Build a blogger outreach list for more effective promotion and link-building
With millions of blog posts created every day, you can’t expect to grow your blog traffic simply by publishing new content. Even sharing on social media isn’t enough to reach new audiences and build the kind of authority you need to earn higher rankings in Google search.
That’s what most bloggers do. Even the ones that do some kind of outreach to promote their best content usually only go so far as to spam a generic list of bloggers with a cheesy ‘check out my new post’ email.
This kind of shotgun approach, closing your eyes and hoping you hit an influencer, won’t get you the kind of traffic and links you need to be successful. For effective promotion, the kind that reaches people willing to share your content and doesn’t waste your time, you need a blogger outreach list.
Let’s look at some of the problems with how most bloggers promote their websites. I’ll then walk you through how to put together your blogger outreach list for effective and efficient content promotion.
How Most Bloggers Promote their Blogs
The typical blog promotion strategy is pretty short.
- Write out a quick 700-word post,
- Share the post link on Facebook and Twitter,
- And wait for a post to magically go ‘viral’.
How’s that worked for you?
Some industrious bloggers even go so far as to spam out some emails to huge blogger lists announcing the post. You’ve seen these in your inbox, something like, “Hey, I loved your recent post. I created one just like it and thought you would want to check it out.”
Do those ever work?
How to Use a Blogger Outreach List to Build Your Authority
You need to be more targeted in your outreach and promotion if you ever want to build real blog traffic. I’m talking the kind of traffic where you need your own dedicated server, the kind of traffic that brings national brands knocking on your door for sponsorship.
Which is better, spamming 500 bloggers and getting a 1% response or building a relationship with 100 bloggers and getting a 20% response the next time you promote content?
For the mathematically-challenged, the two choices leave you with either five bloggers or 20 bloggers sharing and linking to your content.
Like most great blogging and SEO strategies, the process of creating a blogger outreach list isn’t terribly difficult but can be time consuming.
- Start with a list of all the bloggers you know by name, people that would recognize your name and blog if they saw it in an email.
It’s important to focus on bloggers within your niche for promotion. These are the bloggers, and their audiences, that are going to be most interested in your content for linking and sharing. It’s also important because Google values links from related blogs more highly than it does links from blogs outside your topic area.
- You’ll also want to search for any ranking lists of bloggers in your niche or attendee lists of conferences. You’ll want a list of between 100 to 200 names and blogs to start because you’re going to be narrowing the list next.
- Use the free MozBar extension in Google Chrome or another domain authority (DA) tool to find the DA for each blog in your list. The DA is a scoring system from 0 to 100 for the search authority of a website. Websites like Forbes and Huffington Post have scores in the 90s while blogs less than a year old will usually have a DA in the 20s. While a link or share from a site with a DA in the 20s probably won’t help much, you probably won’t get much response from blogs with domain scores above 60 either unless you’re a famous blogger. Start by targeting only the bloggers on your list with Das between 30 and 60 for the most efficient outreach.
- Create a spreadsheet that includes blogger name, domain, domain authority, email contact and the contact for their social media pages. Also note if the blogger accepts guest posts.
Once you’ve narrowed your outreach list down to between 50 to 100 bloggers, start building a genuine relationship. Start reading and commenting on their blog. Start sharing their best content on social media and engaging with their social pages.
Do this for a month and I guarantee the next time you put together an epic piece of content that you want to promote, you’ll have a team of bloggers waiting to help out. They’ll open up your emails, share your post on social media and link back to it from their blogs!
Don’t use a shotgun to promote your blog. Put together a blogger outreach list that builds real relationships and puts your blog in front of all the right people. You’ll see your blog traffic grow faster, build authority in Google search and stop wasting your time with useless blog promotion techniques.