From a hobby popularized during the early 2000s to one of the most desirable careers of the 2010s, blogging has opened up so many opportunities for people to earn money online. Today, a lot of blogs are created as businesses, with making money through blogging being one of the goals from the start. The opportunities depend on the type of blog, the language you write in and the audience you are targeting. However, there are a couple of commonly used tactics to make a living through blogging, which are the ones you should explore first.

Blog monetization tactics
Blog monetization tactics enable you to cash in on your blog popularity in multiple ways. When you first start blogging, these might not seem as profitable, but the number of visits is crucial for the success of these tactics. The more visitors you can attract, the more likely you are to earn money from these tactics.

#1 Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a very popular monetization tactic for bloggers who do not have products of their own to sell. Instead, they recommend and link to the products on third-party websites in exchange for a percentage of the sale.

In affiliate marketing, there are two roles. Merchants, i.e., those who own the product or service that is promoted and affiliates, who promote those products or services. Bloggers are affiliates. They join an affiliate program, obtain affiliate links and promote them through the blog content. Once the blog visitor clicks on the affiliate link, this is recorded using cookies.

This way, the blogger is attributed the conversion, and the merchant then pays out the agreed commission, which is a percentage of the sale price. In this case, the blog visitors do not have any additional cost. The blogger’s income is based on the profit shared by the merchant in exchange for the promotion.

When you decide to use affiliate marketing to monetize your blog, these are the aspects you should have in mind:
• Promote the products/services that your audience will be interested in to maximize the number of conversions
• Promote the products/services you can vouch for (i.e., high-quality is a norm)
• Join affiliate programs that offer the best terms (the highest commission, the longest cookie life, etc.)

#2 Sponsored posts

The idea with this blog monetization tactic is to create a blog post which will promote a particular business, product, or service. You as a blogger will receive an agreed commission for this post. Bloggers usually choose to include a disclaimer within the post notifying the readers that the content is paid by a specific brand featured in the post. However, this is not obligatory.

There are a lot of opportunities when it comes to blog monetization through sponsored posts. Bloggers usually have fixed rates for a sponsored post, and they often prefer writing the content themselves. Still, the blogger and the brand can agree on different terms. For example, the brand might provide content or have a say in the content created by the blogger. Or instead of monetary compensation, the blogger can be given the product or granted free access to the service.

This type of post is very popular among travel bloggers who receive free accommodation in exchange for a post on their blog about the accommodation in question.
Each sponsored post has a link back to the website where the product (or service) can be bought. Unlike affiliate marketing, where the clicks on the links are tracked, based on which the commission is paid out, with sponsored post it is irrelevant whether the readers will click the link or not. The blogger is paid for the actual post with the link and the content about the product (or service) that is promoted, regardless of the number of visits and conversions.

#3 AdSense

Once a commonly used way to earn passive income through blogging, AdSense is not the most profitable strategy at the moment, but still offers a chance to monetize your visits by including ad space on your blog. It is a service offered by Google, which means that companies that want to advertise with Google AdWords program are the advertisers who will bid for the space on your blog. The ads are displayed for both desktop and mobile users.

Google uses complex algorithms to determine which ads will appear to your blog visitors and when. Since the system is designed to maximize profit, it will automatically select ads that are most relevant to your visitors, ensuring the highest conversion rate. You do not have a direct say in which ads will be posted on your blog and which will not, however you have the option of selecting and deselecting ads based on categories (more on this later).

Joining the AdSense program allows you a certain level of control. You choose where the ads appear on your blog, and you format the style of the ad to match your blog. You can choose categories of ads you want to allow on your blog. You can even block the ads you do not want your visitors to see. You earn money when the ads are seen or clicked, depending on the type of campaign.
To get started with AdSense, you will need:

• A Google account
• Blog with original content that complies with the program policies
• A phone number and a mailing address, so you can get paid
Payments are sent once you reach a minimum amount, which is determined by the reporting currency. You can monitor earnings through an app which includes alerts, performance reports, etc.

#4 Banners

Another way to use blog space to earn money is to offer a banner space for sale. In this case, you get contacted by companies interested in having their banner placed on your blog in exchange for payment. This type of advertising is similar to AdSense visually. Both have a banner displayed on your blog.

The main difference is that AdSense offers dynamic ads which constantly change. Also, the amount of profit earned this way is cumulative. On the other hand, when you sell banner space on your blog, you will have the same banner displayed all the time during the period the contract between you and the company is active. The same banner will be shown to all the users at any moment they visit the blog. The banner can be featured on the home page, on specific blog pages, or even on all blog pages.

In terms of income, you earn a fixed income from the company interested in advertising this way, usually paid in advance.
Another alternative is to have a banner which will also feature an affiliate link. In this case, you would earn through affiliate marketing, but instead of a text link, you will attach the link to the image.

With both Google AdSense and banner advertising, it is helpful to place the ad in a position that will attract the most views/clicks. This is why banners are usually placed strategically, often below the main menu and before the blog content. You can always experiment with placing the banner in different locations on your website, to see, which position converts the best.

#5 Email marketing

Email marketing as a strategy in online marketing is known to have the highest conversion rate. What this means is that you are more likely to earn income through email marketing than through other types of online promotion. Of course, there are a couple of conditions that need to be met for an email campaign to be successful:

• Have a relevant mailing list
• Segment the mailing list
• Create a good reputation as a sender
• Write an email that is convincing and trustworthy
• Promote high-quality and relevant products
This is how you can earn with email marketing. It all starts with your blog.

You will need some original content of high quality that will attract your readers. They will then sign up for your newsletter. Besides a signup button, you can use other lead generation strategies, such as free download, organizing a giveaway, etc. Once you have the email addresses of your blog visitors, this gives you a chance to create a more personalized approach with them through emails. Becoming a respectable sender means that your blog readers are likely to open and read your emails. This means that you can reach them. Have in mind that each person sends and receives more than 200 emails per day (Source). It is difficult to reach email recipients. The more success you have at this, the more profitable your email marketing strategy will be.

Two of the most popular strategies you can use to monetize your email marketing campaign:
• Promote a product (and get paid to do so)
• Affiliate links
Email marketing is connected with blogging in the sense that you generate email addresses through your blog. Blogging helps you create a base of subscribers, and this is where the blogging strategy ends, and email marketing begins as another segment of marketing allowing you to reach and convert online users.

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include the staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

Everyone is witnessing the remarkable growth of video on the internet. Just to illustrate this omnipresence of video, it is reported that 500 million people are watching videos on Facebook every day (Source). It is also important to add YouTube statistics. As the most popular video sharing platform, YouTube reports that one billion hours of videos are watched daily on this platform alone.

Like with blogging, vlogging is a content format that has been affected by technology development. As soon as the technology necessary for video content production became widely available, video as a content format became increasingly used.

What is a vlog?

Vlog is short for a video blog. It is a content format which uses video as the medium. Even though vlogging started in the early 2000s, it was not until the introduction of YouTube that vlogs became increasingly popular. Apart from YouTube, many CMS platforms have started integrating a video format enabling vloggers to publish their content easily.

Vlogging is quite similar to blogging in many aspects. In fact, many bloggers have become vloggers, and many vloggers also have a blog. The main distinction is the presentation of content. Although blogging has a lot of benefits and presents an amazing opportunity for creators to express themselves, vlogging gives an extra dimension to this presentation. Using video enables a more interactive experience and possibility to connect with the vlogger more deeply.
There is a variety of vlog topics and styles. We can differentiate between two main types of vlogs.

