Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers
All bloggers are surrounded by their own blog communities. But the number of blogs within any given community is finite. It’s certainly not a walled garden, but growing thenetwork of people you communicate with regularly takes time.
As a result, bloggers often link to the same people over and over. That’s not a bad thing: the links still have value (for SEO, Technorati, and your audience) but there’s so much more to discover.
So the next time you’re writing a blog post, try finding new blogs and linking to them. It’s not always obvious - to go out, find blog posts relevant to your topic, and link to them - but it works well for breaking out of your existing community and reaching others. And it’ll help bring in fresh links back and new readers.
Here’s a simple blog hack to make it happen:
- Pick the link locations. Preview your blog post and look for key places where links would be valuable.
- In lists, try and put a link in every second or third point.
- Links work well at the beginning and end of posts when you’re hammering home key messages.
- Use links to other sites to back up the point you’re trying to make.
- Find important keywords throughout your post, and pepper them liberally with links. As David Airey, a graphic designer in Edinburgh points out, you shouldn’t use generic terms like “click here” for links, it completely devalues them.
With the keywords and phrases picked out for your links, it’s time to find new blogs worth linking to.
- Discover new blogs. Search for the keywords and phrases using Google Blog Search, which shows more recent content, and Google for a broader archive.
- Quickly pick promising results. Select a bunch of potentially relevant stories and launch new browser tabs/windows for each.
- Find relevant content. Scan each new blog for relevant content. Decide if they’re worth linking to for one of the keywords or phrases you’ve selected.
- Keep your eyes open for great quotes you can pull (instead of just links.)
- Don’t worry if the entire blog post isn’t relevant, the key is you’re linking to someone you’ve never linked to before.
- Add the new blog to your RSS Reader or make a note to check it out in more detail later.
- Change up your keywords. If you don’t find something worth linking to quickly, try changing your keywords and phrases a bit, but don’t overburden yourself. You don’t want to take too much time and there will always be more opportunities to link to others.
Finding and linking to new blogs isn’t something you need to do on every blog post. Pick a blog post each week that you think will be a home run and spend a bit of extra time adding links to it. The extra effort over time, will be well worth it.
the link (URL) for google blog search is wrong. It should be > http://blogsearch.google.com/
best wishes,
CHAN
Chan - Thanks for the catch. The URL actually does work, but I added a trailing slash at the end that broke it. Interesting eh?
So this works: http://www.google.com/blogsearch
But this doesn't: http://www.google.com/blogsearch/
Excellent tips, Ben.
When I'm piecing together a blog post, I'll often use Google's blogsearch to find others who are writing about what I am. That way I can both add to the resources of my post, and give a little mention to worthy bloggers who have similar interests.
Thanks for your kind mention, and for the useful anchor text. Very much appreciated.
Nice tips Ben. Searching for keywords to decide on who to link to is something that wasn't even on my radar.
Part of me (the purist part) cringes at the thought of manipulating the system like this, though. I know, I know… I'm a naive fool.
Mat - How is it manipulation? *smile*
Using keywords to find other blogs is a perfectly reasonable way to discover new content.
An element of what I'm talking about is certainly “linkbaiting” (which I don't have any issues with as a practice) but I'm also NOT focusing on A-listers or top blogs whatsoever; just on blogs that are a good match.
the link (URL) for google blog search is wrong. It should be > http://blogsearch.google.com/
best wishes,
CHAN
Chan - Thanks for the catch. The URL actually does work, but I added a trailing slash at the end that broke it. Interesting eh?
So this works: http://www.google.com/blogsearch
But this doesn’t: http://www.google.com/blogsearch/
Excellent tips, Ben.
When I’m piecing together a blog post, I’ll often use Google’s blogsearch to find others who are writing about what I am. That way I can both add to the resources of my post, and give a little mention to worthy bloggers who have similar interests.
Thanks for your kind mention, and for the useful anchor text. Very much appreciated.
Nice tips Ben. Searching for keywords to decide on who to link to is something that wasn’t even on my radar.
Part of me (the purist part) cringes at the thought of manipulating the system like this, though. I know, I know… I’m a naive fool.
Mat - How is it manipulation? *smile*
Using keywords to find other blogs is a perfectly reasonable way to discover new content.
An element of what I’m talking about is certainly “linkbaiting” (which I don’t have any issues with as a practice) but I’m also NOT focusing on A-listers or top blogs whatsoever; just on blogs that are a good match.
Thanks for the tip! I always have a problem finding new blogs to link to. I typically just link to the ones that I read in my google reader.
Thats probably why my links aren't flowing in that much either…hmmm
Thanks for the tip! I always have a problem finding new blogs to link to. I typically just link to the ones that I read in my google reader.
Thats probably why my links aren’t flowing in that much either…hmmm
Finding new _relevant_ blogs is always a challenge, even with Google blog search, anyone got any tips?
