I'm not accepting guest posts on zemalf.com at the moment, sorry.
- Looking to expand your audience and get a little bit of traffic to your blog?
- Want to help others by sharing your experiences and knowledge?
- Interested in getting a couple of links from a trusted blog (mmm, SEO-goodness)?
Awesome! I invite you to write a guest post on Zemalf.com!
BUT your guest post needs to be TOP QUALITY. Bulk articles that you might get away on article submission sites and other blogs will be declined here. If you think you have what it takes to produce HIGHLY VALUABLE content to this blog, read the guidelines on this page.
I allow 2 keyword-rich anchor-text links in the author byline at the end of the post and 1 additional link in the content of the guest post. I do not ask exclusivity (you are free to publish the same post elsewhere, if the other site allows it), I ask for quality and awesomeness, I ask that you follow my simple guidelines.
Contribute to this site: guest blogging
Write for me and this blog to showcase your content creation skills to a community of bloggers, Internet marketers, entrepreneurs and Internet business owners. You'll get your post in front of all the readers of this blog, in addition to getting the links back to your own site (and your favorite social media profile like Twitter).
For example: Take your experiences with blogging or Internet business for example, share what you've learned, what has worked for you, what has not gone so well, what you'd do different, etc. What tactics brought your traffic, what kind of techniques made you most sales. Putting your personal experience into the article will make it that much more powerful.
Before you get too excited and look for thousands of visitors pour into your site from your guest post here, let's keep it real, shall we? The traffic of this blog is not spectacular (See the traffic stats here: my traffic is public). Thus, the value of your guest article is probably more on the sharing side, and the links for SEO.
How to submit your guest post
If you're interested writing a guest post to Zemalf.com, use the contact form to send your article. Read the guidelines below to ensure smooth processing of your guest post.
If you don't read the guidelines, and follow them, your guest post will not be published.
Most guest post submissions to this blog fail, because the writer has not read this page and followed the simple guidelines. The usual suspects for not getting the guest article published are:
- the content of the guest post does not match this blog
- the least thing you can do is READ this blog a bit to see what it's about
- the guest post is not submitted in proper format
- plain text (.txt) HTML on attached file preferred
- there are no internal links in the guest post
- at least two internal links to relevant posts in Zemalf.com are mandatory
- guest post summary is not included
- max. 160 characters benefit-driven summary of the post, which doubles as a SEO (meta) description
I'm not gonna publish articles that don't meet my quality standards - and 99% of the guest posts sent to me are crap. I'm sick and tired of bulk Internet marketing bullshit articles spun and re-written just to promote yet-another-make-money-online offer.
I'm not gonna tell you what you should write about, so don't ask, just submit your post. If you can't come up with a topic yourself that is suitable for this blog, you probably don't have what it takes to produce a high quality guest post for this blog.
Good guest posts are...
- In-topic. Your article should be related to WordPress, website optimization, website performance, Internet business, blogging, Internet marketing, SEO, entrepreneurship or something along those lines. Reading the blog archives and checking the articles -page shows what kind of posts are published here.
- Valuable. Don't write "yet another fluff-filled bullcrap post" everyone is tired off. Make the post useful, make it valuable. Your guest post is a chance to make an ever-lasting first impression. Make it count.
- Original content. Write the post yourself. Do not copy others. Don't re-write the same stuff we've all seen too many times already. Be unique, be original. Add your personal touch and experiences into the post.
Guest post guidelines
The content is more important than the format, however, I ask you to follow these simple guidelines to make your post fit in with the other posts here at the blog and make it easier for me, so I don't have to edit and format your post (fact: easier it is for me, more likely it is that your post will be published).
See previous guest posts to see how other guest bloggers have done it. (Note that guidelines have changed over time, and I expect top of the line quality guest posts)
Republishing policy
To get a guest article published on my blog, it does not have to be exclusive, it has to be good and useful.
The article you write is yours, even if it is published here on Zemalf.com, I'm not going to demand exclusivity from you. If you want to re-publish the article, modify it or not, use it again elsewhere, it's up to you. However, the post needs to be good. It needs to be useful, so follow these guidelines. Follow the formatting rules below as well (links, headings, etc.).
