[Music] Hey authority hackers welcome to the Authority hacker podcast i hope your Christmas has been julie and you are Slowly recovering from the feast you’ve Probably had i don’t know about you but Right now All i can think about after christmas is Over is about 2021 my resolutions and How i’m going to make it a better year Than 2020 i don’t think it’s gonna be Very hard And i know a lot of you probably are in That case and a bunch of you are Considering starting new sites for this New year and that’s why we essentially Put this podcast together in order to Celebrate the launch of the authority Site system 3.0 which is launching next sunday so You’ll be able to get your hands on it Then we are actually taking a bunch of Stuff that we put in the link building Section of that new course And we are going to be discussing it Today for free on the podcast and come Back sharing our ideas On how to build the first hundred links To a brand new website and usually these First hundred links make a big Difference right it’s like I see it when we have a new site without Links and then we build Even 50 links or something then the
Rankings tend to skyrocket it doesn’t Mean that it’s necessarily like Tons of money at the beginning because It’s still a new site but you can Definitely see a lot of them In the search rankings and things Actually happening and usually that’s a Massive boost to our motivation so we Think it’s quite an important topic so If you are considering building new Sites if you are curious about what is Inside the authority side suite systems 3.0 That will be available on sunday then Stay tuned [Music] Everyone welcome back to the attorney Hacker podcast today is going to be an Episode where we kind of like showcase a Little bit of the new task 3.0 so You can see that we did the niche Research and finding a niche in 2021 a Couple of weeks ago Uh we put a bunch of our christmas and New year stuff Uh in between but now we’re gonna be Talking about Uh actually link building for new sites And it’s kind of a difficult thing to do Building links to a brand new site but It’s also a very important thing to do i Personally have noticed that especially The first like 100 links to a website Tend to have like an oversized effect to
Its rankings it really goes from nowhere To actually ranking for some stuff Quite quickly and sometimes some sites That i see ranking are just a little bit Old and have like 100 links and they’re Doing quite well So yeah the first feelings are very Important and the types of links you’re Building also kind of like set the tone To google on What kind like what level of quality You’re gonna be building here so it’s Quite important to do this properly And so that’s why we wanted to take the Time to talk about this today how to Build links to new sites in 2021 and Since mark Did the link building module he is going To be mostly talking and i’m here to Just He literally told me interrupt me before The podcast so i’m going to do that People can rage in the comments uh That’s okay uh but anyway i see that Mark has stolen some accessories from bb So how’s it going mark it’s going good I’ve got some new accessories uh this Was my my main christmas present this Year so uh Yeah all things are are going well you Have a very generous family i can see Indeed was santa claus good to you girl Uh no i don’t i don’t do christmas Presents that much to be fine you don’t
It’s like a christmas presents uh Dear not really it’s like it’s like I in france i tell that like when i go Back to france i i didn’t go back this Year because obviously it’s a bit Complicated to fly back and Come back this year but usually when i Go i tell people Not to buy you presents and i will not Buy them presents and i kind of like I do buy presents but i buy presents in A different way by presence that Actually make an Impact on people so like my sister was Out of a job about her macbook pro for Example And it’s like well he has he has a Here’s a two thousand dollar present That’s going to make an impact in your Life but i’m not gonna buy you Like a christmas present every year or Something stupid like that Uh so i make presents that like people Just want to point out You’ve never bought me a christmas Present in the 11 12 years we’ve known each other well now You know why Because i don’t do christmas presents It’s more like If you need something like oh like if i Feel the opportunity for something that Will really make an impact then i get a Gift to someone
Regardless of the time of the year but It’s quite rare it’s like something even To my sister something that happens Every like three to four years or Something like but some but it’s gonna Be a big thing you know it’s like it Makes a big impact or something like This Uh i took my mom for two weeks in Croatia and around the uh Central europe as well like that was one Of my gifts a couple years ago for Example like i paid for everything And that was my gift so it’s like it’s More like that i i just don’t like the presents under the Christmas tree i think it’s a waste of Time and money especially when a lot of People struggle for money i think it’s Tv you know Guys if you’re watching this on youtube Leave a comment Let me know let us know what you think Of gail’s gift-giving strategy Do you agree with it or do you have some Festive spirit yourself let us know I mean i’m saying that it’s like we’re Okay financially but it’s like not Everyone in my family has like a ton of Money and so it’s like Seeing them buying dozens of presents to People etc when there’s things that they Would need in their lives that they Don’t get
Feels like a massive waste of Opportunity for them and so i don’t want To encourage that as well And i’ve always lived like that so it’s More like that but like I i do spend on gifts but they’re Usually consequent and very rare I feel i feel like we could develop this Concept into an entire episode of a Philosophy Podcast that’s not why people are here Right uh so anyway i hope people’s Christmas was great And let’s jump into link building that’s Going to be less awkward Um all right let me take this off Because i actually have to bend down so Otherwise uh you know i’m not in the Frame correctly so I think if people share that with their Bosses or it’s better if you don’t worry You know um so anyway Link building for new sites what let’s Say Let’s say i can only do one thing let’s Say i have like two hours or two hours a Week to do link building i really don’t Have much time i have like two jobs or Whatever like people are really Struggling trying to build this stuff What’s the like the best 80 20 thing I can do following going so two hours a Week Or two hours a day what should you say
Sorry two hours a week Charge a week oh that is not much time At all um You would be best pressed to start doing Link building with harold which is how We start All of our new sites link building and There’s a very specific reason for that Um what is harold just to explain what Harrow is to New viewers or people who aren’t Familiar harold stands for help a Reporter Out or maybe it’s just help a reporter i Never could quite figure that out Helperreporter.com is the url uh you Basically sign up For free to their email list and you’ll Get three emails per day From mostly journalists or other web Publishers And they’ll be asking questions each Each of these emails can have 50 to 100 different questions about all Sorts of Topics i picked a few examples from Today’s Uh email one of them was what’s the Difference between a computer virus And a worm computer worm this was for a Site motley fool which is dr89 Which is phenomenal that would be a Really really good link to have And then there’s another one how can hr
Improve the remote work Experience and this was for thrive Global which is a dr86 website And that reminds me i need to message Our link building team and make sure we Respond to that Because we’re a remote company we have a Lot of experience with it with this kind Of stuff and i believe the question was Asking for What processes what tools do you use Things like that So generally everyone a remote company In 2020 well that’s the thing You know you can be as Creative as you want in determining Whether you’re suitable to to answer These questions sometimes they’ll say oh I’m looking for a doctor to answer this Question which you obviously Yeah at least neither of us would be Able to uh but there’s really a lot of General questions out there which is Looking for you Asking about general business experience How to pick a business name as a One that comes up quite a lot or have You have you Had experience doing xyz activity or Traveling to this place So what they’re really looking for Because at the end of the day Journalists can just go to google and Figure out what the difference is
They’re not looking for The answer per se they’re looking for an Expert or someone with experience Of the topic to provide a quote and Ideally some kind of Personal reference or anecdote story Which they have Dealing with this topic right uh so that When you answer the questions you have To come at it with that That mindset don’t just go away and Google the question and You know put put the wikipedia copy Something from wikipedia and send it You’re not going to get results that way If you look at the successful harrows That go out there They’re almost always feature some kind Of personal story and then they link They’ll link back to you And your website and they’ll mention Mention your name so they’re looking To provide like a human site to a story Uh which is i believe that the main Intention of of the platform Would you would you answer queries that Are not related to your niche but you Can answer personally Because it’s like let’s say they talk About business like let’s say you run a Site A paintball site everyone’s running a Paintball site in this podcast Um it’s like like and there’s a question
