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How do I connect directly with SEO agencies that buy guest post placements?
I run a website with 30K/mo traffic in a health niche. I write some articles and pay some writers from the community to create content. To help monetize the site, since I don’t bring in enough from affiliate income and display ads, I started accepting guest posts. It’s my best/only option to keep myself and my site afloat right now so no judgment, please.
I am very strict about what I accept and everything must fit with the niche. Most of the posts I’ve accepted so far have had links to medical offices, surgeons, nursing schools, psychologists, etc. My fee is currently $50 for a guest post and $30 for a link insertion. My goal is to make $500/week from guest posts, so accepting about 10 per week OR increasing my prices. I might be undercharging a bit considering my niche, but I’m trying to get steady money. Currently, my number of placements is wildly variable, but on average I’m making $100-$300/week.
To deal with the 10+ guest post inquiries I receive daily (that I never sought out), I created templates so I can answer every email in seconds. I don’t use an auto responder because when I get an inquiry from an actual agency or business that was written by someone who is fluent in English, I will often send a different template. The sketchy ones have to jump through hoops.
The email reply to the sketchy ones instructs them to fill out a form. There, they are given the rules about acceptable and unacceptable content and the $50 fee notice, along with the following text: “This fee is FIRM and we do not offer lower prices for agencies. Any attempt to negotiate a lower price will result in us ignoring or blocking you.” Then they must choose between two radio buttons regarding the price, one agreeing and the other saying that they will try to negotiate a lower price despite my stated rules. If they choose that one, once they finish the form, they are automatically notified that they don’t qualify for guest posting. You would be surprised (or maybe not) at how many of them check that button.
As you might guess, quite a few of them just reply to the email and ask for the price. Then they get a second email (also a template) telling them that I don’t have a record of them filling out the form and that they will be given the price when they fill out the form. Sometimes they do fill it out at that point, but usually, I just don’t hear from them again. Good riddance.
Many of the sketchy people who want to place guest posts, especially the ones who try to ridiculously lowball me and offer $10, tell me they are with agencies, but most seem to actually be, and even say they are, resellers. My question is, resellers for whom? How do I bypass the middleman and connect directly with the people they are selling to?
Over months of slogging through the swamp of emails, I have managed to connect with two agencies that are solid and send me posts semi-regularly. One is based in the UK and I email directly with one of their employees. They are wonderful. They always pay on time and send me high-quality articles. But they only send me something to publish every other week or so. I’m trying to find more agencies like them to work with directly. Specifically, I would like to work with US or UK-based companies and deal directly with an employee who is fluent in English, not a Fiverr VA.
Any leads would be greatly appreciated.
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1 Reply
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So we occasionally buy guest post placements. The way we find websites is by looking up keywords adjacent to the client niche that we’d like a link insertion on.
We usually DM anyone from page 1 through page 10.
So, what u should do is come up with keywords that agencies would use to find link opportunities for their clients.
E.g. for one of our clients, we were looking for keywords around “gift for [person],” “gift for [person] [age],” etc.
Since you’re in the health niche, might make sense to make some posts about CBD, as CBD brands do a ton of link-building.
DM me your site btw, might have some opportunity to Collab.
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You can search for agencies on google and contact them. Also, what is your site as I also need to publish posts sometimes.
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With a real site not made for link placements only and 1k daily traffic, you are heavily undercharging. Depending on other metrics, I’d say you can easily ask 4x or 5x of what you are charging now.
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Just go to LinkedIn and put that you do SEO basically anywhere on your profile and you’ll have people reaching out to you non-stop about guest post backlinks.
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I used to work for an agency that did this kind of work. Maybe you’d want to reach out and I can give you more details?
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Stop calling them guest posts. Start looking for contributors. Literally make a page on your site called “write for us” and describe the type of content and contributions that your looking for.
Look at what the real quality publications in your niche are doing. They don’t mention “guest posts”, ever.
Focus on quality authors and contributors. Do outreach to those who have written for major publications and see if they would write for your site.
By focusing on trying to get “guest posts”, you’re “cheapening” your publication. The major publications don’t do that. Think quality over just “guest posts”. Then readers will take your site so much more seriously, and you’ll attract advertisers, not just people who want to pay for one-time “guest posts”.
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Without knowing what type of traffic and GEOs its tough to say… But you probably could charge a lot more.
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Link?
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