Fishing for Guest Blog Posts
A few days ago I received an offer from a list owner to write a guest blog post on my blog.
While guest blog posts are hardly a new idea for getting traffic to your site, it was the first time someone had actually suggested it to me so it sparked my interest.
Granted that the invitation came from a list I’d previously signed up to, I did have some faith in the sender because he had shown remarkable results from his twitter account and was also a member of a private forum of which I’m also a member.
In the guest blog post invitation, he’s taken steps to make it easy for anyone to contact him if they indeed wanted him to submit a guest post so I did!
He’s made a point of explaining the benefits of guest blog posts to both the blog owner and himself and also requested an outline of which topic the blog owner would like him to write a guest post on. He also mentioned that the email was being sent to 10,000 subscribers so I’d need to be fast!
Seeing this as a good opportunity to have a well known “twitterer” guest post on my blog, I wrote a detailed email back to him providing all the information he said he required to write the guest blog post and the following is some of what I wrote:
“I’ve been on your list for only a couple of months and joined because I was impressed with some of your posts in the marketing with Alex forum of which I’m also a member.
If you look at my blog you’ll see that I’m a baby boomer hopefully targeting other boomers with the intention of inspiring them to jump on the internet marketing wagon to ensure a regular income for their retirement.
I think the vast majority of people in their 60’s don’t have the skills to operate a computer to the degree where they can set up an internet business, and it’s those skills or the lack of them, I would like your guest blog post to target, in creating an interest in learning them.
The other thing which comes to mind is Australia’s notorious reputation for slow internet connections and how to develop an internet marketing business with that restriction”.
The following day I received the following email from him and my reply:
Hi Sean,
Thanks for the email, but… can you tell me what you want a guest blog post on?
David
“Hi David.
Sorry you didn’t get the gist of what I wanted. I thought I’d mapped it out within the 2 sentences below this message. (now above) If you could write a post on baby boomers entering the Internet marketing field………..with the usual complications and restrictions of not having previously had any formal computer training at school etc.
I realise it’s a broad field to write about but if you can write anything at all which is relevant to the topics it will have the effect you want in providing exposure to yourself and also provide me with a guest blog post etc.”
His reply indicated to me that the whole exercise was a waste of time in that it seemed that he wasn’t interested in carrying out any research on any other topic other than the ones he was familiar with in order to write a guest blog post for anyone.
What he wrote back to me was the following:
Hi Sean,
Seeing as I am not a baby boomer myself, you would be far more qualified to write a post on that topic than me……
Do you have another suggestion for me?
David
I did have another suggestion for him but I think would be inappropriate to include it here.
Now I may be wrong but I think I made the topic of the guest blog post I wanted fairly clear in my first email to him and that realistically, even if only 10% of the people he sent the original email out to wanted him to write a guest post he would be writing 1000 guest blog posts which would keep him busy for quite a long time.
So….I guess it just reinforces what I’ve come to firmly believe and advise. Pay particular attention to whose lists you sign up to and restrict them to only those you completely trust.
I’m now off his list!
Comments Please
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Tagged with: Alex • Baby Boomer • Boomers • Email • Faith • Few Days • Fishing • guest blog posts • Intention • Internet Business • Internet Marketing • Invitation • List Owner • Marketing Forum • Notorious Reputation • Private Forum • Remarkable Results • Retirement • Slow Internet • Subscribers • Target • Traffic
Filed under: Baby Boomers and Internet Marketing • Blogging • Internet Marketing • Uncategorized • Work from Home
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Hey Sean,
What a strange exchange.
It certainly does read (from what’s quoted) that the potential guest blogger did not read your emails and/or was not interested in writing on something they didn’t know about (or want to research) It would be interesting to know how successful his tactic is/was in terms of how many posts he would get to write and the benefits of that vs the number of people who unsubscribed while unimpressed!
On another topic – that’s an interesting point about Australia’s slow connections and suggestions about how to overcome them – seems like a ready made market there…
Hope all is going well for you mate!
Rob
.-= ** RJB **´s last blog ..The Super Sneaky “How To Get Over 1.3 Million Safelist Credits In 3 Days” System =-.
Hi Rob.
I think you are right on all counts and I’m sure you’ll be surprised to learn who the writer was…..or maybe not.
I think it might just have been an experiment which backfired somewhat and I hold no animosity toward people willing to to try something new.
I wonder if it wasted as much of his time as it did mine. If he had a similar response from others on his list…he’s probably still negotiating……….
On the other point. The reputation Australia has for slow internet connection has been well and truly documented and justifiably slammed on thousands of occasions and equally as many blogs and web sites but there is not a lot that can be done if the infrastructure isn’t there in the first place.
This proved to be a total lack of foresight by the previous government who left all Australians bumbling around in Jurassic times for years while even countries considered to be on the verge of third world economies had better internet technology set in place ten years earlier. The topic is worth a post on it’s own but as I said, it’s already been flogged to death with little result.