About business You can assume your paintball site is a Business basically And so can you answer all business Queries because of that You can’t answer all business queries But you can certainly answer uh a lot of Business queries yeah so the way i Classify it is You have a specialist topic about what Your website’s about let’s say Paintball and you definitely want to be Answering all paintball questions and if You go One level up maybe like i don’t know Outdoor Activities something you could maybe Answer a good percentage of those as Well You probably wouldn’t want to be Answering uh i don’t know a tennis Question Um or a parenting question in that case Unless it was about your Kids playing paintball but Because those are different specialist Topics but there are Generalist topics which would be things Like Business uh potentially like Some health stuff or or like psychology Based Stuff it comes comes up quite a lot like How to stay motivated
How to start a business travel comes up A lot uh There are even some finance ones Personal finance ones that comes a lot Comes off a lot and I don’t know i have quite strong Interest in in personal finance Personal finance i now have money so i Can answer you don’t have a personal Finance website or anything Um but i so would you answer a personal Finance question for your paintball site Potentially yes uh and we’ve done this Many times Uh where we’ve actually gotten links for In in these These harold uh responses which are on a Finance Uh type topic just because of this exact Situation so 100 yeah you you would do It Obviously you want to prioritize things So yeah do do your Specific niche examples first and then If there are none of those Go one down and then if they’re none of Those go more general Uh if you want to say it’s plus oh sorry I would say it’s possible to do that but I would say also if if All the links you get are like business Business links to a paintball site it’s A bit of a problem too probably Like uh it’s probably one of these uh
Like maybe if 20 25 Of your links are like off uh topic it’s Fine but if like 70 of your links are off topic i think It’s going to be a bit of a relevance Problem you need some things from Paintball size 2 if you have a paintball Uh site so it’s like it’s almost like Initially you want to call so it’s like It You you do want all the paint buildings Too if you don’t have enough then i Think i would not go off Uh off topic it depends on what your Link profile looks like i would say It also depends on how broad your niche Is right paintball’s very very narrow And I don’t actually recall ever seeing a Paintball query on harrow not that i’ve Been looking for them i’m sure there are A few But if you’re in a more a broader niche Like Health uh i or know Gym gym accessories something to like Get a bit more specific Then you’ll have loads of inquiries like Stuff’s going to crop up every week Uh so target those first um but I would say that har was not necessarily Like about Relevancy per se because you have to Remember as well that you’re getting
Links almost exclusively just to your Home page so you’re not Targeting in any way and they’re they’re Going to be branded anchors at best Um or maybe even have your name as the The anchor text Uh you want to use something like guest Posting or Another link building technique where if You want to push you know a specific Page Uh with anchor text and and kind of like Send some of those Those those signals but from a domain to Domain Um relevancy perspective um your point Is Is certainly certainly valid yeah And why did you pick that over any other Tactic so uh For like people who don’t have time this Is something that we start with Uh on all our new sites uh now uh The reason we do it like this is because Harrow there’s an upper limit to the Amount of Links you can acquire through through Hyrule because there’s only A set number of questions per day and Realistically there’s only going to be a Handful that any one site Can can respond to uh each day So that sets a cap on how much you can Do and therefore the only
Way to do more is to ha and have more Days or have more emails or spend more Time total time Doing harold uh and and and kind of get The the throughput That way so for us it makes sense to Maximize that as early on as possible When you think about Outreach based guest posting per se if We don’t outreach to a site This month or next month that’s fine we Can outreach to them later in the year And we can still potentially get that Link but if we miss a hiro opportunity Today Then that’s never coming back again um You know Ever really some sites make like Harold-based content and Like they’ll come regularly as well i Think like you might have Some opportunities on some sites to get Back but you are gonna miss some Yeah um what’s the success rate right so Basically the principle is like They send you an email they ask a Question you answer the best you can and Then you kind of like tell them why You’re relevant And hopefully they pick your answer Meaning to you right yes um What’s the success rate like how many Answers do you write to get one link in The entire time we’ve been doing harrow
It’s Hovering around 20 so one in five Responses Gets a link now it used to be about 16 i think but our percentage success Rate has been going up over time as We’ve just gotten better at writing These and Sort of started to learn which type of Queries are resulting in links And not sending um responses out to Things to to queries which are we don’t Really stand a chance of Um so it’s been going up which to be Honest Surprised me a little bit because i know Harrah’s becoming more and more popular Seos online marketers as a link building Strategy because we’ve talked about it A number of times on on this podcast we We have i think we have a whole show About it we’ll Maybe link to that um for for those of You watching on on youtube Um so it’s it’s it’s evidently becoming More popular but We’re still managed to get get a higher Percentage of links so i don’t know If there’s just more i don’t know what What the reason for that is to To be honest it’s a little bit Counterintuitive but uh so It is what it is we’ve done that on a New site as well on the test site
The the test case study site recently And like did we do a lot of it yet No so we’ve just been we’ve done like Three or four Uh so it’s too early days to to make any Kind of Judgment call about that my question Though is like do you think the success Rate is Is different based on the like how old And established society so you think Newer sites will struggle more it’s not There’s There’s an album there’s an element of Truth to what you’re saying there it’s Not The specific age of the site that it’s Not like Someone’s looking oh that site’s 12 Years old this one’s only four months Old i’m not gonna Do that that that’s almost irrelevant What they look at is they’ll go to your Website and they’ll they’ll just have a Quick glance at it and they’ll make like That initial assessment does this look Like a legit Proper site yeah it’s not based on your Dr if it’s like the Default wordpress theme and you know There’s no face behind it And like it’s terrible and there’s loads Of like pop-up spam or whatever Then yeah you might not be doing so well
But if you have like a a nicely designed Site Uh which is very easy to do these days With you know templates and things like Elementor Um if you if you have something which Just looks pleasant Uh to the eye and your face is on there You know the same name as you’re out Reaching for Uh to or sort of rather responding to The hair with Your photos in there maybe there’s a Link to your face your twitter or Social media something just these small Relevance Or small um legitimacy signals uh Count for for for quite a lot so if You’re having problems it’s probably One of those things doesn’t doesn’t Quite stack up Okay what’s the average link authority Dr Let’s say like because you give like These are 80 plus examples what is that What’s the average like A random and also what’s the worst thing We got from harold Well the average dr we’ve gotten since We’ve started harrow It has been 59.53 so basically Dr 60 which is pretty reasonable uh i Think the highest One we had was from american express it
Was dr 91 or 92 And they’ve been countless ones in the In the high 70s and 80s as well Uh the worst one we’ve had honestly like Harold’s not that bad you very rarely Get a really bad link the lost er When we’ve had dr 10 which is obviously Very low But it was still a legit website it was Uh Smallbusinessrainmaker.com uh which And just had a blog it was a did we get It like spammy link a link you regretted You got Like a link where you never uh never Again i wish we didn’t have that link To our site never never never i have Seen them before Uh quite often with harrow the publisher Will post their Their brand name on the hyrule query so You know where you’re getting the link From and you can kind of Suss them out that way uh often though Or sometimes they’ll mark it as Anonymous and it’s just kind of random What what happens generally the more Legit sites the bigger publishers will Post their their names so you kind of Know what you’re getting into They get more answers if they do anyway You can kind of like read between the Lines sometimes of the questions like Not very
Well thought through or worded properly Then it’s like you know what’s what’s Going on here kind of some of these Boring questions right in online Marketing like i remember the team asked Me to answer something it’s always like What is the best tactic of 2020 or Whatever it’s like Like please kill me now uh anyway yeah It’s a it’s a it’s a grindy like Repetitive thing you’ll end up Answering basically the same questions Same like yes 40 questions over and over again but That’s what people want you know But the good thing is basic is that even Though you may not be an Absolute expert in your niche it’s Usually quite easy to answer these Questions like it’s not extremely Technical or something like this It’s very rare that they actually look For like true experts that can Talk about a very strong technicality of The niche As i said for like online marketing it’s Gonna be like oh what’s the best tactic Of 2020 or something it’s like right and I think most Most of our listeners on this podcast Could probably you know Give it a give a solid answer to to that Question right You don’t know and i didn’t know what to
