Super Easy Free DA 31 Link This Guy Got Just for Asking (and you can do the same… maybe)

Win-Win link building promotion deal

I get pitched for guest posts 4 to 10 times per day across all my sites.  Because I do accept guest posts, I check most of them… eventually.

Sometimes someone sends me such a great email that I check the proposal immediately.  Yesterday I received such an email.  I was in the middle of fine-tuning an article from the writers to publish on a niche site when I saw this very enticing email proposal come through.

I opened it up and thought “dang, that’s an awesome deal.  I’m in.”  I did my end of the arrangement within 2 minutes which was add a link to his site from one of my sites.

I then replied to the sender and told him I had built the link exactly as he requested.  I told him where he could send me traffic (details on his end of the deal below).

Within minutes a win/win situation was wrapped up.   One party earned an awesome link and I’m gonna get a pile of traffic.

Let’s delve into the email that I received and how you can apply this to your link building efforts (because it sure is smart when done right).

The outreach email I received

Here’s the subject line:

Jon, a win-win content collaboration with Fat Stacks blog

Here’s the email body:

Hi Jon,

Trust you are doing great!

I wanted to see if you are open to collaborating on this interesting content piece on your blog; [website URL]

We create valuable content around freelancing and recently wrote a comprehensive review about Upwork. Please have a look here; https://biz30.timedoctor.com/upwork-review/

Seeing Upwork was listed in the post on your blog, this review would be useful to your audience and I thought it may be worth a mention in your post.

To return the favor, I’ll promote your updated blog and events to our network of 240K across LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.[emphasis added]

Would you be interested in this win-win collaboration?

Best regards,

Tope Longe

4 aspects that got me to open the email and agree to the offer immediately

1. Subject – “Jon” & “win/win”: 

He used my name (spelled correctly – no ‘h’) and got my attention with “win/win”.  I love win/win situations.  Most of us do.  He’s not pretending that he can do me a huge favor.  He’s straight up saying “hey, I got a deal that benefits you and me”.  His subject got me to open, and then his email body sealed the deal.  He followed through on his “win/win” claim.

2. Surgical precision with respect to relevance:

He found an article on my site that specifically mentions something very relevant to an article he wrote.  In this case it was my mention of Upwork in a post on this site.  While I briefly described Upwork, Tope’s review goes in great detail so it’s a natural fit to link to him for anyone wanting more info about Upwork.

3. Worthy linkable asset:

The target article is very good.  Tope didn’t pen some piece of garbage.  His Upwork review is extensive and very good.  Even though it’s a review and it may or may not have affiliate links (I don’t care, nor did I check), it’s a great resource worth linking to.

4. Made an offer I couldn’t refuse: 

This sealed the deal.  Not only did he offer me traffic, but he phrased things in a way that gave me options to where that traffic would go by saying “I’ll promote your updated blog…”  As soon as I saw that I built the link he requested and said I’d keep the link there if he could send the proposed traffic to squeeze pages.  I gave him the squeeze page URLs.  He agreed instantly.  Done deal.  A true win/win.

How can you do the same?

First, you need to be able to send lots of traffic anywhere instantly. This means you must have an email list and/or engaged social media channels.  While these things take time to build, it’s something you should get started on immediately.  I’m not much of an email marketer guy, but I do recognize the leverage one has with the ability to send large amounts of traffic somewhere instantly.

Second, once you control traffic, contact sites and make an offer they can’t refuse. Use the email template above because it’s effective (at least it worked on me… you should probably test others as well). One change I’d make is to make it clear that you’re open to discuss where you’ll send the traffic, including squeeze pages.  Just make it clear you’d like to review it first.  You don’t want to commit yourself to sending your subscribers and followers to some horrendous spam fest or malware cesspool.

FYI, be careful not to over-promise anything.  Don’t guarantee 1,000 email subscribers.  All you can do is state your number of subscribers and followers.  Yes, that means for the person in my position, I’m taking a chance.  I may get no subscribers, but it’s a worthwhile gamble.  What if I get 100 subscribers.  That would be great.

Does this work in any niche?

Yes and no.  I should say it won’t work for every site.  The site owners who will get excited by this type of proposal are those who put a premium on building an email list.

7 thoughts on “Super Easy Free DA 31 Link This Guy Got Just for Asking (and you can do the same… maybe)”

  1. Hey Jon might want to edit the post, typo “wbich”… 🙂

    Interesting read. Did you check to see how much traffic you got from his promotion? Also did you actually check out his channels to see if he did in fact have that amount of followers?

    1. Hey Vitaliy,

      thanks for the typo alert. I’m terrible at spotting that stuff. A proofreader or editor I am not.

      You know, I didn’t verify the numbers. He’s part of a very legitimate website (which I checked out pretty carefully) so I took him at his word. But, it’s probably a good idea to verify.

      Tope tells me he’s setting up the promotion. I’m not sure when it will run. Yes, I took a risk because it may amount to nothing. In fact, followers doesn’t always mean that much if engagement is terrible. It’s a risk on my part. If you’re in my position in such an arrangement you might want to do more due diligence than I did and perhaps even get some guarantees (although I’m not sure if you’ll get guarantees). You could negotiate multiple promotions over the course of several weeks.

  2. Hi, Jon

    When you are looking for sites to write a guest post, which option would you choose:
    1. Ask for a guest post,
    2. Comment, ask for a guest post
    3. Comment, send a nice email, ask for a guest post.

    Which one has the best ROI in your opinion?

    1. Hey Tomasz,

      I don’t seek out placing guest posts too often. This article is an example of a good pitch by someone who pitched me and I was happy to work with them.

      I think, and keep in mind I haven’t done much guest post outreach, just focus on sending a good pitch. I don’t think commenting will help the process. Just get to the point, perhaps link to some good guest posts you’ve done in the past and read the site’s guidelines.

      As publisher I get people who argue with me about word count and topic and all sorts of other things. I find it really odd that they’re pretty much in the door and then they start quibbling. I ignore them and tell them I’m not interested. So, don’t argue or quibble if a site says “send me an article on this with XXX words”. Get it written and ensure it’s excellent and submit.

  3. Hi Jon, Yes this guest post strategy looks amazing, but i guess till you have such a huge traffic, that wont work. Will be looking at fatstackblog for other methods to get successful in guest posting for low traffic and fairly new website.

    1. Hey Siddhant,

      The example in this post is great because the person who pitched me didn’t even need to submit a guest post. That’s the beauty of it, but yes, he has traffic to offer.

      As a newer blogger, you can get guest posts all day long if you provide a great article. It’s all about offering sites very, very good content. I don’t care one iota if a guest blogger’s site is 1 week or 10 years old. All I care about is that the content is good.

Leave a Reply to Tomasz Decker Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Scroll to Top