Written by my daughter Ali Freezman
When I am out there establishing real link building relationships I try to go into it as my honest self. A big part of who I am is influenced by my Grandmother, Marilyn. Today I would like to share with you 3 lessons from my Jewish grandmother that I use for establishing link building relationships.
Diagram is a Freezman Original (Source of Bagel Image: Image of Bagel)
Lesson 1: Tailor every social happening around bagels
Have something of value to offer when you are forming a link building relationship (which is a social process). When you show up, have something like a well thought out guest post pitch with social proof that people care about the topic.
Follow up with your contact throughout the link building process. Check in with news updates around the topic you are writing a post for them about or provide them a status update on the piece you are putting together for them.
Send things of interest to them. Actions speak louder than words. There is a constant argument in the outreach world about establishing false common ground with webmasters or editors. For example “I see you love to make matzoh ball soup!” Now take a step back and think about why people respond positively to common ground in the first place. It is because people like to build relationships with people that they actually have something in common with. If you tell someone you like to cook matzoh ball soup, send them a recipe once in a while. It is your job as a common-ground-finder! Plus, it keeps the relationship fresh. Establishing false common ground is a lot like what I like to call “Shmoogling.” Have you ever been sitting at a dinner table and secretly Googled something for the sole purpose of schmoozing? Yeah, that is all well and good until people figure out that you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. Oops? That’s awkward.
Make them laugh. Continue the circular process.
Diagram is a Freezman Original (Source of Bagel Image: Image of Bagel)Lesson 2: Use Jewish Guilt
In addition to providing a site high quality content, I often offer them extra knowledge and help so they will feel obligated to do the same for me. The other day I wanted an editor of a third party site to give my expert authorship markup on his guest blog post for a rich snippet in the SERPs. I introduced the topic of authorship, helped him out while letting him know I am working on the same thing and have had some trouble. I got his authorship to work, made him feel bad that I couldn’t do it as easily on my site, got him to offer to do it for me and denied the help. Always deny the help.They will do it anyway.The conversation goes:
Me: Have you ever tried to use rel=author? I am wondering if it would work on your site.
Editor: No, I have heard of it but am not sure how to do it.
Me: Here is a really simple guide. I am working on getting my experts authorship as well and I have run into some frustrations here they are (explain).
Editor: This is very interesting, thank you. It is working.
Me: That is great. I wish it was that easy for me.
Editor: I wonder if I could try it on your author’s blog post. Would that be possible?
Me: No, you don’t have to do that, really.
Editor:It is my pleasure.
Lesson 3: Eat, you’re too skinny
Never try to build links on an empty stomach.
Ali, is my daughter, she is currently "Killing it" at Seer Interactive, at 22, I think she is wise beyond her years. I hope you found her information informative and entertaining.
Glenn
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