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I own a content business. We publish "sponsored" posts on other sites. They contain original photos, unique information written by an expert, are always 100% re

I own a content business. We publish "sponsored" posts on other sites. They contain original photos, unique information written by an expert, are always 100% relevant to the site's audience, and are always marked as guest posts. So sponsored/guest posts aren't always bad ;) We find sites that are looking for good content for their audience and are not looking to get paid (but will pay a small editorial fee if asked). The types of sites that will accept any sponsored post are not the types you even want a sponsored post on

RubyRidgeRandy 5y ago
Yeah this kinda came off as asshole-ish. Sponsored content is supposed to be mutually beneficial. The first part of the article makes it seem like link-building is some king of taboo SEO tactic instead of regular tool everyone uses...
sdoering 5y ago
Personally I find your argument disingenuous at best. > We find sites [...] that are not looking to get paid [...]. So basically what you are saying is that you are looking for free real estate for hidden advertising. You get paid by your clients while the sites' audiences are the real product. > [...] are always 100% relevant to the site's audience [...] I worked in publishing. I worked with many content farms as well in my time. If I had gotten a dime for every piece of content written by an "expert" (but in reality some poor student in most, a general editor in best cases) I would probably have a nice vacation awaiting me. "information written by an expert" is a nice claim as long as no one: - needs to define what an expert is - doesn't need the expert to be an expert in the relevant field Additionally Google (and others) value recency and pushes good content down because it is "old". As long as there is a valid business being made with the SEOfication of the long tail by pseudo expert advertising disguised as content with the goal of making readers believe it was genuinely written without conversion goals in mind by a neutral party there is very little chance of this situation improving.
- weird-eye-issue 5y ago
  First off, I wasn't making an argument, just stating my perspective. We don't have clients, so you completely don't understand my business. I stopped reading after the first few sentences since it's clear your experience is working for shitty SEO agencies and you refuse to believe there are legitimate publishers like my company that occasionally do guest posts when it makes sense
  - kabes 5y ago
    If you don't have clients, then who is paying you?
    - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
      Our affiliate partners and advertising networks because we publish our own content on our own sites. We don't get directly paid for posting on other sites
      - sdoering 5y ago
        So guest posts are your funnel? Are they done to attract people to your site? Are they done to strengthen SEO towards your site? I don't yet understand the business rational of these guest posts and would like to understand the model better. If what you are stating is a valid business I would love to know this way for publishing to generate a profit better.
        weird-eye-issue 5y ago
        They aren't a funnel, they would account for like .0001% of our traffic. It is for "industry outreach" purposes - to help strengthen the link profile of the site (whitehat SEO)

RubyRidgeRandy 5y ago

Yeah this kinda came off as asshole-ish. Sponsored content is supposed to be mutually beneficial. The first part of the article makes it seem like link-building is some king of taboo SEO tactic instead of regular tool everyone uses...

sdoering 5y ago

Personally I find your argument disingenuous at best. > We find sites [...] that are not looking to get paid [...]. So basically what you are saying is that you are looking for free real estate for hidden advertising. You get paid by your clients while the sites' audiences are the real product. > [...] are always 100% relevant to the site's audience [...] I worked in publishing. I worked with many content farms as well in my time. If I had gotten a dime for every piece of content written by an "expert" (but in reality some poor student in most, a general editor in best cases) I would probably have a nice vacation awaiting me. "information written by an expert" is a nice claim as long as no one: - needs to define what an expert is - doesn't need the expert to be an expert in the relevant field Additionally Google (and others) value recency and pushes good content down because it is "old". As long as there is a valid business being made with the SEOfication of the long tail by pseudo expert advertising disguised as content with the goal of making readers believe it was genuinely written without conversion goals in mind by a neutral party there is very little chance of this situation improving.

weird-eye-issue 5y ago
First off, I wasn't making an argument, just stating my perspective. We don't have clients, so you completely don't understand my business. I stopped reading after the first few sentences since it's clear your experience is working for shitty SEO agencies and you refuse to believe there are legitimate publishers like my company that occasionally do guest posts when it makes sense
- kabes 5y ago
  If you don't have clients, then who is paying you?
  - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
    Our affiliate partners and advertising networks because we publish our own content on our own sites. We don't get directly paid for posting on other sites
    - sdoering 5y ago
      So guest posts are your funnel? Are they done to attract people to your site? Are they done to strengthen SEO towards your site? I don't yet understand the business rational of these guest posts and would like to understand the model better. If what you are stating is a valid business I would love to know this way for publishing to generate a profit better.
      - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
        They aren't a funnel, they would account for like .0001% of our traffic. It is for "industry outreach" purposes - to help strengthen the link profile of the site (whitehat SEO)