Recorded videos

These are the videos that are recorded by the vlogger, usually in a setting that is prepared. This kind of video can also be recorded in public, during events, performances, i.e., in the situation where the vlogger does not prepare the set. The topic and the style of this type of vlog can vary, so there can be many subtypes of recorded videos. Still, the main characteristic and the main advantage of such videos is the full control the vlogger has over the content that is created. Once the content is recorded, the vlogger has the time to edit the video before it is made public.

Live broadcasting

Live broadcasting vlogs are more spontaneous as they are not edited before publishing. Instead, they are broadcast in the moment of recording. A huge benefit of such vlogs is a possibility to broadcast events in real time. Live streaming also supports community interaction through live chat that allows an opportunity to involve the viewers in the moment of broadcasting. This could also be a drawback because there is no room for errors. The content cannot be edited later on, like with recorded videos.

Why is vlogging popular?

Many reasons have contributed to such massive popularity of vlogging.

Easy to create

Depending on the content idea and presentation, videos can be quite easy to create, especially live broadcasting vlogs. All you need is your phone, and you are ready to start. Of course, vlogs can involve a more complex setting than that, so extra lights or props can be used. If the video is recorded, video editing software is used to edit the material. Even though the video production can get advanced and complex, vlogging is essentially an easy-to-create type of content. Hence, its popularity and the number of vloggers which is continuously on the rise.

Vlogging is affordable

With no other equipment than your phone and no other software than YouTube, vlogging is a very affordable type of content. You can start vlogging with no budget at all. Just like with blogging, starting with a budget or investment can make a difference later on.

People love videos

Over 70 000 videos are viewed in 1 second on YouTube (Source). The video format is easy to digest, it is easy to view on the go, and it attracts more attention than written content. This is why people love videos.

Visual content performs better – Exploring blogging statistics, you will soon discover that visual content performs better. While most bloggers leverage the use of photos and use them to complement their written content, vlogs can do the same job, if not even better. Vlogs can be an excellent addition to your blog in the form of engaging content, while at the same time blogs can be a useful platform to promote your vlogs. This is how the two complement.

How to use vlogging in business?

Vlogging, like blogging, has opened up so many opportunities for people looking to build an online career. A lot of successful vloggers nowadays started this as a hobby, but have managed to turn this hobby into international fame, career, or online business.
However, if you are a business looking for ways to leverage vlogging in your business, here are some helpful ideas on how you can do so.

Vlog as your company

One way to use this format is to take up vlogging yourself. A couple of things you will have to think about are the following:

• Decide who the vlogger will be – Preferably, it should be one of the founders or team members who have been with the company the longest.
• Type of content you want to feature – Create a content strategy defining exactly what kind of content you want to create for your audience. This will help you coordinate vlogging with overall company goals.
• Vlog consistently – Vlogging helps you create an audience who will follow your activities through vlogs. To make sure you keep your audience engaged and for them to know what to expect, try to vlog consistently.

Benefits of vlogging as your company

This kind of an approach helps you make a connection with the audience. Unlike other ways to interact, such as email or social media profiles, vlogging provides a deeper connection with the audience. They can get to know you personally. You can also include them in the creative process, thus increasing the trust in your brand. Vlogging can help with highlighting your qualities and promoting your business to the online users. Furthermore, you have complete control over the content that is created and shared through a vlog.

Vlogging ideas for a business

If you are all out of ideas on how to use vlogging to promote your business, here are a couple of suggestions:
• Day-in-the-life video
• Follow-me-around video
• Broadcast of a live event (such as store opening, a meeting, a conference that you are hosting, etc.)
• Instructional (how-to) vlog
• An interview vlog
• Q&A video
• Behind the scene vlog

Work with vloggers

The alternative approach is to collaborate with vloggers on projects. The main advantage of this approach is that it requires much less involvement from you in the creative process. You do not need a vlogger, a strategy or equipment to record a vlog. Instead, you find a vlogger who can promote your business on your behalf.

In this case, either you can contact the vlogger to send the details about a possible collaborative project, or you can send products (provide free service) hoping to get the attention of the vlogger and being featured in one of the vlogs.

The first method offers more control over the content and how the product/service is integrated into a vlog. As you discuss the project details, payment can also be one of the points you should focus on. On the other hand, the second method is a more spontaneous. You do not set any conditions, you simply send your products and hope to get a positive review.

Benefits of working with vloggers

The most evident advantage of this kind of vlogging is that you can work with popular vloggers and instantly get noticed by their followers. When starting on your own, you will have to work hard to get that many views. Being promoted by the vloggers can help you a lot with expanding your reach and establishing your brand on the market. To get this kind of recognition, you will have to offer a high-quality product. Since vloggers often enjoy respect among their followers, they will not promote just about anything. Also, some vloggers will feature brands only as part

of a paid promotion, which is something you should plan with your budget when implementing video format in your online marketing.

It is safe to say that vlogging is a format that gives so many opportunities for businesses. From involving the viewers in the creative process to showing a more personalized image of your brand, vlogging is an incredible strategy to use in the online promotion of your business. Explore how it can be implemented, find vloggers you could work with, and make sure you analyze the performance of vlogs to evaluate their role in an overall content marketing strategy.

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include the staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

If you want to explore opportunities these two tactics provide, you could join communities which feature these offers and an opportunity for bloggers and companies to connect.

#1 MyBlogGuest

This is a free community offering blog owners and guest bloggers access to a network that connects them and helps them to increase exposure.

#2 BlogDash

Specialized in blogger outreach, BlogDash is a platform that connects businesses with over 200,000 bloggers, helping them to build a relationship and work together on different projects.

#3 GroupHigh

With blog search engine, list building, and segment tools, this platform provides an opportunity to find bloggers, influencers, and new content.

#4 PostJoint

Connecting marketers who are trying to identify quality blogs, improve their content marketing and reach the new audience, with bloggers who offer fresh content, and are in pursue of a content monetization strategy, this platform represents an easy way for them to meet online.

#5 Blog Engage

Blog Engage is a blogging community where bloggers can submit their blog posts to increase exposure and gain traffic. Building relationships with other bloggers on the platform helps with reaching more people inside the community. There are groups for the members with common interests.

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include the staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

Get the best of link building! We decided to put together all link building techniques we could think of. We currently have more than 60!
Your feedback and ideas will be highly appreciated. Let’s work together and make this ultimate checklist useful for as many people as possible.

Now the techniques…

1. Skyscraper technique

Skyscraper is almost a legendary link-building technique. It’s time-consuming, but if it’s done properly, you’ll get quality backlinks, targeted traffic and possible business connections.
It’s a combination of perfect content, research, competitor backlink analysis and email outreach. The process is covered in this link building guide.

These are the main 4 steps:

1. Find good content with quality backlinks
2. Find the contact details of the people behind these websites
3. Write better content
4. Outreach the prospects

We used this email in our recent skyscraper campaign:

Just in case you are not willing to invest your time the skyscraper techniques, you can always try link building services.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

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2. Content-based link building

The hardest, yet the most efficient technique. Create content that will naturally attract readers, social shares, and referral traffic. Get inspired in our Learn SEO guide.
When you write, pay attention to readability. Content has to be well-structured and without grammar errors. There are many tools to help out. ShoutMeLoud made a nice list.
Watch out for flow, adverbs usage, passive voice index, unique words, or estimated reading time. Of course, this depends on your target audience.

