How Not to Do Blogger Outreach

There are thousands of bloggers covering a myriad of topics with a wide array of influence with in their niche, making their sites ideal locations for link building to a client website.  In many cases marketers or public relations specialists reach out to bloggers with content written for their site or with a press release covering a topic relating to a client’s product or website.The expectation is a blogger will happily post content provided to them for no compensation.  Most bloggers frown on this practice. They resent the common thought that they ought to be grateful for free content.  Bloggers work at their blogs just as brands work at their website content and brand awareness.  The blog and brand are one in the same for bloggers. They take pride in creating original content their readers will enjoy.  They do not give away access to their audience readily.Slowly, marketers are realizing this and moving to relationship building instead of a targeted link building campaign.  Cultivating better relationships will cultivate better evangelists and will go a lot further toward achieving the SEO and page rank outcomes sought.Start by following targeted bloggers on twitter, retweet their content, engage with them about the topics they share.  Read their blogs often and comment with sincerity not with spam.  The goal is to establish a relationship and make friends with the blogger.  Show you value their content and point of view.   Bloggers are much more willing to ask for a guest post from a friend than from a faceless marketer.Relationship building takes time but it will pay off in the end.