Link Development - guest blogging, etc.

The new rules

[wheel]

one of the things I took home from the last pubcon was that I need to shift my approach from 'create content on my website, go link begging' to 'give away content for others, in exchange for a link'. This is going to require me to dream up a whole new set of techniques. The good news is, I can continue to be half-assed white hat, I don't have to drop down to paid links.

Does anyone have any thoughts or techniques on how to start going down this road? How to write articles/posts, how to convince people to publish, how to find sites, etc.

I've already got one idea that no one seems to be doing, but I'll hold back on posting until I see if it works.

[spadilla]

I am also curious about this. Thanks for starting the topic wheel.

[Trisha]

Me too, that's what I was planning to try next. Please keep us updated, if you don't mind sharing, on how it works out.

[CainIV]

Hi Wheel. I would suggest you focus on the following 3 directions initially, this will really help create "high conversion" content - content that publishers want to publish on their websites.

1. Use Google Trends to find new searches and trends in your core and related spaces, and research which publishers have content based on that already. Build out the content, and then ask them to publish, and then run a link bait campaign on their behalf, so long as there is agreement of link placement for credit (resources box, contextual, etc)

2. Study specific publishers you have sourced out and deem of high authority value, locate gaps in their content, and fill those gaps with high quality content they are missing.

3. Build upon (improve upon) a current published piece at a publisher and then offer to update their older content piece with your more current, updated information.

Hope this helps.

[Planet13]

Does anyone have any thoughts or techniques on how to start going down this road? How to write articles/posts, how to convince people to publish, how to find sites, etc.

In particular, how to convince people to publish. I think the thing is you have to look at their site and give them something they don't have.

this isn't a great example, but the concept was kind of in the right direction: a home furniture store sends me an unsolicited email with a pdf file that has articles in it about furniture.

They saw that I had a category on my ecommerce site about home decor, and I guess that is why the picked me.

But they used the FUD principal to try and get my attention: the new google wants sites with quality content on it, they said, so here's some quality content. Free of charge. It's your lucky day!

Oh, and by the way, the pdf has links to their site in the articles.

I guess it is nothing more than a glorified "badges" campaign, really.

Anyway, I am pretty sure you already know how to find the relevant sites. I just think that the difficulty is going to be how to find a way to scale it.

I have a couple of topics that I will be writing a free ebook on in pdf format and hopefully people will be willing to put it up on their site. It will have a couple of embedded links, but while it is free, I also intend to brand it so at least I can get our company's name out there, too.

Hope this helps get the gears turning...

[Future]

I need to shift my approach from 'create content on my website, go link begging' to 'give away content for others, in exchange for a link'

whats limit per day for getting links only afraids me. ?

We give away complete review/articles for a link from a trusted resource, usually able to get 1 or 2 in a month.

[jaffstar]

how to convince people to publish,

This is key :) Your content has to be either unique/ground breaking or authoritative and experts.

There are certain topics that many sites will publish, it's all about thinking outside the box and use the what's in it for me (website owner) approach.

[Pjman]

Lately this is the only type of link building I do for my authority sites. I use myblogguest it gets me maybe 5 decent posts out a week. But there are a lot of crap publishers looking for content too on their. But it is definitely a big help.

[CainIV]

Half of the building is building potential link prospects. Since getting quality guest posts is all about conversion rate and numbers, it makes the most sense to first get "the numbers"

I am the type of person who automates redundant tasks and eliminates time spent on those.

Perhaps you are the same, and in this case, can likely envision specific ways to cutting through chaff, and sifting to the gems in the stack.

[Planet13]

This is key :) Your content has to be either unique/ground breaking or authoritative and experts.

Controversial is good. Sexy (in the journalism sense of the word) is good.

And easy to understand is also very good.

Some of my article pages that rank highest are not "unique" per say. In fact, there are numerous articles out there covering the same subject that have more complete information, and more unique content, that rank far lower (we're talking SERPs pages 5 though 20, otherwise known as google purgatory).

I outrank them not because my site has a lot of domain authority / trust (it doesn't), but because I have made my articles very easy to read and understand for the user. As circus impresario P.T. Barnum said:

"No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public."

When I look at an article on another site that is very detailed and authoritative but doesn't rank well, the first thing I ask is, "How can I make this page more readable. How can it be more enjoyable to read. What can I ELIMINATE to make it more understandable?"

There are experts in the world, and there are writers in the world, and a good approach is making expertise well-written.

Only a small percentage of articles on the web ever pass under an editor's eyes before being published. If you can't be an expert content creator, at least become an expert editor.

(Note: I was a print journalist for approximately four years, so my views on this may be skewed.)