Is Link Earning the same as Blogger Outreach?

[Seabrook]

Hello all - is there a difference between link earning (from Rand's WBF post) and blogger outreach?

Little confused

[EGOL]

Link earning and blogger outreach are parts of the same process.

Think of "link earning" as building assets for your website that will attract visitors.  These assets could be interesting articles, valuable databases, useful tools, active forums, informative news.    Keep in mind that articles, databases, tools, forums and news will not be link-earning assets unless they have those adjectives of  interesting, valuable, useful, active, informative.  Just because you have something on your site does not make it a link earner.

The outreach part is contacting bloggers who will value some of your assets and like them enough to say something about them.

Popular bloggers get contacted a lot.  Lots of weasels, idiots and moochers are trying to get them to do something.  If you have interesting, valuable, useful, active, informative assets your chances of getting them to help you are small.... but if your assets don't have those adjectives then you are just another weasel, idiot or moocher.

[McTaggart]

One issue that keeps arising at the mo is the mixing of paid and unpaid content by bloggers. Keep an eye on that. I always ask bloggers whether they take sponsored posts. If they do, I check whether their sponsored posts carry nofollow tags on backlinks, which they should. If sponsored posts carry follow backlinks rather than nofollow backlinks, I go elsewhere.

[Seabrook]

Thanks both, very interesting takes.

Would you still recommend traditional link building, or do you think that this is now redundant?

Cheers!

[McTaggart]

It's all about earning the link these days (PR is an important part of that), and you need a balance of approaches too. What amazes me is how many SEO agencies still offer old-style link building services (I spend half my life clearing up the mess they've left behind them - ugh!).

Also, see this on guest blogging: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/

[EGOL]

Would you still recommend traditional link building, or do you think that this is now redundant?

Over the past seven years I have spent a total of about two hours on linkbuilding.  I have not hired anyone to do it and my employees have done none.

Instead, that time and that money goes straight into content.  That gives me more content to appear in the SERPs.

I do use share, bookmark, email, etc buttons and lots of my visitors use them.  My goal is to have good enough content that my visitors do the promotion for me.

I believe that doing some linkbuilding would move my rankings faster.. but I don't like asking people to do things for me.

[Seabrook]

Cheers all