Outreach Approach

[SebastianDyer]

When you contact a blogger or website owner about guest posting, who do you say is contacting them?

For example, do you say that you are an SEO for the company or do you simply sign off as the company you are doing work for.

I tend to introduce myself as 'a PR/SEO representative for company X'. What about you?

[kwoolf]

I always get permission from a client to represent them as a product specialist or marketing consultant, but I usually open the discussion with site owners with: "I'm Kevin from XXX." I also have a shpeel down pretty well, always communicating the same major points of the business to each site owner I approach. I'm not the overzealous type who promises some sort of grand partnership; instead I speak sincerely about my client, the business, and how they can help us. I have about 60-70% success with that.

As a note, something that fails more often than not is mentioning the word "link." You want your business shining inside well-written content, not just links. Focus on the business aspect rather than the SEO part. This SEO buzz is really out of control, and I found that more people with popular sites tend to hoard their link juice. It's a risky approach, so I recommend promoting content over link building. It's just what works for me.

[MarieHaynes]

I'm new to this so I'm interested in the responses as well.  But I can tell you an experience I had from a webmaster's point of view.

I constantly get emails requesting links. Most of these are asking for a link exchange.  And it's really rare that I pay any attention to them.  But, I was recently contacted by the SEO of a company that sells a product in my niche asking if I would be willing to write a blog post about their product.  I was quite happy to do so because it was a good product and I felt the content would benefit my site.  I think in this instance, having an SEO contact me seemed to make the request more legit.

[andresgmontero]

Hi Sebastian, I sometimes like to use " Company Name Editor" and talk a bit about how our content will be helpful for their site, which is not really a lie, I am the SEO but also do content Editing .

Sometimes I don't even include a title, just me from Company name, and on some markets like sports, believe it or not, when I get some help from a friend who is a woman, we get a better response rate from the blog owners. Interesting ah?

[EGOL]

(Please don't read this and think that my tone is shouting at you.... I am just saying what happens when these messages arrive here.  OK? Also, I am not an SEO, I am a publisher. So that puts a little different perspective on my thinking. )

When an SEO or a PR company contacts me about "guest posting" on my blog I report that message as spam and block their email address or entire domain from my inbox.

I don't want posts that are done to connive links.  I don't need content that badly and if the post is being done to gain a link I bet that they didn't put their best work into it.  What else are they doing for links?  Will I be linking to a bad neighborhood?  Forget it.

I do publish a lot of content contributed by others.  But every one of those authors contacted me personally.  Sometimes I accept their first article and pay them for future articles.

When I publish that content from a guest author  there is an area on the page with a short author bio and a link to his/her blog or website.  I don't mind linking to his/her site.  Maybe my visitors want to read more from that author.  Good!

However, when an author contacts me personally if he/she starts talking about getting anchor text links in the content my interest in that content falls through the floor.  Now I know why he wants to have an article on my site.  He simply wants the links.  FT!   I am not running a website to be JoeSchmoe's personal advertising portal or his personal linkfarm - those articles submitted for links are usually crap content.  I don't want them.  Sorry, we can't use the article.. thanks for offering it to us.

[SebastianDyer]

Yes exactly- I sometimes even get the client to set up an email for me.

I'll also agree with your point about the word 'link'. I try to avoid all 'link' conversations as it often scares the webmaster off, which sometimes involves us having to provide a post without getting the link back.

[SebastianDyer]

Company name editor is good but sometimes they like to have a name to be able to address - especially if the blogger wants to develop a proper relationship.

[SebastianDyer]

I get what you mean, but when we do outreach, we never target people interested in doing link farm BS and we never do it ourselves. Instead, we focus on providing content that is relevant to the website but is also authoritative and worthwhile. For example, offering a property news website an opinion post from a housing company.

So, what would get your attention and not lead you to send a message straight to the trash?

[SebastianDyer]

Good point - I ignore all link exchange requests too. I think it's important to make sure you're contacting site owners that are actually relevant to your company's niche. Otherwise, what authority could you provide the guest post with?

[andresgmontero]

well yeah, that's right, sorry didn't explain its like:

Andrés G. Montero, Company Name Editor

you got the idea

[SebastianDyer]

Yes that would work much better. I am always worried about giving my name out too freely when associated with other companies, but I think it is fine when tagged to a title like 'Content Editor' or 'PR Consultant'.

[EGOL]

Busy websites attract a lot of link hunters, publicity seekers, crackpot promoters, etc.

So if you use language like "reaching out to you" or other marketer speak your message will be deleted.  Everyone is trying to use us.

If the message is from a PR group or an SEO group we know that you are trying to use us.

What gets our attention?  A message from an enthusiastic author.

[SteveOllington]

I got a guest post purely from ripping into someone elses in the comments once. Some business guru lady was recommending people "stick to larger companies for SEO... like BT SearchSmart"

Infuriated I went on a rant about how no-one should ever advise such a thing (I hate BT SearchSmart... they're rubbish and they just rip people off), and blah, blah, blah. Then the blog owner emailed me and said I could write a post on what to look out for to avoid getting stung by dodgy SEO companies

So yeah I'm with EGOL about the enthusiasm thing, I was certainly enthusiastic about tearing BT services a new one

[EGOL]

lol.... Good story, Steve.  Thanks for sharing it.

I got a message from a professor who asked why we didn't have an article on Subject XYZ because it was so important, etc. etc. etc. (just reading his rant I could tell that he knew his stuff......  So I asked him to write one and got a great piece of content.