It should really come as little surprise that guest blogging is more popular than ever. It really does offer a win-win situation for everyone involved. The person writing the guest post gets great exposure and a valuable backlink, while the blog owner gets fresh content for the ripe old price of free.
The struggle is getting this arrangement in the first place. Making guest blogging as easy as possible is Web Traffic Control, the service that serves as the subject of today’s review. To make matters even more interesting, it presents an opportunity to make money for blog owners too.
A Guest Blogging Network
That’s the fundamental idea behind Web Traffic Control. There’s no need to seek out potential content partners, because the blogging network does that for you automatically.
The site was developed by UareL, an online marketing agency. When you add your blog to the Web Traffic Control network, it becomes visible to potential advertisers who will then write guest posts. These get published on your blog and you earn money.
Yes, you earn money when someone else provides you with free content. They promise up to $750 per month in earnings, based on a rate of $15 per article and a maximum of 50 posts per month. This is a flat rate, regardless of the size of your site. In this way, Web Traffic Control could prove to be a big money-maker for smaller blogs. If you have multiple blogs, you can multiply that $750 by the number of sites you have.
Attracting Bloggers to the Network First
Even though there is a page for advertisers, that side of Web Traffic Control isn’t quite ready just yet. They’re working on building up a network of bloggers first, ensuring that there are enough places for all these guest posts to go.
Based on that initial page, though, it looks like Web Traffic Control is taking up to a 50% cut on the proceeds. An advertiser who signs up for the “small” package gets 15 posts for $450, which works out to $30 a post. The 50% commission is fairly standard for an advertising network.
Signup and Setup as a Blogger
Going back to the blog owner’s side of the equation, you’ll see that the sign up and setup process is very easy and very short.
You give the URL to the blog you’d like to add to the network, then you create an “editor” account on that blog for Web Traffic Control to use. You’ll also need to fulfill the blog requirements, which are outlined in checklist form. After that, you choose the categories that are most relevant to your blog. The service allows for up to ten categories.
This is important, because you want to make sure that the guest blog posts are related to your core content. Remember that the system is automated, so it will add the posts for you. WTC says they manually moderate all submitted content, but I hope that the site owner has the same kind of control.
The categories you choose will be created on your blog if they don’t already exist. In this way, choosing ten new categories might not be the best idea, unless you’re okay with having a cluttered category list on your blog. It’s also noteworthy that these categories cannot be changed at the moment; I hope that gets added in a future update.
Entry Fee Waived for Early Adopters
Normally, Web Traffic Control says that it charges a $50 fee for bloggers to join the network. I’m not sure I agree with this model, since WTC is already making money on each purchased guest post. Thankfully, the $50 fee is being waived for the first 1000 users to join.
Bear in mind that your blog needs to be good quality with a minimum PR2 to join Web Traffic Control. This helps to guarantee quality links for the advertisers, but it also prevents people from making dozens of new blogs just to join WTC. As it stands, this is an interesting advertising model that works like paid posts without the blogger having to do any writing at all.
Did you enjoy this post? Get John Chow Dot Com updates via email...
Stay up to date with all of John Chow’s tips for making money online and blog posts by subscribing via email. Your email will be kept private and never shared with anyone.
One of the most common complaint (or excuse) I hear from potential new bloggers is they don’t know how to install WordPress. Terms like FTP and CPanel are like a foreign language and setting up a database might as well be setting up the space shuttle for a launch. Because of the technology barrier, many would-be bloggers never start their blogs...
{ 96 comments }
Very interesting concept. Not sure i agree with them charging on both ends of the system though and it’s to bad about the minimum PR requirement also even though I understand the reason for it. If I had to pay to join the network then my PR shouldn’t matter that much. IMO. -Tony
Hi Tony
Thanks for your comments. If your blog has quality content and is not brand new, it might get accepted anyway. Go ahead and open an account and our moderators will take a look. We generally say min PR2 in order to prevent people from abusing the system with new blogs. The entry fees for bloggers will be introduced at a later time in order to slow down the number of entries and balance the network. Plus this helps to cover the cost of manually reviewing every blog that goes into the network, and of course reaching out to Bloggers through marketing and advertising. We have at least 700 free accounts remaining at the time of writing.
My blog is PR 1 but is deserving of a higher rank
I signed up. I hope I get accepted because I rarely have time to write. Too busy with ppv at the moment.
Awesome stuff! Looking forward to seeing your results. Also, how is PPV going for you?
Best,
Ian
Yes this is quite interesting concept and come at the right time when people are looking for guest post and guest posters are looking for established blogs.
Doesn’t matter what you deserve, it matters what your rank is. Simple enough.
What if I have old domain but not PR 2, can I still use it to sign up?
