Best way to approach a contributor.
-
Hello, Let's say I have got contact details of a contributor of ABC.com and the domain authority of this domain is 83 and the website is very relevant to my website. What sort of words I need to use to approach the contributor? Last time I sent the following message to a contributor and never heard from him.
Hello John, My name is Blah blah, I have been reading some posts that you have written on ABC.com and was very impressed with your work. I was just wondering if you are able to write about our website on ABC.com and let me know what will be the cost of this project?
Is that not a good approach? If not, what you reckon is a good approach and please mention the words.
Thanks!
-
LOL Paul - I don't know you as well as I hope to in the future, however you have already through the multiple interactions we've had, proven you're trustworthy, friendly and a good person by nature (your actions have spoken).
So yes, this is a great example of how to build a valid professional relationship. Because even if you hadn't made that referral, the interactions themselves beyond that have been high quality and "trustworthy". So I am already inclined to be of help should the situation arise.
-
See Alan's points. The answer is, it depends.
Ironically, when I think about it, Alan is a good example of the type of person you are wanting to connect with. He talks at all the conferences and has a great client list. He is one of "the top people" for website SEO audits. He is an expert in the field with a great reputation. I would like to make more professional connections / mentors in the SEO world, with folks such as Alan, how could I connect with him?
I do follow Alan on Twitter. I even referred a client to him here in Dallas. I went to PubCon this year and attended a site review where he reviewed my site and went up and thanked him for his input and also introduced myself as the person who gave him a referral. Today, I end up answering a question on Moz that he chimes in on and I get to engage with him again. Funny how that works out.
My opportunity here is that I am learning a lot about SEO audits in the process and potentially make a professional networking connection (notice the order there). Does Alan know who I am? heck no! This whole post is probably even creeping him out a bit. That said, it has opened up another opportunity for me to have another conversation that can help me be better at what I do in working in the SEO area.
Good luck!
PS - Alan happy to buy you a beer anytime and talk shop. Promise I will not suck the life force out of you - HA!
-
CleverPhD has great tips - and is 100% spot on with regard to establishing a connection first. I have found its vital to first establish a trust basis - proving through action that I am a respectful human being.
For me it starts out with social media - following someone on Twitter, sharing their content when I genuinely find it valuable, engaging in dialogue politely and not in a forced "doing this for a future link" manner, being helpful...
If I can connect with them at a conference or meetup where we both have a valid reason to be at the same place in person separate from "going there to get a link from that person", it allows the POTENTIAL for in-person real world reinforcement of that genuine connection.
NOTE - I have had people do that with me but then when they heard I was going to be at such-and-such conference, invited me to dinner. I played along out of respect, and it turned out they were just looking to suck my life-force, it wasn't as genuine as they led on to believe.
Don't be that person.
-
CleverPhd, Thanks for the nice ideas! Really makes sense and worth trying. Any advice, at which point do we need to mention about price?
-
I think of getting contributors like dating, you can't just reach out in an email and expect a lot of hits, you gotta woo them. Get to know them. My suggestions.
-
The phone. If this person is that important, don't send them an email. Talk to them on the phone. If the DA is 83 and they are that important you may also consider ...
-
Food / beer. Nothing beats a meeting in person. Take them out to lunch. If they are related to your website, try and connect with them at an industry conference.
-
Friends of this person. The person you want may be just unapproachable. I bet they have people like you sending emails like you just did all day long. If they have a colleague, buddy up with them and get an introduction. On one of my sites, we actually paid "Associate Editors" on a contract basis not to edit, but to help us connect with the top tier folks.
-
Do #RCS and eventually this person will notice you. You may have to show off and then get thier friends to brag about you, but word will get around.
This is not always easy stuff, but eventually it all pays off!
Good luck!
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What you think is thje best way to build links for my site?
I heard different opinions all over the web, some people said don't do 100% just anchor texts with the keywords you want to rank with, and they suggest 60% brand anchor text and the rest for the keywords i want to rank for. what do you guys suggest?
Link Building | | arango200 -
What are the best Guest posts?
Hi, we have been working on improving the SEO for our website www.caffeinemarketing.co.uk and we are looking to guest blog on some sites. Are there any that you would recommend. What kind of volume of posts do we need to make a significant difference to rankings?
Link Building | | Caffeine_Marketing0 -
Backlink count is WAY high vs. competitors
Hi all! My site was managed by a SEO company that is no longer around. I started to look for a new agency and in the process, found Moz and decided to try out the report. While running the report, found out that my I have 3K links vs 173/1600/6344 links that my three other competitors have. Any simple guidance will be appreciated.
Link Building | | fullerton0 -
What is the best white hat seo link building strategy?
My goal is to build links that comply with Google's Quality Guidelines. I am wondering what is the best way to approach webmasters or bloggers about submitting guest posts or writing content. I have done a competitive analysis, and have a list of potential link sources, but I am not sure what approach to take next. Any advice or strategy would be appreciated.
Link Building | | djlittman0 -
Best way of starting link building to a new website?
I am doing SEO for a security keyholding company and would like to build up some quality links from related and high PR sites. Submitting profiles to directories is incredibly time consuming. I am thinking of outsourcing a link building campaign to a link building company, but know Google advises against this. Does anyone recommend a cost effective and ethical link building service out there? Or are there any link building techniques to use that will help me out? What I want to be sure of is that a link building campaign won’t get my websites penalised in search engines and the links are from quality and related websites. Many thanks in advance
Link Building | | AlexBarnes0 -
What is the best pinging service for my backlinks?
I am looking for a good pinging service that indexes my backlinks fast. After doing some research I found linklicious, backlinksindexer and pingfarm among others. My quesiton: do those services still work and if yes, which one is the best one out there at the moment. Thanks for the help.
Link Building | | Romaine0 -
What is the best way to get unique links?
I do SEO for an online store that sells vacuum cleaners. I write a lot of articles for yahoo, hub pages, etc as well as promoted press releases. But I'm looking to get some more unique links. I'm looking for any tips I can get. I've done tons of directories that have actually got a couple keywords on the front page of google but I'm looking to shy away from link directories. I write a few articles every week. I also try and create new social networking sites for the business. Does anyone have any new ideas?
Link Building | | evacuumstoreSEO0 -
How best to optomise a .co.uk to rank on google.com.au
We currently sell our products to Australia customers via Google Adwords marketing and are keen to achieve good organic serps. What steps do you recommend taking? Are any of you working down under and interested in helping on this project? Thanks
Link Building | | seanmccauley0