link building in difficult niches
DESCRIPTION
This presentation explains how to build links and execute content marketing in difficult niches, using the gambling industry as an example. Marketer Sam Miranda explains his process behind obtaining white hat links from world-class domains, including The Bleacher Report, Gamasutra and Wikipedia. Download the full presentation with notes at www.rightcasino.com/lacTRANSCRIPT
Sam MirandaContent Strategist, Right Casino Media
Having studied History at Sheffield University whilst freelance poker writing, I moved into journalism and online editorial.
I worked for affiliates such as PokerStrategy.com before joining the Right Casino Media team in June 2013 as a content strategist.
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Out Of The Box Link Building
How To Get Your Content On Awesome Domains
1. IntroductionIs guest posting a gamble?
2. Lead GenerationFinding websites that will host your content
3. Content CreationThinking outside the box
4. OutreachSecuring links
5. Measuring SuccessMeasuring success & limitations
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IntroductionIs guest posting a gamble?
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GUEST POSTING MATT CUTTS
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http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/
“I’m not trying to throw the baby out with the bath water. There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging (exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc.)…
… I just want to highlight that a bunch of low-quality or spam sites have latched on to “guest blogging” as their link-building strategy, and we see a lot more spammy attempts to do guest blogging. Because of that, I’d recommend skepticism (or at least caution) when someone reaches out and offers you a guest blog article.”
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GUEST POSTING BEST PRACTICES
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Do… Don’t…
Target quality websites Use over-optimized anchor text.
Make sure your content is authentic and irresistible
‘Spin’ the same content into similar guest posts
Become an expert in your field (Google Authorship)
Target low-quality guest blogging websites
Make sure your contributions are relevant to the target website Use guest-posting as your ONLY form of
link building
Make sure your contributions to a site are regular Spam out 1,000s of guest post emails
Make sure links are contextual (in the article body)
Directly pay for links
Use brand name anchor text (yourwebsite.com) – no manipulation
Make sure links are to relevant content
GUEST POSTING PROCESS
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2. Content Creation
3. Outreach
1. Lead Generation
Lead GenerationFinding Websites That Will Host Your Content
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LEAD GENERATION
SEARCH ENGINE QUERIES
entertainment + intitle:“write for us”
travel + intitle:“contribute to”
list + intitle:“write for us”…
…etc.
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http://www.seotakeaways.com/10000-search-engine-queries-for-your-link-building-campaign/
LEAD GENERATION
AUTHOR QUERIES
- Target authors to create editorial relationships
- Use the Buzz Sumo tool to
a) Find best performing content in your niche
b) Identify key influencers in your niche
- Export this data into Excel
- Use Niels Bosma’s SEO Excel plugin and Xpath to scrape
more author details
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http://moz.com/blog/the-power-of-authors-and-content-for-link-building
http://app.buzzsumo.com/
LEAD GENERATION
TAKEAWAYS
- Search queries are a good starting point.
- Lists present easy wins to embed gambling content.
- Don’t neglect well known publications. Content creation may
be harder, but link placement will be easier and more
rewarding.
- Use author queries to build editorial relationships.
- Use Buzz Sumo – it’s free and easy!
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Content CreationThinking Outside The Box
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Gambling Related Content
Entertainment
Travel
Sport
Business
Marketing
Psychology
Celebrity gamblers
Gambling films
Las Vegas
Manila
Macau Addiction
BehaviourCasino design
Operators
FOBTs
Strategy
Taxation & economic benefits
Betting
Match-fixing
Shane Warne
Advertising
Big data
PR Stunts
Video games
My company history
CONTENT CREATION
QUESTION FORMULA – ‘SCIENCE OF VIRALITY’
- Who chooses to play roulette?
- What types of roulette are there?
- What can we learn about the type of person who plays X version of
roulette?
Now to mix it up a bit…
- Where do those people come from?
- What is the majority gender?
Now make it controversial…
- Are people from region X more prone to gambling? Are men playing
the "live" version more? Is this because they are physically attracted to
the croupier?
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http://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-virality/
CONTENT CREATION
QUESTION FORMULA II
“Subject + random category or buzzword”
- Roulette + films (which brings me to the iconic Russian
roulette scene from The Deer Hunter).
- Roulette + social (which brings me to the webcam-based
phenomenon Chat Roulette).
- Roulette + travel (which in the case of Heineken, brought
them to ‘Departure Roulette’).
- Roulette + magic (which brings me to popular British
mentalist Derren Brown's 'Russian Roulette' trick).
