What are effective ways of finding people to link to my blog post?

[Johnny_AppleSeed]

So I spent ages creating amazing content and have loads of interest in it from my social media and people visiting my site are reading deep into it. I have so far not been able to get anyone to link to it. What am I doing wrong???

[MoosaHemani]

Hi John,

Here are a few reasons why you got a "0 percent link acquisition rate":

• The email pitches are all self-promotional (doesn't add any value to the recipients). You may want to try sending an email and just simply describing your content, then ask the target if he wants to see the page. Give him the link (if the content is uniquely useful, he will not hesitate to link to you).
• The potential linker is not interested to your content (you need to qualify your list of link prospects before sending emails to them). Make sure that the people you want to reach out to are interested to see, share and even link to your content.
• No pre-engagement activities. Tap into the radars of your target linkers first. Comment on their latest blog posts (with value-added insights) and subscribe to their email lists. This way you can increase the odds of getting a link from the prospect since you're not a stranger anymore to him/her. Check out this resource for more tips.

Happy linking!

[SamuelScott]

Thanks for your question! It's a situation that I've personally seen a lot. I hope I can help.

First, I'd suggest that you change your mindset so that you think less about getting links and more about genuine marketing. Second, read this Moz essay of mine on an introduction to getting coverage and attention to content. (I also have a follow-up on integrating SEO and public relations.) The best links, rankings, traffic and more are actually just good by-products of doing good public relations and publicity.

The basic idea:

First, determine your website's target audience. Second, find out what major news outlets, publications, and blogs are actually read by your target audience. Third, use the methods that I detailed to get news coverage, a quality article, and other attention to the content that you produce from those specific websites. Essentially, get publicity for the amazing content that you produce!

One of those "earned" and "natural" links are better than 100 or 1,000 "built" links. If you have any questions, let me know!

[TheZenAgency]

A couple of useful tools for finding influencers to reach out to are

http://buzzsumo.com/ and MOZ's own https://followerwonk.com/

Hope this helps and good luck!

[ptdodge]

Are you already networking with other site owners who blog about similar content, and if so, have you shared or linked to their stuff? I would reach out to influential site owners you've helped by amplifying their content. Write a professional email that demonstrates that you've read their stuff and know their audience, and make a great case on why they will appreciate the piece you are writing about. Make it as personal and professional as possible, and your chances of earning a link are greatly increased.

Hope this helps!

[Kingof5]

What steps have you taken to reach out to people and actively obtain links?