Taking Aim at Authority
I'm a huge advocate of focusing your efforts.
I believe it is quite possibly one of, if not the most important, aspects of promoting and establishing yourself as a freelance writer.
Whether you write a simple personal blog to showcase your talents, or are looking to gain serious attention and establish your credibility, unless you are putting yourself in front of the right audiences, your results are going to be lackluster.
The problem freelancers face is figuring out where that right audience is.
Should we join blogging communities like Technorati and push our internet socializing skills to the hilt, or should we approach every well trafficked freelancing blog we can find and pitch them for a guest spot? How about writing free pieces for hopeful publication in respected online magazines like the Humanist or Christian Science Monitor? Everyone swears Facebook is where it's really at and that smart people will be making tons from it in no time.
With all the possibilities that are being hyped and promoted, it's pretty difficult to choose.
It's true that good content is what will establish and cement your blog or website.
The problem is that the internet is constantly changing and new players are emerging every week.
Every time you log on it seems there is something that doesn't work the way it did six months ago, and what was hot last week might have already been forgotten and buried by the new latest and greatest.
Worse, the latest and the greatest doesn't often equate to the best.
What good is having 5,000 followers on Facebook, if the traffic it creates has a bounce rate of 85%, and no one ever asks about your services? Luckily, there are a few stalwart truths to getting yourself noticed that don't seem to change, no matter how much time goes by.
The drawback is that none of them are easy, and none of them are going to become easy, only harder.
But, if you can succeed with one of them, the rewards can be very large indeed.
Who you know Just like in the offline world, a big part of success often comes down to who you know.
As much as we'd like to think our talent and abilities will be enough no matter what our goals are, it's a simple fact of life that the person with the right contacts is going to succeed more readily than those without.
When it comes down to awarding the job or promoting a service, the person with the "in" will get the break.
Even passingly adequate writers can find themselves with unexpected success if referred by the right person, and average blogs can become loaded with visitors and prospective clients if a link appears in the right place.
All it takes is one guy with a good amount of authority and his decision to include you as a guest writer on his site, and you could be looking at more work than you ever dreamed of.
To that end, freelancers need to spend some time identifying who these authoritative persons and websites are, and working to cultivate a relationship if possible.
Authority sites True authority sites are those that are usually large and consistently relevant to a specific subject, have been established for several years, and have a track record of high ranking and good ethics.
Forget article directories or Facebook.
We're talking about real and relevant authority, not pure size or gross amount of content.
Even the link juice from directories and social media sites is weak,as well as the traffic and notice, and the time and effort expended to produce enough content to make them even moderately effective is prohibitive.
Think instead of sites like Freelance Writing.
com, A List Apart, and SEOMOZ.
ORG.
Sites like these consistently produce excellent content and are highly respected in their niches.
Content published on them is exposed to readers who have placed a great deal of trust and respect into those sites, and that authority will be extended to you as well should they publish you.
Getting published to one of them is by far one of the best ways to establish your authority.
As an added benefit, search engines look at these sites a little differently than most, and a link back from one of them can mean instant and dramatic increases in traffic and site ranking.
Finding these sites takes a little work but isn't all that difficult.
Using your preferred subjects and keywords, begin running searches and taking note of who places the highest in the rankings.
Start running their domains through Alexa and Who.
Is to find out how they rank and how many sites link to them.
The higher they rank and the more back links they have, the better.
Avoid the heavily monetized sites, and look for those that are heavy on resources and useful content.
Are their blogs updated often, at least 3-4 times a week? Do they have frequent guest posts? Is their content cited by others? Are they leaders in the field or carrying a great deal of influence? These are just a few things to consider when looking for quality sites to include in your relationship and exposure building efforts.
It's all about quality Getting noticed by these sites takes some effort, but as they say, nothing good is ever easy.
Most conventional advice says to just participate in the forums and comment sections of these sites on a regular basis and leaves it at that.
I believe this is very shortsighted.
Just leaving a comment and a link leaves the job 90% unfinished.
Rather than commenting to their blogs just to get a link and maybe have someone actually follow it, work with their posts and put something out there that will make them think.
Stand out from the crowd that's just adding fluff and "me toos".
Don't be afraid to heap praise on content you find worthy, and if you feel you have the right stuff, ask them outright in an e-mail about guest posting or doing interviews of the sites authors.
Engage them, make them think; show them that you're just a bit more serious about your efforts than the next guy.
Although it takes time and dedication, the goal is to get away from the practice of spending hours commenting on every single blog imaginable and practically begging for back-links and guest spots.
Instead, you want to form real rapport with the people best positioned to help you attain your goals.
Commenting on other blogs and getting your link spread across as many sources as possible is only part of the equation.
Doing it without rhyme or reason practically guarantees a poor return on your efforts.
When you take the time to carefully choose who you interact with, to get an authority's attention, when you build a true rapport, you've made an important and qualitative friend.
And what do friends do? They help each other.