Thank you.
50 posts a month is a lot of work to earn that $750.
Never mind, I read that wrong, sounds like a good idea.
Wow, is can handle 50posts/month. But sad to say, I think they only accept WordPress blogs, mine still on Blogger.
Thanks for the useful post Michael
If i had a WordPress blog then i need at least page rank 2, then only they will approve
good review, it’s better to not charge guest posters at the beginning but in a blog like johnchow.com, why not? the exposure is huge.
Hi Fazal
The guest posters (or Advertisers) are paying for the convenience of not having to find content partners which can be very time consuming, plus the automated distribution, and assurances of quality. It’s all about getting a regular and reliable supply of backlinks and exposure on targeted blogs.
I prefer the old fashioned way of contacting bloggers directly to get guest posting gigs -it helps if they return email though
p
Yeah, I’m one of those old school cats when it comes to this type of thing too. Kinda interesting concept though.
I like this concept but do so few guest posts that the old school, manual way of doing things works for me too… At least for now!
Thanks for the post, I will definitely implement it!
Looks awesome!! But this is kinda risky as per Google’s guidelines.
I am NOT going to enable posting for people I don’t know.
Hi Abhik
There is nothing risky about this at all. The posts are made via XML, just as if you were logging in yourself and making the post. We have guidelines for the advertisers to ensure they write in a balanced, objective style, avoiding the user of superlatives. Furthermore, the posts are marked with the author bio as a guest post, so your visitors are clear that the content is not published by the blog owner.
I will check this out and see if it will meet my needs. I am interested in getting things rolling soon on some projects that could really put this to work.
It would be helpful if their sign-up process actually worked. I’ve followed their instructions to the letter, several times, but all I get is “Oops, we can’t connect to your blog. Please review the checklist, and your username and password.”
Hi Jack
Please submit a support ticket including the blog url and details of the new editor user account created and we will take a look.
It did the same thing to me and my friend in Firefox but worked first try in chrome..
Sounds very interesting because I am considering adding a weekly guest-posting spot on my blog. It’s easier to not have to do everything by myself. Burn-out will ensue for sure.
Guest posting is a win win
If you’re paying to do a guest post on someone’s blog, Google can argue that you’re also paying for a backlink… because really, that’s what you are doing. If you guys are familiar with Social Spark, you will notice that one of their rules is to make the backlinks you create in your paid post reviews ‘nofollow’ backlinks.
Web Traffic Control will get away with this for now. But once they blow up into a larger network, you can expect Google to catch on and say, “Hey… Advertisers are paying for these backlinks.”
Who cares what Google wants. Don´t be a Google slave. Find other ways to get traffic. And this might be a good one …
Just signed up looking forward to using the service to gain some good guest posts.
Damn that’s some good money, I need to try it out.
hmm..thank you anyway John…, but some reality…how very difficult get some $$. But sure I keep try…nice post John i enjoy read!!
Whoo Nice aa.. But still I’m a blogspot blogger. But near by day I’m going to move my blog to wordpress. I think wordpress is little complex for me. I never used wordpress. After that I can join this ..
Using standard wordpress is NOT difficult. Use John’s service and he’ll do the install and standard plugins for you.
Yeah you right. But I need some money to get domain and hosting services. After collecting that I’m coming..
That is guest posting,good sound,
I have read your post,i accept that based on that initial page, though, it looks like Web Traffic Control is taking up to a 50% cut on the proceeds.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this method of guest blogging –
I think this might be the future of companies blogging for backlinks.
I dont mind joining as long as I know they would do a good job.
It sucks that earnings are ‘capped’ to X per month and that there is a set rate. They should allow Bloggers to set their own rate and allow Advertisers to chose which blogs – then take their percentage.
I think by capping the amount of posting they help keep the quality of the network up.
Hi Nicholas
Thanks for your comments. Your suggestion would turn the network into another paid post marketplace which is not what we are doing. By subcategorizing every blog and combining this with automated distribution and manual moderation, we are making the process of finding blogs and managing the posts much easier for Advertisers. We believe It’s the reliability, quality and means of regular supply that will attract Advertisers. This is in contrast to looking through long lists of blogs and deciding which you want to post on.
How many bloggers do you have writing in your network? 1000 sites with 50 posts/month = 50,000 blog posts being written/month!
Checking out your site to see if I can use it with one of my sites.
I’ve tried signing up twice but got stuck at the final page. I contacted the site and they said I was good to go but still no luck. I don’t like these little hiccups.
