Charley Mendoza, Author at Authority Marketing and Internet Marketing Advice

The Complete Guide to Pitch Yourself to Be a Podcast Guest (With Email Template)

November 17, 2016 by Charley Mendoza

Do you have a business, book, product, or service that you want to promote?

How does appearing on a popular podcast sound? It’s certainly easier than learning how to start a podcast of your own.

With more than 50 million Americans tuning in to different podcasts daily, I bet being a podcast guest is starting to sound good to you.

It’s not just for building a following. SEO-wise, getting a link from a podcast’s website can boost your rankings in Google.

But how can you become a guest on a podcast if you don’t have a PR team to do it for you?

It takes a bit of work but it’s not impossible. Here’s how:

1. Pick Smaller but Relevant Shows

Shows like NPR, Freakonomics, and Hardcore History probably get a hundred or so pitches daily. Unless you have several guest appearances under your belt, they’re not likely to accept your pitch. Hosts of new(ish) shows who rarely get pitched will think twice about rejecting your proposal.

Another disadvantage is general shows attract people from all walks of life, so only a small part of their audience would be interested in your topic. Listeners of niched podcasts are easier to convert into new email subscribers, or buyers.

2. Create Your Target List

Okay, so you probably agree now that new and niche podcasts are better than the big popular ones, at least as a starting point. The next question is how are you going to find them? These podcasts aren’t likely on the top of your podcast feed.

With a little elbow-grease and Google’s help, you can find up and coming shows that might benefit from your expertise.

You just have to find the right angle. For instance, let’s say you have a travel agency. Who are your target customers?

Solo travelers: Look for podcasts on solo travel, volunteering abroad, or becoming a nomad. People interested in podcast shows like these tend to travel solo as well.
Corporate and business travelers: Check out podcasts on management, international sales, expat living, and corporate travel.
Families and couples who travel: Research podcasts for moms, parenting, and relationships

The more angles you can find, the easier it is to pitch yourself as a podcast guest. Not all of these shows are about travel, of course. So it’s up to you to find a relevant angle—a way to connect travel to what they often talk about on their show. Parenting podcasts, for example, would probably be interested in an episode about kid-friendly holidays, or how to keep kids behaved on the road.

Typing “podcasts about travel” on Google, All Podcasts, or your favorite podcast player also works. From there, just scroll down and look for podcasts with a relatively small audience but interesting episodes.

3. Research them in Detail

Create a spreadsheet with columns for the podcast name, host’s name, topics discussed, number of subscribers, website (if any), Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Then look up all the podcasts you found on step two and fill in the blanks.

Next, listen to one or two of each podcast’s most popular episode.

Now I know that sounds like a hassle, but this step actually benefits you in three ways:

You’ll get a feel of the show and see if it’s one you’d be proud to be in.
What you hear on the podcast gives you material to pitch yourself as a podcast guest.
Some podcasts interview other podcasts that might be related to their show, so that’s another way to increase your list.

When you listen to the episodes, take note of the following:

A quote, idea, or advice the host or his/her guest said. This could be a brilliant intro for your email pitch, and a good way to show you did your homework before pitching.
What their show is about. Each podcast episode follows a specific theme set by the show’s host, so listening to the questions the host asks will give you a sense of what he’s looking for.

4. Come Up with Potential Episode Topics

Researching each podcast might’ve given you a stream of ideas to pitch. Consider the following questions to refine your topic ideas:

How will this benefit the podcast’s audience?
Why is this topic relevant now?
What will you talk about exactly? Create a rough outline that includes the possible questions you’ll answer
How is your knowledge different from other experts on the same subject?

Include two to three fully-fleshed out ideas to give the show’s host some options. Make sure none of your topics were already covered in a previous episode.

5. Write a Winning Podcast Guest Pitch

Writing an email pitch doesn’t need to be hard. Not if you have a template and you did your research well.

A podcast pitch has several parts, including:

Email subject line

Your email subject line should make it clear you want to be a guest on the show. Or else the host might mistake you for a listener suggesting an episode topic.