How many authoritative friends have you made lately?
I believe it is quite possibly one of, if not the most important, aspects of promoting and establishing yourself as a freelance writer.
Whether you write a simple personal blog to showcase your talents, or are looking to gain serious attention and establish your credibility, unless you are putting yourself in front of the right audiences, your results are going to be lackluster.
The problem freelancers face is figuring out where that right audience is.
Should we join blogging communities like Technorati and push our internet socializing skills to the hilt, or should we approach every well trafficked freelancing blog we can find and pitch them for a guest spot? How about writing free pieces for hopeful publication in respected online magazines like the Humanist or Christian Science Monitor? Everyone swears Facebook is where it's really at and that smart people will be making tons from it in no time.
With all the possibilities that are being hyped and promoted, it's pretty difficult to choose.
It's true that good content is what will establish and cement your blog or website.
The problem is that the internet is constantly changing and new players are emerging every week.
Every time you log on it seems there is something that doesn't work the way it did six months ago, and what was hot last week might have already been forgotten and buried by the new latest and greatest.
Worse, the latest and the greatest doesn't often equate to the best.
What good is having 5,000 followers on Facebook, if the traffic it creates has a bounce rate of 85%, and no one ever asks about your services? Luckily, there are a few stalwart truths to getting yourself noticed that don't seem to change, no matter how much time goes by.
The drawback is that none of them are easy, and none of them are going to become easy, only harder.
But, if you can succeed with one of them, the rewards can be very large indeed.
Who you know Just like in the offline world, a big part of success often comes down to who you know.
As much as we'd like to think our talent and abilities will be enough no matter what our goals are, it's a simple fact of life that the person with the right contacts is going to succeed more readily than those without.
When it comes down to awarding the job or promoting a service, the person with the "in" will get the break.
Even passingly adequate writers can find themselves with unexpected success if referred by the right person, and average blogs can become loaded with visitors and prospective clients if a link appears in the right place.
All it takes is one guy with a good amount of authority and his decision to include you as a guest writer on his site, and you could be looking at more work than you ever dreamed of.
To that end, freelancers need to spend some time identifying who these authoritative persons and websites are, and working to cultivate a relationship if possible.
Authority sites True authority sites are those that are usually large and consistently relevant to a specific subject, have been established for several years, and have a track record of high ranking and good ethics.
Forget article directories or Facebook.
We're talking about real and relevant authority, not pure size or gross amount of content.
Even the link juice from directories and social media sites is weak,as well as the traffic and notice, and the time and effort expended to produce enough content to make them even moderately effective is prohibitive.
Think instead of sites like Freelance Writing.
com, A List Apart, and SEOMOZ.
ORG.
Sites like these consistently produce excellent content and are highly respected in their niches.
Content published on them is exposed to readers who have placed a great deal of trust and respect into those sites, and that authority will be extended to you as well should they publish you.
Getting published to one of them is by far one of the best ways to establish your authority.
As an added benefit, search engines look at these sites a little differently than most, and a link back from one of them can mean instant and dramatic increases in traffic and site ranking.
Finding these sites takes a little work but isn't all that difficult.
Using your preferred subjects and keywords, begin running searches and taking note of who places the highest in the rankings.
Start running their domains through Alexa and Who.
Is to find out how they rank and how many sites link to them.
The higher they rank and the more back links they have, the better.
Avoid the heavily monetized sites, and look for those that are heavy on resources and useful content.
Are their blogs updated often, at least 3-4 times a week? Do they have frequent guest posts? Is their content cited by others? Are they leaders in the field or carrying a great deal of influence? These are just a few things to consider when looking for quality sites to include in your relationship and exposure building efforts.
It's all about quality Getting noticed by these sites takes some effort, but as they say, nothing good is ever easy.
Most conventional advice says to just participate in the forums and comment sections of these sites on a regular basis and leaves it at that.
I believe this is very shortsighted.
Just leaving a comment and a link leaves the job 90% unfinished.
Rather than commenting to their blogs just to get a link and maybe have someone actually follow it, work with their posts and put something out there that will make them think.
Stand out from the crowd that's just adding fluff and "me toos".
Don't be afraid to heap praise on content you find worthy, and if you feel you have the right stuff, ask them outright in an e-mail about guest posting or doing interviews of the sites authors.
Engage them, make them think; show them that you're just a bit more serious about your efforts than the next guy.
Although it takes time and dedication, the goal is to get away from the practice of spending hours commenting on every single blog imaginable and practically begging for back-links and guest spots.
Instead, you want to form real rapport with the people best positioned to help you attain your goals.
Commenting on other blogs and getting your link spread across as many sources as possible is only part of the equation.
Doing it without rhyme or reason practically guarantees a poor return on your efforts.
When you take the time to carefully choose who you interact with, to get an authority's attention, when you build a true rapport, you've made an important and qualitative friend.
And what do friends do? They help each other.
How many authoritative friends have you made lately?
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