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3. Top lists

There are many, but if you have unique and relevant data it should be a success. When we published the Top keywords list, it was our most visited blog post in 2016.
When writing top lists, think about timing and prepare to dig deep into data.

These are the most important tasks:

1. Analyze search results for your main keywords
2. Write something more comprehensive, unique
3. If you have your own data, the job will be easier
4. If your topic is time-sensitive, make sure you choose the right time

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4. Produce educational content

Google SERP is full of “How to” articles. Publishers think it’s easy to educate. Well, it can be, but the amount of recycled content out there won’t attract readers just like that.
On the other hand, you can always target a specific group of people with your own opinions and unique insights.

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5. Case studies

Case studies can be a backlink’s gold mine! That’s why I’ve dedicated a special point to them. Case studies are always unique and bring new information. Make sure to have proven data, do your research, try to experiment and test industry myths.

When writing a case study it’s good to list:

1. Challenge
2. Data background
3. Selected time frame
4. Results
5. Key takeaways

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6. So-called “Green content”

Yes, it’s content, but very specific and beneficial when it comes to gaining high-quality links. If it’s good enough and deals with the most up-to-date issues, not only environmentally-friendly organizations will share it.
Environmental threats such as climate change, water pollution or species extinction have been discussed widely for years. Who knows, maybe you will become an influencer who will help to save the Earth.

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7. Thought-provoking, irritating, annoying content

This can be tricky. It can ruin your reputation when done wrong. Don’t try to abuse people, their struggles, and their opinions. Help them to solve their issues. Be careful on what you plan to profit. I recommend reading this article by Sean Hodge.

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8. White-papers

They’re widely used in the B2B world but you don’t need to be a corporation to conduct deep research in the industry, add your thoughts, charts, and knowledge others can benefit from. White papers are a great source of sharing opportunities and gaining valuable links.

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9. Reviews and comparisons

These two rank very high when done right. Your deep analysis, pros, cons and recommendations will solve decision paralysis of many readers. What’s more, if you’re good enough, businesses will be willing to pay for reviewing their products. And suddenly, you can be a thought leader.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

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10. Create a dedicated blog section

There are many companies with useful content despite not having a blog. It’s time to use that potential! A dedicated blog is an engagement magnet.
Make sure to go through this very detailed guide on how to learn blogging if you aren’t sure how to start. This infographic on how to start a business blog is extremely useful as well.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

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11. Make an interview

Try to partner with well-known authorities in the industry. It doesn’t need a superstar. The person will share the interview with their audience and might link to it on their website too.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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12. Guest posts

Guest posts represent a good way to earn backlinks. Do website research, write outstanding content and try to publish it on an authoritative website. They usually have strict guest blogging guidelines and it sometimes takes a lot of time to accept your submission.
It’s a bit more time consuming, but it definitely works. You will find lists of websites accepting guest posts but if you plan to target relevant ones, use Google search operators. Start with the focus keyword and add “write for us”.

You can specify your query with the operators: allintitle, intitle, inurl to find even more opportunities. Make sure to do a proper guest post outreach and focus on the quality of your email – it may be your only chance to get the attention and earn a backlink.
And now from the opposite point of view: If you publish guest content on your site and the same blogger publishes another content on a different site linking to the original article on your site, you’ll have a backlink.
Feel free to find some other great guest blogging opportunities.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

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13. Podcast guesting

We all know that podcasts are popular. They are easy to consume so you can gain a lot knowledge and get some cool industry news while cleaning your apartment or car. Doing podcast guesting means that you target podcasts relevant to your niche and outreach their creators to be part of them.
To be honest, I don’t like listening to podcasts. On the other hand,  I think it’s an underrated marketing technique that can bring a lot of exposure to you and your business. Make sure to read this podcast guesting guide.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

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Social

14. Social media outreach

Share your content on social media, promote it on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, comment on relevant posts and create connections. I love these 4 powerful social media outreach tactics.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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15. On-site social sharing actions

Sharing buttons and widgets. You can’t skip them on your website. Besides sharing your content via social networks, people can place your widgets on their sites and link back to you.
AddThis is a useful plugin in which you can track the results of social engagement of your website.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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16. Share to download buttons

Give your users an opportunity to access exclusive materials, bonuses or discounts by asking them to share your website. Motivate them to share your stuff. We use Social Locker.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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17. Specialized discussion forums

Join Quora, Reddit, StackExchange, and others to ask and answer related questions. Be careful, these forums usually have strict spam rules and are full of professionals, so you can suddenly get banned. It happened to me as well. I should have read this guide before.

The most important things to keep in mind:

1. Prepare your submission, don’t just copy the text from your blog post
2. Personalize it according to readers’ preferences
3. Make sure the link is relevant so it’s not obvious you’re doing a self-promotion
4. Reply to comments

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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18. Links from forums

Forums, Q&A sites, content aggregators, etc. You can add the link there, but keep in mind that the majority of them are low-quality links, usually no-follow, so their benefits are questionable.

Benefit

1 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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19. Quizzes, surveys, tests

Yet another interactive way to gain not only social exposure. We did it some time ago and the response was fantastic. We added a certificate of completion to motivate people to share their success via their social profiles.
Though we made it on our own, you can use many tools such as SurveyMonkey.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

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20. Link to others

… and tag them in your social posts. It might not work for the first couple of times, but sooner or later they will notice you. If your content is good enough and relevant, they may link back or at least give you a shoutout on their social profiles.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

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Marketing and branding

21. Contests and giveaways

Besides gaining a relevant link you have a promo for free. We were a part of a couple of giveaways and they generated subscriptions, as well. Research ongoing contests and giveaways and contact the organizers. Sometimes, these offers land in your inbox so you won’t spend any time.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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22. Discounts and coupons

Everyone loves discounts and discount codes! And it’s a great motivation to share your product, too! Moreover, discount coupons are great for additional affiliate program promotions.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

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23. Traditional (off-line) marketing activities

Leaflets, stickers or even guerilla marketing. Don’t forget where it all began. Creative marketing attracts people. They will talk about you and might link to your site.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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24. PR articles

PR articles written by professionals and published on sites with high authority will give you high-quality links too. But prepare some budget for this.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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25. Testimonials sections

Think about products you use, get in touch with people behind them and write testimonials to be published on their websites in exchange for a link. You’ll need to write a couple of emails and reminders but it can be very beneficial.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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26. Set up Google Alerts

Google Alerts is one of those tools we all heard about. However, not many of us use it to find brand mentions. Setting up the alerts is super easy. Select the term(s), choose from the listed options and add a valid email address to receive the alerts.
In our case the terms could be “kwfinder”, “kw finder”, “kwfinder.com”, etc.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

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27. Ask the ones you know

Yes, why not? Reach out your family, friends or people you know for a link. They might be willing to link to your site if it’s relevant and fits the context. Don’t try to link to a marketing blog from a clothes e-shop.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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28. Buy backlinks via paid blog posts

It’s similar to the previous technique, but this time you will have to pay for it. On the other hand, it won’t cost you almost any time. If you plan to be a writer and get paid, don’t forget to check these blogs that will pay you.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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29. Reciprocal links

It’s one of the techniques that do not work anymore and have a bad reputation.