Editorial policy
I can edit your post and add my links to the text at any point. I will not alter your writing (apart from the links), and all edits or "editor's notes" will be marked.
Quality requirements
Be excellent to each other. Do not copy someone elses content, do not be overly self-promotional, link to uncool websites or do other similar shenanigans, or your guest post will be denied. Avoid filling your post with fluff and bullcrap. Concentrate on quality, not buzz-words.
Grammar. Your article should be proper English. Avoid typos. Proofread your own article before submission. (because I will not)
Main keyphrase. For maximum benefit and SEO, your post should be about one topic, one keyword phrase, a keyphrase. This keyphrase should be in the title, the summary, at the beginning of the post and at the end of the post. (totaling 2-3 in the whole post).
Article length. Article quality and value is more important than number of words. However, the post should be at least 250 words. There is no reason to make the article longer than it needs to be, but feel free to go as long as you feel necessary (Like Matt's warcraft blog -post which broke the 3000 word mark!).
Formatting preferences
File Format. Your guest post should be in HTML format plain text (preferred). Don't include any styling on the HTML, this site is styled via CSS. RTF-, Word- or Open office -format are also OK.
Headline. Give your post a good, descriptive, benefit-driven, keyword-optimized headline. The headline must not be longer than 60 characters. Headline is the key for both SEO and good copy, use couple of minutes to make the headline stand out. Post headline is formatted as 'h1', do not use h1 for anything but the post headline.
Summary. Add max. 160 characters (yes - characters, not words, keep it short) summary of the post at the beginning. Include the main keyphrase (SEO) of the article in the summary. The summary will be used as meta description of the post (or send a separate max. 160 character meta description if you want).
Introduction. "<em>This is a guest post by FIRSTNAME LASTNAME</em>". The name can be linked (either to your site or social media profile).
Article text. Write for the readers (to make it awesome), write for the web (to make it readable), write a SEO friendly post (to make it gain traffic) - in that order. Utilize subheadings (h2, h3) and bullet points. Highlight the key concepts with bold (<strong> or emphasis <em>. Do not use underline (that's saved for linking).
Link requirements and policies
Links. Add at least 2 internal links to other relevant posts here at Zemalf.com with keyword rich anchor-text. Optional: Add one link, with keyword rich anchor-text, in content back to your own site if it adds value to the post. Add other external links (no limit) to the body text to show references and further reading.
Author byline. You can add two links in the byline with keyword-rich anchor text + an additional link to your favorite social media profile, like Twitter, if you want. The largest article (marketing) directory, EzineArticles, says it the best: "Article body is the GIVE, and the author box is the TAKE".
Post image requirements
Images (optional). If you want to include images on the post, you are free to do so (but you don't have to). Send the images to me along the guest post (add all to one zip-file. Check the instructions on how to send your article below for more info).
Image format (optional). Maximum width for the images is 620px. If you want, provide a 300x300 image, which can be used as a post thumbnail (in case I end up displaying them when the design is tweaked). The images will be optimized for site speed (fast loading): Optimize the images for web -or- Send the images to me as uncompressed PNG.
Submitting the guest article
Use the contact form to send a message that you'd like to write a guest post. Submit your post by attaching the file to the message (there's an option for that in the comment form).
- Check the guest post guidelines above
- Follow the guidelines and format accordingly
- Preferred format: HTML format plain text (txt-file), no styling.
- RTF-, Word- and Open Office -format is also OK
- Images: Uncompressed PNG preferred. 300x300px for post thumbnail. Max width: 620px
- Take your guest post -file, and image(s) you might have for the post, and compress them into one zip-file (txt-file can be sent as is)
- Go to the contact form
- Fill in your name, email, enter a brief message (add your Twitter ID) and attach the zip-file via the form
If you any problems using the form, send me a message via Twitter or send your message without the attachment, if that's causing you problems.
After I've received the message, accepted the post and scheduled it for publishing - You'll get an email back telling you when the post is going live (if you don't hear anything for a long time, chances are I'm very busy with other activities).
When your guest post goes live...
- Link to it from your own blog,
- Promote the post via Twitter, Digg and other social networks you use.
- Stay tuned and answer to comments
Now go and write an awesome guest article and send it to me!
