When it comes to the success and profitability of your website, the number of visitors you receive is more important than anything else.
In order for your website to be successful, it needs to be seen. Today I’m going to reveal a proven method that is guaranteed to bring people to your blog: Blogger outreach.
Before we dive into this method, it’s important to understand that while traffic is good it’s important to drive relevant traffic to your blog.
More specifically, it needs to be people who are within your target audience.
If you have a food related business and someone stumbles in looking for fashion tips, you won’t keep them for very long.
The way you can tell if this is happening or not, is by looking at your blog’s analytics.
A service like Google Analytics for example will show you not only how many people are visiting your site, but where they are coming from and how long they’re staying.
This kind of information is crucial when deciding if the traffic you’re receiving is relevant to your website.
The reason I’m making this distinction between general and relevant traffic is because the methods I will share with you today are designed to target those relevant viewers.
So, without further delay, let’s get started.
This method involves getting to know the other business in your field. There are numerous ways that people can find their way to your website, but one of the best ones is by following links from other sites.
If someone is reading an article on their favorite site and they see a link within that article, odds are they will probably click it because their favorite site linked to it.
Here are some great reasons to utilize blogger outreach:
- Another site’s traffic can be used to bring more people to your site
- Connecting with other sites opens up new platforms for you to meet potential customers
- People who find your website become subscribers and eventually loyal readers
- You have a free way to market new content
- It places your posts directly in front of your audience
Think of these backlinks as version of a recommendation letter.
If someone with a lot of pull and influence gives your blog the thumbs up via a link, people are going to visit it based on that simple recommendation.
Step One: Find the Right People For Blogger Outreach
First and foremost you have to find the right people to make contact with.
We’ll start this step by heading on over to Keywordtool.io, a free tool to help you find keywords within your subject.
When you get to the site, type in a broad term that describes your topic. You should get a screen like this:
Google Search
Google is a great place to look for influential blogs because if a blog is showing up in searches, it has a lot of authority in Google’s eyes. So if you can land a link from a blog that is already ranking well in Google, you should get a nice bump in the search engine traffic for your own website.
Use keywords that describe the topics your website tends to cover most often. However, unlike the tool above, you don’t want to use broad keywords like cooking or recipe. Google tends to list massive authority sites for single-word keywords like that – not blogs that you’ll realistically be able to reach out to.
Instead, you’ll need to search for long tail keywords – such as low carb dinner – as these tend to give you the blog results you need.
A few ways are available to generate long-tail keyword ideas.
First, take a look at what keywords you use in your blog post titles. Whether you’ve deliberately included specific keywords for SEO purposes or not, these will help you find other blogs that cover similar topics.
When you search for these keywords in Google, you can also head down to the bottom of the search results and look for an area marked searches related to:
You can then click those secondary keywords to generate other long-tail searches related to your original query.
Repeat this process several times until you run out of keywords that are relevant to your blog’s topic. Each time you find a promising blog, add it to your list and enter the other details.
By the end of this step, you’ll have a rough list of blogs and bloggers that will drive your outreach efforts.
How many blogs should you have in your list?
The total number of blogs in your hit list depends on your niche. If you run a blog on a relatively narrow topic (like pottery), you’ll have significantly fewer blogs on your list than if you had a blog about internet marketing.
As long as you have at least 20 blogs on your list, you’re good to go.
A few ways to get on their radar screen are:
1) Share their content
You’d be surprised how many bloggers (even those with tens of thousands of followers) watch their mentions like a hawk. When you share their content on a consistent basis, they’ll start to take notice.
Make sure to mention their blog’s handle by using “@” on Twitter or “+” on Google+ so that they actually see your share.
You’ll also want to add a brief description to show that you read and enjoyed the post. Even something simple like “Great insights by @MartineAlphonse” is enough. But on a platform that gives you room to add some additional insights (like Google+), you want to add a little more detail. That way, when the blogger sees your share, you’ll stick in their mind.
2) Respond to questions on social media
Some bloggers LOVE to ask questions to their social media followers.This is a golden opportunity for you to add value and establish a small space in their brain.
3) Comment on their blog
Leaving insightful comments is one of the best ways to warm up an influential blogger. Just make sure that your comments add genuine value to the conversation.
Generic “great post!” comments won’t get you anywhere, so write something that’s complimentary and adds a new angle or perspective on the blogger’s post.
4) Send a complimentary email
If you want to be more direct, a brief email that tells them that you’re enjoying their content is a great approach. In fact, I’ve used short-and-sweet ego-boosting emails to build relationships with dozens of influencers in several different industries that I’m involved with.
The following is an example of what your email should look like:
Subject: I’m loving BLOG NAME
Hey BLOGGER NAME,
Just wanted to reach out to say “thanks” for all the stuff you’ve been publishing lately at BLOG.
(I actually used the STRATEGY you recommend in RECENT POST and I got BENEFIT)
Keep up the awesome work!
Cheers,
YOUR NAME
Pro Tip: Sign up to the influencer’s email list and see if they ask you to reply with a question or something that you’re struggling with (which is becoming more and more common in autoresponder sequences). Then reply with your ego-boosting email.
5) Point out broken links
A creative way to get another blogger’s attention is to find any broken or outdated links on their site and let them know. Because let’s face it, no serious blogger wants broken links.
The Chrome extension Check My Links makes finding broken links a breeze and once you’ve got a list, find working replacements (either updated URLs or content that covers a similar topic) for each one.
Finally, drop the blogger an email letting them know you stumbled upon a few broken links and wanted to lend a hand.
6) Offer to improve a resource
Does a resource or feature on the blogger’s site need a paintjob? For example, is a feature not working properly or is a page in need of an update? A fantastic way to get on another blogger’s radar while providing value is to offer to improve a page on their site.
Step Two: Reach Out
You’ve done the hard work of creating a hit list and warming up the movers and shakers in your niche.
Now it’s time to move in for the kill.
Keep in mind that the outreach tactic you use will depend on your specific goal:
- Looking for a tweet of your latest post?A simple content pitch by email will do the job.
- Want to land a guest post opportunity?You’ll need a customized guest post enquiry script.
- Hoping for a quality backlink to your site?
You get the idea
Ideally you’d send your messages using an email address you found in Step #1.
If you weren’t able to snag an email, you can also send these using the blog’s contact form.
Step Three: Grow the Relationship
Now that you’ve reached out to a blogger and added some value to their blog, it’s time to turn your one-off transaction into a, well, relationship.
What Are You Waiting For?
It might be unashamedly old school, but I’m sure you can see the enormous untapped potential of blogger outreach.
By carving out a few minutes of your day to drop comments on some of the right blogs (or send emails to some of the right people), you’ll instantly separate yourself from the thousands of bloggers who continue to publish content and simply HOPE that an influencer sees it and shares it.
Here’s the bottom line:
- Blogging isn’t something people do alone and isolated.
- It’s a group effort and just like in real life, it’s all about who you know!
- It may be the internet but that doesn’t mean you can build authentic relationships with other bloggers in your niche.
With this method in place, word of your blog will spread across the internet like wildfire.
Thanks as always for reading. If you have any tips, tricks, or strategies of your own that have brought more traffic to your blog, share them in the comments below!
To your success,
