Here are the entries which qualified to compete for the prize!
1. Put Your Content Out There
This tip has been submitted by Michael Bergen @bluetitan247 (Inbound Marketing Team Leader at Riverbed Marketing @riverbedmktg)
Page with a link: https://upcity.com/blog/top-25-digital-marketing-articles-week-of-081117/
Not all companies have the ability to conduct email outreach. I mean let’s face it, not everyone has the time when you’re growing a small to medium sized business (or the budget).
My actionable tip is to make your content as accessible as possible. If you’re actively growing your audience then it’s not a safe assumption to make that other bloggers and publications will find your content on your blog or social pages alone. Build a strong process of syndicating your content to get it out to a broader audience. If you’re worried about duplicate content, consider writing a series of articles for external promotion and publishing them across your target sites.
In this case, we identified prospect websites we were interested in and found platforms that they are frequently active in to source their content. Upcity has a regular channel of publishing on inbound.org and we were able to build traction with them and make it into their roundup by being available where they source their content. https://inbound.org/search/upcity
No outreach was conducted in this case, but without promoting your content in channels outside of social media this simply could not have happened. Many marketers publish their content, share it on social media and move on. This is a major missed opportunity.
Think about it this way, as authors we want to find the best sources of information to cite as valuable resources to get our points across to the audience. When we use niche websites like inbound.org, Quora, Growthhackers or storify, you are able to search for related content purely in that vertical. Take inbound.org for example, you know by nature it will have a wealth of marketing articles to share and learn from. If we look at this from the other side, we can quickly identify that having a presence in these more focused areas can have a huge impact in being available for natural links to occur.
1. Identify target publications you want to go after
2. Identify sources they use to acquire content they are curating or sharing
- Check their social pages, are there common publications they are sharing?
- Search for the website/brand in self-publishing websites like Quora, Linkedin, Growthhackers, inbound.org, or any industry specific sites for your niche.
- Is there a common style of content they are sharing? Is there a gap in their available information that can be filled with a resource you have?
3. Publish your content on the core websites and share out in social media.
4. Don’t expect overnight success, it’s about building the routine into your publishing agenda and being consistently available where your targets source their content.
The biggest take-away is not assuming publications or blogs will find you through social media or search engines alone. While this tactic doesn’t garner massive amounts of links, with a little extra time spent vs. the outcome you can achieve is still time well spent. Without these other tactics deployed, it simply is a missed opportunity.
2. Build Niche Connections and Guest Post!
Louie Luc @BuzzNitrous, digital marketing and blogging expert
Traffic-generating link: http://nichehacks.com/lessons-learned-viral-news/
I joined Stuart Walker’s NicheHacks.com private Facebook group community and became an active member. (Becoming an active member means following the community guidelines and rules, being polite and never spamming)
I regularly posted new threads asking for help and answered other member’s threads with my tips and advices in order to help them too.
Until the day… I mentioned my viral-news website failure experience to someone in the comments and Stuart @NicheHacksStu happened to read it.
Because he had already noticed my active and positive participation in his community and he found the story interesting to his audience he decided to invite me to guest post on NicheHacks.com.
From his invitation the “10 Lessons Learned from Running a Failed Viral-News Site” guest post was published and I got a link back to my blog which sent traffic to my site too.
3. Get Included into “Top” Lists
Another example of the value of connections comes from Donna Duncan @beseenontop
Traffic-generating link: https://upcity.com/local-marketing-agencies/lists/top-10-seo-companies-in-philadelphia
Here’s what she did:
This referral source (@upcity) publishes a series of top 10 lists by city for companies working in my industry. I get relatively few referrals from them, but the ones I do are serious shoppers (as evidenced by a 4:44 average session duration).
I earned this link after someone nominated my company for inclusion on the list. You can acquire similar links by searching for your industry name + “top 10 lists”, “top 10 websites”, “top 10 resources”, “recommended companies”, and other similar queries.
Visit result pages and learn their requirements for inclusion. Every site is likely to be different. You’ll also want to review current ranking companies to make sure they are reputable and you’d be comfortable being listed alongside them. Lastly, you should use popular link research tools like Moz, aHrefs, and/or Majestic to make sure the domain on which the list resides is also a reputable one.
4. Get Listed on List.ly
Traffic-generating link: https://list.ly/list/10x-most-popular-clothing-brands-in-the-world
Traffic screenshot:
Today’s link has been submitted by MyBlogU user eleanorleo:
I looked for suitable lists on list.ly related to the topic of my Ecommerce shop which stocks fine brands and luxury makers. By selecting “Add To List” you add your own link for approval of the moderator. I have got at least 40 sessions since requesting this link from this list alone.
5. Build Niche Connections
Traffic-generating link: https://tipsonblogging.com/2017/09/benefits-of-being-an-original-blogger/
Janice Wald @MrsPaznanski submitted her link building tactic today proving how important relationships are.
The best way to get links to your blog is to create strong content that solves problems for your readers. I asked 20 experts how they build links and here is their answer.
I have a relationship with the blogger who was inspired by my content. This frequently occurs when I get links.
This proves the importance of relationships as well as strong content.
Firstly, we’ve got a winner!
Here are a few of our judges who didn’t mind being mentioned in the public announcement:
- David Leonhardt @amabaie
- @DonSturgill
- Deb Anderson @socialwebcafe
- @JanetteSpeyer
- Jennifer Hanford @DashBurst
Most of our judges chose #1
I’ll be contacting Michael for him to grab the prize!
Now, to the second update: We will be pausing #MyBlogU chats for 2017 and we’ll return in 2018! There are a few reasons behind this decision which were piling up for several months now. First, we have lacked focus for a while. #MyBlogU needs to be re-thought and this is something we are planning to do. Secondly, we have had to work on the sister project and we need to work more on it until we are happy with the result. Thirdly, the busy season is upon us: Lots of projects and conferences! We’ll be back as soon as we are ready with the platform and we can devote more love to it!
So far, if you have any ideas about the direction we should take, please send them here.
We will be continuing with our weekly #VCBuzz chats: so see you there! Every Tuesday 12 pm EST / 3pm GMT
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