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10 Simple Ways to Get Your Guest Post Rejected

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Guest Post

Every new day blogger checks their sites’ stat. Spike in traffic; increase in FaceBook fan number and RSS subscriber number gives immense pleasure, which is a clear indication of blog growth.

Guest post is one of key solution to help all these numbers to increase. It gives a fresh breath to your site and introduce new visitors to your blog, provided that if your post contributes some value to them. However, how to get publish your guest post on A-List blogs? Let’s discuss some solid points which will surely reject your guest post.

1- Just Keep Asking for Guest Post

Some people lack in courage and just keep asking for guest post. Show some courage and compose your article, post it via their favorite submission method. Don’t bother them by shooting permission e-mails for guest posts.

2- Do Not Follow Instructions

Major cause of rejection is not following the instructions as stated by host blog. Guest authors violate those instructions and simply get their work rejected.

If you want to get it published, follow their instruction. They are not going to violate their policy for you.  Remember first impression is the last impression. Don’t lose your chance of success; follow the stipulated instructions and increase the chances of “OK” for your guest post.

3- Low Quality Post

Content quality is the core factor that decides the fate of your post. Low quality post has no valuable information. Grammar plus spell error also adds many stars to the hard work. Readers like articles that are free of spell and grammatical error. If above methods doesn’t help you in rejection of guest post, this method will work 100%.

4- Out of Focus Topic

Get your post rejected by writing about Cars and submitting it to Health blog. Out of focus topics are of no use and no one likes to publish such crap at their sites. Read blog title and tag line carefully, read out all categories and go through few previous posts of host blog and get an idea of topic. Write on it and submit for approval.

5- Criticize Host Blog

Let’s criticize host blog because our aim is to promote our article by criticizing them. This stage will only come when you get your creation published. Don’t ever think about criticizing your host blog or you will lose the chance forever. Don’t waste your time to resubmit your post or think for future guest posting. You are wasting your time. Its simplest way to get rejected your Creation.

6- A Right to Copy

Some Genius violates copy right by perceiving that no one can catch them and simply steal the content from other sites. Those copy cats think Copy Right as a Right to copy. Such posts have no connection in paragraphs and at first glance they are caught as stolen content. If someone makes it a sensible post, still it is catchable by pasting one line within “” and paste it in Google. Search engine giant will tell you the site(s) from where it is stolen.

7- Self or Product Promotion

Stuff like, I have done this, I will do this, is an example of self promotion. Product promotion and self promotion is a sure way to get rejected your guest post. You are not supposed to tell about yourself rather contribute something valuable and informative. Your content will become your promoter. Likewise; product promotion in guest post is also viewed negatively.

8- Asking for Monetary Benefit

So you are going to ask for monetary benefit for your guest post, then you are in the wrong place. If site has asked for guest post, you will earn no money but if they have asked for writers, they are going to pay you out. Asking for financial benefit is also a good trick to have cheerful rejection mail.

9- No Follow Up

After submitting your work, if you forget about follow up, host blog will forget about you. Keep it in mind, being A-list bloggers, they have work load and a lot of guest posts in queue which may result in skipping your post by mistake. So keep up follow by sending them a reminder mail if you really want to get published your work.

10- Submit Post via Their Method of Posting

You worked hard by researching and writing your article. In last stage, submit it via process described by host blog. Give priority to their ease. Some want it to be in MS Word, some want in simple WordPad file and few are generous enough to give you limited access to their site for composing and submitting it for review.

In the end when you have decided to remove all these loopholes and want to get your work online, don’t forget to promote it. Use all possible ways for promotion of your Guest Post.

About

Imran blogs about ideas and tips on how to make your blog at Blogging Junkie which covers all blogging topics including making money online. When he is not blogging, he design and improve his sites.