Benefit

0 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

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30. Launch an affiliate program

You’ll gain both links and revenue. Our affiliate program is one of the strongest sources of revenue, exposure and high-quality backlinks. There are many affiliates searching for a new source of income. Don’t forget to prepare an attractive commission system.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

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31. Join an affiliate program

We mentioned our affiliate program is beneficial for us, but that’s because it’s attractive for our partners. As an affiliate marketer, you can earn a lot of money on commissions and your product reviews or comparisons can generate many backlinks.
Tung from cloudliving.com trains people to become successful in this field.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

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32. Research and find out what works for others

Spy on and analyze your competitors’ backlinks. You can focus on those you can replicate easily to save some time.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

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33. Brand mentions

Using search operator “brand name” -site:brandname.com will help you to find mentions of your brand. You need to check whether each mention is linked to your site. If not, contact these people to do so or to adjust the anchor correctly.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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34. Name mentions

I noticed that many websites mentioned founders or CEOs without linking to the company. Use this as an opportunity to thank them for mentioning you and for acquiring another link from a relevant source.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

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35. Stolen images link reclamation

Technically, the link reclamation is when you try to locate broken backlinks, opportunities mentioned in #30 and #31, or if there is an improper backlink, misspelt domain or anchor text for any reason.
When it comes to images, it may happen some websites use your images without providing a source. It usually applies to infographics, charts and quality images. Last but not least, this technique makes sense for authoritative websites or if your images are a true inspiration for others.

Here’s a quick guide on how to find these images:

1. Create a list of the URLs of your images
2. Use Google image search by pasting the URL
3. Check the websites from search results whether they gave you a credit by looking for your domain in the HTML code.
4. If there’s no credit, reach out the authors.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

36. Get interviewed

No, you don’t need to be Britney Spears. Things happen really fast in the digital world. Take the advantage of it. You can become successful in a short time so getting interviewed with a link is definitely a good idea.
However, nothing comes for free so don’t wait to be interviewed. Research publishers and get in touch with them. This is a detailed guide by Ann Smarty you should go through.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

---

37. Gifts

How about sending gifts to your most valuable customers and partners? Use special occasions such as Christmas or birthdays and include a call-to-action to share it and link to you.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

---

38. Exchange

Exchange your products for a review or other promo activities leading to a link. Bloggers writing a review will usually include a link so you don’t need to ask them.
When it comes to affiliate partners, they tend to provide no-follow links.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

---

39. Build a campaign microsite

Do you have a special discount, an event or a product launch? Build a microsite! Keep in mind that content should be 100% non-duplicate and you should also build a good link profile for the microsite.
Creating microsites from the SEO point of view isn’t as profitable as it was in the past but you should consider it when you are planning to build a long term authority website.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

40. Create a sitewide announcement link

Yeah, a sitewide link isn’t that good when it comes to the link strength but it’s perfect for a short term link placement to gain high traffic, i.e. you can do this with a short term special offer. Keep in mind that the linked sites should be related.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

---

41. Comment blog posts

In general, I think that comments with links don’t positively influence your SEO because they are deleted almost immediately. But if you select blog posts with high traffic, then you write a comment which is super relevant and boosts the discussion, it may end up providing a link that will add value to the discussion.
In this case, the moderator shouldn’t delete the comment. No one wants to stop a productive discussion under their blog post.

Benefit

1 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

42. Cooperate with courses, schools and teachers

What’s better than to be recommended to many students by well-known courses, universities or respected teachers? Not to mention that a backlink from the “.edu” domain can be a great signal for Google. The quality of website users referred to this way is unquestionable.
What’s more, you can prepare a special offer for the students. One last thing I would like to mention is that well-known teachers tend to speak at various events or conferences on which they can promote your website.
The amount of time you will need to invest into this depends on whether you are the outreached person or you plan to outreach them.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

Submissions

43. Content syndication

Content syndication is a great backlink source and you will get some additional traffic boost.

The most popular platforms are:

• GrowthHackers
• Medium
• LinkedIn
• Growthub
• Business2community

You can submit an excerpt of your original article or create a unique description, it’s up to you. In case of duplicate content, make sure to check whether the platform has implemented a “rel=canonical tag”, which links back to your original content.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

44. Beta lists and startup submissions

Links from these sites are usually no-follow but their overall influence helps a lot. There are highly focused people willing to test or support new products. Check Betalist, ProductHunt, or Erlibird.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

---

45. Business listings and catalogues

They used to work in the past. It’s really time-consuming and benefits are usually minimal. However, it’s ok to be there, at least on the most relevant ones.

Benefit

1 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

---

46. Submit creatives

Infographics, ebooks or leaflets can be submitted on Slideshare, Issuu, Pinterest, Scribd and other alternatives. Reserve some time as you would need various digital formats, descriptions, and links.
In fact, creative formats like infographics can be incredibly powerful for link building. As long as you’re building an infographic that includes important information about your industry, you can generate more and more links and website traffic. Learn more about how to build links with infographics.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

47. Submit videos

Compared to the time needed for video production, the submission is nearly nothing. And it’s not only about YouTube. There are many sites where you can attract views such as Vimeo.

Here are some best practices when uploading a video:

1. Create a custom thumbnail
2. The title should be both appealing and well-optimized
3. Add at least a short description, not only the link
4. Consider adding an end screen and annotations

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

---

48. Develop and share

Have you developed something that works and looks like a charm? Share it on highly-focused forums such as GitHub, Bitbucket, or CodePen. It doesn’t directly make a link but helps build your personal brand and that means audience, clicks, and links.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

---

49. Wikipedia link building

Link building on Wikipedia isn’t complicated but you should think tactical. The biggest con is that linking from Wikipedia will automatically generate new links because your site will be used as a reference. Jon Cooper wrote a Wikipedia for SEO guide you simply have to read.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

50. Barnacle SEO

Many of the mentioned techniques in this category and some others are part of barnacle SEO. However, the main point of barnacle SEO is that you optimize someone else’s website and leverage its authority at the same time. That means you focus not only to get a backlink. You should help the website to rank high by improving it with quality content.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

Email

51. Email outreach

Email outreach is a time-consuming task. You need to do it as a part of many link building techniques mentioned in this article. It’s all about finding the right prospects, listing the potential link placement, researching email addresses and sending personalized emails. Get ready for sending reminders and don’t forget to track the results.
You’ll find many guides on this. Last time, we reached a 16% response rate. Therefore, I’ve formulated 9 actionable email outreach tips.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

---

52. Resource pages

There are thousands of pages listing guides or tools and linking to them. Use Google search operators such as exact match, allintitle, intitle, inurl with your keyword and you will find many pages on which you would like to have a backlink. Example:inurl:”seo resources”

Once you create a list of the pages, prepare personalized messages and outreach the authors.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

---

53. Top lists, how-tos, guides

Creating this kind of content attracts links so why not to have a backlink there? This technique is similar to #44 and it requires using the exact match, allintitle, intitle, inurl search operators. When creating the list of prospects, think about your website’s authority too. You should provide a value for the outreached person.
Besides using the search operators, you can try tools such as BuzzSumo.

Benefit

5 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

---

54. Email signatures

How many emails do you send per month? Imagine only a few of the recipients click on the link under your name. You get a couple of clicks and it costs you nothing. Keep in mind that email signatures don’t positively affect SEO.

