Three Approaches to Automate Guest Blogging

July 20, 2012 - Last Modified: July 20, 2012 by Traian Neacsu

Content is the Internet’s most valuable currency. One should create content for humans first, and to feed the search engine bots second. Deliver enough quality content and you will increase readership, subscribers, clients, advertising dollars, and … (you name your objective).

But how do you go about consistently creating quality content?

Types of Content

The problem is that not all content is created equal and, I dare say, content is similar to gold: there’s 24k gold, 20k gold, and there’s fool’s gold. Similarly, content quality ranges from computer-generated crap (spun content), to $3 for 300 words mediocre articles written by who-knows-who, up to super compelling and informative content written by experts.

If you’re trying to grow your blog, you can’t afford to publish anything but the best. And if you’re reading this blog, then I have no doubt that you can write it.

But creating that super interesting, engaging content takes time. Lots of it. I easily spend 10 hours researching, writing and editing an article like this. Creating such content and running an SEO company at the same time is not easy, believe me. You actually divide your day into managing a business and creating content.

A Great Way to Generate Quality Content

One of the best ways to generate the desired quality of content is to allow guest authors to publish content on your blog. The more quality content you get published on your website, the more subscribers you get, and the better your search visibility.

So, the first step is to allow guest posting. The second is to do the heavy lifting and go after the experts in your niche (either well known experts, or experts-to-be) and invite them to guest post. Most of them will be aware of the mutual benefits of guest posting, and with any luck they will accept your invitation.

Once your readership grows and your site popularity increases, more and more authors will notice that you accept guest posts, and they too will become interested in contributing. And that’s where it starts rolling. Your blog might become just as famous as famousbloggers.net 😉

But what do you do then, when you’re getting dozens of guest post inquiries a week?

Editorial, Auto or Reaction-Based Guest Post Approvals?

You now have content, but you might need to review dozens and dozens of submissions. So is there any way you could automate the approval process to avoid spending as much of your precious time reviewing submissions?

Sadly, in my opinion totally automated guest posting will never work – the cons far outweigh the pros.

But let’s clarify the word automation. Many of us think of automation as a process performed by a machine (computer) to speed up a process that otherwise is done manually. Press a button and you’re done! That’s how automation works.

However, the solution might come with semi-automation – where you optimize a process up to a certain point, and then humans intervene to solve what machines can’t. Here are some approaches to speeding up the reviewing and publishing of guest post submissions:

1- Use Human Editors

You allow guest registration on your blog, and hire a professional editor who is very knowledgeable about your niche. All author profiles and submissions will go through him or her, and he or she will be the one who decides which articles gets approved or turned down.

HUMAN EDITORS HAVE REVIEWED AND APPROVED THIS ARTICLE – IMAGE SOURCE

If you’re on a budget you can try your luck with outsourced editors, but finding the right person is a tedious, disappointing process in itself. Been there; done that.

2- Auto Approve

I strongly advise against auto approving any kind of content on your blog. Auto approvals are a bad idea, always. You will publish so much crap, you won’t believe it. Spammers use tools to find targets that auto approve articles. Your blog will be infested with spam in a matter of days, and cleaning up the mess could mean “select all”, then “delete”. That may well mean deleting valuable content submitted by your peers.

3- Reaction Based Approval

This method implies a sandbox, which means you will create a section on your site where guest authors publish their articles. Initially all guest posts will be published under this UGC (User Generated Content) section, and the most valuable articles promoted to the main blog based on community reactions (votes, likes, +1’s, etc).

You may want to have a separate subdomain for the UGC. You want to separate the great content on the main blog from the content you can’t vouch for. Search engines consider subdomains different web properties, and if the User Generated Content is poor, a penalty will be applied to the subdomain, and not to the main site.

In conclusion, I would actually recommend implementing a combination of two approaches:

Editor-approved articles on your UGC section (here you can approve 5 to 10 articles a days, if you want) and
Promoting 1 article daily on the main blog based on the community reaction and sentiments.

This approach allows editors to be a bit more flexible with their approvals, and you can leave the “automated reviewing” process to your community. This is A/B split testing your content in a live environment, outside of your preconceptions. It can’t get better than that!

