Welcome to Part 5 of my Traffic and Leads through WordPress series. This is an awesome series because we look at effective ways to market your WordPress website. The reason this is so different is because WordPress is an awesome platform and much of the marketing can truly be streamlined with plug-ins, etc. However, I’m surprised at the amount of people who still don’t know how to use WordPress effectively and often rely on manual marketing. I’m here to tell you to stop wasting time and let this process be automated so you can worry about creating high quality content. Today, we’ll be looking at a method that does take some time but it can double or even triple your traffic when done correctly. We’ll look at how to effectively contact other bloggers within your niche so you can utilize their reach.
It’s hard to win in business doing everything alone so always reach out to people for help.
Let’s get started…
The Strategy
Many think what you’re trying to do is difficult, but if you have a clear idea of how to perform research, then you won’t have a problem at all. For example, by doing a quick search in Google for top niche related blogs, you’ll be able to put together a list of top blogs. Once you’ve compiled your list, it’s time to go through, finding their contact information so you can begin to put an outreach email together. Why is this important? Well, for two reasons…
First, contacting popular bloggers will allow you to build that initial relationship. Secondly, if they accept your request, you’ll have thousands of relevant visitors to your blog and can take advantage of their huge social media profiles. Check out JohnChow.com and his Twitter profile, which currently has over 100,000 followers. If I can network and get published on his blog, I can generate some serious buzz quickly…right?
In a nutshell, the strategy is to find high authority bloggers in your niche and skim through their blog for contact information. Craft the perfect email, asking them for a guest blogging opportunity or even a mention on their social profiles about epic content you’ve published on your blog. This is a very effective strategy and I’ve used it several times to build brand awareness.
The Approach
I have to be honest, it’s very important that you put the right outreach email into place. Having a genuine approach will significantly increase your chances of success. When I used to send out emails, I would make sure they were right to the point because high authority bloggers don’t have a lot of time to read emails. For example, Neil Patel bluntly states that he’ll NOT read any contact emails more than “1’ sentence. Other bloggers don’t mind longer emails, but it’s still a great idea to keep them right to the point. Here are two things:
First, when reaching out, you can pitch them a content idea you feel will be valuable for their blog. Sometimes, other bloggers are so busy with other projects, they simply don’t have time to invest in writing as much content as before. If they like your idea, then you might get approval to submit and be published on their blog. With 2 links in the author bio, you can generate some serious traffic and leads.
Secondly, some bloggers prefer NOT to have guest bloggers because they want to complete brand themselves. However, this doesn’t mean they won’t mention epic content that’s useful to their audience, too. For example, I write several guides that are over 10,000 words and through several outreach programs, I’ve been able to build a relationship with authority bloggers. Many of them are happy to “share” my guides on their social profiles because it provides value to their readers. Credibility is built on value so even when bloggers share high quality content, it’s very effective in maintaining loyalty. However, here are a few things to keep in mind when asking authority bloggers to share your content….
- Make sure it’s relevant to the niche
- Make sure it’s well researched
- Make it creative and unique
- Make sure it’s always high quality content
- Add videos
- Add images
- Add infographics