We do get some surprising offers here on Lib Dem Voice. Of course, we all get spam in our personal mailboxes, but as a media giant we also get people offering to pay for posts on LDV. This is all about Search Engine Optimisation – in other words gaming Google to get their organisation high in the search lists.

We never fall for these proposals, but we do have some fun with them behind the scenes.

Here is a typical request:

Hello,

Hope  you are doing well

I’m looking for guest posts with “Home/ Business / Office Furniture / Lifestyle” related Sites and blogs.

I recently came across your blog and found it very interesting.

The article that I have is related to your website and will be appreciated by your readers.

I guarantee you that the article will be 100% unique, top quality and Copyscape protected and will not be shared with any other site.

Please let me know if this sounds good to you so that we can send the article to you for review.

Hope to have a positive response.

Over the last few months people have offered us posts on the following topics:

• The Extra Neutral Alcohol Market. I had to look that up; apparently it refers to uses of ethanol. The correspondent said “We think it would be a great fit for your site, providing valuable insights for your audience.” Do you agree?
• Dungeons and Dragons. The writer told us that “Your site is a treasure trove for D&D enthusiasts!”
• Smart irrigation systems for homeowners
• Home Improvements and Home Renovation, Eco-Friendly lifestyle, Home Appliances Technology, and Greener Future.
• How to Find the Best Family Lawyer for Your Legal Needs
• Essay writing
• Investment ideas and growing your business online.

And finally I will share a conversation between a hopeful and the LDV Editor of the day

Hello Guys

I have been an avid reader of your blog for some time now, and I enjoy reading your blog regularly. I am reaching out to you to contribute a high-quality post to your blog. Below are the topics which I can write a well-researched post on:

1)What Kind of Gifts Should be Sent as Survival Kits?
2)Find Excellent Fun Survival Kits for your friends
3)20+ Choicest personalized Halloween gifts for your friends
4)The great gift plans to celebrate this Halloween
5)Celebrate this Halloween day with Amazing Halloween Gifts

Looking forward to hearing from you with one of the topics above and
I have been Sending you the draft as soon as possible.
Thanks and Regards

To which my colleague replied:

Excellent. In order to fit in with our website content, could you please do us a 500 word post on “Surviving Halloween with the D’Hondt method”?

No payment this time but if you do a good job, who knows?

With best wishes

To our surprise they actually sent us a post, which elicited this reply:

Thank you for taking the effort to send this to us.

We are a specialist political site. – Hence the request for something about the D’Hondt method, which is a procedure for apportioning votes under proportional representation.

Since this article only refers to the D’Hondt method in the title, we regret that we cannot publish it, because the subject of the body of the text is not in keeping with our site.

So, dear readers, while we are open to suggestions for new topics to cover on this site, we will never accept a bribe to publish anything.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.