Get a High-Profile Link from a Media Outlet: 6 Key Lessons from the PR Industry

Posted: 04 Mar 2014 08:00 AM PST

This is a guest post from Jim Beckham.

Guest posting on relevant blogs, with a link back to your own, has two key benefits: it gets your work seen by more people and it helps your blog climb the search engine rankings through those all-important backlinks from reputable sites.

In the SEO world, a site's reputation is measured through its domain authority. With their high levels of traffic and social shares and regularly updated content, media websites have some of the highest domain authorities out there, so are prime targets for linkbuilding.

In the past, the briefest mention of a company or person would often include a backlink, but this is increasingly no longer the case.

Why – and what can you do about it?

A Changed Online Landscape

A key reason for the reluctance to give links is the high profile punishments Google has handed out to sites that broke its rules.

Perhaps the most well-known of these is Interflora which, in the lead up to Valentine's Day, paid for a large number of advertorials on regional news websites around the UK that included links.

This was judged as being against Google Webmaster guidelines as the search engine giant was keen to reiterate at the time. As punishment, Interflora was virtually wiped from the search results and the publications involved had their domain authority scores lowered.

The result of Google's crackdown is that outlets, particularly trade and regional press, are far more wary of linking to external sites, often choosing blanket no-follow or no-link policies in a knee-jerk attempt to protect themselves. Links now require a lot more effort to secure and are by no means guaranteed.

How to Sell Your Story to a Media Site

As a practiced blogger, you're already able to write compelling content that speaks to your target audience. All you need to know now is how to 'sell it' to a high-profile publication or website, and this is where lessons can be learned from the PR industry.

PR professionals are experts in creating and placing great content in high profile media and this is now becoming a highly sought-after skill for SEO companies.

Having spent years developing relationships with journalists and their publications, these professionals understand how to sell a story idea and are in a far stronger position to negotiate and justify why this should be rewarded with a followed link.

With that in mind, here are some PR tips that you should consider when pitching these outlets:

Media websites trade in information, not links – you need to understand what interests them and how you can provide it to them.

Each outlet is unique – Don't just pitch a list of email addresses with the same idea. Do thorough research, find the right journalist to target and adapt your pitch to suit them.

Blogging opportunities – Some national news sites have blogging opportunities for those that have something interesting and informative to say. Don't just say who you are and that you're available to blog – pitch them with an actual idea.

Timing is crucial – once a story is published it is old news. Planning in advance and knowing what a journalist is likely to be writing about in the future opens up the opportunity for you to get in there with a comment.

Some publications have features calendars to give you an idea of the theme for upcoming issues. Also look out for imminent product releases or the publication of statistics from analyst or research houses and develop an interesting or controversial reaction to them.

Interact with journalists where you can – through social media, hosting events or even inviting them out of the office for lunch or a cup of coffee. The more you know about a journalist and what interests them, the better you can tailor your pitch to their needs.

Pick the right time to negotiate the followed link – if you bring this up too early in the conversation, it can sometimes turn a journalist off your pitch. On the other hand, it’s difficult to negotiate a link once your coverage has already been published. Research other articles that have been given followed links and try and find examples that you can use to argue your case.

Have you received attention from a media site? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

Jim Beckham is a Senior Account Executive at TopLine Communications, an integrated marketing agency based in London covering B2B PR, Content Marketing, SEO and Video Production.

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ProBlogger: Beginner Week: My 43 DOs and 25 DON’Ts of Blogging

Beginner Week: My 43 DOs and 25 DON’Ts of Blogging

Posted: 04 Mar 2014 08:44 AM PST

Eleven and a half years ago when I hit publish on my first ever blog post, I had little idea what I was doing and what was going to unfold for me over the coming decade.

As I prepared for a recent mini ProBlogger event event in Perth, I created a little list of some of the 'dos and don'ts' of blogging that I wish I'd known back in 2002 when I started. As it's Beginner Week here on ProBlogger, I thought it might be appropriate to share them here on the blog today:

Note: these are MY dos and don'ts, and reflect my own style of blogging. I am not putting them forward as 'rules' that apply to all. I'd love to see your dos and don'ts in comments below.