Benefit

1 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

---

Technical

55. Internal linking

It’s a must! Internal linking means you rule anchors and add links where you want to. If you do it regularly, it’s a matter of seconds. In case your website is full of content without internal links, you’ll spend a couple of days fixing it. Before doing so, I recommend reading the Essential guide to internal content link building by Julia McCoy.
My advice: Don’t add more than 2-3 links per article. Avoid using a plugin which automatically links particular words. It’s annoying and ruins UX.
One more tip: Identify your most-viewed pages so you know where to put specific links.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

---

56. Breadcrumbs

Another internal link building tip is to use breadcrumbs. The site navigation is transparent thanks to them and you can optimize the anchor text distribution as well.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

---

57. RSS feed

You probably have it but in case you don’t, create one. Sooner or later, somebody will scrape your content. But if you place internal links in the content, you’ll earn a link.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

---

58. Create a sitemap

This is one of the internal linking methods and it’s extremely useful. Search engines like sitemaps. Moreover, it’s a good navigation for visitors. You can use one of the many WordPress plugins.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

5 / 5

---

59. Broken link building

Identifying links leading to non-existing sites and linking them to your content can be a time-consuming but effective method. You can use search operators or various tools for this. This Ahrefs guide will help you with broken link building.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

2 / 5

---

60. 404 errors

Check the Google Search Console if there are any. No one likes to land on 404 – Page not found.

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

---

61. Do you have robots.txt?

Review it whether there are any linked pages. Either contact webmasters of sites linking to them or consider allowing crawlers to index these pages.
robots.txt syntax:

User-agent: * (e.g. Googlebot)
Disallow: /  (e.g. /images/pizza.png)

Benefit

3 / 5

Time efficiency

4 / 5

---

62. PBNs (Private Blog Network)

PBNs are a way as well but you have to be very careful. These links should look as natural as possible. PBNs are websites to implement links to other websites (ones that generate money). It’s an expensive technique. You need to pay for a domain, hosting and set of blog posts.
It can be risky because Google bans PBNs from time to time. Think wisely. The costs of PBNs can be higher than the income. That’s why I’d recommend reading the guide by Lion Zeal.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

---

63. Expired domains

Look for expired domains with working links. All you had to do in the past was to find them and redirect them via 301. Nowadays, it’s more complicated. Watch out for relevancy.

Benefit

2 / 5

Time efficiency

3 / 5

---

64. Create a free tool

Everyone loves free tools: free = buzz. That means it’s shared and likely to build a solid number of backlinks. So why not to create a free tool to use this potential of high website traffic and many backlinks for your own needs? You can link your other websites from it.
We did the same thing with RockingPage where we included links to our SEO tools.

Benefit

4 / 5

Time efficiency

1 / 5

How To Copy Your Competitors In Link Building

 

Backlinks are still an essential part of SEO.
And what is the best way to find them? By spying on the backlinks of your competitors.
In this quick step-by-step guide, we’ll take a look at how to check the competitors’ backlinks in a couple of minutes.
We’ll go through these 3 simple steps:

• How to find your competitors
• How to find your competitors’ backlinks
• How to replicate the backlinks

How to find your competitors in Google

When doing competitor analysis as a part of your link building strategy, you may struggle with the very first step:
Who are my competitors?
Here are some simple tips to find your competitors in a couple of seconds:

Websites in your niche

The first (and most obvious) step is to simply look for the main keyword of your niche in Google.
If you run a blog about a vegan lifestyle, just Google for “vegan lifestyle blog” and you’ll most probably find:

1. Blogs in this niche
2. Lists of blogs in this niche

If the results are not satisfactory, you can try a more advanced technique using the search operator.

The related: operator

This is quite a simple and neat technique you can use to find your competitors using a Google search operator. All you need to do is to insert the related: search operator + your domain to Google search form:

related:yoursite.com

The results will be websites topically related to the web used in the search query.
Here’s an example of websites related to chicvegan.com:

The results include sites such as supervegan.com or veganbeautyreview.com which are clearly the competitors from the vegan lifestyle niche.

Note: This search operator works only for websites with a certain amount of traffic. If you don’t find any websites related to your web, pick a big competitor from your niche and try with their website.

How to find competitors’ backlinks

I’ll be honest, doing a link building campaign isn’t my favourite part of the SEO process. It’s not 100% in your hands and it usually takes a lot of time.
However, there are handy tools such as LinkMiner that can make the whole process a lot easier.

Tip: You can create a free 10-day trial account (no credit card needed) and try LinkMiner yourself alongside this guide. You can check 500 backlinks per 24 hours for free.

All you need to do is to enter your competitor’s domain or a specific URL and the tool will show the backlinks pointing to it.
This brings us to the basic classification of competitors:

a) Domain competitors

Domain competitors are websites that compete in the same niche as your site. By checking their link profile, you can find interesting backlink opportunities.

b) Page competitors

Besides the general competitors, there are also competitors on a page level.
Let’s say you wrote a blog post with your vegan pizza recipe. A quick Google search will show you many other websites ranking for the term.

Just select the first one and run the URL through LinkMiner.
Now you have found backlinks pointing to that specific blog post. The minimalistbaker.com may not be your general competitor on a domain level (the blog is probably not only about vegan recipes) but it is your page competitor for a specific topic.

Now you can select backlinks that are interesting for you and add them to a list (by clicking on a little star next to the backlink row).

What to focus on when evaluating the backlinks:

Link Strength

Link Strength is a metric that calculates how powerful is the backlink from a certain website, based on the authority of that website. In simple words – the more authoritative is the linking website, the more authority will your web get if the site links to you.

Pro tip: Set up the filter to show only do-follow links. Nofollow links do not pass the authority, so they are irrelevant for your SEO efforts.

Link relevance

Even though the backlinks pointing to your competitor should be relevant, make sure they really are by checking the linking page. Trying to replicate an irrelevant backlink with no added value to the reader is a waste of time. These backlinks are useless.

Link placement

The right side of the LinkMiner interface offers a quick preview of the linking website with the placement of the backlink. The most valuable backlinks are those in the body of the text, while backlinks in sidebars and footers are not that effective nowadays.

In LinkMiner, you can check both relevance and link placement thanks to the right panel with the preview of the linking page and a highlighted anchor text.

How to replicate the backlinks

Now that you’ve selected the relevant, strong and well-placed backlinks of your competitors it’s time to replicate them!
How? With the good old email outreach.
You need to contact the website owners or the authors of the posts and ask them to:
a) Link to your website instead of the website of your competitor (this is called The Skyscraper Technique)
b) Add your website/post as an additional resource next to the link to your competitor

The Skyscraper Technique is a simple link building technique named by Brian Dean.
All you need to do is to find the best article on a certain topic and write an even better piece of content covering the topic. Then contact all the websites linking to your competitor and ask them to link to you instead.
Ways to make your content better:

• Make it longer
• Design it better
• Cover the topic more deeply
• Make the content more up-to-date

It’s like finding the tallest skyscraper in the town and building one that is even higher.

Email outreach is an overused link building technique. But there are many people who just do it wrong, which means you can shine easily.
Here are some basic email outreach tips you should follow:
Don’t use email templates – using an outreach email template is lazy and people you’re contacting don’t want to feel like they’re one of the 500 other contacts on your list. If you don’t bother to write a personalized message, why should they bother to link to you?

The Skyscraper Technique outreach template that’s been literally copy-pasted by too many lazy website owners.

Personalize the email – instead of using the templates, take the time to make every message well-crafted and personal. Quality always beats quantity and it’s especially true when it comes to email outreach.

Make it easy to link to you – the whole process should as easy as possible for the website owner you’re contacting. Tell him where the link could be placed, what anchor text to use or write a whole new paragraph to make the backlink fit naturally. All he needs to do is to copy and paste your text.
Follow up – if you don’t get an answer in a couple of days, give it another shot with a simple and polite follow-up email. One is just enough. Don’t be that annoying follow-up guy with 5 emails in 5 days.

