Top-tier Link Building: Pitching Your Idea

Link building is vital to any online business. Top-tier links are crucial to effective ranking. The traditional approach to building links has changed forever.

Limited budgets no longer preclude smaller sites from securing this essential piece of information. Blasting emails with irrelevant information no longer works. In the digital PR era, smaller sites must be creative. Using the same basic approach as larger sites with more money.

To get that all-important link back, your content must be relevant to the journalist you query:

• Forget the quizzes and listicles. Don’t waste your time or theirs.
• Journalists are only interested in relevant copy of interest to their readers. Content they can build on.
• Clues are everywhere in the data. Look for ideas the journalist will respond to.
• Embellish the content with validated surveys.
• Use datasets as foundational content. The subject must appeal to the journalist and their readers.
• Present the story you find in the data.

Content ideas beat to death by first-time link builders will not get a journalists attention. Top ten whatevers, memes, and the constant tools pitch will be thrown away or deleted.

Top-tier journalists have interest in only one thing, stories that interest their readers. This is your starting point to secure that link. Journalists need a constant flow of information into their queues. Breaking news or unique data with new slants are good starters.

In the big picture, it is crucial to know where you fit. Drill down to journalists that are relevant to your niche. Search trade publications, hub sites, and mainstream media. Look for anywhere; your story might fit in.

A journalist's work will tell you what is of interest to them. Do your research and read previous articles to find clues in the data. Single out research they cite in their articles, as ideas to pitch. Know your source to gain their attention, structure the content around that data.

Standalone content must be significant for a journalist to notice. If it is not, you must combine datasets and surveys to add value and appeal. You must be reasonably confident the linking campaign will be a success. Turn existing ideas into branded content, with proper linking back to your site.

Surveys are a great way to validate your ideas in article content. Existing customers can supply a variety of resources. If a customer database is unavailable, take advantage of online resources.

Pollfish, Google Surveys, and Survata can provide visual appeal and data validation.

Structure the survey to get the results you need. First, know what you want out of the study, then build the questions to get the answers you need. The money will dictate the number of responses you get back. The more answers you receive, the stronger the bias.

Use your companies information for data. Another way to add value to your content, outside datasets. Pre-existing sources of information can be found in trade organizations or directly from their journals. Do a Google search to find these organizations.

Always put a different slant on your content. There are thousands lined up behind you looking at the same data as you are. Do not waste anybody's time by covering topics hashed to death.

There are plenty of uncovered stories in the data. The job for you as a publisher is to find and exploit the story. Give the journalist every opportunity to say yes.