Hi Thomas
As per your support request, we have tested your blog and the process worked fine. Please check your blog again, ensure XMLRPC is enabled and that the user role is set to Editor. We have hundreds of bloggers who have signed up without any problems, although a small percentage do have problems which can be down to factors out of our control such as unreliable hosting or not following the instructions. We will have a look again on Monday and try to get you going. Please liaise directly with the support department,.
That sounds like a great concept. I am going to look into using the service.
I also don,t prefer that there is nothing wrong……all is well.
It looks like an idea I should have thought of first. I hope it doesn’t turn into one of those sites that dies right after I earn enough to get paid out
Hi Miss
We have been working on the system since Sept 2010 and have made a significant investment into it. We plan to stick around for the long term!
Can´t seem to find any linking policies for those guest post. Anyone else seen any.
Hi Will
We allow 2 links per guest post. Plus a short author bio.
I don’t think huge blogs will bother to join this network as they most probably have their own charges for guest post. This might work for smaller blogs but I don’t agree to the ‘package’ system they have in place. Does that mean 15 blogs will have exactly the same guest post?
Hi Faisal
Thanks for your comments. You are right in saying that WTC might not be a good fit for huge, high traffic blogs. But then these kinds of blogs will be monetizing in other ways anyway. Its more suited to smaller to medium size, good quality, topically focused blogs that are looking for an extra way to generate revenue without the hassle of selling links or posts, or without dealing with all of the admin. We handle the quality control and automate the distribution so you are free to get on with other things.
and I believe the $50 for blogger to sign up is just a marketing strategy to get blogger to sign up fast, they probably won’t charge bloggers at all.
I’m still hoping you can do a guest blog/interview for mo.com/vancouver
Any word on the status?
HI Collabo
We would be interested in having an interview published on your website. Please do get in touch!
That page is specifically for Vancouver Business owners. If you know of any Vancouver based businesses that are looking to be featured, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks.
$15/article is way too cheap. Link building agencies are charging $50-$100 per link per month on PR 4 or higher site. $15 seems to be significantly under valuing publisher sites.
Wow, Mike quite an interesting post. I’ll have to look into this.
Very interesting concept. Could be a very useful way to grow a blog for both the contributors and the blog operators.
I think in my particular case, I want to have full control over the content on my namesake blog. But for other projects this could be very useful.
Hi Kevin
Thanks for your comments. We are looking into adding the ability for Bloggers to ‘reject’ posts they don’t like in a future update. As previously mentioned, we review the quality, family friendliness, and so on. And we ask Advertisers to write in a balanced, objective style, with an author bio so your blog visitors are clear its a guest post. We take feedback seriously and are always looking for ways to improve!
I don’t really understand how this is a guest posting concept. This is just another “pay per post” service with a “guest blogging” label.
One difference is that you have the same pay for all the blogs (30$ per post seems too high).
Bloggers get 15$ per post. This means that not many top bloggers will prefer this service. Which leaves the not so popular blogs to accept our posts.
I have seen PR4 and above blogs accepting paid review for $5 on some of the “pay per post” type services. So PR is not the yard stick.
Hi Adarsh
Thanks for your comments. This is not a pay per post service because Advertisers supply the content themselves and each post is marked as a guest post. We have a range of blogs ranging from PR2 all the way up to PR5. Maybe you can get a $5 post on pay per post networks, the difference is that managing the bids and lists of blogs is a very time consuming process. And the quality of our blogs is much higher because of our strict moderation and topical focus. On PPP networks you get posts from low quality blogs with all kinds of content. On WTC you manage the content yourself and a get a regular supply of quality, relevant posts in a highly time efficient way.
PS – PR is not the yard stick. It is one of many things we look at:
- Quality of content and English
- Topical focus
- Design and layout
- If advertising is excessive or not
- Duplicate content
- IP address
Advertisers will use our service because we give them instant and easy access to a wide range of quality, relevant blogs, without any of the PPP model hassle.
Nice auto blogging type idea
This is interesting, I’ll definitely check this out.
This is a good review and thanks for sharing. Anyway, my blog zero rank yet so it’s not qualified with your rules to join with your network and this will not be approved. It will take much longer maybe to rank my site because it was pretty brand new to money making world. I hope you can visit my site and let me know if this will qualified even it’s not ranking to any PR0, PR1 or whatever.
Many thanks,
Julius @ Moneymakersites.com
it is an interesting concept to earn more money nice post.
Thanks john for sharing that.. Nice points you have mentioned
Its great chance to earn and update for our blog with unique content
I have pr-5 web blog.I am little bit scared about their sidebar category criteria.It may tarnish the layout of my blog. I do not understand why they are asking to place category list at the sidebar of every blog. Otherwise i did everything they want to join their network. If Anybody here can explain me why i will go with it surely.
