Paid for Guest Post

It's extremely rare that I get a guest blogger at The Brown Knowser. I welcome the prospect of somebody else taking a turn at sharing content and I've had a couple of posts over the years.

If you're interested, please reach out at BrownKnowser@gmail.com.

Someone, in fact did so just the other day, and at first, when I read the subject line and saw "guest post," I became excited. And when my eyes focused on the entire subject line, I grew skeptical.

In lowercase lettering, the subject line read "paid for guest post."

I read the first few words to the message and then immediately suspected spam or phishing. I was ready to click delete but first thought I should take a screen capture of the message and read it from there before wiping the e-mail from my Inbox.

If it is a scam, the scammer sure is lazy. The message appears to be a form letter, where there are obvious spots where the sender should be filling in customized content. Here's what the message says (I've added some missing spaces for clarity):

Hi
I hope this email finds you well. My name is Husnain Ali and I'm at Your Company. I'm a big fan of your blog and I'm writing to you today to propose a guest post. I've been writing about Your Expertise for the past years and I've published articles on List of Relevant Publications. I'm confident that I can write a high quality guest post that would be of interest to your readers. I'm proposing a post on the topic of Title of Proposed Post. This is a topic that I'm very passionate about, and I think it would be a valuable addition to your blog. I've attached a brief outline of the post, as well as a few links to my previous work. I'm happy to provide more information if you're interested. I'm open to working with you to develop the post and ensure that it meets your needs. I'm also happy to promote the post on my social media channels. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hear from you soon.
Best Regard

Husnain ali
seo, sdo

There was no outline attached to the message. There were no links to any previous work.

I mean, it's basically a well-formed letter. Perhaps, if Husnain had taken the time to fill in Your Company, Your Expertise, List of Relevant Publications, and Title of Proposed Post, I might have thought that he was legit. With links to previous work, I might have been curious enough to check them out.

Instead, this e-mail message (if he's the big fan that he claims to be, how did he not know about my disdain for the lack of a hyphen in this abbreviated word?) went straight into the trash bin.

Sorry, Husnain. Try harder next time.

Dear readers, if you would ever like to collaborate on a post or if you would like me to share something that you've put together, reach out and let's have a conversation. Just be aware that I won't pay you for a post (no one pays me to do this!).

Happy Friday!