Dear Link Builders/VA's,
This letter is for all the link building go-getters out there. I know a lot of you are trying to make a living online, and these days in order for people to find the sites you're trying to promote it's going to involve some link building. As a blogger who is both the target of some of your efforts and as someone who is involved with link building myself, it seems that many of you are just throwing your time and money into the wind.
There are many bloggers who openly vent their disdain for the quality of some of the guest post submissions and requests from link builders coming their way, but my problem is with a step before that- your prospecting email (or as I like to call it, the fishing trip).
Whether you are a blogger looking to gain back links from guest posting, you're a content writer doing SEO work on behalf of your clients, or you're a virtual assistant assigned with the task of vetting potential link building opportunities, you'll have a lot to gain from paying attention to the points below. Here are my biggest pet peeves with emails requesting a link to my site that have me (and I'm sure many other bloggers) heading for the delete button in no time flat.
Five Characteristics of Failed Attempts by Link Builders
1. You sent me a cookie cutter message. I have this sinking suspicion that there's a handful of master link building request emails floating around made by the some link building Queen Bee that keeps getting copied and pasted (with some minor changes, of course) to flood ad nauseam the inboxes of many a blogger. I have personally received hundreds of such emails, and I'm only the webmaster of some relatively small niche blogs. By the process of deduction, I imagine that one of the “originals” goes something like this:
I was the surfing the web looking for a good [enter niche here] and I came across your site. I have been reading the articles on your website, and I am very impressed with the quality of your information. I would like to write an original article for you to use on your website – this article will not be used anywhere else on the Internet.
This content is for free. In exchange all I ask is that I can have one or two links within the body of the article back to one of my sites.
If you don't take the time to write a more original introduction then chances are your guest post is just as un-original. Delete!
2. You didn't read the guest post guidelines… or my site. Another link building approach that gets me heading for the trash icon is asking me if I ever accept guest posts, when I just published one that day or what my guidelines are when there's a pretty prominent menu option on my website titled “Guest Post.” Even better is suggesting a guest post topic that has little to do with my site:
“I have a post called ‘Low Cost Chicken Dinner Recipes.' Please let me know when it will be published on The Frugal Entrepreneur.”
Ummm… Delete!
3. Don't flatter me! Don't get me wrong. Compliments are very welcome and much appreciated. I like to hear how my efforts are helping other people, or how my content is being used. But if you're going to make the effort, then at least make it sound real. Canned statements such as, “great site,” “I'm impressed with the quality of your content,”or “I'm an admirer of your site,” etc, or picking out the latest post and either re-stating one or two of the sentences in it or offering some equally bland compliments, won't get you very far in your link building pursuit. You're not being genuine and it shows. Delete!
4. You forgot who I am. Sometimes I get emails from link builders like:
“Dear Mr (or Ms?!) Not My Name, I would like to submit a guest post on your site, Notmysite.com,…”
I know. I know. I'm not trying to be mean. You've probably sent out link prospecting emails to dozens and dozens of sites. You're tired, you're eyes are blurry from peddling all those links and posts. But that's precisely the problem. Delete!
5. You use awkward language. Receiving emails from link builders with phrases such as, “I was tasked with writing a post…,” or “Hello Sir, I was trawling through Google…,” are a big turn off. Now I know, as an American, that English is spoken differently in other countries like England and Australia, and also that there are some competent people from foreign countries who can speak a decent English. But usually I can tell if that is really the problem rather than a link building foreign virtual assistant passing as a supposedly American-based blogger.
Bloggers please take note: If you are using a virtual assistant even if he or she is from an English speaking country, then please, please make sure this person knows how to communicate in the way you want him or her to. (I recently wrote a post about working with VA's that you might want to check out.) If you don't make an effort to monitor the quality of your communications, then how can you expect me to make the effort to consider your request? Delete!
In short, dear Link Building One, I want to work with you. But you need to make sure your request is compelling and genuine. That's the only way to win over a delete- happy blogger like me.
Regards,
Adam Gottlieb
The Frugal Entrepreneur