“Podcast Guest Pitch: X Underrated Kid-Friendly Travel Destinations for Christmas + 3 more show ideas”

Introduction

“Hi (Host Name),

I’m (Your Name), (owner/author/founder) of (Your Business’s Name). I listened to your episode, (Episode Title), and found what you said about (quote/idea from your research) interesting.

I’m writing to you because I’d like to pitch myself as a guest on your show, (Podcast Name). After researching you online and listening to a few episodes, I’m confident I have something relevant to offer your listeners.”

Topic list

“Here are X topics that could benefit your audience. If you like, I’d be happy to collaborate with you and customize these topics even further for your listeners.

Topic 1: Title

Sub point 1
Sub point 2
Sub point 3

Topic 2: Title

Sub point 1
Sub point 2
Sub point 3

Topic 3: Title

Sub point 1
Sub point 2
Sub point 3

Topic 4: Title

Sub point 1
Sub point 2
Sub point 3”

Don’t worry about rejected topics, as you can pitch them to other podcasts. If no one would accept them after several pitches, you can turn these ideas into blog posts of your own.

List of media mentions or podcast appearances (if any)

It’s easier to get accepted as a guest if you’ve appeared in other podcasts before. It’s less trouble for the host, as this means you know how it works and you’ll probably be comfortable on record. It also shows you’re credible enough that other podcast owners took a chance on you.

If you have never been on a podcast, you can list media mentions, guest posts on other blogs, books published, or awards won.

Don’t have any of these? That’s okay. You can still get a ‘yes’ with a well-researched pitch.

“I was a guest on several podcasts, including (show name 1), (show name 2), and have also written for different publications like (website 1) and (magazine 2).”

Special offer to the show’s audience

Special offers come in different formats, like a free e-book, report, worksheet, or discounts to a product or service. This is your chance to grab some of the podcast’s listeners and turn them into readers of your own.

“To thank your listeners for tuning in, I’m giving away a (what you’re offering) at the end of the show.”

Online statistics

Your follower and email subscriber statistics will show the podcast host that your pitch can also benefit him.

“Of course, I will also promote the episode and your show to all my readers and followers. You can count on me to send a promotional email about the episode, as well as several status updates on social media regarding the show. Here’s a peak at my audience statistics to give you an idea:

Email subscribers
Facebook Fans
Twitter Followers
LinkedIn Connection
YouTube Followers”

Contact information

Don’t forget to include your website, phone or Skype ID, and email address.

Call to action

A strong call to action will spur the podcast owner to reply.

“Does any of these topics sound like a good fit for your audience? I look forward to speaking with you.”

Like other Marketing Channels

Treat podcasting like you would other marketing strategies, like guest blogging, PR marketing and social media.

It’s a numbers game. The more you pitch yourself as a podcast guest, the more chances you have. But above all, it’s about give and take, podcast owners are looking for authorities in their target niche who can impart valuable information to their audience.

Out of Ideas? Here are 7 Websites and Strategies to Inspire Your Writing

November 10, 2015 by Charley Mendoza

When was the last time you wrote something for your blog? What about the e-book you said you were going to write this year? Is your progress frequently stalled by writer’s block?

Now’s a good time to get back on the horse and start writing again.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual online writing event that challenges participants to write 50,000 words (minimum word count for novels) from November 1 to November 30. NaNoWrimo, isn’t limited to novel writers though. The only goal is to write 50,000 words, whether it’s for an e-book, your website’s email and blogging efforts, or a short non-fiction, it doesn’t matter. The event aims to provide accountability and inspiration for writers in all walks of life.

NaNoWriMo or Not

We don’t need NaNoWriMo to tell us that writer’s block is a tough and inevitable part of the writing process. As in digital marketing and pretty much every part of business, there’s so much pressure to come up with something original, something inspired.

With thousands of blog posts being published every day, and thousands more in e-books and marketing paraphernalia, it’s getting difficult — impossible, actually — to come up with 100% unique ideas.
But guess what?

That’s okay!

