How to Get Traffic and Links from Popular Blogs: Networking and Email Pitching

When you are growing your business or blog, a link from a popular blog can help a great deal. It will bring you interested visitors and perhaps some secondary links or traffic from other bloggers who follow the popular blog.

The question begs to be asked: Just how do you get a mention and link from these influential bloggers?

It’s really not difficult. You’ll only have to pitch your business or website by sending them an email. After all, bloggers can only write about something when they are aware that it exists, wouldn’t you agree?

The unfortunate truth is that email promotions are not often not enough to guarantee a link or mention, especially when the blogger in question is incredibly busy or receives lots of emails everyday. To increase the chances of a successful email pitch, you’ll need to build a tactical relationship with the specific blogger.

Online Networking is About Building the Right Connections

The most important to remember is this: online networking shouldn’t be any different from the way you socialize off-line. You don’t just go up to someone and ask them to promote your product in their shop. At the very least, you need to introduce yourself and establish a relationship of trust before the other person will bite.

Pitching your website to another blogger is no different. I used to work in a PR firm and was in charge of cold calling and cold emailing publications and journalists to pitch a specific press release or story for my clients.

I can honestly tell you that I had a much greater chance of getting publicity for a client when I was on familiar and good terms with the journalist or editor.

If you are just a new name or face to them, they probably won’t give you the time of the day unless your story is absolutely groundbreaking. Don’t just drop an email and hope for the best. Leave nothing to chance. Build a working relationship with the right people for the best effect.

How to Effectively Get Traffic and Links from Popular Blogs

The following tips stem from my personal experience as a blogger who has pitched articles and received pitches in return. They reflect what I feel is the best way to get some attention or links from popular blogs. Because of their time-intensive nature, they might not be necessary for blogs with a small audience.

In essence, you are using these tactics to target large blogs with a wide readership, in order to get the maximum traffic and exposure for your website or business. These methods are largely cost-free and do not require any or much money at all.

1. Find Your Angle. Every successful pitch needs an angle. If you are really interested in targeting a popular blog, take a look at what they publish regularly to get an idea of what they kind of content they will run.

   Create your content with this angle in mind and pitch it accordingly. Creating content of a specific slant is quite easy to do and the rewards are high if you succeed in getting a mention. You can always go back to your usual content type or format after that happens.

2. Create the Perfect Pitch. There are some general rules to follow. Make your email concise and compelling. Check your copy and punctuation. Introduce yourself briefly. Use the blogger’s first name. Don’t flatter too much. Refer to specific posts when making comments. Be polite. Focus on their interests and benefits. Offer alternative means of communication (e.g. phone, IM).
3. Establish Prior Email Contact. Asking someone to link to or check out your site in your very first email is poor strategy. Build up a regular email flow by sending an email to the blogger, without selling or promoting your website.

   One of the best ways to do this is to ask a question or simply thank them for their wonderful website and content, which you’ve found helpful. You can also give helpful feedback on the site in general. This instantly elevates you from the rest of the crowd when you eventually decide to pitch an article.

4. Use Comments to Network. Many people have written about how comments can get you traffic from blogs but their true value lies in their networking potential. Comments are one of the easiest ways to get the attention of any blogger. Make sure you comment regularly and contribute to the discussion.

   Refrain from pitching your own website or article within the comment section. Try to get at least 10 comments on separate blog posts before you even consider pitching your article.

5. Promote them with Social Media. Bloggers regularly check their sources of traffic and submitting their website to social media sites like StumbleUpon and Digg is a great way to get on their radar. StumbleUpon in particular, can send hundreds of visitors to any site and its a really easy way to get noticed.

   Just remember to tie the social media account you are using with your own website by inserting your URL or site name in the profile. Alternatively, forums are also a great way to share the blogger’s content.

6. Set up an Internal Connection. Very large blogs are businesses. Sometimes it is difficult to break through the attention barrier and get noticed because these sites receive a lot of email pitches everyday. The easiest way to jump ahead of others is to establish personal contact with an inside source.

   For example, some of the staff writers or editors have their own personal blogs. Go visit and comment on these blogs and befriend the specific individual. Another alternative is to find a friend who has direct contact with an internal staff and ask your friend to introduce you to the specific person.

7. Link to them and send them traffic. This works particularly well if you have a website or blog of your own. Link to the blogger you are targeting a couple of times and reference their articles. Put them on your blogroll if you have one. Remember, a link doesn’t cost you anything but it may get you traffic and exposure in return.

   This is a great way to let the blogger know that you support their website. Even if the specific blog gets many links everyday, you will eventually be noticed somehow, particularly if you can send them some traffic.

8. Get Friends to Email Pitch your Article. Get a friend or another blogger to promote your website by sending an email tip. Some bloggers are not in favor of excessive self-promotion so this might give your specific site or article some extra validity. If you want to, get a few other friends to email pitch the same article. Bear in mind that you shouldn’t use this technique often because it is easy to tell if you’re artificially promoting your website via email.
9. Use Alternative Contact Channels. Another way to get instant attention is to contact the bloggers on alternative communication channels. This include microblogging platforms, social networks and Instant Messengers. Not every blogger will have their details listed publicly but for those that do, consider using these alternative channels. Not many people will use these methods of communication and you’ll tend to stand out immediately.
10. Donations and Tips. Tipping bloggers and offering donations is a great way to show your appreciation for their work. This can be easily done if they have a Paypal donation button somewhere but even if they don’t, you can also email them to request for a paypal address. This is low cost and simple but it can definitely increase your potential for getting a mention in the future.

Other blog-oriented methods like guest blogging will allow you to get traffic and links as well but I’ve not included them as this article is not only for bloggers but online business owners and perhaps, even public relations executives and marketers.

Your aim here is to build up an advantageous relationship by interacting with the blogger and appealing to their self-interest. How much time you need really depends on how you good you are at networking.

I would suggest actively networking for a minimum period of two weeks before you start to pitch your own material. And one more word of advice: make sure the article, product or website you pitch is excellent, grade A material.

What Works on You Will Work on Others Too

Just to prove my point even further, let’s do a little test right now. Would you link to someone you absolutely don’t know, who has contacted you for the first time with an email pitch for an article that isn’t relevant to your site?

Or would you rather link to someone who you know, who has linked to you multiple times, comments regularly on your site, emails you with feedback and genuine queries and lastly, offers an article that is perfect for your site audience?

I’m quite sure you all know the answer to this one.