Should your blog accept guest posts or not?
Guest posts have been around many years. I've seen people blogging wanted to grow their blog with new and original content and invited guest posts from bloggers in similar niche. Others wanted to publish more engaging content and so invited guest bloggers to post on their site. Those who wrote guest post saw it is a tree full of backlink juice, especially, if you publish your article on an authority blog with huge fan following. Though guest posts are one of the most effective ways to grow your blog's authority and reach it has few cons as well as pros. It's kind of freelance writing where you are not paid direct money but in form of a dofollow backlink to your site. Backlinks from high DA sites or PageRank sites are anywhere between $300 to $500 per link. Just by guest posting you a 2000 word article you can get a backlink for your site for free. That's what guest posts are meant for. The original site gets free content, and if the guest blogger is a good writer and authority in their niche, like a travel blogger, or food blogger then that content will surely rank high in google SERP.
Though accepting guest posts can:
- Save your time in writing original content
- Benefits you with free content
- Boosts credibility of your blog as you accept authority bloggers / writers
- It even expands your network by gaining more exposure
- Engages your readers with new and fresh content
But sometimes accepting guest posts on your blog can accidently bring in more harm than benefit. You'll have to check for duplicate content, plagiarism, copyright, grammar, check for facts and figures included in the post or sometimes the guest blogger can write spammy content, or insert link to bad sites, etc. The list of cons for accepting guest post is quite long. Its duty of the site which accepts guest posts to leverage time and undertake moderation of published guest posts.
How to find which sites and blogs accept guest posts?
- search google by keywords like "accepting guest posts"
- read blogs from your niche and see if they the articles are posted by the owner of the site or a guest author.
- contact such blogs and ask them if they allow guest posts if they don't specifically have a dedicated page about it.
- Use backlink tools like semrush, ahrefs, semalt, to find out out-going links from particluar blog which can help you find if they allow guest posting.