My 43 DOs of Blogging

Do create a blog that is meaningful to you
Do set yourself some goals and objectives for your blog
Do 'write' something every day (note that I didn't say 'publish')
Do as much as you can to get in your readers shoes and understand who they are
Do use surveys and polls to help you understand your reader
Do create content that meets your readers’ needs, answers their questions, and solves their problems
Do write in an engaging voice
Do start an email newsletter
Do pay attention to the design of your blog – first impressions count!
Do communicate clearly what your blog is about into your design
Do spend time 'off' your blog engaging in the places where your potential readers gather
Do go to the effort of registering your own domain
Do create visual content
Do model the kind of community that you want your blog to have
Do install analytics and track the results of what you do
Do find some blogging buddies who you can bounce ideas off and have mutual support with
Do make sure you have 'real life' friends too – they'll ground you
Do become hyper-aware of problems (yours and other people’s), and obsessed with solving them
Do create something to sell from your blog
Do think beyond what you'll write today – develop an editorial calendar
Do set aside time to learn the skills you lack
Do set aside time to brainstorm topics to write about
Do read other people's blogs – you'll learn a lot from them
Do share your opinion – it is what often differentiates you
Do share stories – your own and other people's
Do back up your blog!
Do blog with passion
Do look for 'win/win/win' relationships with brands where you, the brand and your reader benefit
Do show your personality – be yourself
Do pay attention to what is energising you and do more of it
Do pay attention to what is energising your readers and do more of it
Do spend time refining and perfecting post headlines
Do think about what 'action' you're calling readers to take in your content
Do make peace with the fact that there will always be more that you can do
Do learn how to prioritise and focus upon activities that take you closer to your goals
Do pay attention to your archives – update and promote them regularly
Do push through bloggers block
Do spend time analysing what types of content are being 'shared' in your niche – publish this kind of content semi-regularly
Do use social proof
Do take breaks from blogging – weekends and vacations are important!
Do ask your readers a lot of questions and listen to what they say
Do treat your blog as a business today… if you want it to be one tomorrow
Do create content that Informs, Inspires and Interacts

My 25 DON’Ts of Blogging

Don’t be afraid to hit publish
Don’t feel you have to publish something every day
Don’t publish when angry (or drunk)
Don’t become a comment spammer on other people's blogs
Don’t publish just for the sake of publishing content
Don’t use other people's stuff without permission and credit
Don’t focus so much about the readers you don't have – have a big impact upon the ones you do have
Don’t stretch yourself too thin (too many posts, too much SM) – do what you do really well
Don’t become too promotional
Don’t hit publish without one last proof read
Don’t write purely for search engines
Don’t sell out
Don’t engage in every type of social media – analyse where your readers are and do those mediums well
Don't look for a 'blueprint' for successful blogging – forge your own path
Don’t publish large chunks of text – break it up and make it scannable
Don’t hide your mistakes – be transparent
Don’t feed the trolls – be polite, kind, and firm
Don’t let the negative things people say about you sink in – it'll pull you down
Don’t let the hyped praise people give you sink in – it'll over-inflate your ego
Don’t expect to get rich quick
Don’t compare yourself to others – compare yourself to you when you started
Don’t spend all your time 'learning' about blogging at the expense of actually blogging
Don’t think there's just one way to monetize your blog
Don’t become so obsessed with blogging that you forget to have a real life
Don’t give up too quickly – building a blog takes time

Of course I’m scraping the surface in this list but I hope for those of you starting out it gives you a few starting points. Also keep in mind that these are not ‘rules’ and that the do’s don’t guarantee success and the ‘don’ts’ don’t guarantee failure. In fact I’ve written many of the don’ts as a result of my own mistakes but things turned out ok in the end for me despite those failures.

If you’d like to go deeper on some of these themes check out the recording and slides of my webinar – 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging.

Also don’t forget we are having a 50% off sale on the ProBlogger Guide to Your First Week of Blogging during Beginner Week. Simply enter the code BEGINNERWEEK at the checkout.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Beginner Week: My 43 DOs and 25 DON’Ts of Blogging