Your writing doesn’t have to be 100% unique to be great. Some of the world’s greatest writers drew inspiration from other writers as well. Some of the most effective adverts were inspired by previously successful ads, too.

Let me help you shake off that pesky writer’s block.

7 Sources of Writing Inspiration

The Best of Email

Reading about email marketing strategies won’t be enough to improve a boring email campaign. You’ve got to see actual emails companies have sent out to their database. This website curates newsletter sign-up copy, birthday emails, welcome emails, segmentation emails, and subject lines in their inspiration gallery.

Google Alerts

Enter a couple of keywords, choose the frequency, sources, and region for the results. Google will then email you a list of articles on that subject. You don’t need to read every article on the alerts email, just scan the headlines and save interesting articles to your editorial calendar for later use. If you find several interesting articles on one subject, you can use them for a round-up article.

Feature an Employee

Humanize your brand by featuring employees in short, interview-style blog posts. Aside from filling the void when you don’t know what to write about, these features will help current and future customers get to know the ‘who’ behind your business.

Employee of the Month - Orman Guidance — (Source: Orman Guidance)

Aside from the typical responsibilities and skills segment, articles featuring employees can also discuss:

What they’re currently working on for the company – an improvement to the company’s flagship SaaS product, a bug, a product launch, or an e-book.
Interesting, non-work related skills
Message for new recruits
What they like about the company
Their latest accomplishment for the company

Better yet, you can use this to improve the “Our Team” page of your website. It’s also a win for management, because getting featured boosts an employee’s morale and encourages them to go the extra mile.

Use Writing Prompts

Many writers struggle writing because they don’t know how to begin. They’re not sure how to write a decent lede, or an introduction to their story. Other times, it’s just easier to jump in the middle and write the climax.

But when you’re absolutely stuck, writing prompts can force your brain to think outside the box. Prompts are usually specific situations, intriguing words, or questions that prompt you to write on a specific subject.

Try these writing prompt websites next time you get stuck on a page:

Really Good Emails

This site is similar to item #1 above, The Best of Email. It’s a collection of email swipes used by different companies, categorized into how they were used. You can find just about every kind of email here:

Abandoned cart
Activation
Customer appreciation
Events
Email digests
Newsletter

Here’s a glimpse of what’s available for abandoned cart emails.

What’s Missing? What Will Happen Next?

Have you heard the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report about processed meats and red meat? BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, and other leading publications reported on this subject, causing widespread confusion (and a slight panic) among consumers.

Those publications got tons of page views and social shares for their articles. Since almost everyone has covered the topic, it’s somewhat futile to write about it again even if you have your own POV. The big publications and early adapters — those who got the first scoop by publishing early — are already in the forefront of this news. If this is your beat, you might be wondering, what else is left to write about?

Write about what’s missing, or what might happen next! It’s a tried and tested technique used by journalists everywhere, especially when a competing publication already got the first scoop.

In this case, what’s the next thing that might happen? People questioning the WHO report, people saying it’s not accurate. Now that’s an angle you can explore, and it’s exactly what Mashable did.

Next time you need to write about a certain news or event but are out of ideas, think about:

What’s the opposite of this?
What’s going to happen next?
What are they not telling us?

Use Topic Generators

Topic generators work in different ways but in general, you just enter a keyword or two and then the site’s algorithm will spout a couple of topic ideas from you, based on their database of fill-in-the-blank headlines.

Try these topic generators:

Start Writing!

I hope the websites and strategies listed here have inspired you to start writing again. If not, then what else is holding you back?

If you’ve got a book inside of you waiting to be written, a valuable lesson the world needs to hear, don’t let your excuses deprive everyone of what you have to share. Sometimes you just need a little help. Talk to us to discuss how we can help with your project.

Dissecting Bad Copy: 5 Types of Copy that Kill Conversion and Sales

October 29, 2015 by Charley Mendoza

You spent a day writing copy for your website, sales letter, or landing page. You scrutinized everything from the headline, down to every single word on that page.

