Every day, I get at least one email offering a guest post or a co-written post for this blog. The emails usually boast about how much research the writer does, but that research doesn’t appear to include reading the bit of my contact page that says I don’t publish guest posts. If people can’t be bothered reading my contact page, I can’t be bothered replying politely before I delete their messages.

Over to Google’s very own Matt Cutts:

Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company.

Back in the day, guest blogging used to be a respectable thing, much like getting a coveted, respected author to write the introduction of your book. It’s not that way any more.