@calebsoudry Looks interesting and they are probably overwhelmed by the requests. How do they make any money?

@amyhallbiz and @kristi-hines, They actually just sent me two blog post with links back to insurance websites. Content was good. Their website says that they are mostly college students/recent grads with degrees in english/communications and they don’t charge anything for the content.

Does it seem scammy to include this at the end of the blog post/writer bio: “ Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”;}… Tallulah loves to get a good deal on any item, including her insurance. Thanks to a great deal on  http://www.homeownersinsurance.org/ , she has a new, lower interest rate on her homeowner’s insurance!”

It seems scammy to me. If it was linked to the writers personal blog that would make sense, but this? I’m not sure, I’m new to all this and not confident in whats normal.

@amyhallbiz, Thanks so much for answering and giving your input! Yes that was the website they’re linking too. I clearly have alot to learn It’s actually given me some things to look into, as I just figured out what PR stands for. Apparently mine’s a 5 as well, which is cool because we haven’t used it for a long time. Blogging is something my company is just now getting interested in doing seriously. Thanks again, I think i’ll try it out!

@calebsoudry I’m guessing they’re a network that trades “free content” for links, and I’d guess that the companies (like the insurance company) pay them for those links.

@calebsoudry I would say only use them if they are providing really good content and you don’t mind where the link is pointing to.   If your site is about gardening, and they provide you a post linking to an insurance site, it won’t be very relevant.

Yea, it sounds like a link exchange deal, they give you free content and they get links back to their client’s sites from the posts. .adslot-overlay {position: absolute; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.65); border: 2px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.65); color: white !important; margin: 0; z-index: 2147483647; text-decoration: none; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: left;}.adslot-overlay-iframed {top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0;}.slotname {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; padding: 3px 0 3px 6px; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.45); text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden;}.slotname span {text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-transform: capitalize;}.revenue {position: absolute; bottom: 0; left: 0; right: 0; font-size: 11px; padding: 3px 0 3px 6px; vertial-align: middle; text-align: left; background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.45); font-weight: bold; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap;}.revenue .name {color: #ccc;}.revenue .horizontal .metric {display: inline-block; padding-right: 1.5em;}.revenue .horizontal .name {padding-right: 0.5em;}.revenue .vertical .metric {display: block; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;}.revenue .vertical .name, .revenue .vertical .value {display: block;}.revenue .square .metric, .revenue .button .metric {display: table-row;}.revenue .square .metric {line-height: 1.5em;}.revenue .square .name, .revenue .square .value, .revenue .button .value {display: table-cell;}.revenue .square .name {padding-right: 1.5em;}.revenue .button .name {display: block; margin-right: 0.5em; width: 1em; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: clip;}.revenue .button .name:first-letter {margin-right: 1.5em;}a.adslot-overlay:hover {border: 2px solid rgba(58,106,173,0.9);}a.adslot-overlay:hover .slotname {border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(81,132,210,0.9); background-color: rgba(58,106,173,0.9);}a.adslot-overlay:hover .revenue {border-top: 1px solid rgba(81,132,210,0.9); background-color: rgba(58,106,173,0.9);}div.adslot-overlay:hover {cursor: not-allowed; border: 2px solid rgba(64,64,64,0.9);}div.adslot-overlay:hover .slotname {border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(128,128,128,0.9); background-color: rgba(64,64,64,0.9);}div.adslot-overlay:hover .revenue {border-top: 1px solid rgba(128,128,128,0.9); background-color: rgba(64,64,64,0.9);}

If the content is relevant to your site it would seem fine, especially if you are looking for more content, you might want to make sure it’s original though, who knows, that same article (post) could be on a bunch of other sites also because they just spammed site owners with the same article. Google a few sentences to see if the same content shows up other places to be safe.  Also if you don’t feel that linking out to the sites in the post but still want to use the content, just strip the links out or no follow them. 

For guest posts i am particularly interested in hearing about the launch of authorpress.com, a joint venture between copybloggger.com and blueglass.com, waiting to hear additional details on how it works but guest posts are great for site owners who need content, and for authors that are looking for additional exposure.