I am a professional freelance writer who has written for multiple blogs over the years.
As part of content writing’s best practices, I link out to resource pages that add value to the post I’m writing.
This practice lies at the very heart of every successful blogger outreach strategy.
You search for high-quality publication sites that link out to content similar to the ones published on your blog. You then reach out to the editor or author asking them to link back to your post instead because it’s more informative and useful than the one currently linked in the article.
However, I’m pretty sure you know about this strategy already because you already emailed me before.
That said, I would like you to stop emailing me about your post. Like, ever.
Let me explain.
You sent me a by-the-numbers blogger outreach email about a post you published on your blog.
Although I cannot edit the post once it’s published, I nonetheless checked out your link and replied to you. We had a pretty quick exchange about it.
At first, your email made me feel that you simply wish to build relationships with bloggers and publishers, which I appreciated.
However, what soured me on you was your next email.
Again, this looks like your regular blogger outreach email. You linked to a post I wrote that contains a link to a resource page that’s similar to a post that you wrote.
Again, I am unable to edit the post in the site where I published the article.
This time, however, I didn’t bother to email you about it.
The email you sent is painfully similar to the first one you sent. It’s almost as if you used a template and a blogger outreach platform to send the email to other bloggers and publishers.
At this point, I know what you are up to－you’re just in it for the links.
You’re emailing me not because you want to improve the quality of the article with your link.
You emailed me because you want to build links to your site using your post.
To your credit, the posts you’ve been sending me are informative and useful stuff. They are written with utmost care about quality and substance.
However, your transparent approach to link building through blogger outreach casts your brand in a bad light.
What sucks, even more, is how you kept reaching out to me because I didn’t reply.
Those are three emails in less than a week about nagging me for putting up your link on the post.
Really?
Do you think that volume would convince me to do your bidding? I beg to differ!
(And yes, I put your emails in my Spam folder.)
I do appreciate that you stopped emailing about your articles, but the damage has been done.
I’ve held your brand in high regard, but my experience with your blogger outreach strategy made me sour on your business.
If you’ve gotten a good response with your current strategy, then great.
But I honestly feel that there are others there whom you’ve reached out to that feels the same way I do.
If you want your blogger outreach strategy to work, you need to get back in our good graces.
Here’s a quick tip: Don’t do it for the backlinks.
As a blogger, I understand the importance of getting dofollow backlinks from authoritative sites. It helps increase the search rankings of my pages for their respective keyword phrases.
However, blogging is never about ranking on top of search results. It is about spreading great ideas to an audience and engage them in meaningful discourse.
Therefore, if you treat bloggers as mere devices to your link building agenda, then you have already failed.
Bloggers and publishers will see through your motives and blacklist your emails and requests.
I know what you’re asking. “What’s the point of blogger outreach if I can’t get a backlink? What’s in it for me, then?”
Funny enough, blogger outreach was never about you, to begin with.
In case you haven’t noticed, the world does not revolve around your needs and wants.
In fact, every successful blogger outreach strategy starts and ends with building genuine online relationships.
Yes, this may be a time-consuming process that requires you to share their works on social media, comment on their blogs, and email them on what a great job they’re doing on their blogs, among many things you can do.
Most importantly, you need to do these things that you mean it.
Ultimately, your goal is to show them that they can trust you. And the only way this can happen is if you are true to them.
Blogger outreach is a process of humanizing yourself and your brand, so bloggers and publishers will see your authentic self.
In an online world where anonymity reigns supreme, giving yourself a face that people will recognize allows you to build that connection much faster and easier.
If they don’t reply immediately, then maybe it’s not meant to be, at least not now.
But never give up. Maybe the blogger is busy and can’t attend to you at the moment. Give it time until they reciprocate.
Once they do, there is no greater feeling than to have someone whom you can trust and call a friend online.
In the end, there is an immeasurable value that friendship offers. Not only will your online friends be more than willing to link to your content, but they can provide business partnerships and other greater opportunities beyond your imagination.
Until then, keep reaching out to build your connections. And please revamp your damn blogger outreach strategy. 🙂
Yours truly,
Christopher Jan Benitez
- To: Business Owner, Subject: Your Blogger Outreach Sucks - January 19, 2017
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