How much does a guest post cost?

Prices for the same kind of article range from a few dollars to several hundred. The spread isn't random: a handful of factors explain most of it. Here's how to read a price tag before you pay.

Updated: 2026-10-04

What you are really paying for

A sponsored article buys three things: readers who see it, a brand mention on a site people trust, and a link that may send visitors. Everything that makes those three more likely raises the price.

The factors that move the price

• Real traffic. The biggest driver. A site with verified tens of thousands of monthly visitors is worth far more than one with a high "authority score" and no readers.
• Authority and age. How much of the site is in the open web index, how long it has existed, who mentions it.
• Niche. Finance, SaaS and other high-value niches cost more than hobby topics, because a reader there is worth more to the buyer.
• Link terms. Number of links, the rel attribute, whether the article is labelled as sponsored, and how long it stays up.
• Who writes. Publishing your text is cheaper than the site writing it in its own voice.
• Marketplace fees. On many platforms fees are charged on both sides and can add 15–40% on top of what the site actually receives. See our marketplace comparison.

A simple model to sanity-check a quote

Satelo prices every site with one value scale: a brand-new site with no traffic is worth 1 point, and value grows with the Quality Score and verified traffic (roughly 14 points at QS 25, 46 at QS 40, 184 at QS 70 with 50k monthly visits). Our recommended marketplace price is $2.30 per point, so:

• QS 25, no verified traffic — about $30
• QS 40, ~5k visits/month — about $105
• QS 55, ~20k visits/month — about $235
• QS 70, ~50k visits/month — about $420

These are reference points, not market statistics: publishers set their own prices. If a quote is several times higher than this for a site with no visible traffic, ask why.

Red flags

• High "authority" metrics but no real visitors.
• Dozens of sponsored posts a month on the same site.
• Promises of rankings or "dofollow juice" — paid links that pass ranking signals violate Google's rules.
• No guarantee or refunds only to a platform balance.

Before you pay, run the site through a free Quality Score check and use our pre-purchase checklist.

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