Guest post requests in your inbox: ten red flags and one reply
Every site with a contact form receives them. Most are templates, a few are worth answering, and a handful are traps for your reputation.
PublicLinks editorial team ·
Ten red flags
The email praises an article that does not exist on your site.
The sender writes about every topic from casino to cooking.
Their examples are all on sites with a visible 'write for us' footer and no readers.
The sender asks for a dofollow link and names the anchor in the first message.
The pitch offers 'free' content and mentions a fee only in the second email.
There is no author page, photo or byline history anywhere online.
The topic is a stretch from yours, such as payday loans on a gardening blog.
The email comes from a generic address and the reply-to differs.
They want the link inside an old post rather than a new article.
They push for a quick yes.
The three-question test
Would your regular readers learn something from this article? That one question clears most of the pile. A piece serving only the sender's link should not run. Say no.
Now strip the link. Would you still publish it? If yes, the piece has editorial value and the link is a fair exchange. If no, you are selling space, and that has a price, which the sponsored post pricing guide covers.
The last one stings. Does the sender's own site look like a real publication? Check recent posts, outbound links and whether Ahrefs, Semrush or SimilarWeb show any traffic.
Three replies, three outcomes
Situation
Reply
Link attribute
Strong article, relevant sender, no payment
Accept after editing
Your call, usually none
Decent article, link is the point
Quote a fee and label it
sponsored
Template, off-topic, vague
Decline politely or ignore
Not applicable
A reply you can paste
Edit the brackets and send. It filters out most templates without rudeness.
text
Hi [name],
Thanks for the pitch. We publish about [topic] for [audience].
Before we go further, could you send two published articles and the
exact page you want to link to? Sponsored posts are labelled and carry a
sponsored attribute; our rate card is attached.
[Editor]
Why inbound pitches grew
Guest posting has been marketed as a link tactic for years. Google named large-scale guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchors as a link scheme in its spam documentation. The pitches kept coming anyway.
Since the 2022 and 2024 spam updates, honest senders have to work harder, and dishonest ones have to send more. Your inbox gets the second group. A short filter saves hours each month.
Publishers carry the risk. Senders skip it. A site known for taking any article can draw a manual action or lose trust with readers long before the sender notices. Reputation is slow to build. It is quick to spend, and the sender never pays for it.
Keep a yes-list
Save the senders who passed your test, with the topic they cover and the date. Next time they pitch, you answer in a minute. A short list of known writers is worth more than any scoring tool.
What a good pitch looks like
A short list, because good ones are rare.
It names a real article of yours
The sender has read your site, can say which post their idea complements, and does not recycle the same sentence for every publisher.
It brings a specific angle
A dataset, a first-hand account or a method you have not covered. Not 'ten tips' for the fourth time.
It shows past work
Two links to bylined articles on real publications, checked by you in Google, with readers and comments visible.
It asks sensible questions
Word count, style guide, link policy and labelling. A sender who asks about your sponsored-content rules has done this before.
When the answer is a rate card
Some senders will happily pay. Good. Reply with a fee, a label and a rel value, and let the market decide, using the method for setting a rate so the number holds up.
Do not apologise for charging. A publisher that edits, hosts and defends a page for years is providing a service. Buyers who balk were hunting for a free ride, which is no business of yours.
If you would rather not field these emails by hand, list the site and let orders arrive with a price attached. The page on selling links from your site explains how approval works.