This email is an example of how to NOT get a guest post at StoryADay. And I’ll tell you why.

Here’s what I received:

——

Message Body:
Hello!
I was stumbling upon the internet when I found your blog and after looking into few posts that you have published recently I can say that the quality of content is very powerful.

I am a blogger who writes on similar topics. I have some content which you’ll be interested in. Currently I can offer you the article with infographics named: XXXX XXXX XXXX. I would like to publish on your blog as a guest contributor, mainly because you have wider audience which might be interested in similar subject.

Please let me know if it is possible for you and I will send you my piece for review purposes.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

——

Here are the things that got it sent to my spam folder.

1. There is no greeting. It’s not hard to find my name on this site. Use it.
2. “stumbling upon the internet” and “quality of content is very powerful” sound like English-as-a-second-language and, in particular English-spammers-use.
3. “I am a blogger who writes on similar topics” – still very vague and spammy.
4. “I can offer you the article with infographics named XXX” — doesn’t tell me what the article will do, teach my people or whether the infographic is something you made yourself or something you’ve ripped off from other people. Doesn’t tell me how long it is or give me any sense of your writing style.
5. If an article has quotations, I want to know that you’ve read the original source yourself and chosen the quotes as I do with my Tumblr feed (with the exception of my outpouring of quotes the day that Maya Angelou died and I was pulling quotes that other people had posted. Even then I searched for more than one instance of any quote to sort-of-verify it was legit.)
6. “I would like to publish on your blog as a guest contributor, mainly because you have wider audience which might be interested in similar subject.” You want to post here because I have spent over a decade building up an audience and you want those eyeballs?  No. Tell me what my readers will get from your post, not what you’ll get.
7. There is no signature. Sign your name.
8. There is no link to anywhere I can see your previous work, or your own blog.

Do not do as the “person” above did. Send me good pitches for great guest articles and I’ll be happy to share my blog’s eyeballs with you. Send me crappy pitches and I won’t reply, and you’ll end up in the spam folder. Sorry.