Are you in a niche that’s so damn competitive no one’s willing to link to you?
If so, the Little Big Horn strategy of link building might just be your answer.
Read on if you:
- Are in a highly competitive niche
- Struggle to get links from blogs within your niche
- Want to outrank your competition quickly with white hat SEO
- Want to know how to create a VIRAL TSUNAMI
This post is the latest update from my adventure to build a $9K/pm authority site and in it I’ll share how I’m using the Little Big Horn strategy of link building to get my new site shared by A-listers and create a Viral Tsunami.
If you read my last post Viral Carrots & Conversion Rabbit Holes you’ll know my aim was to make my new site go viral on launch day by promoting “viral carrots” (content that has potential to go viral) to the right people.
The goal was to attract links and shares from A-list bloggers both within and closely related to the niche.
Well on 17th December 2013, the site went live and I emailed a large chunk of the A-list bloggers from my little black book of 1000+ contacts.
But did they share it?
No.
Freight Train Out of Nowhere
To cut a long story short, the site failed to create the waves I hoped it would and like a freight train out of nowhere it hit me – this niche is going to be tougher than I thought.
Nevertheless, I was prepared for this and didn’t base my entire strategy on becoming the next best thing since BuzzFeed overnight.
I knew it was going to be a struggle to get links and shares from people within the niche, which is why I’m using the Little Big Horn strategy to make a stand and:
- Get white hat links from A-listers
- Outrank my competitors FAST
The Little Big Horn Strategy
In the movie, The Social Network, when Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin meet Sean Parker for lunch they explain how they used the Little Big Horn Strategy to attract students from Baylor (a college that already had their own social network) to Facebook, by putting Facebook on the campuses of all the schools within 100 miles of Baylor first:
To implement the Little Big Horn strategy for a new site, you first need assets you can leverage to attract juicy white-hat links from beyond the constrictions of your niche, in adjacent markets.
This way, it doesn’t matter if people within your niche aren’t willing to share your stuff in the first few weeks because you can always get links elsewhere.
The Little Big Horn Strategy is split into two key phases:
Phase One – Get links and exposure from adjacent markets
Phase Two – Get A-listers to share your content
I’ve almost completed Phase One by leveraging a certain type of asset that attracts white-hat links on drip feed from adjacent markets.
Phase One: Leverage Infographics
Infographics make excellent link bait and if promoted the right way, attract a heap of traffic, attention and links.
For this reason I decided to invest in creating not one, but two epic infographics to promote the blog and build links for Phase One.
And these aren’t just any old infographics.
The subject matter is 100% original because I collected the data myself from a 20 question survey sent out to 100 people using Survey Monkey.
Once the data was in hand, I used Lucid Chart to map the flow of how I wanted the infographics to look to save money on infographic designer costs, which only came to USD225 per infographic (on PeoplePerHour.com).
Since the day of the site’s launch I have been submitting them to various infographic directories and reaching out to dozens of people in adjacent markets.
I’ve been implementing the tips from Brian Dean’s recent post on how to rank #1 with Guestographics.
He shared a strategy David Gross’ team from Inter Greater used to get their infographic way more attention than it would have if they’d only reached out to people within the niche.
As well as reaching out to a more diverse crowd of people, Brian also suggested you offer to write a unique introduction for each person – this way they’ll be more likely to share them, since you’ve made their job that much more easy.
I’ve done this and the response has been fantastic:
Actually, because no-one in my niche is using infographics (but mainly use links from black hat SEO / grey hat SEO to rank) I’ve decided to invest in creating one new infographic every month, because after only 3 weeks of going live, the link juice from the infographics has helped our best money page rise up the SERP and appear on Google’s second page!
The funny thing is, that money page has NO external inbound links. So…how the heck is it ranking already?
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
I discovered that a rising tide lifts all boats when a couple of my older posts on clambr started ranking in the SERP after my expert roundup about the best SEO tools for link building went a little viral.
Its’ popularity and accumulated backlinks helped lift other posts in clambr’s harbour, especially this one: http://www.clambr.com/49-free-web-directories-for-building-backlinks/ which is now ranking for quite a few free directories based keywords:
I never even built a single backlink to it.
But what I did do was improve clambr’s inner link structure by sending link juice from my “star” pieces of content, to other pieces of content on the site.
I’m doing the exact same thing for my new niche site.
I’ve made sure the current star pieces of content (my two infographics) are sending link juice to my most important money pages.
That’s why one of my best money pages is already appearing on Google’s second page.
Now comes the final push: create a Viral Tsunami that lifts all boats in the harbour.
Remember how when I first launched the site no A-listers would share my content?
Phase Two: Expert Roundups
Now that the site has built up a solid amount of white-hat backlinks and social proof from its’ unique infographics, it’s time to reach out to the A-listers again, only this time, they’ll be more likely to help out.
Why?
Because I’m going to be inviting them to take part in an expert roundup!
If you’ve visited clambr before, you’ll know I’m a bit of an expert at expert roundups 
Hell, it was thanks to my first expert roundup about link building tools that clambr got noticed in the first place!
Expert roundups are KICK ASS because they have a habit of going viral since the content is EPIC and the people involved usually share them like crazy which gets you a flood of attention and organic white-hat links:
And if you choose your target keywords wisely, once the social shares and backlinks kick in, you should hit the first page of Google in no time at all:
YES – I strongly believe that social shares play a HUGE factor in ranking content.