That’s it

Link building is a long process that can last days, even weeks.
It may not be an activity you enjoy, but as long as links are a Google ranking factor, we have to do our best to play the “backlink game”.
I hope this quick guide will help you to find and replicate the quality backlinks of your competitors to boost your SEO efforts.

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Contribute to this link building checklist

What other link building techniques come to your mind? Share them in the comments below and we’ll update the post.

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained includes staffs of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training. 

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

CRMNIGERIA is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

Every content creator knows the struggle.
You put a lot of work into your content, only for your posts to:

• Get buried down in your blog archive by newer posts.
• Never rank because more authoritative websites dominate all the SERPs.
• Leave readers asking more questions with little direction on where to find the answers.

There’s one SEO strategy that will help you with most of these issues: content hubs.

 

What is a content hub?

A content hub is a collection of pages that are all related to a certain topic.
The pages are interlinked and provide general information on the main topic as well as in-depth insights into the sub-topics.

In general, there are two main types of content hubs:

• The “content library” type – a set of pages with the main page serving as an index; it usually has tens or hundreds of pages that are systematically interlinked (e.g. category pages, glossaries, knowledge hubs); example:Optimization Glossary by Optimizely
• The “topic cluster” type – a smaller group of topically-related posts with the main post serving as a broad insight into the parent topic; the pages are interlinked contextually (e.g. ultimate guide + some additional topic-related posts); example: our Complete SEO Guide for Beginners

Although these are not strict categories and some content hubs can have elements of both types, we mostly refer to the topic cluster type in this post.
Here’s a typical example:

As you can see, there are 3 main components of a content hub:

• Pillar content – represented by a pillar page that provides a general overview of the broad topic, usually targeting a broad keyword (e.g. jogging)
• Cluster content – related posts that unpack smaller topics within the theme in more detail (e.g. jogging benefits, jogging shoes, jogging mistakes)
• Internal links – hyperlinks that connect the cluster content to the pillar page and vice versa.

With content hubs, you’re not just writing a singular, standalone post on a topic. Instead, you create a comprehensive set of resources that answer all your audience’s questions on the main theme.
Now let’s take a look at why this strategy is so beneficial.

Why are content hubs good for SEO?

You know that old saying: “There’s strength in numbers”.
That’s just one of the reasons why content hubs end up becoming such SEO powerhouses for websites. Rather than create content one-by-one, targeted at individual keywords you hope to rank for, a content hub switches up this approach.
Here’s a couple of reasons why content hubs are good for SEO:

1. More value for the readers

Content hubs are thoroughly written and well-organized resources. If the pillar post doesn’t provide every answer to the question at hand, the linked-to posts will deal with them.
As you can imagine, this provides visitors with a satisfying experience since they don’t have to jump from site to site or do a new search trying to get the answers they seek.
All the information they need is right there, well-organized, and easy to find.

2. More topical authority

The cluster posts link to your pillar page and your pillar page links to the cluster posts. This isn’t just beneficial for visitors.
Internal linking, in general, is a valuable on-page SEO tactic. For content hubs, it plays an important role in building authority for your website.

What is topical authority?

Topical authority (or topical relevance) is the process Google (or any other search engine) uses to figure out how relevant a page or site is to a certain topic.

It works like this:
When you link from one page to another with a relevant and descriptive anchor text, this establishes a semantic relationship between them. This link lets Google know there’s a shared connection in terms of theme or topic.
As OnCrawl explains in this post on Search Engine Land:

By strengthening key subjects and grouping related content around pillar pages, you can improve the authority of all pages on a topic and gain positions in the SERPs. (…) The more the pages in a thematic content group link to one another, the better the group can place in the SERPs.

By writing a content hub, you simply get relevant internal links to your pillar content from as many cluster pages as you create.
In other words, the more pages that talk about “jogging” link to your jogging guide, the more relevant and authoritative your guide may seem in the eyes of Google.

3. Better content structure

Content hubs also help you shape your content strategy by creating logical and semantically-related topic clusters.

It’s not easy to create a good content hub. But it will benefit your blog in the long run, because:

• you are forced to plan the topics around the topic clusters – which makes you think about the structure of your content thoroughly,
• you have to do proper research and distinguish what focus keyword to use for each page in your content hub – which means you are systematically covering all the important keywords from your niche.

You no longer write posts ad hoc based on your current mood, switching from one topic to another without ever answering all the questions your readers may have.

4. More engagement

By their design, content hubs provide complex information on the given topic. So visitors are likely to stay longer or return again to reference the material and explore links they may have missed previously.
This will help decrease your bounce rate and increase your:

• session counts
• dwell time
• number of pages visited

These are all indicators that Google may take into consideration, but mainly, that improve the engagement of your visitors and strengthen your brand.
Not to mention the fact that a well-written comprehensive piece of content will attract more links and social buzz.

How to create a content hub?

As you might imagine, a content hub takes a while to put together since you have to first strategize what it’s going to look like. Then, create all the content for it.
But the payoff is worth it. Here’s where you’ll start:

Step 1: Do your research

In order for a content hub to be successful, it has to be built around a subject your audience isn’t just interested in, but craves information for.
To find the topic, you’ll need 2 things:

• good knowledge of your niche
• a keyword research tool

If you know your niche, you probably already have some broad topics in mind. Or you can just browse the keyword research tool, look at topics people talk about in niche communities (social media, forums, etc.), or get inspired by your competitors and the topics they cover.
There are hundreds of ways to find new keyword ideas. We won’t go into detail since we have a whole chapter on this issue in our keyword research guide.
Just remember you’re not just looking for keywords. You’re looking for topics.
A topic can include several keywords but should be represented by one focus keyword.

So what kind of focus keyword should you be looking for?

• For pillar content: a broad keyword that has a high value for you and that encompasses the theme of the hub
• For cluster content: a unique keyword related to the topic, broad enough to be used as a focus keyword for a standalone post but more narrowly oriented than the main theme

Let’s say you run a parenting blog and you know that “activities for toddlers” is quite a huge topic.
If you enter this keyword into a keyword research tool like KWFinder, you’ll see that it has a solid search volume and there are many great long-tail keywords related to the topic.

It will not only tell you what the monthly search volume and competition is for your keyphrase, but it’ll also show you which websites currently rank for it.
Be sure to get a gander at the competition as their content (whether part of a content hub or not) will be useful in building out your topic cluster.

Step 2: Map out your content hub

After you’ve selected your main topic and associated keywords, map out your content hub.
Not only will this help you to better visualize what you’re creating, but you’ll want this frame of reference when it comes time to update the hub or add more content to it.
A great tool to create a mind map is MindMeister. It’s free and easy to get started with.
Here’s an example of a basic content hub map for “activities for toddlers”, witch focus keywords and search volumes of each post in the cluster:

When selecting the focus keywords for your cluster content, you should consider:

• How the keyword is related to your main topic
• What is the search volume
• Whether the topic is in accordance with your business plan

Note: Don’t be afraid to include existing content. A content hub does not need to be created 100% from scratch. If you have existing content which performs well and is relevant to what you’re trying to do here, add it to your map.

Step 3: Create your pillar page

Your pillar page most probably targets a big, highly competitive keyword.
If you want to rank for it you have to create an outstanding piece of content that is better than your competition (the so-called 10x content strategy).

The length and depth of your pillar page is a great advantage. But it can also discourage people if it’s just a long wall of text.
Your design and UX has a really big role to play in terms of making sure your pillar content gets read – both in terms of visual appeal and readability.

