Do free guest blog posts seem too good to be true? Trust your gut: they usually are.
Companies offering free content for your blog usually have an ulterior motive. These writers and firms look to pack a piece of content with backlinks on the behalf of paid clients. This helps build web authority and improve a company’s SEO ranking for those clients but doesn’t create as favorable a reaction on your own SEO, as major search engines like Google and Bing deprioritize the ranking of paid-for link hosting.
At NisonCo PR, we’ve fielded hundreds of “free” guest posts that we ultimately pass on — from topics such as cannabis, psychedelics, SEO, dispensary, marketing, and anything in between — because of the ultimate hidden cost of hosting them.
Still unconvinced? Read on to discover more reasons why free blogs are more trouble than they’re worth.
You’ll Sacrifice Brand Tone & Expend Effort Editing
When a guest post is submitted, it’s not always possible to request revisions. If you choose to publish the piece anyway, you sacrifice your voice, tone, and brand style. If you decide to revise to further suit your blog’s purpose, you’ll be left to edit and sometimes even rewrite a post — adding unnecessary, uncompensated work for yourself and your team.
Is Expertise a Part of Your Blog Brand? Skip Free Offers
Oftentimes, these guest posts originate from content mills. It’s likely the writers don’t have the same industry expertise as you, and are paid to mass-churn corporate bloggenspiel. Because of this, expect lots of “101” topics, which certainly have their use when employed meaningfully but don’t often create interesting, new, or niche content.
Hosting Free Guest Blog Posts Opens the Digital Floodgates
Once you accept just a single free guest post, you open the flood gates. You’ll end up with endless emails. We’re talking a dozen times a week. Do you have the capacity and patience to wade through these extra messages in your inbox? Likewise, if you host open comments on your blog expect more overall spam and targeted advertising in that section after indicating you have free blog space.
Accountability is Missing for Random Blog Hosting
Here’s a sad but too often true scenario: A company or writer reaches out asking to pay to post on your blog. You’re thrilled! You name a price, they agree, and you go through the editing, approval and publishing process. But after the article is published, they ghost you on payment. In the end, you’ll follow up many times with no response.
If the content you worked with in this scenario was being produced by a business/creator you already partner with, the likelihood of being uncompensated is significantly lower. Without a pre-existing business relationship that provides interpersonal capital or prepayment, you can expect random hosting to be more trouble than it’s worth.
Final Thoughts
Our final advice as a top-ranked cannabis, psychedelics and CBD PR & SEO firm is to be incredibly wary when it comes to hosting guest blog posts. Remember your blog is a representation of your brand, and to keep the tonality on-point. Though free guest posts seem like a no-brainer, we find over and over that the juice is simply not worth the squeeze.
Looking for help from our experienced psychedelics, cannabis and crypto/blockchain PR, SEO and marketing team? Let us know if you need help researching trends and topics, crafting communications, or securing news spots by contacting NisonCo here.