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http://moz.com/blog/9-tangible-linkable-asset-ideas-and-how-to-build-links-to-them
Link
CONTENT CREATION
LINKABLE ASSET EXAMPLES
- Infographics (http://www.infographicdesigner.co.uk)
- Videos (http://www.sparkol.com/)
- Apps (http://www.appypie.com/)
- Surveys (https://today.yougov.com/opi/)
- Slideshares (http://www.slideshare.net/)
- Podcasts (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
- Data visuals (http://app.piktochart.com)
- Betting calculators
- 404 Pages, team description pages
- Roulette + social (which brings me to the webcam-based
phenomenon Chat Roulette).
- Roulette + travel (which in the case of Heineken, brought
them to ‘Departure Roulette’).
- Roulette + magic (which brings me to popular British
mentalist Derren Brown's 'Russian Roulette' trick).
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http://www.reverbnation.com/slotozilla
CONTENT CREATION
FINDING WRITERS
- Look beyond copywriters, consider journalists and feature
writers
- Copywriters are adept at re-writing existing content
- Journalists can conditioned to source their own stories
- Journalists can arrange interviews with authority figures
- Journalists understand how to create compelling human
interest stories
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http://www.gorkanajobs.co.uk/jobshttp://www.journalism.co.uk/journalistshttp://www.studentgems.com
CONTENT CREATION
TAKEAWAYS
- Think of all the industries and disciplines that link to gambling
- Use the question formulas to generate content ideas
- Create linkable assets, not linkbait
- Hire journalists to develop the more authentic, shareable content
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OutreachSecuring Links
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NO!
Cool, I can tellInteresting…
Well, I have a garage…
Credibility
Timely and relevant
Examples
Reason for outreach
Attachment
OUTREACH OUTREACH EMAILS
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Do… Don’t…Use a descriptive subject line, including the article name
Ever mention the words ‘guest post’, ‘link’ or ‘agency’
Explain who you are, and why you want to contribute Be sloppy with spelling and grammar
Link to examples of your previous work Be ambiguous about your intentions, or the nature of your contribution
Engage the editor or mention their previous workAttach an article to show urgency and commitmentExplain why your contribution is relevant NOW
OUTREACH CONTENT MARKETING
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http://www.muckrack.comhttp://moz.com/blog/8-step-plan-to-get-pr-driven-links
OUTREACH SATELLITE ARTICLES
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Social Gambling: A Safe Bet For Operators?
Facebook Casinos: The Gateway Drug of
Gambling?
LiveCasino.co.uk Social Gambling
Investigation
The Economics of Social Gambling:
Players and Pounds
Zynga’s Bitcoin Gamble
OUTREACH TAKEAWAYS
- Adopt two strategies: one for pitching guest posts, one for content marketing.
- Marry the two strategies where necessary with satellite articles, which you can fire out to editors.
- Guest post pitches should be personalised, timely, relevant and credible.
- Guest post pitches should ideally include an article attachment.
- Research websites (do they link out? Are they run by SEOs?) before pitching.
- Use MuckRack.com to pitch stories around existing linkable assets, Journalisted.com as a free alternative.
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ConclusionsMeasuring Success & Limitations
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CONCLUSIONS ROI FORMULA
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Cost of Creation (i.e. writing) Cost of Distribution (i.e. MuckRack) Cost of Link Builder (salary)
Number of Links Obtained
= AVERAGE COST PER LINKhttp://www.seotakeaways.com/7-powerful-kpis-measure-link-building-outreach/
+ +
CONCLUSIONS LIMITATIONS
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LIMITATIONS OF MY LINK BUILDING…
… risk of link removal, especially with new editorial leads
… hard to create a time-frame for a successful campaign
… email exchanges can be time-consuming
… traffic from links is unlikely (but not impossible!) to convert
… the sacrifice of potentially good internal content for external websites
… needs to be supplemented by a sound social strategy
… widespread publication can harm your reputation as an industry specialist
CONCLUSIONS HOLISTIC STRATEGY
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Content Marketing
Link building
Internal Content Social Media
Content Marketing
Further Reading GREAT BLOGS & RESOURCES
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Moz.comKaisersage.comPointblankseo.comInbound.orgSeotakeaways.comFindmyblogway.comBlog.kissmetrics.comViperchill.comWordstream.com/blog
The End
Get in contact with me
E-mail: [email protected]
Skype: sam.miranda1
Mobile: +44 7968 360124
Enjoy The Rest Of The Conference!
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Find the presentation with notes here:www.rightcasino.com/lac