Opening your site to guest posts

Accepting guest posts means other people can write articles for your site, which you then review and decide on. Nothing is published without you.

Turning it on takes one switch and a set of rules, all in the Guest posts section of your site's Settings.

The switch

Accept guest posts, described as "You approve every article before it's published." Turn it on and press Save changes in the bar at the bottom.

Running for this site on your Website overview shows the result: Guest posts reads Open, Paused or Off, and says whether your own rules are live or writers are seeing the default ones.

Your submission link

Public link for writers is the address writers use, with Copy beside it. The line under it says whether writers can use it yet, and if not, the one thing missing: "Turn on guest posts so writers can use it.", "Submissions are paused.", "Writers can use it once the site is verified." or "Add a link name to share it." When everything is in place it reads "Writers can find and use it."

That address is yours to hand out: in a footer, in an outreach email, on a write-for-us page. It carries your site's name, your rules and a button to start, and it keeps a writer's place through signup so they land back with your site already selected.

Edit changes the link name, the last part of the address: lowercase letters, numbers and dashes.

Pausing without closing

Taking submissions pauses new articles without turning guest posts off.

While it is off, your link stops showing the submission page, and a writer who follows it is told no site is taking guest posts there. The site also stays out of the backlink exchange directory. Turn it back on when you are ready; your rules and your link stay as they were.

Archive this website, in the Danger zone, stops all of Rankbench's work on the site, guest posts included, and can be undone with Restore. Delete this website is the permanent one. See your website and its settings.

Why your site might not be showing

Work down this list. The line under Public link for writers usually names the answer.

Accept guest posts is off.

Taking submissions is off.

The site is not verified. Verification is what stops somebody listing a domain that is not theirs, and writers are only offered verified sites. See proving your site is yours.

The link has no name yet.

The site is archived.

You have not published any rules yet. Your Rules for writers row says "Nothing specific yet. Writers can pitch any topic.", which does you no favours.

What writers see about you

Your site's name, its description, its topics and your rules. That is the whole basis on which somebody decides whether to write for you, so it is worth twenty minutes. The name, description and topics are under General in Settings.

Where to go next

Writing your guest post rules is the next step and the one that decides the quality of what arrives.