But after it went live… visitors are bouncing. No one’s clicking the links! They’re ignoring the strategically placed CTAs (call to action) in your copy. You didn’t get the sales you assumed, or the leads you were waiting for.

What happened?

You’re confused and disappointed. What just happened?

Is it possible that your copywriting is that bad?

Fancy Words and Clever Lines aren’t Enough

Terrible copy destroys a website’s authority and potential for profit. No matter how catchy it sounds to you, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Either you tweak it, or trash the whole thing and start over.

But before that, you need to know what went wrong in the first place. So here’s a list of common copywriting mistakes and how to improve them.

Too many Adjectives and Adverbs

Bad Copy - Too Many Adjectives — (From Exclusiveniches.com)

“Get Ready To Discover Killer Copywriting Secrets To Supercharge Your Marketing And Multiply Your Profits In a Flash, Guaranteed”

That’s one lengthy headline packed with two claims, one guarantee, two descriptive phrases, and one superlative adjective. And that’s just the main headline. Don’t even get me started on the introduction and subheads.

There’s nothing wrong with adjectives and adverbs per se. They help readers imagine what you’re trying to say. But that’s only true for some descriptors. Some paint pictures, others are just meaningless, feel-good words.

Consider the phrase “Great Copywriting will Multiply Your Profits,” what does ‘great’ mean in that sentence, exactly? With the advent of online marketing and online businesses, words like great, breakthrough, amazing, innovative, supercharge, unique, have lost their meaning.

You know what I’m talking about, right? A few years ago, people were intrigued when they read about an ‘innovative” product. Now? All you get is an eye-roll coupled with an “I’ve seen that before” expression.

Copywriting Solution:

If the adjective doesn’t change or improve the meaning of a sentence, cut it.
Choose sensory adjectives. For instance, ‘foul’ and ‘stinky’ convey a clearer meaning than ‘bad’ or ‘terrible.’
Omit ‘very’ and other superlatives, especially if it’s used in conjunction with another adjective already in its superlative (highest or lowest) form. For instance, “one of a kind unique dress” is redundant. It’s either unique or one of a kind, not both.
Kill the “ly” family whenever possible (adorably, helpfully, convincingly, amazingly)
Every time you’re tempted to write empty descriptors like ‘high quality’ or ‘top notch,’ replace it with relevant descriptors for your product or industry. For example, instead of “high quality vaults,” use “burglar proof vaults” or “military grade vaults.”

Below is an example of adjective usage done well from Green and Black’s Organic. Note their use of sensory adjectives like ‘zesty’ and ‘tang’.

Writing for the Web Adjectives That Work — (From Green and Black’s Organic)

Me, Me, Me Web Copy

Bad Website Writing Company Centric Copy — (From Canadian Retail Solutions)

The headline “POS Software Systems for Canadian Retailers” only identifies their target market, not much else. The follow up “Our Solutions. Your Success.” is too vague. After that, the first bullet point is wasted on an empty brag, “Industry Leading POS technology.”

Here’s another example. When you go to Continuumfinancial.net, you’re immediately directed to a landing page that reads more like about us page copy. Yes, they want you to get in touch with them (see sidebar), but the copy doesn’t give you enough reason to.

Bad Website Copy Company Centric

I know you’re passionate about your cause, team, and the exciting things happening in your business. But that doesn’t mean other people are.

When someone visits your website or reads your sales letter, they’re not interested in you specifically. They care about what you can do for them. Can you help them lose weight, earn more money, or find their soul mate?

Can you help solve their annoying problems? Can you fulfill their deepest desires? That’s what they want to know.

Copywriting Solution:

Leave off the company history ‘til you explain what’s in it for them, and why they should choose you in the first place. Keep the ‘about me’ part short.

Build credibility instead through testimonials, certificates, awards or press mentions. At least those things don’t read like empty brags.

Lame Call to Action (CTA)

Writing For The Web Bad CTA — (From Rareloop)

Really, “Get to know us”? Now why would I want to do that? They haven’t given me enough reason to find out more.