Answer i just typed a question on Twitter and i was just looking at what People were tweeting yeah That’s a really good tactic as well Because remember i said at the end of The day they’re looking for the human Touch and like What people think not what the google Answer is for this so Yeah did you consider that yeah uh Anyway why To go back to the initial one which was Like people who only have two hours a Week Does that work so we spend on average About 20 20 to 25 minutes Doing uh each harrow response so you Could realistically do One a day uh monday to friday And spend two hours of your time and you Know that’s That’s five a week even with twenty Percent you’re getting one link a week Which is 52 Links a year 52 dr 60 links to a new Site In 2021 you know i’ll take that I think i think that yeah that would Start moving the needle as You said i wouldn’t do that exclusively Because you You might like lose some relevancy and End up with a bunch of General links uh which which may
May hurt you in the in the long run but If you Use this as like the base of your link Building i think it’s it’s solid It really is and there’s almost no Reason not to be doing this I don’t mind as much the links being a Bit broad On the topic when they point to the Homepage yeah Um because advantage is just for brand And then the brand essentially and then From the homepage usually link to your Hubs or whatever and you can never give Context through the anchor text or Whatever is on the page Itself uh obviously now exclusively Links that are not related but You know i’d be more lenient to the link Step into the homepage rather than like Internal pages so Like you know for example like we’re Featured on asana for example It’s the link to our home page so it’s Not it’s not exactly related i mean That’s a nice like Productivity to do this et cetera it’s Not really your toriyaka like we don’t Talk about productivity et cetera and Like doing things is it a bit business Related but not exactly I i would i would actually disagree with That um although we’re not A productivity company by any means like
We we literally have A course around using asana to manage Your Your right yeah but like google doesn’t Know that sure But we we mentioned asana numerous times Throughout our our blog posts throughout Through our content uh we mentioned on This podcast you know Once a month or something uh just Because we use it a lot and it’s a good Tool that It’s a lot of online marketers use so It’s it’s okay it’s like it’s a fifty Percent relevancy It’s like it’s it’s it’s not it’s not The most relevant like you know Link from ahrefs is more we we have a Lot of those right We answer a lot of questions about Remotely what i’m saying but don’t Answer a lot of questions on harrow About Customer support and customer service Because we’ve spent ages building really Good systems for that and we Actually have some experience on it so Yeah It’s again you know it’s like it’s not Black and white anyway it’s like a Degree of relevancy right yeah you Probably a percentage number on each Link is is kind of like my favorite way Of grading it
Uh anyway anything else to sound Horrible no Okay so much suspense for such a flat Ending but anyway Um thanks Let’s talk about let’s talk about the Next Uh the next tactic uh and like okay Let’s say you you you did you two hours A week of Harrow and i don’t know like uh You have a you had a client and he just Dropped off and he decided He doesn’t need your services anymore or Whatever and you get another Four hours a week extra what do you do So Almost exclusively the second thing i Would start looking at would be Guest posting and when we say the word Guest posting it’s such a broad Topic and there’s so so many ways to do This Uh that we really need to like get into The detail about About what we mean because you know some Pretty vocal people have Have said that it sucks google has even Said like At points like it’s not such a good Thing or don’t so yeah But no you might say the guest posting Is over forget it Yeah this was in twenty six years ago i
Remember i wrote a blog post for our old Company at the time yeah About that and you know it was over it Trust me it’s not over it hasn’t been Over since then Um it it definitely sounds like star Wars you know Yeah um okay so Let’s i want to break break this down um I’ll try and be quick about it Guest posting there’s four parts to this You need to generate a list of prospects That is people you’re going to outreach To You need to reach out to them you need To Talk to them negotiate with them and Then you need to Write the guest post and get it Published so To break each of those steps down Generating a list of prospects is where It all starts it’s actually like really Easy There’s a large number of sites out There who Take guest posts accept them they’ll Have a right for us Or a page similar to would you write for These sites So i would i we do outreach to Sites who have write for us pages and i Think that There are there are some people in the
Industry who say You should never do that it’s too much Of a of a pattern The longer i’ve been doing this the more My philosophy on this kind of stuff is There’s really no absolutes In in seo i think in general when you’re Doing link building And we’ll talk more about this a little Bit later is You have to apply some critical sense to To what you’re doing At all times so blanket rules you know If the site’s dr 50 or higher then it’s Fine like that’s just not going to fly Because Most or a lot of sites dr 50 and above Are good but you get some Atrocious really bad dr 60 7080 sites that you definitely Wouldn’t want guest posts on So you have to look at the specifics and Dr is probably not the best metric when Looking at the quality of a site it’s a Broad indicator but Essentially dr is measuring the number Of links which ahrefs is measured Pointing to Towards that that site which is Multiplied by the authority yes it’s not Really Uh an ideal solution for this so you Need to look at a number of different Factors
Such as does it just doesn’t go to the Website does it seem like a legit site Or is it a drop domain Pbn which someone’s trying to you know Get some free content for Uh is there a real person behind it do They have their photo on there are they On Social media is the site active have They been posting recently are all the Posts they have on the site guest posts From Casino companies or are they actually Contributing content to the site Themselves Go to ahrefs or whatever your favorite Keyword tool is and See if they have traffic if There’s 50 visitors a month to the site And it’s been penalized seven years ago Then You know probably not the best site to Get get a link from but if it has A hundred thousand then and it still has A right first page then You know just starting to look like a Legitimate opportunity right Yeah i don’t know it’s like it can be But i would still say that the write for Us page is still a negative Like but then it needs to it can bait Back by having good things you know what I mean Like but it’s like i would say if that
Page is there for sure they get spammed With emails i would really scrutinize The content they’re publishing yeah so You’ve picked up on an interesting point There If they have a right for us page because It’s like the the de facto Starting position for prospecting uh And we still do do this approach but Because they have that they’re gonna get A lot of requests probably several per Day and A great deal of them are going to sound Exactly the same like Hey i was checking out your website and I really enjoyed the content i’d love to Write a guest post for you how about One of these three topics sincerely mark Or whatever And a few years ago that would you know You get a really good hit rate out of That but more and more people doing it These days So you need to do things which are which Are going to enable you to stand out But i would argue that you need to do That anyway regardless of how you’re Finding the prospects and and even if They have a right for us page and They’re They can’t wait to to get guest posts on On their site Um they’re probably going to have some Kind of filter in place
Where they’re only replying to the People who You know pique their interest the most Seem the most legit or or stand out from From the crowd because otherwise two Things i would look at for these sites First of all i would put them in ahrefs And i would look at the organic traffic I would look that they haven’t been Penalized or something Um and the second thing i like to look At for this kind of site well i’m like I’m like they might be spammed is i look At the top Pages by links in ahrefs uh You know what i’m looking for i’m Looking for tier 2 links i’m looking for People who spam their like people Getting guest posts and then spamming Them right Because if i see that like you can find These sites that are still okay for now But Get spammed um because a lot of people Do guest posts and they just put Gsx rumor all that Like um like niche edits and Like hacked websites links etc are Pointing to these babies so If you find like average shitty pages With a lot of links pointing to them Uh looking at these links and being like Okay how often does that happen Etc is this because otherwise you’re
