Nancy Smith’ is probably an alias for someone else. I really think she/he was being pushy because they knew I might actually wise up and back out.
Lesson learned for both of us!
I get these about twice a week, and I just charge them! Why not?
Great post, but you ended up linking to them anyway so they got what they wanted lol
You’re right, that’s why I went back and wrapped the link in rubber 😉
I don’t mind publishing if they actually send me something worth publishing. Otherwise, the measly amounts they could pay me won’t encourage me to post junk.
Now, if I can get something that is useful to the readers (you guys!) and I can get something for it, too, then that’s would be the best of both worlds. I don’t count on it from these guys, though!
The Anchor text – a debt consolidation advertiser who wanted me to provide free advertising via a “guest post”.
You gave them keywords they’d want – debt consolidation free – regardless of whether it was nofollow or not
Man, you are right. I originally wanted to put “shady, sneaky advertiser” as the anchor text but then I thought that would be a little too harsh. Let me think about it a bit; I don’t want to give them a freebie either.
Upon retrospection, I decided it would be better to just leave the link out completely. I’d rather not send them any traffic or link to them, even indirectly.
Kevin, Just got approached for same thing. Person said they provide “free” debt counseling, but one can subscribe if they want. Your post was timely. Thanks,
Barb Friedberg
Hi Barb,
It looks like the debt guys are really coming out of the woodwork!
Guest posting works as a way of promoting each others’ work. If it’s a way for bloggers to help each other out, why not? I’ve got a beef with obvious advertisers who have commercial interests with nothing beyond content to offer back. So I usually limit my guest posting relationships to bloggers (most of the time). Definitely give the post an eye of scrutiny. If it’s high quality content, then I wouldn’t be averse to running the post, but if it sux… heck, then yeah, I go with IGNORE. 🙂
Hi Digerati,
You know, you’ve had a lot more experience in blogging than I have, so I can only imagine how many advertisers have knocked on your door and how many you’ve had to ignore. I completely agree with you that guest posting is a perfectly valid way for bloggers to promote each other’s work; it’s just a shame that there are so many companies out there riding off of this goodwill and trying to pass off shoddy work in return for free advertising.
Yes, these people are getting sneaky. I fell for it once. I just had a feeling they were using fake names. A gut feeling.
Id like to see more yakezie members post on other members sites. I try to do it myself from time to time, visit other member sites and post.
If all yakezie members did that, I think it would benefit everyone involved. Least I hope so.
Have you also seen the thread about “web awards” on the Yakezie groups? Now THAT seems like a pretty deceptive advertising trick.
I don’t think it’s really sneaky, it’s OBVIOUS what they want to do.
If they want to pay, and if the quality is to your liking, I say why not.
I’m just sad that the quality of posts aren’t that good, that’s why I’ve never run one on my site.
Hey Sam,
“The ‘Guest Post’: An obvious advertising trick” wouldn’t have quite the same ring to it 😉
I guess if the guest post’er has no added value then it can be ignored. At least it’s not automated.
Hey David,
I’m wondering about that, as some of the content seems so generic I wonder if they don’t have some kind of tool that just spits out paragraphs based on some input.
P.S. I found your latest blog post quite relevant, as I just spent some time in the USA, taking advantage of 0% sales tax, and I was wondering how the purchases on the CC would apply. Thanks for stopping by!
No problem. Hopefully I’ll have some content that captures your interest again!
Very deceptive and sneaky indeed!!!!!!! An informative read once again Kevin. I guess the solution is just to avoid guest bloggers altogether, but where is the fun in that? 🙂 Have a good weekend.
Haha, you know, if the quality was there, then I wouldn’t mind posting even if just to generate a bit of controversy. It’s good to dig up alternative viewpoints every now and then. The problem is that these guys just want the link juice, so they invent fake authors and submit generic posts; they don’t bother creating anything of quality because they don’t care about that.
Good to let people know about this new scam… it is better to accept guest posts from bloggers we know. It’s not too hard to figure out who is real and who isn’t because the pretenders rarely reveal the blog they are planning to post from even when you ask them for the URL to check out the quality and topics that have been covered.
That’s a good point. It should always be possible to validate the author as well as the post; it seems that the attempts to game page rank are growing (have you seen the thread about “web awards”?) In spite of Google’s attempts, link juice hasn’t been disincentivized enough to keep these guys from trying.
I agree with Sam. It is obvious what their motives are. As long as you genuinely provide unique quality content and contribute something of value, then there shouldn’t be a problem. We do the same thing, trying to find guest post opportunities, and we’ve come across a lot blogs out there welcoming guest posts, but they also lay out specific guidelines to follow, so this helps in weeding out junk submissions. We always provide unique posts because we don’t just want to get something for nothing. It’s a great way to build relevant, related backlinks. A guest poster actually just contacted us to submit something on our site, so we’ll see how that goes.
It’s interesting to hear from someone on the other side of the fence. Guest posts are perfectly legitimate when they actually add value to the hosting blog. I don’t want people to think that I’m against ALL guest posts 😉
Thanks for sharing.
So, you have gone through an interesting experience with the ‘guest post’, and the ‘link’. To tell the truth, I felt quite amused while reading this post. Hopefully, you were able to teach her a lesson, in your own style.
She probably moved on to blog 10,001 on her list. 😉
Hey Kevin,
THe guest poster who approaches me is definitely ESL; based on the mistakes they made, they she’s from Asia. And she claimed to be the author of a canned piece that was was dull and grammatically perfect. The gal still contacts from time to time, and each time she does, she’s desperate: “this urgent. Post immediately” I’ve been giving her free lessons—but no links.
I have the feeling that there are more than a few “IT sweatshops” in Asia that spam as many blogs as they can with these “guest posts”. I’ve also had a few spammy comments that got past the captcha (Mr. Debt Lawyer here above being borderline, so I let him through), so they are obviously being done by some human spammers somewhere, one notable example being a Mr. Seo from India. 😉
Hello. What better http://google.com or http://yahoo.com ?
I made the mistake once of allowing a guest post that was generic. Now I’m very strict about guest posts. I spend 3-4 hours on each post I write for my own blog, and I expect the same level of quality from others. If someone wants to pay me for a text link, that’s a different issue, but I won’t accept GPs from anyone that I don’t know. I’ll only take a GP from a blog I read on a regular basis.