The words ‘expert,’ ‘bespoke,’ and ‘passionate’ didn’t convey their message. These are all fluffy adjectives that don’t convey any value or meaning to the reader. What kind of apps do they make? Do they make ecommerce sites, membership sites, or author websites?

Unfortunately, the CTA in many web and sales copy are weak. It’s as if the copywriter got tired of writing and went with the first CTA that came to mind.

Solution:

In copywriting, the triggers are your CTAs, while structure is the hierarchy, in case you have more than one CTA. In the example above, the first CTA is “Get to know us” followed by a subtle ‘call us’ (implied through their phone number) and ‘email us.’

Don’t assume people will do what you want them to after reading the copy. No, our brains are programmed to look for structure and prompts. So after writing the copy, your next job is to select which CTA to prioritize then tie it to the correct part of the copy. Your priority CTA depends on your goal, whether that’s to get a lead, an email subscriber, a purchase or even simply to view your services page.

Adding a subhead or even just a few extra words to the CTA boosts its conversion power:

“Order now and get free 2-day shipping”
“Get a free quote in 24-hours”
“Learn how Six-Figure Copywriters Get Clients”
“60-day Money-Back Guarantee, No Questions Asked”
“The Pre-launch 30% Discount Expires in 72 Hours”

“Ummm… What?” Copy (Ambiguous Copy Posing More Questions than Answers)

Bad Website Text Vague Scammy — (From Ultimate Capture Pages)

You can’t see it right now but I’m scratching my head trying to understand the webpage shown above. Not to be picky, but everything in this page is confusing:

What ‘massive new market’ are they referring to?
What do they mean by ‘no end in sight’?
Does ‘entertainment market’ refer to funny cat videos, audio books, podcasts, or something else entirely?
How can it save me money?
What exactly are they showing me in the ‘tour’? Is this software, membership site, or a buy & sell marketplace?

Sometimes, you read something ‘til the end and still don’t know what in the world is happening. This kind of copywriting is easy to spot because they all have one thing in common — they’re vague, confusing and a tad scammy looking.

Copywriting Solution:

Have someone unfamiliar with your business read the copy. If something isn’t clear to them, revise it. If it’s still ambiguous after the revision, explain it to someone else and have them repeat it back to you in their own words. Use their version as inspiration for revising that tricky part.

Asking for Money Too Soon

Bad Copy Purchase Too Soon Welcome Mat — (From Best Bonus)

Yes, the screenshot above is a welcome mat already presenting a ‘limited time offer!’ The giddy ‘buy me now’ excitement in this copy is too strong for my taste.

Granted, the website where I found this copy compiles different courses, tools, software, and other offers for web marketers, so it’s possible they just compiled the marketing copy from the product’s creator.

Immediately after the welcome mat, there’s a short description comprised of a credibility statement (“4+ years and 14k marketers worth of feedback”) and an explanation of the offer (“lifetime access’ plus 15% off”), then it’s off to the payment options.

Bad Copy Purchase Too Soon Payment Options

Here’s another example from a different website. After a 3-sentence paragraph with nothing but claims and a video, the first CTA you’ll see is to call them.

Bad Copy Purchase Too Soon CTA Immediately

Immediately after that, you’ll see the generic ‘Greetings’ then it’s off to ‘you know you want this’ greed busting copy, and another CTA. So far, they’ve asked me to call and ‘Get Started’ but I’m still not sure who they are and how their product works. And I watched the video!

Bad Copy Purchase Too Soon 1 CTA After Another

Copywriting Solution:

Clearly, a lot of people have heard of this plugin. But because of the 40K+ plugins in WordPress, I think it’s dangerous to assume that everyone already knows what this plugin does too early in the copy.

Yes, there’s a demo video but it’s below the payment options. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Better yet, shouldn’t the payment option be further down the copy, after the guarantees and testimonials? Without testing, perhaps we will never know but starting with some trust building is a good place to begin.

Review Your Website and Sales Copy Now

Editing and critiquing your own work is hard. It’s hard to accept that the words you struggled to write need to be revised, I know. But revisions and split tests are a crucial part of writing effective copy. It gets easier with more practice though.