Really a Good concept, i would definitely join the network, my site is a writers network where already tonnes of people are contributing, My website similar hub-pages or suite 101 model. Hope i fit in their categories, Anyway i have currently hit Alexa 200,000 in 6 months of starting, Hope to get to the network one day.
Very Nice and Informative ! Thanks John….I really love this one !
I signed up since I have a PR3 blog. I’m eager for this to launch. Could also help if you’ve added your blog to Kindle Blogs. You can advertise that you post several times or more a week (as long as you can consistently get guest bloggers to post) so that people are more likely to want to subscribe to your blog.
I signed my blog up for the service, and I’m waiting to see if I get accepted. I’m a bit uneasy about allowing them editor access to my account, but I’ll allow it for now and see how things go. It seems legit. We shall see.
Okay, so they said they didn’t save the log in information for anyone to see, but I got an email from them showing me my password…unencrypted, which immediately threw a red flag up for me.
I’m definitely concerned about security now.
Hello Jennifer
The email contains the login details for your WTC account, not your blog. The password field for your blog once in your account is hidden. We take security very seriously and are always looking for ways to improve.
Good Concept. Considered joining in but they say its only for wordpress blogs.But we use a different blogging software.
we are also offering now 100% Adsense Revenue Sharing.
we have more then 5300 twitter followers
1470+ facebook fans.
check detail here
http://sadiakomal.com/100-adsense-revenue-sharing-at-sadiakomal-com/
Are you able to reveiw the articles before they are posted on your website? If so, are you able to accept or decline articles? If not I personally think allowing random articles to be posted on your site is a bit weird, you may not agree with what they write on your site.
Hi Teja
Yes you are able to review and individually accept or decline each post. So we have two layers of moderation, first our moderators check each post for quality, spelling, grammar, etc. And then you receive posts on auto-pilot which you can accept or decline. This gives you full control.
This is what I wanted to hear
This is surely an interesting way to make money online. I’ve just joined the program and now I will wait to see if I can get some results. Hopefully I will
I am anxiously awaiting the moment when I start getting posts to accept (if I choose to accept them). This is an exciting concept!!
I have just submitted an application with my PR 3 website. 4 Years old Domain – Cell Phone Niche – PR 3. Now Awaiting for their acceptance
My blog has been accepted and I’m waiting for offers now
I hope the site will grow soon and I look forward to make money with this service 
I do not see why anyone would want to use this service. I have sold links on even some of my low-traffic sites for $120 per year.
It starts to make sense of you have a very broad topic site with decent ranking so it would be easy to find matches for guest content. Then again, if you have a broad topic site with good ranking then I still think you can do better with direct sales advertising.
Understand what links to other sites from yours are truly worth before selling your soul to some get-rich quick offer.
Hi Great Post,
I htink i like the idea of earning money from guest posts but setting such a high standard for blog submission looks a bit not beneficial to all bloggers. so new bloggers can’t partake in the system. i think they should review their system and redesign their membership requirement and payment methods. that’s what i think.
All the same thanks for sharing this lovely post. nice job on your blog.
i discovered your blog from a post on thatblogsite.com.
Hi Emmanuel
We need to keep the standards high in order to satisfy our advertisers. That is the mean reason for all of the requirements. Having said that, as long as your blog has good content, is not brand new and appears to be looked after, it should get approved!
Thanks for the post, its a very good idea. Something I’ll be looking into!
Thanks for the good idea will love to take part in it
good idea. But tell me my blog is on wordpress and 4 month old and having quality content. But my pr is 0. then will my blog be accepted or not?
The only way to know if your blog will be accepted is to just fill out the application and see what they say. My blog is not PR 2 yet, but it is good quality, good SEO and is visually appealing, so they may like it. Never hurts to try.
It sure sounds like a good deal for those of us with blogs. Just got one of my older blogs in the network but we’ll see if they’re able to deliver any reasonable amount of posts over time. They sure give a good sales pitch, now let’s see if they can follow through with advertisers.
I don’t see it as a viable option for quality websites – not for $15 per post anyway.
It’s too easy to loose your readership that way – in order to prevent that from happening, you’d need to keep those “guest posts” to a minimum, in which case who wants to mess up your blog for $60 per month?
On the other hand, if you are talking about low quality, like link-wheels, but high PR blogs, then who cares, right?
Ana
I have to agree with Ana – as it is, my readers get a bit antsy when they see posts on my blog that are related to commercial ventures. I can’t imagine what they’d say if they saw this. If you care about your readers then selling your soul to the devil for $15 a time is not the way to proceed. I’ve built up my blog over 4 years and a program like this could destroy my credibility overnight!
That sounds like a great concept. I am going to look into using the service.
Great share … WTC looks promising, will surely give a try