Essentially putting yourself On the place that’s most likely going to Take a hit uh You know in the next two years or Something like it could take a while That’s what i’m saying two years but Um so i tend to look at these two things If it’s a place with a right for us page And not only that but you need to make Sure that it doesn’t happen after you’ve Submitted your guest post as well so It’s like Uh it’s a it’s a little bit of a tricky One you want to make sure because i Think there’s a lot of places kind of Like How okay stand out at some point it Sleeps and just like Um it becomes so um I think it i think it i think it can Work i think there is places that are so Good but i think Um if i see this page i’m extra careful So the the The the construct which is occurring Here Is the the kind of seo race to the Bottom Right if seos are aware of a place Which is very easy to get links to get Good links then very quickly All seos will be aware of that and They’ll overuse it and it will become Not a good place to get links on uh so
All this all that the write for us page Is doing is that it’s Potentially highlighting that it’s a big Flag say hey come right guest post here And it’s making that making it more Aware to to seos that so the chance of Of that site being further along that That race to the bottom process is Is higher but it’s not because they have That page That they’re there oh yes for sure it’s It’s just like an indicator Um i personally think it’s uh it’s one Of the best Strategies for for newer sites to to to Get guest posts because It can be it looks somewhat challenging To Land guest posts when you’re a new site And I i sometimes struggle to explain why This is Uh my theory in the past used to be oh It’s just a new site you know you Haven’t built up enough credibility Authority but Sometimes we built like we build that Really good looking sites Uh with amazing content and for a quick Glance someone looking at it They would not know that this was a Relatively new site it looks like An established authority site but even Then
For for those those businesses in the Early days it’s Challenging it’s difficult to to get Your first few guest posts Even your first like 50 or so guest Posts and then you just sort of like hit This point when I don’t i genuinely don’t know what Happens it just starts becoming Really easy um as your as your site kind Of like gains more authority And and grows i don’t think everyone’s Looking at your ahrefs traffic and Dr and stuff maybe a few of them are i Don’t know but There’s no way everybody’s everybody’s Doing especially sites you’re looking to You don’t care Like um you just don’t want them to be Like spammy and shitty stuff and stuff That would Embarrass you if you’re linking to it Um but i don’t think people care about Your seo matrix anything to you at all Like it doesn’t matter If you have like a really good site That’s brand new it looks good i think You have good chances of getting You want your the main thing you want to Be communicating Is that your content is going to be good If they have a reason to doubt that it’s Going to be anything but amazing Uh they’re probably going to ignore you
Or or you know Not respond to your your mess your Outreach message at all Um but i just want to dial things back a Bit because we talked about The right for us uh plus keyword uh As a prospecting strategy a way of of Finding sites to because there are Others But there are others as well um the most Effective i found Is when whenever you’re doing any kind Of prospecting You’ll come across certain sites and if You look at who else is guest posting on There And you try and reverse engineer those People Um and and figure out okay a person from Site a Has got a guest post here and then you Go and look at all the links to site a In ahrefs and you can see where else They’re getting links from And you can organize that by date uh dr And and whatnot so you can Try to find those prolific guest posters And the people who are doing this a lot Are generally the people who Have the most experience with it and are Good at it not always but But generally speaking so if you can Start reverse engineering what they’re Doing
It can be a very easy way to find a lot Of prospects who accept Guest posts um from you know good sites With With good content so that that’s a Strategy That works particularly well i would say As well Um one other way to find people by Reverse engineering is actually just Looking at who’s ranking in your niche And then just go in the backlinks report Natures and you can sort for like WordPress english et cetera all that Stuff like oh do follow and so on And kind of like dig through that and Essentially you can if they do guest Posting Just find them and then essentially just Like make a list from the people that Rank because what You know we were talking a lot about Google like ignoring links Uh and like it’s the new way of Penalizing people but if you find people Who rank essentially you know that their Links Are not ignored right so i like the idea Of looking at Starting with the rankings and coming Back to the links because you know that These links at least Most of them are like enough of them for It for this page to rank
Are counting in the eyes of google and So you can reverse engineer that as well So it’s both ways you both look at Um the sites and then you look also at The I your competitors as well and a lot of Them will do guess posting if it’s a Remotely competitive niche i think so i I like to do that and yeah i think this Person can be good um I just i’m just a little worried Sometimes of the write for us pages it’s Not a negative thing but i’ll be Harder on the side that has that page Sure let’s We’ve who ask for money okay just saying Okay we’ll get to the money question in A second um when we talk about Negotiation because i have a whole spiel To go through with that Um but i just wanted to say as well for Prospecting we’ve actually used ahrefs Content explorer To find prospecting opportunities and It’s quite broad if you’re doing a kind Of like Shotgun spray and pray type outreach Sending a standard template message with Little customization to lots of people Then it’s actually quite a good way to Build huge Prospect lists if you don’t want to take That if you want to be a little bit more Targeted you can still build a
Huge product prospect list you seem to Like apply a bit more critical sense and Filter it down to find like the most Relevant Relevant sites but uh it’s it’s really Good for for building those big lists Um once you have that processing list What’s that Ah sorry i i wanted to i wanted to go to The money sorry i thought you were done You’re all about the money girl you Can’t wait to talk about that um Before we before we get to that though Uh once you have the prospect list you Obviously need to reach out to them I think this is where most people fall Down because Seos online marketers figure out how to Build a prospect list working with Google sheets and scrapers and ahrefs And stuff like we can all figure out Right But for some reason we as an industry Can’t seem to figure out what to say When we we talk to people uh don’t Necessarily know Why that is but the the quality of Outreach message Hasn’t really gone up in in the last Five years or so in fact if anything i Would say the qualities decreased just Because more people are Are are doing it and they’ve kind of Like copied other people’s templates but
Not quite as well and it’s gone you know Why it’s because the new the innovators Start first people who are like You know ahead of the time start first And now it’s kind of like Coming to the masses doing this stuff And yeah to be frank a lot less refined People i mean i see the outreach Messages that i receive and it’s like It’s almost like people took the walls They wanted to say and just shake it and Just like send the email and it’s just Like everything’s just all over the Place Um so yeah that’s why i think yeah you Have to think about it from the Site owner’s perspective right i mean You you see it We get sometimes over a dozen emails a Day from people asking for guest posts Or links or whatever And really they all start to blend in And sound the same after after a while i Know you’ve Spent a little bit of time replying to Some of the more outrageous ones with uh With crazy demands but uh maybe i’ll put Some screenshots to put on a podcast so That people can see Uh yeah i have fun like i tried to trade Chips for links and Stuff like that like i’m just having fun With you and it’s like Uh but yeah you can say it’s ridiculous
If you put yourself in The perspective of a site owner it’s Very easy to imagine How just quickly you would start Ignoring all of these because you Mentally categorize them all As as like spammers as the same They’re not really like adding any value Or anything So because they have but this can Actually work to your advantage because They have this mental classification Going on you really don’t need to do Much In order to stand out in in some way With your with your outreach message So what we’ve started doing a lot Recently and Um there’s bb uh the link builder Gave a really good talk at the recent Seo mastery summit and outlined some Some of these These things specifically um but And one thing she did in there which We’ve experimented with a bit as well Is is using puns in your your outreach Message So if you wanted to uh outreach like say For a paintball site Um your subject line rather than saying Like hi quick question about link Building or whatever Um you could say i just witnessed a guy Getting shot with a paintball gun
That’s your subject line immediately you Read that and it’s like Wait what what’s going on here this is Kind of interesting makes you want to Makes you want to open that and then the First line Rather than saying hi mark can i have a Guest post it would be He died on impact that’s died d-y-e-d I was waiting for the wait for the paddy To drop there T-y-e-d right yeah yeah so How many other people do you think are Outrageous what they are making that are Reaching with a dad joke like that Probably not very many uh and and you Would be amazed at the amount of people Who will respond favorably to this Um going as far as to Call out other people who are just being Very bland and say oh you certainly Stand out or You you gave me a chuckle on a monday Morning kind of kind of thing Um and there are many other ways to to Approach this but That is an example of of have standout Is absolutely crucial If you if you want to get good links From from from google you know it works Really well as well it’s Uh memes and images because it’s like You know you go through your email and It’s like your archive