If any of you has had experience with such issues, please leave a comment. Heck, leave a comment anyways 😀

See you at the top!

{ 17 Responses }

Mohammad Ismail says:

Wow very nice post. I learn alot from this and will try to implement that in blogging word THanks
Dani Cross says:

I get emails ALL THE TIME from random people asking to guest blog - they usually send me articles to approve or nix by email - 9 times out of 10 I get absolute crap. My challenge is finding ways to not waste my time with the crap and communicating with authors who will not deliver. I have a hunch that over time, the crap will get less as I build relationships with the few quality sources I get. I hope at least.
Anthony Chatfield says:

I have been playing with the idea of guest posting for a long time and have ghost written a handful for clients over the years. My big problem has been maintaining a steady flow of my own content, not only to keep my blog relevant but to take advantage of the fact that I can submit it to other blogs as a guest myself. I do like your idea of hiring a reviewer to handle the process, though. Targeted outsourcing of simple tasks makes me very happy.
Richa says:

Thanks for this great guide. Guest blogging is a great way to get some quality content to your site. But selecting guest blogger isn't that easy. Human editors should be used to check the quality of any post.
Elena Anne says:

Guest posting (when you are thoroughly selective) can be very effective. I find that it offers a fresh perspective and can be useful when you yourself are going through a dry patch, maybe you've got writers block and are struggling for content. Just be careful with who you hire!
Nishadha says:

Some nice insight into guest blogging. We are in the process of adding guest bloggers to our blog but finding it very hard to attract good writers. One reason is we are writing about a very tight niche. But most of the guest post request we do get are from SEO companies who are trying to get away with just about readable content.
- Traian Neacsu says:
  
  if the niche is to tight, I would suggest allowing articles from a broader subject that's still in your industry.
Martin Cooney says:

Got to agree with you, Traian - the review and approve phase is often tedious because you always want to maintain quality, integrity and niche relevance too. And add to that, I prefer formatting and look and feel is consistant so the user experience is maintained. I know I need to find a better way as the majority of guest submissions I get are in Word format too. Auto-approval isn't an option since I've had Spammer issues with that in the past. What sort of plugin or process have you used for just getting the submission in the system?
- Traian Neacsu says:
  
  Martin, I don't get too many guest post requests since we don't have a public guest posting page/policy. Auto approval is definitely a bad idea. Maybe someone could write a plugin that allows new guest authors to rate few articles which have a pending status. Once the new guest author rates 3 articles he can submit his own.
  - Martin Cooney says:
    
    All good, Traian - I need to have a sit down and map out a process to make it a little easier on myself :) I might use the WP Help plugin to provide Best Practise and allow the Guest Posters to create their basic post framework content. At least that will take care of some of the work I normally do, to start with. Thanks for your thoughts though.
    - Traian Neacsu says:
      
      Let me know how it goes, Martin.
Traian Neacsu says:

Mariella, it is not easy, but it's doable. I'm glad you liked the article.
Mark says:

Traian, I recently converted my main blog which was originally focused on SEO to a multi-category blog much like an article directory. I have to reject about 75% of submissions, so I definitely know where you are coming from. I like to have human editors review each submission because people and their "bots" will take advantage of you if you don't. The reaction based approval is definitely something I will check into. Thanks for the tip :) Mark
- Traian Neacsu says:
  
  Mark, do you allow open submissions, i.e. anyone can submit even without having a profile approved first?
  - Mark says:
    
    Yes. Anyone can submit. They do have to sign up for an account, but articles are only approved if they are original and well written...unlike most article directory submissions. I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about. Thanks for asking :) Mark
    - Traian Neacsu says:
      
      When they sign up for an account, ask them first to create the author profile and only after approving the profile they can send articles.
Mariella Lombardi says:

Hi Traian, this was a great article and it is really useful for bloggers that use guest posting. I guess it is a bit hard to find someone that can do great work and promote your blog as mush as needed. Thanks for sharing this.

Three Approaches to Automate Guest Blogging

Types of Content

A Great Way to Generate Quality Content