Guest blogging works two ways, which means it can create problems for both parties.
The parties involved consist of individuals who write guest blog posts, and individuals who accept and publish guest posts on their blogs. This article details the problems that both parties may have.
The parties involved consist of individuals who write guest blog posts, and individuals who accept and publish guest posts on their blogs. This article details the problems that both parties may have.
It is often overlooked, but when a writer creates a piece of text (such as a guest post), he or she is dedicating some of his or her time to that project.
In any other circumstance a person, dedicating their time and brainpower to a task would expect some form of monetary remuneration, and yet guest blogging offers none. On the flip side--a lot of people overlook the fact that when a blog owner takes on and publishes a guest post, he or she is putting himself/herself at risk. There is a risk of damaging the reputation of the blog, of the domain and of the owner. There is also a risk of criminal prosecution under copyright and libel laws.
You are giving your quality work to another person for free
When you write a guest blog, you are essentially working for free. You are putting your time and effort into a project that has no direct monetary reward. It may result in a link that positively impacts your website's search engine optimization (SEO) efforts; it may even get you a few more hits (traffic). But, for all the effort you are putting into your guest post there seems to be very little to be had in return. Ironically, a better use of your time may be to pay the blog owner to create your guest blog post, to put it on their site, and maintain a link from it. At least in that way you would not have to forfeit any of your valuable time.
If you take in guest blogs then how can you be sure the piece is not copied?
You are a blog owner and you take in a guest blog, so you run a Copyscape check to find out if it is original. Copyscape gives no results so you post the guest post on your blog. A month later you get an angry cease and desist message. How can this happen? Sadly, it can happen in many different ways. Duplication checkers will only check content that is currently online and currently indexed by the search engines, which means there are many ways to fool it.
The most common method of fooling a duplication checker is through “Spinning”, where the words in a sentence are changed for synonyms so that it fools the duplication checker. Another method is to copy material that is not digital, such as magazine articles and texts from books. One way is to target new information that has just appeared online and has not yet been indexed by the search engines.
Other guest posters will take work from writers and not pay them. This method often works because many writers do not know how to fight such a problem, but the ones that do might bring you some serious trouble. An experienced writer will have the knowledge and tools to drag you to court, being told by a lawyer that all the writer’s legal fees will be paid by you after the cash settlement occurs. The problem is that when text is stolen from a writer, the writer will sue the person who publishes it, and if you have unknowingly received stolen text then sadly you are the one might be punished.
Do not be fooled by publishing your content online. Just because you publish something online does not mean you own the copyright. Even if you post something online 2 years before the copyright owner does, it does not protect you from copyright laws. Even if you can prove that you published something online before someone else did, you will still be sued for stealing content.
If you take in a guest blog then you will probably have to compromise on quality
Many guest bloggers do not spend a lot of time on their guest posts and have very little concern over how high the quality of the article is. To most guest posters, you blog is just another place they want to link from. In their mind they are aware that they are not being paid for the guest post and are aware that the link from your blog will probably have a negligible effect on their SEO. Guest bloggers have very little incentive to provide you with new, exciting and thought provoking work.
Your loyal viewers have logged onto your blog to see your posts, not the posts of someone else
The fact that you may disgruntle your loyal followers cannot be ignored. They logged on to see your blog posts, not the blog post of some unknown stranger. Having a guest post once per month may give you a little leeway in the matter, but if you have frequent guest posts then your viewers will have little incentive to stick around.
How can you be sure that your guest blogs link will remain active if you post on another blog?
After you have written your guest post and sent the article over to the blog owner, you sit back and wait for your blog post and link to be posted on the blog. However, after a month you notice that the link is gone. Unless you paid the blog owner to maintain the link, you have no form of recourse, except (possibly) demanding the return of your blog post. Nevertheless, you must remember that as a guest blogger, you are helpless to stop the owner of the blog from deleting your link whenever he or she feels like it.
The host of the guest blog earns all of the affiliate advert money whilst the poster only gets a link
Your guest post article may attract traffic and subsequent clicks on the blog owners affiliate adverts. This is money you could have made if you had kept your work to yourself.
Libel laws
Libel is similar to defamation or slander, except libel is limited to words that are published. Publication may involve online, physical print, audio or video. Taking on a guest post will leave you at risk from libel laws--especially if you do not bother to proof read the text before you post it online. American courts do have a consistent stream of libel cases. Libel cases are far more prevalent than slander/defamation cases (for whatever reason) and publishing content online means that you are at risk from it. It puts you are risk of prosecution from libel laws in the same way that you risk prosecution from speeding laws for breaking speed limits.