Like i mean or reporter spam for that Matter Um and it’s all text right pretty much All of it is text but if you have like An image that’s like Bright color or something it’s gonna Stop you from scrolling or something and You’re gonna check the image without Reading the message Um but the images work quite well Actually so i would say I would include images i wouldn’t try to Do some creepy personalized image or Something I don’t think yeah i saw those there’s a Tool called lemlist which uh Has a feature to do that and i think Hunter is even trying to develop it like People seem to be Crawling over this feature but it i’ve Never seen it used effectively and i i Don’t know too many people I think it’s more like about putting uh It’s about putting like a meme and Having a good recovery from it and All like transition to what is Interesting to you it’s like It’s more about that than like having People’s name on it or something like That like If you do if you have a website you know How this works like i mean like merge Fields etc like you’re not an idiot Exactly what they’re doing um and
I mean and i can spot these from a Million miles away so For example people a lot of outreach to Get on the podcast right But we very rarely do guests it’s Usually us like really like 90 plus is is us and uh When people are rich and so like oh i Like all the people you’re interviewing And all the guests and they’re so great I’m like you don’t listen to the podcast You’re full of um And um and you can tell very quickly so And i think most people feel that way For their side they know what makes them Special And and it’s hard unless you’re really Involved it’s easy to misfire and i Think the loss of conversion rate from Misfiring Will easily make up for the increase in Conversion rate from the stuff that Actually hits So it’s not not a huge fan of mega Personalization i’d rather something Funny That you tell everyone to be honest uh One Strategy particularly for new sites Which i think is is Really important when you’re doing guest Posting is do whatever you can To have at least one very good very high Quality guest post
Like very well written article that Looks beautiful on a nicely designed Site Uh preferably like higher higher dr Uh and i know it’s like well you have to Get it’s kind of it’s kind of like you Have to get links in order to be able to Get More links so how do i get the first one But if you have to beg steal Borrow talk to someone you know like Harass them on social media don’t Actually harass them but like Really get get to know them in the site Owner in in some way And so you’re not like a total stranger Coming in with this This request and just get this get this Guest post It’s a goal that we set every time we Have a a new site that we do a link Building campaign for as one of the Earliest goals is get this one like North star guest post because when we’re Outreaching we can send this as an Example like hey This is the kind of stuff we’ve we’ve Done and if they look at it they’re Again going to take An initial snapshot quick impressions They’re like oh is this a good site does This look legit How’s the content scroll through it like Very quickly maybe they’re probably not
Going to read it all but that’s not the The point um having this guest post will Add a lot of credibility to to you and What i said earlier about them Being most concerned about you not being Able to write good content if you have This that kind of alleviates that Um in in some ways yeah i think um I think also telling them like look it’s Like i’m not just going to write like 500 Etc let’s build an actual seo page for Your site etc like Um like let me target a good keyword for You i actually looked at your site You could target this queue i think it’s Realistic for you to rank for it i’m Going to optimize this on software seo Whatever you have like if you have Phrase from Appsumo or something i’m gonna do all These things for you And uh and if you and the thing is like What’s really powerful with this is like If you Instead of doing a guest post you build An seo page for people trying to Literally rank them for a keyword You can convince them to add internal Links to that page so that it ranks Right Um but what it does it juices up your Links too right yeah um So it’s like you can kind of kill two
Bills in one store as well Um going to people be like you know what What i do is i do seo like i Follow these toy hacker guys etc And i Or whoever branding whoever you want Neil patel [Laughter] Whoever you are but like this is what i Do and um and i’m gonna do that for you For free What i get out of it is a link it Doesn’t cost you anything it helps my Site rank for this other keyword which We’re not competing against you Uh and i want to rank you for that Keyword all you have to do is maybe Point some links to that page seeing That hopefully I don’t think that would be a good Outreach message so The way i segment things psychologically Is There’s a a get your foot in the door Type email and if you go and yeah yeah Yeah yeah it’s like it’s not like your Initial outreach Yeah if you go in explaining that or This is everything you’re gonna do in Your initial outreach people just be Like what Nah um they’re like they’re like what’s The catch you gotta you gotta kind of You gotta warm them up a little bit
Before you You give the detail yeah yeah Explanation i agree i wouldn’t i would Go through that but like after that then It’s kind of like upgrading your guest Post because if you’re like well if You’re going to ring that page would be Great if you had an internal link from This page and this page on this page That’s when you can Actually go to this page we don’t have a Process for that at the moment but i i Now have it in my head that that’s Something we need to do uh is to go back Over all of our links that we’ve gotten Before Um if we can find some way to like stat Like check the Check how they’re ranking for the main Keywords And then suggest uh internal link Opportunities For them as a way hey did you know your Your number four If you add some more internal links how About this from here here and here you Might get to number one or onto page one And not only that you can do that you Can say I what i will do is uh let’s add these Five internal links and what i’ll do is Like next time i get a guest post i’ll Actually link to that guest post as well With
Anchor text so that i can actually like Help you rank as well so you get some External links some internal links And you have a chance to rank right it’s Like you’re juicing your link again Essentially you do your tooling building To your own link uh but at the same time You like you know what i mean like You’re doing seo for many sites and you Build that kind of net etc And if you do that with multiple people You can even say like look i actually Have my friend over there He can link to your page if you you’re Going to rank up for accurate and you Link to this page for him and he ranks For that kill and both these pages have Your link or whatever Um so there’s a lot of like kind of like Network effect you can use for that Um it’s more like as the second email It’s more once they they’ve accepted and Then you’re like okay let’s make a plan Let’s make something cool especially for The big ones i think i think it would Work quite well like When we started toyhaka i was doing this Kind of stuff right it’s like i used to I did the pop-up on entropal on fire for Example talking to him etc To help him and he doubled his leads in Like in like three days or something Um so i used to do literally free work For links and that that worked quite
Well for me But money money I want to talk about money because People ask about money when we started Doing link building Um for authority sites in like 2013 We’ve done link building before as our Agency but when we started for authority Sites Uh at least a white hat stuff very few Sites were asking for money um or those That were You could almost like negotiate around It by saying i’m gonna give you really Good content but It it’s like as more people have come to Realize the value Of of good links and as more people have Started doing Outreach then sites have Obviously become aware that they can There’s there’s some value in linking Out And sites are willing to pay for that You have a lot of agencies especially These days Who have you know budgets for each Client’s link building and whether they Spend the money on the content or Um the you know people doing outreach or Just paying a site 50 bucks for for a link it doesn’t Really make too much difference to To to them um so that that’s that’s
Become a thing Also there’s been very little In the way of or almost no nothing in The way of Penalties towards sites buying links or Sites Selling links like it’s at such a Colossal scale That if if google penalized every site Buying and selling links i don’t think There would be much of an internet left Um i mean it’d still be a lot big bigger Sites out there because they’re Obviously Not doing this but it would cut out like A big chunk of the The middle i i think yeah as it’s like I i think that we live in a world where Now Paid links are just normalized a lot More than they were before Because of google’s lack of action like You go on facebook groups like Not really many people are posting about Oh about links and i got penalized Even buying shitty services etc i’m very Surprised right it’s like You know you go on black hot water or Stuff like that people still sell crazy link wheels and stuff like That it’s like and and And first of all it can work because we Showed that in the link building uh Examples um but google doesn’t seem to
