This weeks Whiteboard Friday is a little bit different than normal but a lot more awesome. I took the lead this week and am sharing 5 tips that beginners can use to get links from bloggers. This educational video is full to the brim with helpful tips, odd tangents and one very poor impression of a news anchor.
The Beginner’s Guide to Getting Links from Bloggers
Try all of the following tactics and focus on building upon whichever one works best for your situation.
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Make Lists of Niche Linkers (and post them) – Most bloggers are by nature marketers. Take of advantage of this by writing material that helps them market themselves. For example, if you wanted to get a link from a blog in the car space, you might make a list of the top 3 Honda Civic blogs. Remember to go niche and avoid stating the obvious (I.E. Techcrunch is the number one tech blog). “The obvious” doesn’t attract links.
Do Interviews – This tactic has two main benefits. First, by conducting interviews you get interesting content to write about. What could be more interesting than what the industry experts are talking about? (Clever interviewers will realize the answer is the stuff the experts don’t want to talk about). Secondly, by getting your name/brand in the head of an expert, you have more chances of getting links from them in the future.
Be Virtually Social – Being virtually social is easy and can provide higher short term ROI than talking to people face to face. (e.g. It is easier to get a link from someone who is in the process of writing something online than it is to get a link from someone who is not at a computer.) I use the following three avenues to do this:
- Facebook – Since Facebook replaced “Fan” with “Like”, it is now easier than ever to promote your work via Facebook without being too “salesy”. This won’t get you links per say (as the entire process exists within Facebook’s ecosystem) but it can help drive traffic.
- Twitter – Like Facebook, Twitter won’t necessarily help you build followed links but it does help you spread your brand/product/idea around the net. This makes it a good long term strategy.
- Blogs – One great way to get links is to find supporting evidence for a given blog post and letting it’s author know about it. If they use it, they are likely to cite you as the source.
In addition to promoting my work on Twitter, I use the platform to spread Internet awesomeness. (Thus the image above)
Make In-Person Connections – This is the best long term way to get links. When bloggers are trying to come up with supporting evidence for a point they are trying to make, they are much more likely to use a example that is already in their head than they are to go out and search for it. The best way to get into someones head (other than a chisel) is to meet them and spend time with them. (Wait a chisel? Did anyone else read that?)
Send Linkers Demos of Things (Websites, New Products, Games, Etc…) That You Want Links To and Include the Linkers Stuff In It. – This tactic is newer and has been proving to work very well. If you want coverage from a specific blogger, try including their blog in the product demo and sending it to them. This way they can promote themselves while promoting your work.
If you have any other advice that you think is worth sharing, feel free to post it in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. As always, feel free to e-mail me if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. All of my contact information is available on my SEOmoz profile under Danny. Thanks!