And because I’m so confident in the results roundups create, I’d be nuts not to use an expert roundup as Phase Two of the Little Big Horn strategy of link building.
Even if a lot of the experts in my niche are still unwilling to get involved in a roundup, it doesn’t matter, because I’m going to:
- Reach out to lesser known experts in the niche who’ll be more up for getting involved (thanks to Matt Gratt from BuzzStream for suggesting this)
- Create a question that can be answered by experts outside my niche (not just those strictly confined to the niche)
- This will mean I have a larger list of people to reach out to and thus, ensure a greater amount of responses (quantity is key because the more people = the more shares & exposure)
So even if the A-listers don’t get involved the first time round, I’ve still accomplished the task of getting on their radar simply because I am asking for their expert opinion.
And when the roundups go viral, the experts who don’t take part will be swept up in the Viral Tsunami, visit my site and be GAGGING to get involved next time round.
But what the heck is a Viral Tsunami?
Viral Tsunami
image via: deviantart.com
A Viral Tsunami is a wave of social shares so vast and wide, that A-listers and Authoritative news sites can’t do anything but get swept up in it.
This will then bring a Tsunami of visitors to your site, which you can then funnel down channels (links) leading to whatever other content you want lifted as it ploughs through.
To create a Viral Tsunami you need to merge two huge waves of traffic together, to create one gigantic wave.
To achieve this, you don’t just launch one expert roundup and promote it like crazy.
No.
You publish 2 expert roundups at the same time.
The expert roundups should also be on the same or similar topic so people involved in each roundup will be dying to see what the other group of experts said too.
Think about it.
If you and a friend were arrested on suspicion of vandalising a police car and then split up and interviewed in separate rooms you’d wish you could hear what your friend was saying about you right? Did he stick to the story you both agreed upon or did he rat you out? That’d drive you crazy right?!
Here’s some examples of how you could split groups up to pave the way for a Viral Tsunami:
Mommy Bloggers VS SEOs
Black Hats VS White Hats
Paleo Diets VS Vegetarian Diets
Strength Training VS Body Building
Men VS Women
Not only will this urge experts from each roundup to check out the other one, and share those too, but it will also:
- Double your site’s exposure (because you can tap into the different variety of followers from each group of experts)
- Increase each visitor’s time on site (great for SEO)
- Allow you to direct waves of visitors to another fresh piece of content you want to rank (e.g. my money page stuck on Google’s second page)
But it gets better…
…As well as bouncing two expert roundups off each other, I’m also going to publish a unique infographic that compiles the data from both roundups to create an ultimate guide.
Imagine if you were one of the experts who’s answer contributed to the creation of an amazing and unique infographic?
You’d love it right? Because it would feel like your infographic.
In fact, you’d love it so much you’d share it like crazy and probably even publish it on your own blog.
So…this will in turn, give the infographic a huge chance of going viral, attract a ton of links and hopefully rank it for its own target keyword.
As part of my monetization strategy I’m also going to link to the money page I mentioned earlier in this post (the one that’s ranking on the second page of Google), because remember, a rising tide lifts all boats!
The impact of the Viral Tsunami should hopefully provide me with two expert roundups, one infographic and one money page that dominate the SERP.
In effect, this strategy could potentially kill 4 birds with 2 stones.
Think Viral Tsunamis ROCK? Click the bird to Tweet this:
“2 Expert Roundups + 1 Infographic = VIRAL TSUNAMI!” 
Rinse and Repeat.
I am confident the Little Big Horn strategy of link building will work like magic, which is why I’m going to create one new infographic and two new expert roundups every single month.
The monthly infographics and roundups will not only boost my chances of getting noticed by A-listers in the niche, but also by Authoritative news sites.
In fact, I have already been asked by two radio stations to let them know when the next infographic comes out:
Focussing on being a consistent publishing house for special types of content will, in a nutshell: make your site known as a go-to place for something special and establish you as an authority.
Pat Flyn is known for his podcasts about generating an income online, Matthew Woodward is known for his internet marketing case studies and video tutorials and Neil Patel is known for being kind of a big deal.
My new site will become known for its unique monthly infographics and expert interviews, (something nobody else in the niche is doing).
Conclusion
If you just do what everyone else is doing, you won’t stand out and you won’t get noticed, let alone linked to from A-listers.
The Little Big Horn strategy of link building gives you a solid way to get exposure, white-hat links and rank your site quickly after you launch.
Like the Little Big Horn Strategy? Click the bird to Tweet this:
“The Little Big Horn Strategy of Link Building http://ctt.ec/qGWFE+”
In my next post I’ll reveal exactly what happens when I implement Phase Two of the strategy (the expert roundups) for my new niche site and whether or not it creates the Viral Tsunami I’m banking on.
The email outreach has only just begun and the responses are already coming in:
Sign up to updates below if you want to see what happens, oh and if you love posts about link building check out the 3 Link Building Tools 55 SEO Experts Cannot Live Without here.
I hope you enjoyed this post and if you liked it be sure to give it a share! Do you plan to use the Little Big Horn strategy of link building in your niche?