Now it’s your turn. Check your landing page or one of your sales letters for any of these copywriting blunders.

How an Editorial Calendar Builds Your Reputation as a Thought Leader

October 21, 2015 by Charley Mendoza

According to Content Marketing Institute’s study of B2B firms, “60% of B2Bs with a documented content marketing strategy consider their organization to be effective.”

While an editorial calendar is hardly a ‘strategy,’ it is an essential part of one. It’s the preferred documented roadmap of many publications that rely on content for their marketing and lead-generation.

Joel Kurtzman, previous editor of Harvard Business Review, is known for using an editorial calendar to establish thought leadership in organizations he’s worked with.

But how can you, an SMB owner, benefit from an editorial calendar? You might think it’s only useful for major magazines and Fortune 500 companies with big budgets, but it’s hardly the case.

Here’s How Your Reputation and Business will Benefit from Having an Editorial Calendar:

Strategic Approach

Whether you’re new in content marketing, or have been running your blog for a few years, you’ve probably created audience personas and categories for your blog. You use this information in determining what to publish on your site.

Be honest though, have you ever deviated — or forgotten — these guidelines? How often have you written something, only to realize later on that it doesn’t serve your target audience?

Do you sometimes find yourself rambling, writing one random ‘good idea’ after another without an obvious theme or story arc?

Editorial calendars keep you in line with your content marketing strategy, ensuring you publish different pieces that serve your target personas, not just one of them. For example, one of Darren Rowse’s personas for his photography blog is “Grace” an imaginary mom who uses her camera mostly to take pictures of her children. With that persona as a guide, he has several posts catered to that audience.

A Bird’s Eye View of Your Website’s Blogging Efforts

Editorial calendars spanning a month or a quarter gives you a big picture look at your blog’s content schedule, so you can easily adjust it to fit your business’s goals and other relevant events.

Editorial calendars can be used for:

Planning recurring features, such as TED’s summer reading list that started in 2013.
(Photo from TED)

Plan a series of articles on a specific theme, such as Tuts+ series on Buying and Running a Successful Franchise
Brainstorm story ideas in advance to take advantage of press opportunities during popular industry related events, annual conferences, event, or holidays.
Plan promotional and educational content for product launches, seasonal sales, promotions, and other corporate milestones. Marking these days ahead of time allows you to create content in advance.

(Screenshot from Ramit Sethi’s Delicious account, showing an article tagged for future use in his newsletter)

Maximize Promotion Opportunities through Content Repurposing

Editorial calendars aren’t just for planning and organizing topic ideas. It’s also a gold mine of ideas and digital assets for content repurposing. Doing this squeezes more mileage from your content, while extending your reach via new platforms.

Here’s how other bloggers take advantage of already published content:

Promote old blog posts in your social media feed, again.
Buffer’s Post on 27 Copywriting Formulas turned into a Slideshare with The 10 Best Copywriting Formulas. They didn’t convert everything into slides, but its evident the content came from the first blog post.
(blog post)

(Slideshare)

As you can see from the stats, the added reach of the Slideshare isn’t too shabby for a repurposed article.

Turn old podcast episodes into blog posts or social media snippets

More Blog Posts = More Traffic and Leads

According to Hubspot’s new benchmark data, out of 13,500 customers surveyed, those that published 16 or more blog posts get about 3.5x more traffic than other companies that only published up to 4 times a month.

And it’s not just traffic, those publishing 16 or more blog posts a month get 4.5x more leads compared to others that only publish about 4 posts a month.

If you don’t have a big team of writers, or you’re the sole writer for your website, 16 blog posts a month will be a challenge without an editorial calendar. It’s easy to fall of schedule without a definite plan showing you exactly what to write about and when it’s due for publishing.

More Time to Focus on Research and Quality Writing

How often have you searched for relevant information right before you start writing? How often have you relied on topic generators because you can’t come up with something fresh?

