Link building by inviting bloggers

[ArjunRajkumar]

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to SEO, and I have a question on a link building strategy for a holiday resort I am working on.

The resort has a paintball arena and zorbing facilities at their premises. I want to use this in the link building strategy and the owners have agreed to have an open day for bloggers.

Basically the resort will invite 20 local bloggers for a day to their resort. They get to play paintball, zorbing and get to see the resort in exchange for an honest write up about their day at the resort.

I am looking at asking the bloggers to write about the event twice (Once before, and once after they visit the resort) with a minimum of 4 links to the website.

I want to know how I can identify the top bloggers? What factors should I consider while making a list of 20 bloggers, and how do I measure these factors?

Also, is this a good strategy for link building? And please feel free to add anything else you think I am missing out on, or will help in the link building.

Cheers!

Arjun

[ASOS]

Hi,

First up, good idea but I would be a bit careful about asking bloggers to post 4 links. Bloggers hate being told what to do from my experience. I would just ask them to link through to the resort without putting too much pressure on them.

The idea is very sound but I would be a bit more careful, I have seen bloggers come out and post about "X place" wants us to blog for links and put out a lot of bad press.

However, otherwise I would use opensite explorer to have a look at the blogs you are interested in and rank them against each other, this is what I do and it's quick and easy. Remember your link profile should look nice and natural, so don't try and get too tricky.

Also today's small blog might be the next big thing tomorrow, so there is no harm in getting a smaller blog to link through.

Great idea - just be careful in the execution, bloggers can turn on you very quickly!

A

[SarahGoliger]

Agreed on all points - Just encourage the bloggers to do the right thing, and they'll link to you plenty. They don't like being bossed around, and they know what to do (and what you're looking for) anyway.

[EGOL]

hmmm......

I don't know how carefully you have thought about this.

**I want to know how I can identify the top bloggers? **

It does not sound like you are very familiar with the bloggers in your area.  Maybe you should get to know them well before you count on them to attend something and blog about it twice.

Are there 20 bloggers in your area?   Have you ever been on their websites?

If you invite 20 bloggers will they attend?  Some might be busy on your open day... some might not like paintball... some might be too old for paintball... some might... you get the idea?

So if you identify 20 bloggers you might get 2 who will show up and that will not produce the kickass blogger gathering that you are planning.  If you invite 20 and only 2 show up they are going to write on their blog that nobody cares about your paintball and zorbing.

If you expect to get 20 bloggers you should invite at least 100 and entice them with free food, free beer, gift of paintball guns, free swag and $100 gasoline cards.

[ArjunRajkumar]

Thanks ASR! Yes, will follow your advice and keep it natural - and not put too much pressure on them or focus on links.. Thank you!

[ArjunRajkumar]

Thanks EGOL.. Point noted.. Not everyone may turn up if at all. Will let you know how this goes after the event. Cheers!

[ASOS]

Good luck Arjun, would love to hear how it all goes!