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{ 60 Responses }

  1. daniyal says:
    got it thanks, i have not done guest posting will try soon
  2. Phil says:
    Some good tips! Though im not sure about number one, if you don't try asking you don't get I guess. But if you just keep asking over and over it can be an annoying though, if thats what you meant.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Phil, If our desired site/blog where we want to guest post has allowed guest post, best strategy is to compose and submit for their review. Though there is no harm if we ask for permission first and then submit for review. Every one is following different strategy. As far as just asking or asking over and over is concerned, this attitude clearly shows that Guest Blogger is not confident or not interested. So we should avoid asking for guest post over and over which can cause irritation to Host blogger.
  3. Udegbunam Chukwudi says:
    I don't agree with you in number one. If there's no "guest posting accepted" notice anywhere on the blog, I believe it's in the guest poster's interest to write first before composing any guest post for the host blog so as not to waste his/their time and resources.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Good point Chukwudi. Let’s analyze the fact. If a guest posters' aim to write and get publish his Guest Post, he should compose his article first. This is very much clear. I didn't asked from Hesham to allow me a guest post. I composed and uploaded my article. Later on I asked Hesham regarding his opinion on publishing it and I got green signal. This means I didn't wasted Guest host's time and got my article published. So why to just keep asking for guest post. Isn't better to write and post it for review and publish. In my opinion being practical and straight forward, creates good impact.
  4. Swamykant says:
    Great points . I will make sure that I will commit these mistakes while guest blogging :)
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      I am sure, you want to say "I will NOT commit these mistakes while guest blogging". Obviously, these points will kick out anyones guest post.
  5. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Gr8 points. Perhaps Criticizing is the best of the lot :P All these would not only get ur guest post rejected but also bring a bad karma to ur blog aswell.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Well said Mani. Among this list and other points mentioned in comments section will earn a bad karma for guest blogger. He will lose to convey his message to a new community as well. Guest post need to be properly planned and give it more time/importance from usual posts.
  6. Aj says:
    I can't stand the posts that right off the bat seems over promotional...I think this is a very great post but not only for things you shouldn't do when guest blogging but a lot of these tips also apply when writing posts for your own site.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Self promotion or affiliate product promotion is killer for guest post. Actually it depends on mental approach of guest author. What's his strategy? For long term benefit, it's suitable to write a guest post without excessive self promotion. Introduce your blog/website to new community and promote your required goal on your site.
  7. digiknowzone says:
    Well said and well identified. These are most of the common mistakes that bloggers make when guest posting. Also, I would like to add that small grammatical and spelling corrections are a sort of a no-no for advertisers. Cheers!
  8. jhon says:
    It is really research work and in this post I have found that " copy cats" are very dangerous. As if you have written very good quality article and first day it is copied by the any person and if his article is indexed first, your all of energy will be wasted. So reject these posts as early as possible.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      No doubt that Copy Cats are dangerous, but now due to real time indexation of Google Caffine, articles are indexed quickly, I noticed my article in Google index after five minutes of publication. That's amazing. Do your best and forget about copy cats that they will steal you content and Google will penalize you.
  9. Chadrack says:
    Write to get rejected! You truly pulled this one off here. Great title and that piece about the meta tags, I think it's something I'll be using! My first guest post was published right on this blog. Before then I really did not know how to go about it. But after a little looking around I decided to go for it. Today I think I can do it any day. Thanks for these tips.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Chadrack, blogging is art & science as well. Art of writing, crafting titles and science of SEo, backlinks, networking etc are the things which a bloggers should have from very first day. After writing many articles on my blog, I realized that I missed some of them in start of my blog. Anyway, good and bad both type of experiences add further value in the blogger. Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment.
  10. George Serradinho says:
    Wow, you normall see posts about what to do and not about how to get it rejected. The title got me thinking and then I just had to read the post and see what it's all about. Some guest writers take the time to know what to do and others don't. I guess there will always be lazy users out there.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Fabrication of great is key element. You will note that article title and meta title are totally different. Article title has been composed in such a way that attracts readers to read out the article. While meta title have all necessary keywords that are commonly Googled by the masses. So I have benefit of both.
  11. Imran Yousaf says:
    Dear readers, revised version has been uploaded. Thanks Hesham for your great cooperation.
  12. James Pruitt says:
    One problem with spelling and grammar is that different people in different parts of the world spell things and arrange grammar differently. I realized this recently after doing some writing for an Australian client. Although I have a school teacher that proofread everything, she still had some grammar and spelling problems with my article. After double checking, and going over the articles with her, we realized it was differences in location.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      This is also true. There is lot of spell variation in American and British set of English. Most of websites use American set of English which is quite confusing for people like us who are using British set of English.
  13. Ernest says:
    While reading your post, I can't stop but smile. Some of it are really true to me. Especially the grammar errors. I have so many grammar lapses. But I am trying to do away with it. I really agree with the quality part. To be a guest post blogger, we need to have a quality article to attract so many readers. At least with that, we do not only help ourselves but also the owner of the site. It will be mutual sharing of help for both parties. Nice post dude. Thanks for sharing. I am gearing myself up because I will be a guest post on some of the famous bloggers here. :) But it will definitely take time for me to be a great guest post blogger. :)
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Thanks Ernest for your words. Great content has vast definition including great idea, knowledge sharing, spell and grammar free post etc etc. So, give high priority to Great Content write more and more.
  14. Joy says:
    Imran, yes it is understood that English is obviously not your first language and that is fine with me. The 10 points you have made here seem to be right on and if I can read something and go away smarter then I am better off right? What difference really does it make if there is a few grammatical errors in the post?
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Thanks Joy for your reading. You are right, English is not my first language and I detected mistakes in my post.I will try my level best to provide a revised version of the post to make its quality superior.
  15. Colleen says:
    Certainly a great list. I think linking back to a guest poster's personal site with too many dofollow links is probably the granddaddy of all the methods of getting a guest post rejected.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Colleen, I believe in no linkback from Guest post, rather author box is sufficient to introduce guest author and for linkback purpose. What do you say?
      • Colleen says:
        Personally, I would prefer 3 links within the content. One to a personal site, one to site for co-citation purposes, and the last to a post within the host blog. And, no author box except for those that do not have links. I think the seo benefits would be best this way. Of course, folks can still follow a guest poster through their author box, but through a nofollow link. Just my humble opinion! ;)
        • Imran Yousaf says:
          There is no doubt that linking from post is beneficial from SEO point which is also evident from Scribe plugin suggestion. Even Scribe suggests number of links for specific word count. And your strategy of distribution of three links seems to be a great one. I noted it for future Guest Posts.
  16. Hung says:
    There are some people send the guest post and email to website's owner ask him to publish this article or respond within a limit of time if not he will post this articles to somewhere.I am sure, they will get rejected their guest post.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      True, very true, threating like behavior surely cause in rejection.
  17. Andreas says:
    You can also get your guest blog post rejected if you link to penalized domains in your article or author bio box and the blog owner notices this while checking the outgoing links.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Andreas this is the benefit of blogs. We share ideas and every one contributes according to his experience. You have shared very solid point. Linking to banned sites will put you in bad neighborhood. I thinks, now Guest Post rejection list exceeded from 10 points if we consider other points contributed in this articles' comment. Thanks Andreas.
  18. Dennis Edell says:
    Excellent points Imran, job well done for your first one here. :) I have #11 if it's OK. A tip for how to get all future guest posts, after the 1st, rejected and a tip all hosts bloggers should enforce. Replying to comments on your guest posts.] I'm amazed how often I read a guest post and the writer never returns. This makes both the writer and the host blog look bad. That's a number 1 rule on my blogs. If you do not return to reply to comments, you never guest for me again. If your post has few comments, I may even delete it. HAHA.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Dennis thanks for your appreciation. I have observed that every host blog has different attitude. You will observe few blogs where author don't bother to reply the comments likewise guest author on same blog also ignore replying to comments factor. Why blogs are too much popular? Because it is source of sharing idea and helping the community. In addition when we reply to comments, we are building relationship with commentator. So reply to comments is a must.
  19. Joe Boyle says:
    I've written a ton of guest posts, and not one of them included a link back to my blog, blog services, or content, unless it was via the author bio box. In fact, my first guest post consisted of FOUR links to content on THEIR blog, and they asked me to continue writing for them. Blog owners really do like getting their stuff advertised instead of yours. Great post.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      This is also a great tip to include the link back the articles of host blog. Few blogs have installed "Smart Links" plugin to automatically link back to their content. But when you are specifically creating a situation and linking back to their content, it results in same output as you have received in shape of encouragement. Good Work Joe.
  20. Tinh says:
    Number #2 and #3 are the worst things that we should never follow. Thanks for great list @Imaran
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      These two points will ensure the rejection.
      • Tinh says:
        You are right. Only these two points can get your guest post rejected immediately :-)
  21. Jarret says:
    Hey Imran, I'll have to use tip #9. I'm on both sides of the guest posting situation. I accept guest posts on two of my blogs, and in turn, try to improve these blogs by writing guest posts elsewhere. One of my first guest posts was published here at Famous Bloggers. Hesham was very prompt at replying to my guest post request. I've submitted guest posts elsewhere too where the blogger thanks me and tells me that they like the post, but it's been 3 weeks on a few of these and they're still not published. I guess I'll try touching base with them and provide a polite reminder.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Jarret, You need to send reminders to them and it is also possible they have other guest posts in their queue. I am sure your posts would be publish as you are accepting guest posts on your blog and you better know what are areas need to be tweaked. Keep a reasonable time duration btw your reminders.
  22. Jay says:
    The most obvious mistake you can do is promote yourself or your product instead of providing the viewers with profound information about an interesting topic. Simply shows how self centered you are lol! Thanks for the advice Imran.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Obviously Jay, Guest post is not supposed to promote affiliate product or yourself. Aim is to help the community. Selection of interesting topic gives best result and fame.
  23. Karla Campos Lopez says:
    Low quality posts really bother me, I can pass on the small spelling and grammatical mistakes because those are easy to fix (I did say small), but low quality posts will not get published on our site.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      No one like blunders. Even renowned bloggers make grammatical/spell mistake but again, minor mistakes are forgiven.
  24. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Imran, Thanks so much for this post. I have been thinking to write a guest post sometime and now have I to rethink my strategy on some points also including the comment from James.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      I am glad that my work helped you in your future guest post. Thanks for stopping by and reading the article.
  25. Robert says:
    It's good advice and is very true. But the key to landing a guest post is most certainly putting forward your best content. ps.your grammar in this post isn't great
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      I always like positive criticism because they are pointing to some weak area that needs to be addressed. I definitely need to work out on this issue because flawless writing is a part of "Great Content". You have added a good point here. Rich content guarantees publication of article. Thanks Robert.
  26. Tia Peterson says:
    Checking the guest post policies is such a good one. I always follow them and it really puzzles me that people will try every which way of getting a guest post on my blog and not even visit the page that plainly says "write for us." Great post. I hope people read it and let it sink in!
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Thats why such friends are not lucky enough to get their post published. "Write for us" or "Guest Post are welcomed" should be read first. But as you have observed people are to much excited they forget basic guidelines and some even can't see these guidelines. Well, we will try to help out the community to minimize the rejection chances.
  27. Gera says:
    I'd add #11 as a nuance of the #2 try to make a guest post with a byline pointing out to clear commercial sites or specific sale products, not blogs - very common lately. And it's very usual the lacking of following up, really I don't understand that because is for benefit of all the parts. Cheers, Gera
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      Gera, promoting product sales is the common problem with Guest posting. Most of time you will receive guest post but with condition of promoting their products. Even they are ready to give full rights over publishing. But again, such posts are directed to trash bin. And follow up increase the chances of getting guest post publish. Well, thanks for your reading Gera.
  28. James says:
    Great post. I agree with submitting guest posts except, you have to balance the self promotion. yes you don't want to go on and on about you, but I find that using a personal experience helps engage people more, and then you have to write in first person. Another thing that I would recommend for getting your post accepted is to join the community of the blog. If they see you are an active member of their community, commenting frequently, and linking back to them on your blog, they are more likely to share some love with you.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      James you have added a great point of Joining the community. No doubt it ensures that Your post will be published because everyone knows about Guest Author already. They know that he is beneficial or not to the community. As far as self promotion is concerned, Bylines and Author introduction is sufficient for self promotion. And if someone tries to promote himself in the post, he will definitely reduce the chances of publishing of his works. Great point James.
  29. Mike says:
    Very helpful reminding list for guest bloggers to check their attitude and their work before submitting a guest blog. However, I wonder whether any blogger has met someone who ask for monetary benefit? I haven't seen that case in real life yet.
    • Imran Yousaf says:
      This article is aimed to limelight all the points that can cause in Guest Post rejection. If someone ask for monetary benefit, he has 100% chance to get his article reject. Though it is not common in real life, but still it do exists.