An editorial calendar filled with broad categories and rough story ideas in advance gives you the freedom to dedicate more time into researching and writing each article. Instead of frantically thinking about what to write, you can spend time finding relevant statistics, case studies, examples and doing interviews.

Check out this post on How Attorneys can Use Infographics for Legal Marketing with more than 10 infographic examples — all specific to the target audience, law firms and legal service providers. You’ll have a hard time coming up with spot-on examples like the one in that post without ample research time.

Editorial Calendars Make Managing Multiple Contributors a Breeze

Many business blogs have multiple contributors. Often, the CEO is a thought leader in the business’s market, the CMO writes about the company’s marketing efforts, and individual staff members write about the goings on in their department. Even if everyone writes on a different beat, there’s still a chance for two contributors to write on very similar topics. An editorial calendar prevents this.

Aside from that, an editorial calendar ensures that content is published in a well-spaced timeline, instead of chunked in certain days with glaring gaps of inactivity on busy weeks.

But Plans can Change

Of course they can! Yes, editorial calendars can be a huge waste of time if you end up not using it because of a scrapped product idea, business model changes, or even a change in your job description. But that doesn’t mean you have to trash the whole plan. You can always adjust it to reflect the changes in your goals and plans.

Anticipate Changes

Having a well-planned editorial calendar will help you establish a reputation as a thought leader in your industry. But only if you actually take the time to dive deep into your website’s analytics to see which topics are worth focusing on in your next editorial calendars. You can’t expect to write about the same themes over and over, right?

Lead your brand. Prepare to re-evaluate your blog’s general focus, topics and keywords as your market dictates it.

4 White Hat Link Building Strategies for 2015 and Beyond

October 5, 2015 by Charley Mendoza

A friend’s band was playing at a local bar last week.To promote it, he went around different stores and asked if he could put up a poster and leave flyers on the counter. He also posted on several Facebook groups and on Twitter.

When I watched them play, I noticed that aside from regular bar patrons,and a couple of new faces, there wasn’t much of a spike in the audience.

Now imagine what would’ve happened if they focused on reaching out to people they knew or had a connection with? The bar would’ve been more crowded with our friends, their co-workers, and other friends of friends who got dragged in.

The same analogy applies when you’re building links.

If you’re just spamming the web with flyers (links), no one’s going to pay attention to you. You’ll be that annoying guy everyone hates.

Trust me, you don’t want to be that guy, especially once the big bouncers (ie. Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) start booting you out.

Link Building that Doesn’t Rely Solely on Algorithms and Search Engines

From 2012 to early 2015, websites experienced the most devastating algorithm changes from the search giant, Google. Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird, and most recently, Pigeon, deprived many sites with traffic, ranking and revenue.

Two companies even told me that they closed up shop. One relied too much on a flawed content strategy — short content, posted five times a day. The other relied too much on submitting to article directories.What they both did were mainstream practices back then.

But they weren’t building a relationship with anyone. They weren’t producing anything genuinely helpful at all, and Google knew it.

Those algorithm updates are now baked into modern SEO. The most important thing you should do now is revise your link building strategy, using techniques built to last.

Long-Term Link Building Strategies

Link to Relevant Resources from Your Own Website (Give to Get)

It seems crazy, doesn’t it? You want to get links, and I’m telling you to give them away!

Well, Neil Patel, Co-founder of CrazyEgg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics, says, “you should be shooting for 25 external links for every 1,000 words of content.” It’s not a hard and fast rule but it’s a good estimate if you’re just starting out.

Before you give out links, make sure that:

The site alsolinks to others
The link is relevant to your topic
It is written by the site’s owner or a regular contributor
You can find the author or site owner’s name and email address
The author or influencer has a good engagement rate with followers, not just sheer numbers.
com shows that it has some keywords driving traffic to it

When you publish a blog post with links, send a partially personalized email to everyone you linked to:

Try one of Patel’s email templates:

Or the one that I used to write this post, 50 Must-Read Personal Development Bloggers That’ll Change Your Life, with over 500 shares:

Don’t be afraid to ask big names for links and shares, like I was. As long as what you write would be interesting to their readers, you’re likely to get a positive response.