How to make your page more visually appealing?

• use a readable font
• write short, easy-to-digest paragraphs
• use appropriate subheadings
• break the text every now and then with a visual element
• use bolding, infoboxes, bulleted lists, quotes, videos
• create custom images and illustrations
• use relevant links (both to your cluster content and quality external resources)

Last but not least, make sure to have a clear and easy-to-use navigation so that the reader doesn’t get lost in your post.
Use elements like:

• Table of contents
• Sticky sidebar navigation
• Back-to-the-top arrow button

Here’s an example of the top navigation from our SEO guide:

And the chapter intro with the sticky sidebar navigation:

Step 4: Write your topic cluster pages

Sure, your pillar page alone is a comprehensive resource. But it’s the cluster of topics surrounding and supporting it that really makes the content hub so valuable to your users.
There isn’t much to advise you on here as you’re going to write these pages the way you would your regular blog posts.
Just remember to add internal links to your pillar content as well as other relevant posts from the cluster.
These can be placed in various ways:

• Contextually (when the (sub)topic is mentioned in the post)
• At the bottom of the post (as a “further reading” section)
• Within the navigation

Or you can combine them. Look at this example of a contextual “further reading” box from Impact:

The key is to make sure the reader can navigate through your content hub easily and provide a seamless reading experience.

Do you want to know a trick that helps companies build incredible search visibility, one that…

1. stands the test of time and
2. drives them insane traffic month after month after month?

It’s writing evergreen content.
In fact, if you look at the strategies of the most successful companies, you’ll find timeless content at the heart of it all.
And here’s everything you need to know to use it in your strategy too.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is a type of content that targets topics that typically retain consistent interest over time.
Overall, all evergreen content shares three key features:

1. It focuses on timeless advice rather than specific or timely information. In other words, it delivers information that almost everyone in your audience would care about at some point.
2. Such content also religiously matches the user intent.
3. It delivers broad but generic information about the topic.

Here are a couple of examples of such topics:

• How to start a business.There will always be people interested in going on their own and researching how to do so.
• What is the 80/20 rule? The informative content that describes some known things, people or events is unlikely to become obsolete, at least not in our lifetime (although I might be wrong here, of course).
• How to do keyword research.Although the actual process might slightly change over time (as new tools or data sources emerge,) the interest in finding out how to go about it will, most likely, remain constant over time.

The most common evergreen content types

Not every content type will work for creating timeless pieces of content. Some of them – like news reports, for example – are time-bound by default.
Others, like technical articles or help documents, focus on topics that, with some minor exceptions, will not work as evergreen ones.

What content types work as evergreen?

• Various tutorials and how-tos. Much of the evergreen topics focus on learning how to do a particular task, after all.
• Complete and ultimate guides. Evergreen content often targets a full breadth of information on a specific issue or topic.
• Educational tips and advice, although not in the format of a tutorial. Again, this is because evergreen topics often have that educational element in them.
• Listicles, revealing a complete set of steps, items, tools, etc., required to complete a task.

Here, on the other hand, are some formats that you might find difficult to incorporate into your evergreen content strategy:

• List of statistics. Although the interest in the topic might be timeless, statistics, by default, will go out of date over time.
• Report findings. No matter what issues the report covers, the format pretty much forces the content creator to think about the information relevant to a reader right now.
• Current news reports, for obvious reasons, of course.
• Discussions and opinionated articles. The ideas included might relate to issues that are hot and commonly discussed now. However, there’s a big chance that either the object of the discussion or the opinions presented will go out of date pretty quickly.

Evergreen topics target common problems that people experience over and over again. Losing weight, saving money, earning more, finding a perfect job are some great examples of popular topics that never lose interest.
Look at the image below. Topics relating to finding a job generate consistent interest year over year.

Google Trends: interest over time for the search term “how to find a job”

Now, compare that with a trend for the term  finding a job during Covid-19 pandemic:

Google Trends: interest over time for the search term “how to find a job during pandemic”

Naturally, there has been zero interest in the topic before Covid. And there will be none once the pandemic is over.
Some evergreen topics might also experience a temporary spike of interest due to some recent event.
For example, the interest in “home fitness” has been consistent over time but it has peaked significantly during the lockdown. That, however, does not mean the topic is no longer timeless.

Google Trends: interest over time for the search term “home fitness”

These topics might also experience peaks of interest at different times over the course of a year. However, those peaks will be consistent year over year.

How to find the best topics for evergreen content

Bad news first – Evergreen topics are rarely exciting.
No, I mean it!
Just look at the examples above. They’re dull.
But these are the challenges your audience encounters over and over again, and they can keep bringing them to your site.

Tip: When creating content that aims to remain relevant over time, you have to stay away from topics that are cool, hip, or trendy right now. Instead, you have to target information your target audience is continuously interested in.

The process starts with conducting keyword research. Here’s how it goes.

#1  Brainstorm general topics that fit your SEO content strategy

I typically define these topics as descriptions of your audience’s different areas of interest.
If you run accounting software, your core topics might include “sales tax”, “bookkeeping”, “getting paid faster”, and so on.
If you’re a fitness coach, those topics might revolve around fitness workouts, healthy living, etc.

#2 Evaluate results using the evergreen topics criteria

Focus on keywords with relatively high search volume and consistent trends over time (for this guide, I’m using Mangools’ KWFinder).
Look for phrases that relate to common problems, challenges, or information that users would be continually searching for.
Eliminate all phrases that seem time-bound or reference any time-bound events. Use common sense or focus on the search volume trend of the keyword to detect keywords that are not popular in the long term.
Guess which keyword from the following list is not evergreen?

Although Halloween crafts is a perfect keyword for a parenting blog, it won’t work as evergreen content as it’s only relevant during a short period of time throughout the year.
Besides the search volume trend, you can also switch to the Google Trends data in the keyword detail to see the relative popularity of the topic from a longer perspective.

How to write evergreen content

There are several things you must do when writing evergreen content:

#1 Evaluate the competition and the search intent per keyword before writing

Another bit of bad news, sorry – Evergreen topics are often highly competitive. Because of their timeless nature, many other brands will target them in their SEO strategies.
So, to stand a chance at ranking there too, you must know why people search for this information. You must understand the search intent behind their search. This information will help you plan content to deliver on their expectations.

#2 Cover the topic in full

A great way to approach writing it as if you were helping beginners.
This way, you’ll cover every aspect of the topic and provide value even to people at the beginning of their journey into its discovery.
I recommend using the so-called 10x Content Strategy – understand what makes the top-ranking pages for the keyword so good and create even better content than theirs.

There are two reasons for doing so:

• To provide a good user experience. In turn, that will retain customers on the page for longer, sending strong positive engagement signals to the search engine.
• To expand the topic’s coverage and ensure that the page ranks for as many relevant keywords as possible.

3. Avoid including any time-bound information

Look, I could be tempted to add the current year to this post’s headline.
I could play on a reader’s curiosity this way, after all. Because why would writing evergreen articles be different this year than in the years before? That could entice someone to click and visit the page.
But that wouldn’t help me in any way. Adding the date to the headline would be tricking the user to read my article and make the advice relevant to a specific year.
Of course, I could edit the year next year, but users are not stupid. Nor is Google.
Here’s an example of a time-bound article from Mailchimp’s blog:

Again, nobody says it is a bad topic, but it’s hardly going to be an evergreen piece visited over and over throughout the years.
If you’re creating evergreen content, make it evergreen.
Full stop.

