I just clocked off work, fuming at the repetitive, uninspiring emails dressed as guest posting pitches.
Having seen off my shift, I decided to write this article to spare my colleagues a rant.
My inbox is drowning in generic subject lines like “Quality Guest Post for Your Esteemed Blog,” and frankly, this is a problem.
All the supposed pitches have consistent gaping issues, including irrelevant topics, atrocious grammar, and tell-tale signs of automated messages.
Out of all these requests, the genuine requests that I have been willing to progress are hardly a handful, and it risks damaging my perception of legitimate link builders.
The sheer volume of low-quality pitches makes it increasingly difficult to spot the credible ones, unfairly painting an entire group with the same brush.
Below are some of the common issues I have experienced with guest posting and link-building outreach:
1. No personalization
One of the biggest red flags in a guest post pitch is the total absence of personalization. Many emails start with “Dear Webmaster” or “To whom it may concern” with very casual preliminaries.
It is easy to note when someone has copied and pasted the same message to 50 different blogs.
Minimal effort, like addressing the editor by name and referencing a specific post you liked, goes a long way.
It shows you are not just shooting emails all over the internet like it’s 2010. You come across as a human being who respects other people’s time and audience.
Here’s what good personalization looks like:
-
Mentioning my name (which is publicly available).
-
Referring to a specific post or theme on the blog.
-
Explaining why your post idea fits the blog and its readers.
-
Showing awareness of my tone or style.
2. Obvious SEO Motives
It’s about time I address the elephant in the inbox: the backlink hunters.
From my numerous interactions, I have one peculiar finding: that they don’t care about my blog, audience, or even niche.
They just want one thing: a juicy do-follow link for their client’s sketchy CBD, gambling, crypto, or SaaS startup.
While backlinks matter, the preoccupation with SEO growth can be counter-productive.
When it becomes obvious that the only reason is to game Google’s algorithm, it kills the entire point of guest posting, which should be about offering value to the audience.
3. Little Understanding of the Audience or Content
I have found some of the email pitches are wildly off-target. Going through them gives away the senders as people who don’t read a single sentence of the blog, or if they have, they have extremely misunderstood it.
When you pitch an article that has zero relevance to the blog’s niche or its readers, it identifies you as not ready to contribute but to exploit. And readers can spot that from a mile away, too.
Even when the topic is vaguely relevant, there’s often a bit of a disconnect in tone, depth, or style.
I have a few suggestions to remedy this:
-
Take time to read a few posts on the blog. Note the tone, level of expertise, and preferred topics.
-
Ask yourself: “Would the readers here genuinely benefit from my post?”
-
Align your pitch with both the niche and the style of the content.
-
Avoid tone-deaf suggestions like pitching a post on “How to Start a Dropshipping Business” to a site that focuses on nonprofit advocacy.
4. The Guest Post Budget Problem
I will now proceed to the part everyone pretends is not happening: the budget games.
I am listing this last, but make no mistake, it’s the most frustrating and frequently abused part of the process I have had to deal with.
This mess usually starts when an “outreach specialist” confuses guest posts with sponsored posts.
While traditional guest posting is typically unpaid and done for exposure or backlinks, these folks show up trying to negotiate paid placements under the guise of “guest contributions.”
Despite having a clearly stated rate in the first reply, my contemporaries often ignore it completely, making insultingly low offers, far below the rates.
Instead of pitching a sponsored post, they disguise it as a guest post, then launch protracted price negotiations, hoping to wear me down or score a cheap backlink.
It’s not only just annoying but also disingenuous and wastes everyone’s time.
Guest posting is not dead, but skewed link-building efforts should be. If you cannot be bothered to learn what a blog is about, do not expect a reply.