Don’t expect everyone you email to reply and link back to your site. Some people are naturally generous with links, while some will opt for a simple tweet. Those tweets are still useful though, because the people who see them might then link back to you.

Check out the other templates for link building and email outreach here:The Ultimate List of Copywriting, Email and Blogging Templates and Swipes

Give Testimonials and Participate in Case Studies

Businesses, big and small, love receiving testimonials from their customers. When you write that testimonial, give them more incentive to display it by praising them for a specific result, or a specific problem they solved.

Think about it from their point of view. Which of the following testimonials would you proudly display?

Thanks to XYZ software, I got a 25% increase in new customer purchases.

“Bob and his team did a good job helping me increase sales for our new product”

The first one sounds better, right?

Of course, don’t forget to include your picture and a link to your website. Testimonials with these elements look more credible to consumers, as this gives them a chance to verify the testimonials themselves.

Problogger Testimonials — (Testimonials from ProBlogger Job Boards)

Participating in a case study is also another little-known link building strategy.

Testimonials — (Case study with link to the participant’s website from Visual Web Optimizer)

Get Links Similar to Your Competitors

One of the ways search engines judge the quality of your website is by the number of high quality links you have that are similar to your competitors.

For instance, if your target keyword is “yoga studio in Brooklyn,” your competitors are other yoga studios appearing on Google’s page 1 for that keyword.

Your competitors wouldn’t have gotten to page one if they didn’t have links from other high quality sites. In fact if you examine their link profile, you’ll see they have inbound links coming from the same websites, aka ‘common links,’ which can be anything from review sites, health blogs, or yoga certification schools.

Your goal is to find those common links and try to get some of the best ones for your site. OnceGoogle sees a similar link profile on your site, it’ll associate you with other already high-ranking sites for your keyword. To take this to the next level, you will also need some links that the competitors don’t have.

Common link building is also a great way to differentiate low-citation links such as link farms, from high-quality search engine vetted websites. This process takes too much time when done manually, so we use the Common Backlinks Tool.

Get .Edu Links and Social Shares through Scholarships

Many businesses give out scholarships in exchange for .edu links. It doesn’t have to be a big scholarship either. A budget of $500 to $1000 will do wonders for this link building strategy.

After the budget is set aside, decide the criteria for awarding it. You can have a contest where voting is done via social media, or accept essays or blog posts on a certain topic. Put the guidelines in a dedicated ‘scholarship page’ on your website.

Once the webpage is up, look up the email address of at least 25 high school and college career centers. Shoot them an email with a short introduction and a link to your scholarship page. You can repeat this step as necessary, when you want more links later on.

Link Building isn’t Dead

It’s just revived in a different, albeit more complicated form. For now, avoid websites and services that promise a high-quality link for a few bucks. The same goes for packaged services guaranteeing high PR links with little content production or relationship building on your part.

The best links are ones that come from establishing your site/blog as an authority but it can help to have some specificity and detailed tactics that help you spread the word.

The Complete Guide to Pitch Yourself to Be a Podcast Guest (With Email Template)

1. Pick Smaller but Relevant Shows

2. Create Your Target List

3. Research them in Detail

4. Come Up with Potential Episode Topics

5. Write a Winning Podcast Guest Pitch

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Review Your Website and Sales Copy Now

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About Us

Why Authority Marketing?

Connect With Us

1. Pick Smaller but Relevant Shows

2. Create Your Target List

3. Research them in Detail

4. Come Up with Potential Episode Topics

5. Write a Winning Podcast Guest Pitch

Like other Marketing Channels

NaNoWriMo or Not

7 Sources of Writing Inspiration

Start Writing!

Fancy Words and Clever Lines aren’t Enough

Review Your Website and Sales Copy Now

But Plans can Change

Anticipate Changes

Link Building that Doesn’t Rely Solely on Algorithms and Search Engines

Long-Term Link Building Strategies

Link Building isn’t Dead

Connect With Us

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