Save Time When Dealing With Link Building Companies Trying to Spam You

If you take this post as a rant, I won’t take it against you But it will only happen if you are just starting out with your blog.

Otherwise, you will definitely “feel our pain”, pick up on this tip and use it because it will save you time, while dealing with SEO companies and other spammy people.

Time Wasters

I get at least 3 emails a day from people asking to guest post on my blog. So it used to take time to reply to all those, explain what I will and will not post on my blog and so on. It didn’t take me too long to realize it is definitely not good use of my time so I had to cut it.

Now don’t get me wrong, everyone deserves a reply to a guest posting inquiry, and I do reply to them all.

But when you get 3 emails a day and they sound exactly the same (in bad English if I may add), but one is from Jane Smith from Canada, one is from Joe Black from UK and one is from Kristen Bailey from California you know you are dealing with a spammy SEO company.

Usually from India or Bangladesh from my experience.

So how not to waste time on these?

First write a guest post requirement page. List what you expect from people and what you are giving in return. Here is my guest posting policy.

Canned Responses

Then go to your Gmail or which ever mail you are using and create a template response. I use Gmail and to do this in Gmail, type your message and click the Canned Response option. Then create a new canned response.

gmail canned response

Mine looks like this:

brankica canned response

So now, every time I receive a guest post inquiry, I just hit reply and insert this canned response. It only takes me 10 seconds to reply to those emails.

Sure, it is a bit impersonal, however, most of those companies/people start the email with Dear Editor anyway, so why not reply in the same manner…

If a person does take time to mention me by name and sends a more personal email, I will usually add something to this response to make it more personal.

Note that I always include the response because I want to make sure everyone reads the rules and agrees. Which means if you don’t follow them, your links are gone…

If you just started this blogging “game”, you may not even realize you are dealing with those mass link builders, so here is a video I recently made about how I use Rapportive in Gmail to see who I am dealing with.

Time is money and you don’t want to be wasting yours! So use these tips to save time on people who don’t deserve it.

Most of the time, you will get really crappy posts anyway so setting priorities for your online business is really important here.

How are you dealing with these?

Buffer

http://www.techwork.dk Thomas

Hi Brankica
I am not accepting any guest posting on my blog for now and even that I have written that statement on my contact form I still gets these requests. I guess it is a bit easier to explain to people that I don’t accept any guest post at all, but it still takes time to answer people. I like your idea with a template for dealing with these requests. I only have a signature, but I often write the same answer so why not make a template to deal with it.
- http://onlineincomestar.com Brankica Underwood
  
  You can use these canned responses for much more than this. Anything that requires repeating information will save you time.
http://coffeestylish.com/ Danijela

Yesterday I got an email from a company offering me guests posts, and ask for link in return. I really didn’t know what to do with it, since this is the first time for me to receive this kind of email. Believe me, I will follow each of these tips, including writing a guest post rules page first, since I don’t have one yet . I am sure it will save me lot of time and nerves in the future, so I will do it right away. Thank you!
- http://onlineincomestar.com Brankica Underwood
  
  As soon as your blog starts showing up on google you will start getting piles of those emails. I am so glad you found these tips useful. Glad I could help.
http://hajrakvetches.com Hajra

I knew you would write about this when I saw the canned response update on your FB page! I stalk you too much…

Well, I don’t get too many guest post requests but since I started doing the We Blog Stalk series for We Blog Better, I do get a lot of emails asking me to feature their blogs. What I don’t understand is that people don’t read enough. I have clearly mentioned on the series that they need to post requests on the WBB FB page rather than spamming my inbox.

My canned response is something I am still working on. Should I make it a little sarcastic or just plain boring textbook-y?
- http://onlineincomestar.com Brankica Underwood
  
  Haha, knowing you, you would kick butt with a sarcastic one And I can only imagine how many requests you get, people never read nor pay attention to details like those.
http://www.bestautorespondertips.com/email-autoresponder-armor-of-email-marketing/ Jane

Pit, you spoke my mind. Yup I too have a canned mail response to these spammers. Most of these emails give me a good laugh these days (as opposed to getting annoyed earlier). Think about someone writing to me like this:

Hi admin, I am a regular reader of probloggingsuccess.com and I appreciate the value you offer in your blog on finance and mortgage. I have articles related to … blah blah blah….

Then I laugh out loud and send them a canned reply!

Yup time is money and I can’t afford to waste it!
- http://onlineincomestar.com Brankica
  
  Haha, that is funny! I bet what ever automatic crappy software they are using to scrape guest posting opportunities saw a post like “how to make money by doing…” and though it is about finance. Oh, spammers drive me nuts.
  
  Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it
http://gohotmoney.com/ Oscar R

I have a new blog which I created in June 2012. It’s good that I have read your policy on guest posting. I might use your guest posting policy as a model and I will create my own. Thank you for your policy.
- http://onlineincomestar.com/ Brankica
  
  Any time, feel free to use it, copy, adapt what ever and thanks for the comment
http://www.fabcamerareviews.com/panasonic-limux-dmc-ts3-review/ Matthew @ camera reviews

Thank you so much for introducing me to the canned response feature of Gmail. It surely is a great time-saver and an effective tool to safeguard against irritating spams!
http://www.mywritingblog.com Nick Daws

I get loads of these guest post queries too. I now make it a rule that I only accept guest posts from people who wish to promote their own blog/website and not one belonging to a client or employer.