The Gatekeeper Method To Building Backlinks

After watching tons of youtube videos about white hat SEO methods of building backlinks the previous few weeks, I began to see the threads that weave this strategy together.

Outreach and research is at the core.

You go through hours of sorting through blogs and articles and email addresses and plugins trying to get the right information you need.

Then you hope someone receiving that email cares enough to get back with you and consider adding your link to the site.

Not to mention all the hours it took writing an amazing piece of content that you could share with all the people you find.

After going through this process this past week I understood pretty clearly that the reason backlinks are so hard for sites to get is because it takes so much dang time.

Nothing is really hard about it, although you do have to be clever at times, it just takes a crazy amount of time.

Finding blogs is not hard, finding information is not hard, emailing people is not hard, in fact, the only hard part about the process is writing the content in the first place.

Everything else is fairly easy, it just takes A LOT OF TIME!

So after spending hours going through the process I couldn't help but think more and more about a very simple sales technique that gets lost at times because of technology.

You can't forget about the gatekeeper....

So many of the blogs I was looking up were for bigger companies. This meant that the people writing the blogs were not the owners of the site or even the founders of the companies.

Half the time the writers weren't even employees of the companies itself, but freelancers guest posting.

And that's when it hit me...

Why was I spending so much time looking for sites that had the blogs I wanted to be on? Sure, the better the site the more high quality link you will get, but I'm not building any relationships with that site. I'm building it with the writers.

And writers can guest blog for a number of sites.

By building a relationship with the gatekeeper (writer) I'm developing a much better long term strategy for my business.

Let's say the writer is guest posting for entrepreneur.com, inc.com, and forbes.com.

If I build a relationship with the actual writer then I am immediately connected with three major publications and have a chance to get a backlink from each.

But, if I build a relationship with the writer and position myself in a way that shows I only care about one of these specific sites, the writer has no real reason to let me know about the other publications they write for or opportunities I could get.

To take this a step further....

Why would I try to find writers through blogs?

Obviously there are entire professional marketplaces dedicated to profiling professional writers and they also display the exact publications they write for.

So instead of trying to connect with a person through a blog that's on a site I want a backlink from, I'm simply going to connect with that person.

I'm calling this my Gatekeeper Method.

Instead of giving some pitch about my article and how it should be shared, I see who is writing the articles that I like and are about my niche and reach out showing my appreciation for their style and what they do and tell them a small bit about myself. That's it, no plug.

This is the real connection I want anyways with people who I enjoy their work.

If they respond to my genuine outreach, then I will mention more directly how I hope to be included in their blog at some point and will share with them when I feel an article is good enough.

After a couple of days I send over my article and ask if they think it's good enough to be featured and if they don't feel it's good enough, ask them if they have any advice on how to make it better.

Hopefully the genuine connection the relationship was built on is enough for them to either include the article and give me a backlink or to give me real advice that is directly from a gatekeeper on what I need to do be better to be included.

Either way, a much bigger win than randomly emailing sites and bloggers asking to be included.

Don't get me wrong....

I'm still going to email random sites and bloggers asking to be featured because in the world of digital marketing you need to be exhausting all your resources.

Whoever has enough time and money to exhaust all their resources, every single day is the real winner. That's the name of the game.

But in my business, I am VERY interested in how to build long-term online success.

In order to do that, I need to invest heavily into methods I feel bring returns, not just today, but for years to come.

And if I invest into writers I feel are excellent at what they do and who write all the time, I am setting myself up to see those returns for years.

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If you are currently building backlinks for your business then let me know how by commenting in the section below. If you aren't then type "no" so I can understand if you all need help building backlinks or how they can help your business.

Like or share if you are going to use the Gatekeeper Method! I want to see how many people are going to try building better relationships with the writers in their niche to build long term backlinking opportunities.

If you need help or advice on backlink building for your business then sign up for my free, 10 minute support session where we can cover the basics and how it can help your business!