Why It’s So Hard to Find Guest Posting Opportunities
Even “free” comes with a hefty price tag.
I usually ignore the offers of free content for my website. This morning, my inbox was full of imposters and warnings about imposters and descriptions of new sorts of Internet hoaxes and grifters, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts from years “in the trenches.”
These are the things that make it harder for you — the aspiring freelance writer — to land legitimate work. If you are just looking to be our “Jason Gibbs,” here, don’t bother reading this. The effort involved in writing original content will likely make your brain explode.
I won’t be held responsible.
The Offer
Isn’t that sweet? He wants to write an article — “custom made,” just for me. Helpful for my readers? I don’t think he has a clue who those 23 people are, or what sort of “help” they may need. I’ll confess, here and now, that I haven’t a clue. I only hope to entertain them, now and again. Some day, I may have a book to sell — but for now, I just hope to keep them coming back, now and again.
Never mind the fact that placing a guest post on the personal site of a writer is a hard sell in the first place — we like to showcase our own work, thanks — Jason really isn’t offering anything.
Better Offers (Still Not Working)
Frankly, I’ve had much better fake offers! A few are mildly interesting, and they all have something in common that Jason’s offer lacks:
- Specifically, what was it that I wrote on my own site that they read and found intriguing?
- What related topic are they proposing to write about for me, and why do they think it would be a good fit?
- Links to samples of work they’ve done for their own or other sites.
- What they expect in return: byline, link back (to what site, specifically?), bio blurb with keywords?
In short, honesty helps. If you’re a real freelance writer or a blogger or a business owner looking to build back-links, keep these bullet points in mind. No one offers “free” for “free.” We all like to build back-links, and my site ranks well. The better it ranks, the more garbage offers I have to filter through in my inbox.
If you are for real, convince me. I won’t tell you how to do that; real people can figure it out for themselves. I won’t make it easier for folks who prefer to take shortcuts in life.
Caveat for Bloggers/Website Owners: Although these offers are sometimes tempting, assuming they come from someone who evinces even a modicum of human personality, the likelihood that they are scraped (stolen), spun (to make it hard to recognize the plagiarism), and mass produced for other sites as well is simply too much of a risk to take, as a site owner.
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
But here’s where the “hard pass” comes in. This is the “real” Jason:
To be entirely fair, Jason could well be moonlighting as a model. But then this model looks like he’d be savvy enough to use his professional modeling headshot, and not a stock image featuring his smiling stock Millennial mug on Adobe, for his own profile photo. But apparently, this “smiling redhead man with laptop” is a popular fellow in the world of guest posting. Note that the following is a probably also a guest post by someone who can’t even be bothered to put a profile image next to a name, while advising others on how to build SEO through link-backs in guest posts. At least they know how to properly cite a stock image:
This is why I don’t accept “guest posts” unless it’s from a writer I know and trust. Fakers exist here on Medium, as well, so be wary — get to know people. And don’t hesitate to report the fakes.
If you spot something that looks plagiarized, take a few minutes to find the likely original source (keeping in mind that it, too, may be plagiarized), and notify the author. Since only the copyright holder can submit a DMCA take-down, that’s a kindness. If the copy/paste version is here on Medium, report it as a rules violation.
Let’s not reward these folks with unearned pennies.