The latest spammy blog query

Stop spraying the spam

I love it when a good example of a bad query falls into my lap. You betcha I’m gonna blog about it.

I got this email the other day – only the name has been changed to protect this “professional blogger.”

Her email to me

My name is Spamela and I’m a Professional Blogger. I have more than 3+ yrs of experience writing for the web and have covered plenty of interesting topics.

I came across your blog and was wondering if you would be interested in allowing me to write relevant & useful topics on your blog at no cost.

At this point of my writing career, I simply want to get more visibility for my writing and I will write for free as long as you are fine with me adding a small author bio section following the blog post about myself.

Please let me know if you are interested and if you’d like for me to submit a sample blog post for your approval.

Spammy and generic

Spamela’s email – she could have sent it to a hundred different bloggers.

Nothing specific – no mention of any of my blog posts or even what my blog is about, no specifics on what she’d like to blog about for my page or how it would be helpful or interesting to my subscribers.

Stop speeding

Don’t be in a speeding hurry to pump out 50 emails (all the same email) to 50 bloggers. Slow down, do a little research on a few specific blogs at a time, make a few considered comments on these blogs.

Specifics of landing a guest blog spot

Found your blog – Explain, if you can remember, how you came across the person’s blog; i.e., you were looking for editors or proofreaders, you were looking for examples of blog guidelines, you were looking for word origins or vocabulary.

What do you like about the blog? – Add a few blog headlines from the host’s blog and say what you liked about those blog posts.

Relevant and useful topics – Explain the “relevant and useful topics” you’d like to blog about and how those topics apply to the host’s audience.

Spamela asked for a bio spot – If she had visited my blog and looked at a few of my guests’ posts, she would have seen that I make this a habit – I always post the guest’s bio, a profile photo, and the guest’s social networking links.

Compliment – One compliment for the host blogger goes a long way – I love your Shark theme and design, I loved your portmanteau blog, I loved your Poetry Week – include a comment or two to indicate you have actually looked at the host blog.

My guidelines – Spamela did not mention my blog guidelines. Did she read them? Would she be willing to work within those guidelines?

See also my How to play well with others series – blog guidelines, hosting a guest blogger, the guest blog query, your guest post.

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I can live for two months on a good compliment. ~Mark Twain