Be hitting that many people with that or I’m missing all the messages if you know About people that report these i’ll Be quite curious but what happened is Slowly Because there’s no impression it’s kind Of like if nobody was checking the speed Limit on this on the road You know like eventually people realize And just like start going a little bit Faster a little bit faster a little bit Faster Eventually everyone is like 200 on the Highway you know um And uh that’s exactly what’s happening Right now because of google’s lack of Action That’s actually an interesting analogy Because like There are speed limits and they are Enforced at least in in most countries To differing differing um effectiveness But every single person in the world Speeds at some point Uh the speed limits are not necessarily Limits per se either because the The police as soon as you’re if if it’s 70 miles an hour they don’t Penalize you if you’re doing 71 miles an Hour They have a kind of buffer in there There’s a bit of a bit of leeway In there so you can kind of like push The boundaries a little bit and still be
Okay Um i don’t know how we got into talking About speed but yeah Or how that applies to link i like how You just um I like i like how you just took it and You just don’t know what’s good yes i Agree it’s kind of like it’s guidelines But i think google is a little bit like That too in the sense that like you can Um You can like it’s like there’s these Ways where they would accept a paid link If it’s All incentivized links etc uh i mean Like come on like youtubers receive Uh receive products to review and things Like that and like eventually they post A review on their site there’s a link It’s kind of incentivizes again but like Google’s really not Probably even gonna publicly go against That so it’s like There’s a little bit of that here but Essentially like now we’re several years In right well Literally very few people have been Caught and everyone’s just going at 200 On the highway Uh and uh and uh i mean i i’m telling You Should we go faster than girl should we Should we join them so Well i’ll tell you when i get my driving
License but i failed last time so uh Maybe you’re not the best person to ask About this actually exactly maybe Yeah this is the wrong analogy but Anyway but what’s happening is Lots of people are paying for links now Even people who have legit sites and Because google is quite gives you a lot Of freedom in terms of just disavowing Your links and then just like okay it’s Fine then uh If you were speeding on the highway it’s As if it’s as if you were just canceling Your last five minutes And then you just don’t get caught Anymore and you just get back to uh to The traffic it’s essentially what google Does with the disavow tool you can use It for your paid links And then and then it’s as if nothing Happened right Um and so and so that’s why In the current state of things i am Personally pro paying for links at this Point We’re not doing it um and so but i I am trying to convince you to do it Actually if we talk about internal Discussions So i do believe that in 2021 people a Lot of people are going to pay for links So like 100 we’re going to pay for some Links in 2021 like not not for authority Accurate we’ll try on a new site we’ll
Test it two new sites or something to See what happens but Up until this point since since 2013 When we started doing authority sites We’ve never paid for a single link in Terms of like the the sponsorship fee or Stuff we’ve obviously paid people to do Outreach and paid for tools and stuff That is what i mean by paid links Um but we’ve never done it and i think We’ve proven that you can Certainly grow some very large authority Sites Without doing it um i’d also say that Once you get to a certain threshold You know your dr 6070 um Unless you’re in like a super Competitive affiliate niche like credit Cards or something and And even then i would so you still pay i Would question the effectiveness of Um of this kind of of link building in In general past a certain point so For like authorityhacker.com for example Like i still don’t think we would ever Ever pay to a given page we should do it Yeah it’s like we have pages that would Rank much higher if we did like 20 guest posts to it and like we just Paid like we just paid for the best size We can do regardless of whether we pay Or not we just get 20 links to it with The exact match and I mean adam freud is he i don’t know if
He plays on i i have no date about it But that’s basically what he does and He’s killing it you know I think the adam and freud approach is More um Doing that that kind of trading link Building cabal thing Right where you i know but like what he Does is he gets he he’s pretty high yeah He’s the same deal as us at this point Yeah and he and he’s starting to get 20 To 70 half ago or something which is Crazy so Yeah but like he he you know he’s not Going to be like oh i’m good i’m high Enough yeah i don’t need to do this He creates a new page and he goes and he Gets like 30 to 50 links to it With the exact same context he wants and He ranks for it you know yeah Um so i think i disagree with you on the Like all your idr enough you don’t need To do that This is good enough for like low level Easy keywords But like anything that’s actually lost Money like no no no no you need to do That regardless of your dr you know You think network is not building links I think no i mean i think it depends On the sort of like competitiveness of The keywords you’re You’re targeting um i use the example of Like a credit card
Affiliate site like there’s when there’s Dozens or hundreds of Very strong very rich affiliate sites Like competing over a few very valuable Keywords like when Every little thing you can do kind of Counts uh i mean to be honest we haven’t That’s not been our Our seo strategy with with authority Hacker like we have More like lord i don’t want to pay for These words To be honest yeah um so I i i just don’t think it’s a good idea I think it’s too far too risky for A site like that yeah i wouldn’t i mean The toyota Doesn’t know it’s like it’s more like People engaging with us but on like a Pure affiliate site Where it’s like you rank your bank and You don’t rank you make nothing Yeah yes i i would say in these cases Um i would recommend paying for things But i would recommend Being even more strict on the links you Pay for than the links you don’t pay for And it’s not about like Okay open all the valves get all the Links you can etc It’s actually increasing your standards And using money so that you can match These standards while maintaining a Decent enough volume
I think if you do it from that point of View your chances of getting In trouble are extremely low and A present at least if you do get in Trouble you can just disavow them and Get out of trouble anyway so make a Spreadsheet and Like you know keep keep a log and it’s Pretty easy you know Yeah maybe not especially because when You get a manual penalty Well just do it on evernote or something Um If you if you have a manual penalty Google gives you examples of links that Are problematic Actually so um it’s quite easy and then You can do multiple rounds as well of These evolves so you can just deserve Similar links exactly to what they gave You and then you can kind of expand a Bit etc and it’s like It’s kind of a guesswork but you know It’s like you the size that like Several years ago got penalized because I literally can’t think of like very Very recent big ones that got penalized That did that and and it still ranked After the disavow after all of that Much higher than they would have if they Never paid for links you know Um and they made a ton of money at the Time they were ranking the the first Time off of them as well so
Yeah so i think it’s like i would prefer A world where people don’t pay for links But Google has created a world with no Repression where Essentially uh paying for links is Becoming like one of the most viable uh Solution But it does mean you have to pay for all Your links as well yeah you do have to Be careful that you’re applying Good critical sense and and checking That these sites are Are legit a really common thing i see is There will be a site usually a drop Domain someone’s rebuilt it And they take a bunch of guests like all Like the last 50 posts are from casinos and cbd sites And Just a bunch of you know semi nefarious Uh stuff and so it creates this sort of Like bad neighborhood effect And it’s it’s not something you Necessarily catch from ahrefs or from Any metric so you have to Go in and check these things in in Pretty i wouldn’t do that But again when we check the links to These cbd sites remember Like they had links from these kind of Like sites with poll links et cetera and They’re still ranked right Um so i think that’s why it’s like if
You use that to increase your standards And really go follow the really high Court says I think your chances of getting into Basically you know google’s catching the Bottom 20 When they do a big update you know uh i Don’t i don’t even think it’s bothering 20 I think i i i don’t think that people Are getting hit At all these days yeah i thought yeah All i’m saying is like even when they do An update if they did one Usually they catch this kind of stuff First before they catch the The more subtle stuff that would look Like an organic thing you know Um so yeah if you want to do it very Clean though Um you know like karlov told me he Basically did a test that really called Sponsor links Past link juice Do follow links yes okay um so if you Buy into that You can literally pay for links and have Really cool sponsored on your links Hope for a ranking increase obviously it Gives the power to google to tune this Down whenever they want because you’re Flagging the link right Um but if you wanted to like stay above All because google said you can
