If you’ve spent any amount of time in the blogging world, you’ve probably heard of guest posting.

As the name implies, it literally means being a ‘guest’ on someone else’s blog,  ie writing a post for them, usually with back links to your own site. It’s common practice to promote one’s self to new audiences, build links and raise SEO rankings.

Guest posting is all the rage these days. I see calls for guest posts in FB blogger groups all the time. A Google search will yield numerous articles on why it’s important for new bloggers to guest post; to ‘get their name out there as much as possible’, and why guest posting is a crucial component of marketing your blog/building your repo.

While I don’t disagree, I don’t wholly agree either. More precisely, I don’t agree with how guest posting is done in this day and age. Which is why you can scroll through this entire blog and not find a single ‘guest post’.

Meh this doesn’t sound like your usual posts, Eris. Why exactly am I talking about this anyway?

Well, this:

I was a little triggered at this tbh. Triggered enough to write a post. 😛

So basically, this travel blogger is whining that other travel bloggers won’t link to his site. Further down in the thread, he also says that they either a) don’t accept guest posts or b) demand money for linking to his site.

WOW LIKE HOW ENTITLED CAN YOU GET LOL 

The funny thing is how he refuted realistic points that people were trying to point out, ie:

a) Your guest posts would have to be AMAZING for people to actually consider putting it on their site as content. If they are quality travel bloggers, I’m sure they’re not approving any Tom, Dick and Harry’s writing because at the end of the day, it affects the repo of their site

and b) You are asking for a favour. A favour is when you ask for someone to do something for you, which they are not obligated to do. But no. I mean, how DARE they as ME for money when I’m only requesting for a link to my site, which I make money off through affiliate links ! They aren’t supportive of newbie bloggers at all, the snobbish pricks ! 

LOL.

Ever heard of the term “there is no such thing as a free lunch?”

Running a blog site takes time, money and energy. Nobody owes you anything, especially if your content isn’t that great to begin with / is generic enough that anyone can produce the same thing, possibly with higher standards. At the end of the day, some bloggers DO have to make money off their site for a living, so why should they give you a guest post, or a link, for FREE ? Out of the kindness of their heart?  I work for a magazine, and we never run ads or mentions about other magazines, because why in the world would I drive traffic to a competitor?

Now, we come to another point: the nature of guest posting itself. I’m actually not that opposed to guest posting if you have awesome content that even I can’t come up with on my own lol.  But it seems that some bloggers these days are only in it for the SEO, back links and they basically don’t give a shit about what sort of blog they put it in, or how it will benefit the niche /readers of a particular site, as long as they have their links.

Not that this blog is super great or anything, but I have had people emailing me to ask if they could guest post. One wanted to write something completely unrelated to stuff I post; the other made an excuse as soon as I asked if she would be earning from affiliate links, citing that she had taken a ‘massive project’ and wouldn’t be able to work on other writing projects, and then had the audacity to say “i’ll let you know if my schedule frees up”  AS IF I BEGGED HER TO GUEST POST IN THE FIRST PLACE HAHAHA 

Let me get this straight. She sent me samples of her writing, and they all had affiliate links to certain products, which I’m sure she was commissioned, by companies, to write about and populate whatever blogs she could ‘guest post’ in.

You’re asking to BORROW space in MY domain, which I PAY for every year, for FREE. The least you can do is perhaps be upfront about it and offer me a cut of the affiliate linking, because that is what I would do. Even if it’s just 5 bucks.

Oh, oh, you know what the funny thing is? She sent me a standard cookie cutter email, so she confused my name with someone else’s lol.

Okay this turned out to be a rather ranty post ha.

I’m not saying that guest posts are evil. I’m sure plenty of people benefit from guest posting. I just don’t agree with how guest posting has become this thing that bloggers use to make money at other people’s expense, without thinking of what they’re giving back. If you’re saying that these travel bloggers aren’t ‘helping’ you as a newbie; well, what do you have to offer to them? They are running a business. Do you go to a McDonalds and ask for free burgers and get angry when they don’t give you one? It’s basically the same philosophy as how some companies want to pay writers with exposure (you can read that other vent-y post here).

Now excuse me while I go grab a McChicken.