And why you should pay writers rather than working on a barter system
If you have a blog on your business website, it can be a challenge to create and publish a steady stream of useful, effective content that drives your closer to your business goals. In the early 2000’s, working with guest bloggers to produce content for your site – in exchange for backlinks – was a viable option. You got the content you needed and your blogger friends got what SEO specialists refer to as “link juice” – backlinks that drove authority and traffic to their sites, which can help improve search engine rankings. Sounds like a win/win arrangement, right?
If you’re still bartering with guest bloggers in this way, the content being created on your site might actually be doing your business more harm – a lot more harm – than good.
A quick review of the “outdated content” farming strategy
In the early 2000’s content farms cropped up across the internet at an alarming rate, creating an unexpected but extremely simple, lucrative and dishonest business model – Online Arbitrage – which lead to a poor Google user experience. By 2007, Google was shuttering those businesses, site by site. In 2011, Google aimed a direct target at the entire practice with their Panda Update. It was designed to reduce the overwhelming amount of low-quality content and it signaled a hard shift in strategy. Article marketing – thin content with inflated word counts, low editorial standards, whether it was involved with Online Arbitrage or not – were severely penalized. In 2019, Google applied another layer with the BERT Update, which considered the full context of a word by looking at the words that come before and after it – particularly useful for understanding the intent behind search queries.
Over and over, and with each new update Google releases, the overriding message is clear. Create trustworthy, useful content on your blog or pay the price by losing your rankings in the search engines.
So, should you even work with guest bloggers?
There’s a hard bottom line here if you want your blog to do the heavy lifting of driving traffic to your site. Meaningful, well-written blog posts will help Google see your site as valuable and send traffic your way. Thin, poorly written content will not only cost you potential traffic but may also reduce current traffic trends. Not sure if your business blog is on the right side of that line? Ask yourself a couple questions:
- Who does your blog benefit?
- Who would want to read it?
If the blog posts on your site are mostly about the great products you carry and why their features outrank the competitors, you’re publishing advertorial – not blog posts.
If you own a car dealership, for example, a post about what to do when a car alternator dies might be an effective piece of content on your blog. An affiliate blogger might be willing to write a guest post – in exchange for backlinks – but will the post offer solid, usable advice? Or will be it regurgitated content easily found elsewhere on the internet? On the other hand, if you hire a professional writer, one who will interview and quote experts, you’ll likely get high quality content that provides valuable information to your customers. But either way, you’ll pay for both pieces of content – the price will be drastically different though…
No one can argue the benefit of a blog on a business website – but how it’s done is what differentiates the blogs that succeed and the ones that fail. The simple answer is this: don’t gamble with your business by accepting blog posts that are poorly written and offered in exchange for links. Real writers get paid for their work. If their writing is on-point and well-written, you’ll reap the real world benefit of a solid, well-executed online marketing strategy.
How to find the right guest blogger for your business
It’s easy to find a writer – the internet is filled with them. It’s not as easy to find a good writer who can write engaging content on deadline, free from typos and spelling mistakes and false information. These questions will help ensure that you’re not wasting time and money when you hire a guest blogger.
- Look for experience in your industry – or parallel industries. If you’re looking for a beauty blogger, a writer with clients in the food safety space may not be your best choice. But a fashion or design blogger’s voice might transcend easily into the beauty industry.
- Review their published work. Most writers have a website – or at least a LinkedIn profile – where you can review their published work and read comments from clients. If they’re just starting out and don’t have an extensive client list, invite them to share links where they’re written for a school or church newsletter. Or ask them to write you one post (paid for, of course) to see their writing style.
- Look for attention to detail. Magazine writers have editors to catch mistakes before going to press – bloggers aren’t so lucky. Pay close attention to the emails and texts your perspective blogger sends you. If they’re rife with typos and spelling mistakes and emojis, take my advice and move onto the next candidate.
- Can they mirror your brand voice? Whether your brand voice is funny and entertaining, serious and thoughtful or simply straightforward and helpful, you’ll want a writer that can mirror what you’ve created – or at least come very close. Maintaining a consistent voice builds trust and if you’ve already established authenticity with your readers, do everything you can to protect it.
- Ask them about their SEO experience. Being a good writer today goes well beyond being able to write engaging headlines and quippy social media updates. They should have some understanding of SEO and be able to weave keywords into the headings and body copy to guide online searchers to your site.
- Ask for testimonials. A writer is no different than any other vendor you hire and should be held to the same accountability. Talking to previous clients will help you understand how easy (or difficult) they are to work with and if they’re a good match for your needs.
How much should I pay my guest blogger?
The million dollar question – sorry, couldn’t resist. When I served as an editor of a national magazine, the range of pay for my writers crossed a continental divide, from pennies to dollars a word. Nothing’s changed. For writers, there’s no standard guide and no minimum wage, which makes the money question as tricky for them as it does for the businesses they serve.
For some writers, $150 per blog post is a fair wage but other writers might think anything less than $300 per post isn’t acceptable. They both might produce great content but one might be able to churn it out a quicker rate, making a lower price per post a smart business strategy.
My best advice to you is to begin interviewing writers you think might be a good fit. Do your due diligence and save the money question until you’ve gotten to know each other a bit better. If the price comes in higher than expected, ask about bulk discounts or if they’d considering doing one post (paid, of course) so you can both test out the fit.
Paying a little more for content can save a lot of grief in the long run. Trust me on this one…
Hiring a guest blogger can be a time consuming practice but, like my woodworking Dad always says, if you measure twice, you can cut once with confidence. Take your time hiring a guest blogger so you’re not wasting time, money or your SEO rankings.
If you’re struggling with your digital strategy, I’d love to hear your questions and how I can help. Drop a comment below or shoot me an email and let’s start talking.
In the meantime, these posts might help you begin your content marketing journey:
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