Incentivize sponsored links right uh Like if you If you flag it you a lot and if you Believe that actually increases your Rankings According to carol which has a pretty Good track record of trying things Um then you can essentially white hat Buy links you know Um so if you want to be like let’s say You’re like a really like You know a corporate entity that really Just wants zero risks with your seo et Cetera I would do that i would buy really cool Sponsored links i would i would ask People to add the tag On my links i am following 100 google’s Guidelines And i’m hoping that i actually house my Rankings you know Sure so that’s another way of doing that So so to sum this up We’re going to buy links next year on at Least one New site that yeah we’re going to be Starting in 2021 so we will report back A little bit on Um some of those numbers one question That comes up a lot and i had Jason malone um on on the podcast about A year and a half ago And he he and his agency buys quite a Lot of links so he went into
Some detail about the negotiation of That And generally speaking you my Understanding is that they’ll They’ll quote you a price and they Usually just pluck it from the air when You’re bargaining yeah Knock it down 75 80 percent um before You You settle on on something so it’s it Seems this seems to be quite negotiable But we don’t really have any data on That ourselves and Uh when we do we’ll we’ll try and share A little bit more about that sounds like A cheap Chinese market you know when you go and Buy stuff and you know they quote you The tourist price and You bargain down well i think that like A lot of site owners don’t really know The value of these things and the value Is different to each Individual site so they there’s no no of No benefit of if they Put it too low if they say it’s too high Then you always negotiate them Them down but there might be an agency That’s like oh four hundred dollars no Problem we’ll we’ll We’ll pay for that once every so often So It’s kind of mine yeah i’m uh i’m Looking forward to try that on links to
Page you know like that one page for That one Getting some exact match and context et Cetera yeah you struggle to get Organically I think it’s gonna make a big difference Actually like uh let’s see let’s see What happens especially i’m gonna try Roller coaster links as well especially I’m curious about this i think this is Especially true in the early days like It it’s going to balance out that that Generic Less relevant less targeted link juice With with something which is like super Super focused and In that in that way so um all right Let’s just wrap up guest posting just Just quickly Just quickly yeah i want to talk about Link exchanges as well Um because that’s been something we’ve Done Um i wouldn’t say a lot but like from From time to time it it It comes up and it’s actually okay to do These i think in the Uh google guidelines it says that like Excessive Guest posting uh with keyword rich Anchor text is Not okay um which implies that As long as it’s not excessive and Doesn’t it’s not like two keyword
Keyword rich anchor text then you’re Fine uh so if someone suggests that then Um don’t immediately say no to it i Would i would strongly consider it From time to time obviously don’t make This your only tactic and don’t like Scale the out of it but yeah it’s It’s something you can You can if you do it a little bit like If you’re doing this If you’re doing this for a new site it’s Unlikely that they’re going to want to To do it but if this is not your your Only site you can do like a three-way Thing so they link to your your site and You link to them from another site A little bit cleaner and just a way of You doing it If you have another site which has Higher dr these things happen naturally So much that it’s like it’s really not a Problem you know it’s like imagine like Ahrefs thinking to us To link to seo russia and seo martial i See you’re rushing into h was probably Not but like To according to my dignity and my Dictating strategism Yeah that makes sense when it comes to Actually creating the content for guest Posts Um i mentioned that there’s a few times When you make it really really good and Either in those cases write it yourself
Or have your your own writer do it but Honestly a lot of the times websites are Just looking for a Thousand word list post which is pretty Competently written yeah And in those cases we we use word agents It’s a content production agency a lot For for that kind of content they’re Fast they’re reliable they have They’re pretty good topic experts and The quality is Is has been good for the last six years Or something so Um they’re a pretty good solution for That if you guys want to check them out I think they start from about six cents Per word depending on quantity and stuff Um we don’t get paid to to say this we Just those are who those are that’s the Company we use so If you guys want to check them out yeah You do so uh They’re good for support content as well If you have some quick support content For stuff it’s quite good as well Uh okay guest posting yeah Uh so i mean i think we spent about 45 Minutes talking about guest posting but That’s what i’m saying anything else you Can You need to spend quite quite a lot of Time uh on it When you when you first start to like Figure out how you’re doing prospecting
To Craft your outreach messages there’ll be A bit of trial and Trial and error there as well um once You get into the full Sort of swing of swing of things uh it’s Very easy to you know get a couple guest Posts a week spending An hour a day or so um doing doing our Outreach like very very easy and the More You the more attention you spend on it That Like more exponentially it can kind of Scale Because you get big efficiencies in your Prospecting in your outreach You start outsourcing content that saves A lot of time as well Um so this is it’s a really good link Building strategy Uh even if matt cutt said seven years Ago that it’s not and it’s dead and Stopped doing it Um i wouldn’t i wouldn’t stop doing it No i mean a lot of people that do really Well are doing it Uh let’s talk about the last one what’s The last one so the last one is Skyscraper And i i put this last because this is Something Which uh typically we will we will plan A site with this in mind so like the
First 10 Articles we we create for a new site are Info skyscraper articles and it gives us The opportunity to Uh acquire these links quite quickly But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s The best link building strategy for Everyone to do Like to begin with because it’s a little Bit more complex And it can be a little bit more Punishing if you’re not really On the ball uh because you’re not so Much as you’re not so much providing Something of value To to them when you’re you’re asking for A skyscraper link you’re Like you are with a guest post just Explain really quickly what skyscraper Link building is You essentially find a high keyword Difficulty question or Info keyword on ahrefs has a Really good function i think it’s called The questions In their keyword explorer and High keyword difficulty essentially Means that a lot of people are linking To The pages ranking on page one of the Serve And qr difficulty in hrefs is only that Actually it’s only based on links to Page
Yeah um links to the the top ten Of the of the keyword i believe uh so Because you typically that would mean It’s if it’s high it would be a Difficult keyword and you wouldn’t Necessarily target it for your new site But If you don’t care about ranking for that Keyword you can still create that Content And then suddenly you have a lot of People who are linking to this type of Content And you just go through all these pages Put them in hrefs get the people linking To them and then that is your Your big prospect list and this the Prospecting for this It’s very easy to scale very quickly to The point where you start generating Thousands of prospects Quickly uh you then need to to reach out To them And and say hey you know you link to Here can you link to me As well obviously you need to be a Little in a better way Yeah more creative i wouldn’t receive That email at some point Than that um i will say that like When we started doing this uh like four Or five years ago It was it was insane we were getting Like seven percent
Of of uh message we’re sending resulting In In links with like no negotiation i Think uh the niche we were doing it in Was was just particularly good at it and Not so many people were doing it at the Time nobody was doing skyscrapers yeah Yeah Um but that’s i mean a lot more people Are doing it these days Uh and it just flat doesn’t work in in In some niches like Finance and uh travel i hear is pretty Bad for us good job on uh on the Blueprints Yeah so so So but as a as a um as a process It still works in some issues i i just Wanted to establish that i made a joke Because people would take it and say it Doesn’t look anymore Still works in submission is quite Difficult yeah And i mean we still do and this is why i Put it last because I think you you’d be good to build up Some More tactile experience and actually Doing outreach crafting templates Doing negotiation before you start um Sending uh skyscraper outreach uh Because You kind of have to be more on the top Of your game for it to
It for it to be effective yeah i agree It’s uh i mean again how many what’s the Percentage of people that now are asking For money For skyscraper it’s actually even higher Um i’d say it’s like 60 70 percent of people ask for money These days so if we were paying we’d get A lot of links right Yes yes and if you’re if you just want To To find a lot of prospects which you can Quickly you know spend 40 bucks get a Get a half decent link then I think this is a great strategy if You’re brand new and you don’t have the Budget for that then Again you might want to wait till you Start site starts to take off a little Bit more maybe you have make a few Hundred bucks a month and you start Paying for some of these these expenses Because otherwise Very quickly you can get out of pocket You know why because it’s slow barrier To entry Because skyscraper doesn’t even require To write content and that was one of the Power of this is like not only could you Mass outreach to people and get Strong insight from people but on top of That you don’t even have to expense Any other resource than the fact that You’re emailing people which is
