Guest Posting Guest Posting 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'outreach personalization' in guest posting campaigns?
- Adding the recipient's name to a mass email template
- Tailoring each pitch email to reference the specific site's content, audience, and editor by name (Correct answer)
- Sending emails at personalized times of day
- Including a personalized discount offer
Correct answer: Tailoring each pitch email to reference the specific site's content, audience, and editor by name
True personalization involves referencing specific articles, the site's audience, and demonstrating you've done your research.
Question 2: What does it mean when a site requires 'exclusive content' for guest posts?
- You must pay an exclusivity fee
- The article cannot have been published anywhere else and cannot be republished after (Correct answer)
- You must use only their staff writers
- The content must only link to their advertisers
Correct answer: The article cannot have been published anywhere else and cannot be republished after
Exclusive content means the piece is original, first-published on their site, and not duplicated elsewhere to avoid duplicate content issues.
Question 3: Which tool is commonly used to check if a prospective guest post site has a healthy backlink profile?
- Google Analytics
- Ahrefs or Moz Link Explorer (Correct answer)
- Canva
- Screaming Frog for crawl errors only
Correct answer: Ahrefs or Moz Link Explorer
Ahrefs and Moz allow you to audit a site's inbound links, detect toxic backlinks, and assess domain strength.
Question 4: What is the 'skyscraper technique' as applied to guest posting topic selection?
- Writing articles about architecture niches
- Finding top-performing content in your niche and pitching a more comprehensive, updated version (Correct answer)
- Stacking multiple guest posts on the same site
- Using tall fonts in your submitted article
Correct answer: Finding top-performing content in your niche and pitching a more comprehensive, updated version
The skyscraper technique involves identifying what already ranks well and offering an even better resource to host sites.
Question 5: How should you handle a rejection from a site editor after pitching a guest post?
- Demand an explanation and threaten to post negatively about them
- Thank them politely and ask if you can pitch again in the future or request feedback (Correct answer)
- Immediately submit the same pitch to their competitors
- Never contact that site again under any circumstances
Correct answer: Thank them politely and ask if you can pitch again in the future or request feedback
A gracious response preserves the relationship and keeps the door open for future collaboration.
Question 6: What is a 'sponsored post' and how does it differ from an organic guest post?
- A sponsored post is free while a guest post costs money
- A sponsored post involves payment to the host site and must be disclosed as advertising (Correct answer)
- A sponsored post has more backlinks allowed
- There is no difference between the two
Correct answer: A sponsored post involves payment to the host site and must be disclosed as advertising
The FTC requires sponsored content to be labeled as paid advertising, distinguishing it from earned editorial guest posts.
Question 7: Which practice is considered a 'black hat' approach to guest posting?
- Writing high-quality original content for reputable blogs
- Submitting the same article to dozens of sites simultaneously (duplicate content spam) (Correct answer)
- Including a bio link to your homepage
- Pitching multiple topic ideas in one email
Correct answer: Submitting the same article to dozens of sites simultaneously (duplicate content spam)
Duplicate guest posts violate Google's guidelines and can result in manual penalties for both the author and host sites.
Guest Posting Guest Posting 4
What is 'outreach personalization' in guest posting campaigns?