The difference between getting 5 links and 50 links for a story is often just a couple good mentions.
With 5 links the story may be marginally profitable, and the same story could be wildly profitable with 50 links.
Every day key bloggers are hunting for stories worth talking about. As long as you send them personalized email many of them will talk about your story if you create something worth talking about. And because blogging is so temporal it is important to push a story to spread it quickly (in other words, nobody wants to blog about a story that is 3 days old unless they have something unique to add).
Link exchange requests go nowhere, but if you offer something that people feel is of value they will link.
I get many link requests, many Digg requests, many requests for feedback, and many other announcement type requests. Many people also let me know how much money they are making. One of the biggest differences between top earners and those just getting by is a lack of shame … a willingness to ask for favor after favor. Some of the top name SEOs / marketers / bloggers are labeled as such due to nepotistic marketing. You wouldn’t know it by asking them, but if you are sorta in on some of the ideas, create some of the ideas, market some of the ideas, and see good ideas go nowhere while bad ideas spread you start to notice some of the patterns.
If you do not have much of a brand you can’t be risk adverse if you are hoping to build a brand or exposure. Shame is for sissies. Targeted personalized emails are for profit.
On top of targeted emails there are many other ways you can push your message out there:
- buy AdSense ads targeted to specific bloggers
- buy ReviewMe ads on channels you want to be seen on (I have equity in ReviewMe, but have bought many ReviewMe reviews myself)
- buy Feedvertise ads in feeds targeted to bloggers
- buy targeted interstitial ads on AdBrite
- participate in forums, social news sites, and other community sites
- ask for feedback from industry experts and let others feel they have ownership in the idea or exclusive on the news
Think of how many CDs AOL has sent you. Most any business of scale used some amount of push marketing to gain it.
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Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, an ebook offering the latest
search engine optimization tips and strategies. From SEOBook.com Aaron
gives away free advice and search engine optimization tools. He is a
regular conference speaker, partner in Clientside SEM, and runs the
Threadwatch community.
