Should I pay guest posters for submitting content?

Lynne Level 1

August 25, 2016, 11:13 am

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Should I pay guest posters for submitting content?

I just posted a question about the best plugin that I can use to allow users to add posts to my websites. One of the responses mentioned that one of the plugins allows for paying for posts. I am just wondering what the correct etiquette is here?

Yes I will be happy paying for content at some stage but right now I am wanting to get as much quality and unique content onto my website as possible, prefrrably without paying for any of it!

I am happy to pay for content at some stage in the future but it is just not viable at this stage. I was hoping that users might like to add guest posts without me paying them to start.

I was under the impression that other bloggers might love to have their content reach a wider audience and create brand awareness for them, so they might like to submit content for that reason.

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TommyCarey

TommyCarey

Paying per post can get tricky. You'll run into people trying to game the system just to get a paycheck. If you don't have the proper systems in place to sift these people out, you'll go broke in no time at all

A few of the main problems with paid guest posting:

Duplicate Content - People will just go to a website or blog in the same niche and copy a huge article then post it on your website in hopes of getting paid for it. You'll want high quality unique content on your website and not something that is already indexed on a different website. Now some people will say that duplicate content is just something that is posted on your own website multiple times, but you should always play it safe and stick with unique content. You never know when the search engines will change their minds and hit you with a penalty because you have the same content as someone else.
Spun Content - Spun content looks pretty bad to the naked eye but passes duplicate content checks done by Google, Yahoo!, Bing, copyscape and anything else it's ran through. Well, you can't really run the content through the search engines, but they won't see it as duplicate. People will collect 10+ articles and mash them together to make it semi readable. After this they will post it on your website so they get credit for the post.

To fight these you can get a duplicate content checker that all the newly submitted articles are ran through before going live. You can get a copyscape plugin or any other duplicate content checker plugin that you like. There are cheaper ones than copyscape, but they may not be tested and work as well. You'll also have to go through the content to make sure that it's not spun, it's pretty easy to pick out the ones that are.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Thanks Razzy, do you think people will just want to write guest posts for the sake of gaining authority in their niche and spreading their reach?

Yeah I am sure that there will be loads and loads of problems with paying for guest posts and that is something I don't look forward to at all. I would rather just do what I am doing now and pay a content writer!

I can't stand spun content, it is so awful and yeah I will spot that very quickly. I just wonder if paying for the content will cause more problems than it is worth. I mean the whole point is to get a lot of new content onto my website. Good content that will benefit me. If I am spending all my time fending off people taking chances and messing me around that time would be better spent writing myself wouldn't it?

8 years ago

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anwebservices

anwebservices

Letting people to share posts on your blog can be very time consuming in terms of administration, specially if there is some money for them to make, then within some time you can get very busy by approving and checking new contents for spam, duplicated (copy / paste) posts etc...

However when it's about paying your members for submitting new posts i just would like to let you think about another option which i was trying before. While i was not able to build enough budget for payouts back then, i bumped into idea to split advertising revenues with bloggers. There is plugin somewhere for WordPress which allow you to split percentage of income from you adsense or other revenues, or you can let your blog posters add their own ads inside posts they made, so they have chance to earn some money on your blog, without you paying them....

Just another thought ;)

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Oh that is an interesting option Anwebservices, thanks for sharing that. I am not sure that is the way that I would want to go though, but it can go into the list of things I can possibly do!

8 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Nothing in this world comes free. Therefore, you cannot get free content. You might get free contents from certain sources, however, you must be aware that these contents have been shared to numerous people like you. You should either write contents or hire writers to do it for you. Sometimes you can get free articles from your friends and family though. How much you pay to the writers depend on how skilled and experienced the writer is. If you get articles by paying peanuts, it is very likely that you are getting duplicate articles. Therefore, you should be careful about acquiring articles.

8 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I think this is a two-way thing. If you're starting out, I would suggest you pay writers for posting on your forums and see how things will go from there. However, when you have developed the website and it has become popular, you can charge anyone that want to bring their post to your website.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

I don't imagine working for free. When I did a guest post for my friend. she offered me $4 per post plus backlinks. Well, $4 was a small money for 500-700 words article, however, it was better than nothing. She had a lot of subscriber and the backlinks she gave helped me drive sales. before you ask someone to write for free, you should first ask, will you write for free?

7 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

If you mean guest poster is a blogger that wants exposure for their articles, I will opt for the popular blogger. I understand that a popular blogger has a higher fee but it is more effective since your site will get new readers when you publish the blog of that popular blogger. On the other hand, a free exposure of articles is good if you consider the zero cost. And if the submitted blog passes your standard, that’s well and good to be published with no expense on your part.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

It really depends on your situation. If you don't have regular guest posters and noones asking you to guest post then I think it's best to pay guest for guest posting services or outsource it.

6 years ago

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