Finding new _relevant_ blogs is always a challenge, even with Google blog search, anyone got any tips?
technorati helped me to find new bloggers. Do not underestimate the power of other bloggers blogroll. Check out the unfamiliar names and after going further down the line you may discover a new track of bloggers. Check who commented on these new blogs. Exploring bloggers from other countries is another of my tactic.
technorati helped me to find new bloggers. Do not underestimate the power of other bloggers blogroll. Check out the unfamiliar names and after going further down the line you may discover a new track of bloggers. Check who commented on these new blogs. Exploring bloggers from other countries is another of my tactic.
Kim - Those are all good ways of finding and discovering new blogs. But they're also a bit more time intensive and not as appropriate when you're just looking for a quick link or two.
But definitely worth the time to discover great content out there!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, I appreciate it.
Kim - Those are all good ways of finding and discovering new blogs. But they’re also a bit more time intensive and not as appropriate when you’re just looking for a quick link or two.
But definitely worth the time to discover great content out there!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, I appreciate it.
[...] here he writes about exploring your blog’s stats (part of his 31-day Project series) . . . Instigator Blog: Ben suggests linking to new blogs to get more readers . . . SEO Round Table: OK, I laughed like [...]
Great advice on searching same topic blogs for relevant quotes.
No one appreciates link love like a blogger, and I'm sure sending traffic to another blog will usually pay back in referred traffic to your site.
@Mat: Sure, you don't want to do this just because you're linking.
However, I often research a blog post (which I have a habit of doing, because of a journalism background). Clearly, quoting someone, or making claims that need support, are a good reason to link. But sometimes there are also blogs that have made good points about my subject, and they did so first. So in compiling a good overview of the topic, it makes a lot of sense to link to those blogs or websites, even if only to give credit where it's due.
The result, conveniently, is a post that can generate useful traffic.
Great advice on searching same topic blogs for relevant quotes.
No one appreciates link love like a blogger, and I’m sure sending traffic to another blog will usually pay back in referred traffic to your site.
@Mat: Sure, you don’t want to do this just because you’re linking.
However, I often research a blog post (which I have a habit of doing, because of a journalism background). Clearly, quoting someone, or making claims that need support, are a good reason to link. But sometimes there are also blogs that have made good points about my subject, and they did so first. So in compiling a good overview of the topic, it makes a lot of sense to link to those blogs or websites, even if only to give credit where it’s due.
The result, conveniently, is a post that can generate useful traffic.
[...] Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers by Ben Yoskovitz [...]
[...] Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers by Ben Yoskovitz [...]
[...] Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers by Ben Yoskovitz [...]
@AV Enthusiast: Generally, what goes around comes around - same holds true in the blogosphere. I always enjoy hearing from someone I've linked to when they receive traffic. Not every blog you link to will send traffic, but a link is still very valuable.
I try to do the same, but it can be very hard at times. My nice is blog design, but any search on Google for web design info tends to turn up with design firm after design firm…
Google Blogsearch is extremely useful as you said though. I'm really starting to depend on it.
[...] through your RSS feeds and blogs you read regularly. Or go find some new blogs and check them [...]
@AV Enthusiast: Generally, what goes around comes around - same holds true in the blogosphere. I always enjoy hearing from someone I’ve linked to when they receive traffic. Not every blog you link to will send traffic, but a link is still very valuable.
I try to do the same, but it can be very hard at times. My nice is blog design, but any search on Google for web design info tends to turn up with design firm after design firm…
Google Blogsearch is extremely useful as you said though. I’m really starting to depend on it.
Michael - Certainly with a niche as big and popular as that it'll be hard to find quality content quickly through searches.
Your best bet might be to have a very long list of RSS feeds, and dig through those with searches.
Michael - Certainly with a niche as big and popular as that it’ll be hard to find quality content quickly through searches.
Your best bet might be to have a very long list of RSS feeds, and dig through those with searches.
Hi ben, Thanks for being part of my blog carnival, your article will be featured on my blog soon,make sure you check back regularly.
Rdgs
Etienne
Hi ben, Thanks for being part of my blog carnival, your article will be featured on my blog soon,make sure you check back regularly.
Rdgs
Etienne
[...] Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers by Ben Yoskovitz [...]
Excellent tips Ben.
I'll try and get into this habit for my future posts on my blog.
Excellent tips Ben.
I’ll try and get into this habit for my future posts on my blog.
[...] Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers by Ben Yoskovitz [...]
[...] Yoskovitz presents Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers posted at Instigator [...]
[...] Yoskovitz presents Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers posted at Instigator [...]
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Thank God I found this blog! ;-P
Thank God I found this blog! ;-P
[...] about helping other people out and getting that special warm and fuzzy feeling! After reading a post about how including links would help everyone in SEO and Technorati, I thought, Why not? You get to learn about new bloggers [...]
[...] the only posts that have outbound links. There is a really good possibility that if I would have taken the time to add links to more of the posts they may have gotten a bit more attention. Linking out to other bloggers is [...]
[...] Blog Hack: Link to New Blogs and Get More Readers by Ben Yoskovitz [...]
Hello! Excellent site! Searched a long ago