#4 Do not split your content into separate sections

Finally, a common mistake I see with evergreen content is to split it into chapters. Each chapter, then, becomes its page, with the main content serving as a table of contents for it all.
Now, I can see the logic behind it. Each page can then target separate, highly relevant keywords, further increasing the company’s organic reach.
But that’s now how evergreen content works. Creating multi-page guides is an entirely different (and highly powerful) strategy.
If you want to create evergreen content, make it a single page.
This way, you’ll get all its benefits and the organic reach you need for the topic.

How to retain your content’s evergreen status

Here’s the thing – To drive traffic and leads, your content must stay up in the SERPs, right?
But that’s neither easy nor guaranteed when so many other brands target the same topics and keywords.
So, here are the 4 rules that will help you keep your content ranking and driving traffic and leads:

Rule #1: Review and update the content regularly

It’s an easy mistake to make – Since you’re targeting more general topics, you can write the content and leave it like that. There’s no need for updating it, right?
Wrong.
Sure, the topic might not evolve much. But the information about it or specific solutions you’ve included might change.

• New data and research might shed more light on the problem.
• New technologies might make previous ways to overcome the issue obsolete.
• New tools might change the way you’d approach solving the problem.

Tip: There’s a handy free tool by Animalz that can be connected to your Google Analytics account and identify pages that may need an update based on the declining traffic.

Take the terms we’ve looked at above – home fitness. The core of the topic will, most likely, never change.
Most people searching for it will look for information on how to stay fit by exercising at home, right?
But the way they can achieve it will change.
In the past, home fitness meant using weights or kettlebells. Today, however, we can also train with TRX, use exercise bands, and more.
The problem remained the same. Solutions to it, however, have changed significantly.
To keep your content evergreen, you must review it regularly and expand or update with any new information regarding the topic.

Rule #2: Add interactive elements, if there aren’t any

Interactive content types – videos, charts, graphs, interactive graphics or maps, etc. – will help you achieve one thing:
They will engage readers more and keep them interested on a page for longer.
This one thing, in turn, will have a significant impact on the page’s rankings. It will boost engagement signals and tell the search engine how valuable the content is to readers.
And since Google aims to deliver the most useful content to its users, it will be more likely to keep your page in the SERPs.

Rule #3: Keep building links to the page

Fact – Links are still a crucial ranking factor. Perhaps not as critical as they once were, but they still hold weight.
To rank your evergreen content, you will need to build links. But don’t stop doing that once you reach the first page.
Continue building links to ensure that no other competitors will outrank you with the more authoritative page.

Rule #4: Interlink the page with any new relevant content you publish

This is where the “set and forget” mentality can hurt your evergreen page’s rankings too.
To remain relevant, the page should interlink to your new content that’s relevant to the topic.
Every time you publish a page on topics similar to what you cover in the evergreen content, go back to it and add internal links to that new content there.
This way, you’ll keep on increasing the page’s relevancy and authority on the topic.
A great way to keep your relevant pages interlinked is to create the so-called content hubs. This way, you’re consciously creating content around certain topics and linking the main content piece with other supporting articles.

And that’s it…

That’s everything you need to know about evergreen content.
What’s left is to start finding evergreen topics and create those pages to build a timeless presence in the SERPs.
Good luck!

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained includes staffs of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training. 

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

CRMNIGERIA is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

How to invite bloggers?

If you decide this is the strategy you wish to pursue, if you want to invite guest bloggers to create content for your blog, here is how the process works.

#1 Identify the influencers

Start by identifying the influencers who would be a perfect match for your blog. This means that they have to be able to offer content that is really relevant to your blog. Explore their influence in the online world and to which extent you can benefit from working with such influencers.

Take into account the number of social followers, the number of blog visitors (if available), the number of subscribers, etc. to assess how influential a blogger is and to compare several influencers.

#2 Set up goals

Inviting guest bloggers is usually a part of a particular campaign. You want to set up goals, in terms of how many guest bloggers you want to accept. More importantly, you want to set up goals regarding the content they produce. For example, you define planned metrics about the post performance, such as social media shares, inbound links, etc.

Evaluating the post performance and comparing the planned metrics with the results is going to help you identify the guest bloggers you want to work with again, as well as those collaborations you might want to skip next time the opportunity comes up.

#3 Create an offer

When you know who you want to reach out to, create an offer they would be interested in. Use a personalized approach to create a custom message that is designed for a specific influencer. Sometimes a link back to their blog is good enough reason for them to accept guest blogging opportunity, but some bloggers (usually those with a greater following and thus more influence) might require this to be a paid post.

#4 Start building a relationship

When you find influencers you want to have as guest bloggers, you can start building a relationship with them. Start following them on social media, comment on their blog post or offer feedback. The goal of this approach is to get to know the influencer first and then increase the chance of them accepting the offer. You could also skip this part and go straight to getting in touch.

#5 Get in touch

Once you have the offer and you know exactly the person you want to get in touch with, it is time to send an email. When emailing a potential guest blogger, you should:

• Create a custom email and avoid using template messages
• Be well-informed about the person (for example, if they have just shared the news about signing a book deal, congratulate them)
• Provide more information about your business (they might not have heard about your business yet)
• Highlight the benefits for the guest blogger to increase their interest in the collaboration
• Send from your own domain

• Offer multiple ways for the person to contact you

How to get invited?

If you are a blogger looking for guest blogging opportunities or a company that wants one of the writers from the company team to be featured as a guest blogger, there are several things you should have in mind:

#1 Do the research

Regardless if you are looking for guest blogging opportunities or you have just received an invitation to submit a guest blog for another blog, you should start by doing the research. Follow these steps to get all of the information necessary for guest blogging opportunities:
• Identify blogs where you want your article (and link) to be published
• Explore the guest blogging links of your competitors
• Find out about the guest blogging terms (topic, word count, style, etc.) for the blogs you want to work with
• Compile a list of topic ideas you would like to write for a guest blog

All of this is a foundation for discovering and leveraging guest blogging. Once you do the research, you will have more success at finding new opportunities to submit a guest blog.
Stick to your niche
Even though a guest blog will be published on a third-party blog, it still has to be your own work, something that your audience can recognize. Sticking to your niche enables you to create influence and authority for a specific topic, and this is something that reflects on guest blogging as well.

With guest blogging, you are trying to promote your content to the new audience, but it is essential that they are interested in the content you have to offer. This is why it is crucial that guest blogging is focused on your niche or something that is closely related because this ensures that the target group will be the same.

#2 Focus on quality

Quality content should consistently be your goal. It does not matter where the content will be published, whether it will be featured on the homepage or promoted through an email campaign. Each blog post should deserve your full attention and the ability to deliver your best work. This is the way to build authority in the online world. Eventually, online readers will start to identify quality with your blog, as that is what they have been accustomed to see and expect from you. Building influence and authority through exceptional quality will help you with being accepted as a guest blogger later on.

#3 Promote yourself as a guest blogger

Finally, one of the ways you can get invited to be a guest blogger is by promoting yourself. Besides good reputation and discovering new guest blogging opportunities, there are other ways you can promote yourself as a guest blogger:

• Have a page or a widget with information that you are interested in guest blogging opportunities
• Use an email campaign to reach potential blog owners who are accepting guest bloggers
• Join blogging communities to promote yourself as a guest blogger
• Use social networks to either include this information in the bio or share a status update with relevant hashtags

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include the staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.