How to Get a Guest Post in a Frugal Industry
If you own your own blog or you’re the SEO that manages and markets one company’s website, you have a big advantage:
Control.
But what if you’re a linkbuilder working for an SEO agency with several clients, most of them from different niche markets – verticals, in the advertising world – with different types of websites, different SEO experiences, different profit goals, and you can’t always reach them whenever you want because they’re busy?
Oh, by the way, it’s post-Panda / Penguin. And every month you have to deliver a report to them.
Welcome to my world. It’s a world that some of you work in, too.
Webmaster’s Note: This is a guest post by Gina Jennings
Going For That Link
Well, your job is no different than any other blogger or webmaster. But having a content strategy is really the best way to go. Figure out what type of content you want to put on the other person’s blog who will be willing to link back to your website.
By the way, each website is going to be different. Each vertical has its own culture. Within each blog culture is the individual blogger’s own criteria. It’s their property. Their house. Their rules.
And you want in.
How do you get in?
Study the culture. Study the blog. Study the readers. Come up with content and then ask.
But…don’t forget about your client.
Assessing Your Client’s Website
You should start first with your client’s needs. After all, they’re paying for you. Your responsibility is first to THEM. Next, you go looking for sites that would support them. If you don’t correctly assess what they’re about, you could inadvertently waste time veering off into an avenue that’s not even relevant.
However, sometimes you’ve got to go wide and broader because there’s simply not much out there you can tap.
What if you ended up with a client with an interesting niche, with a unique service, limited to certain types of customers?
Let’s take an example: Terracom Wireless and Yourtel Wireless.
Ask the Client First
If you have time or can get a hold of the owner, do so. Ask them about what kind of customers they are targeting. That can give you a better gauge of where to find their prospective customers. If you can’t get a hold of the owner, do the best you can by gleaning from the content on their website.
With the two companies I mentioned above, I at first tried tech blogs and cell phone blogs. Those seemed like the obvious choices. They didn’t work.
Why?
Think about it. Tech blogs and cell phone blogs deal with the latest technology, apps, smartphones. Readers want to know about NEW technology, not old technology. My client’s business had to do with the use of old technology needed for those who needed affordable communication and cannot afford the common $70+ phone bill at today’s prices.
So you go broader. Think government assistance programs. Money saving blogs. Frugal blogs.
I got an article posted at Stretcher.com. It was a simple list post about ways to save on your phone bill.
The frugal blog seemed to work best because these days people want to know how to save money. It didn’t matter if they were on government assistance or didn’t want to give away more of their hard-earned money away to taxes. How can they save the pennies?
Go Broad
So you might find that you start off your linkbuilding campaign one way and end up going in another direction. That’s what drives your content to be relevant, to be unique. And when I say unique, I mean unique to THAT blog only.
At the end of the day, though, a link is a link.
Who’s Talking About Your Client?
SEOMoz pro users have access now to their Freshweb Mentions Tool. This allows you to enter your clients name in quotes and see who has mentioned your client within the last four weeks.
Here’s the broke person’s way of doing the same thing:
- Go to the Google Search Bar
- Type your client’s name in quotes
- Go down the list
Check out the post or article. If you see the client’s name and there’s no link to it, email the editor and asked them kindly for the link. Thank them for mentioning your client. This method has worked for me every time.
Manta, Man
You got a local client? Don’t forget about directories. What’s cool about Manta is that you can sign up for free and state you’re working on behalf of that client. So you can list several clients in that directory. If your client is already listed, but there’s not much info on them, claim the business if no one else has and make their profile look nice. Put in the proper address, phone number, email and website URL. So you can list more than one client. It does your client a favor, for one, and it makes it easier for local customers to get a hold of them.
In today’s Post-Panda world, you have to think outside of the box. You can, after a while, get into a guest posting rut. Like Sean Si was saying about the new SEO, it’s an ever changing industry. What used to work before could be obsolete later or not valued as much. So you have to be flexible.
Share the Love
Tweet your post! Google plus it. Something. I often forget to do this because social media is not really my thing, but it’s a major way to get the word out. If your content is good, people will read it and share it out. More links for your client.
The more often you practice different types of linkbuilding methods, the more adept you become at determining which types are better for certain clients than others. It takes months of practice. For some, it’ll be quicker. I learn a little slower than most, but overtime, you will improve at it.
What kind of linkbuilding issues did you encounter? Share with us how you solved it in the comments section below.