Available To write the skyscraper articles so that The one okay Like that’s like you could think of you Can i mean we’ve had cases where we’ve Had More than 100 links uh to to one article Whereas if we needed to do that with Guest posting we’d have to write a Hundred articles 100 100 100 times no hundred times more Works probably like 25 times more work because we put more Effort into the skyscraper post but You get the picture but you know the day The day i saw mail shake i was like I know where this is going um and it’s Like yeah it’s like The resource cost is so low and yeah you Can get 100 links to One given article and it’s like yeah It’s like Even and that’s the thing right it’s Like let’s say let’s say you pay 20 Bucks per link let’s say like let’s Imagine you were paying for that Still cheaper than doing guest posting Right um like Buy quite a lot because then your Marginal cost per link is much lower Than the Than creating a piece of content Especially if you’re outsourcing Um but yeah that’s why that’s why
Skyscraper has Taken off like crazy that’s why we Receive dozens of emails per days of Literally sending the stat you know in Some issues it hasn’t been Affected so much and i think but i think In most of the big athletic niches it’s Very very saturated at this point and It’s very Difficult um i would still do it but i Would say While you have a like first of all power You never need to pay Guest post you can definitely get a lot Of guest posts without paying Skyscraper now it’s basically your Success rate has diminished massively if You don’t pay and if you pay you have a Chance basically so it’s kind of like You can see how like money ease things Up uh in link building and And basically if it doesn’t you know it It costs you somewhere basically That’s why harrow is kind of like the Lowest cost right now and that’s why i Think this is the first one you Recommend because You don’t need to write a full article You just need to write an answer and an Answer is like 100 to 200 words right Um which is much cheaper than writing Like a thousand words articles It is in that sense and i know i know What you’re saying about like the
You don’t you have to pay much money for The resources but it’s It’s difficult it’s different it’s Difficult in a different way it requires Some kind of like strategic thought to Your Your answers and your your personality With those other Other tactics you can if you really want With with skyscraper you can send like a Standard template Answer you can have a an average an Average art like Article that you you know get from Textbroker or something And you can pay money and you can get Links like yeah There’s not the same quality standards That you you absolutely have to have With your your harrow answer Uh so it’s difficult to overcome that if You’re And you have to pay for it if you want To outsource it so it’s like That you can see how it’s like a Resource management thing it’s either Gonna cost you time or money basically To get links um it’s like because they Have a commercial value they make money To websites that have them Therefore people pay for are willing to Pay for them it’s like pretty much any Other business Yeah uh and how it works and so so you
Will pay with your time or you’ll pay With your money If you have more time than money then Guest posting is probably your best Guess Uh together with harold uh and spending Time on this And if you have more money than time It’s probably gonna be a mix of Skyscraper and guest posting adding Money on top basically You can and you can mix like you can mix All these strategies together in In many ways like i’ve seen people who Will literally just outreach to every Single website they can Find they’ll be able to build like davis Or hundreds of thousands i’m saying Okay i want to buy a link from you um And You know a percentage of them will Respond back with a with a price and They’ll They’ll start doing it and you can you Can do that it’s gonna Gonna get at least some some levels i’m Trying it so i Wouldn’t estimate it but you can kind of Mix the best bits of Of different strategies depending on Like what you’re comfortable doing or Not doing and Figure out that way that’s that that’s Why i kind of like link buildings you
Can like Dial up and dial down certain areas and It’s like it’s all about finding the Right mix of Different processes and strategies and Stuff so Yeah it’s it’s interesting uh if you Were paying followings would you could Pay more for a skyscraper or a Guest post link that’s an interesting Question as well because You you kind of have to factor in the Cost of content So is it and is it gonna do you then pay More for a skyscraper link because like The market equilibrium price is based on Total cost of acquiring the link uh or If a website’s Accepting uh guest posts for 50 bucks I would think they would probably also Be up for just like adding a link to an Existing article for 50 bucks it’s like It’s easier for them And they’re still getting the money so i Don’t know Okay there’s one thing you forget is the Authority of the pages that link to you When you do that you could literally Find the highest authority page On the site oh like the mix of authority And relevance like the best crossover On that site to your site so i actually Believe skyscraper links i was more Provided
Um provided the the like Relevant and on pages that receive links But there’s also There’s some counter argument to that Which is that very often when you add Links to Existing pages they take forever for Google to even realize that a link was Added And we see that right like look at how Long it takes to index the links we do From regular skyscraper without paying It’s the same thing essentially Um and it’s like it feels like guest Posts kind of like have more of a bump Effect when you Publish them versus skyscraper that like Takes a longer time really to see and It’s kind of like blending in with Everything you You’re doing listen it’s harder to see The effect um So i guess it depends do you need Authority or do you need relevance Because with a guest post you can also Write about a topic that’s more relevant To what you want to rank And i think that also has some power and Uh but like So that works really well let’s say if You have a high authority site um Already let’s say you are 50 plus and You have a new page that you want to Rank i would say maybe i would take a
Guest post that has That is about what i want to write to Rank for whereas if my site is low dr Would maybe pick a link on like a page That receives a lot of links so that it Passes more authority to my site so I get some domain level authority Building mixed with Uh links to page you know so i i you Know there’s a bit of both but it’s I think it’s quite interesting uh and Depending on the conditions i guess uh You might pay more but i think you can Get higher value Probably from skyscraper links but they Will take longer to kick in So uh anything else on skyscraper do you Want to make this a two-hour podcast or No this has certainly been a long one And thank you if you stay to the end of The show On your christmas holiday vacation Christmas new year whatever Um we we appreciate it we hope you Enjoyed our uh Our ramblings on on link building we did Not steal christmas this year Um unlike canada uh anyway Uh anything else any any final walls of Wisdom anything else No just well yeah i just want to wish All our our viewers our listeners Uh anyone who’s followed us this year uh Happy new year and uh i hope
2021 is a prosperous year for for all Your websites Yeah let’s let’s see how it goes Definitely no gift for me though don’t Expect anything Um thanks for listening Uh we hope you got some value in terms Of building things to your new sites i Think uh yeah there’s some quite Interesting stuff to talk about As you heard we will be experimenting With a lot of new stuff next year so we Will Be reporting and be transparent as i Said like i’ve always said when we Change our stance on things we’ll just Tell people publicly and so like Easy basically it’s like well we’re not Really sure and we’re not definitely not Going to do that for every site we walk On But we will at least you know you know Kind of like when you have a cold Swimming pool and just put your foot in Fit in just to feel the temperature of The check it’s not too cold So that’s basically what we’re going for But we’ll be reporting on that we’ll be Talking about this openly like we have Talked about openly about pretty much Everything we’ve done so far And if you want to learn more about you Know Getting started with new authority sites
We are actually launching the new Version of the atoyz system Literally took us six months to shoot Last year or this year i guess That yeah this year we started in june We finished just recently Over 200 video really like the biggest Project we’ve ever taken Uh in terms of building premium content For thoroughly hacker For quite proud of it it comes with a New case study site in there as well it Comes with pretty much Everything is new except the community The community is still the same people We didn’t kick everyone out and bring New people It’s the same people so if you’re in Test don’t worry you have it Uh you will have it as well but it is Coming out when is it coming out On sunday on sunday so the third so on Sunday people can join in And get access to a brand new course With all that new stuff and A lot of the stuff we talked about on This podcast plus a lot A lot more so thank you for listening We’ll see you next week for another Episode and have a good New year’s eve and yeah be safe bye [Music] You