This is Day 7 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ of us bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers. You can read an overview here.
Today’s assignment is to write a link post. The great thing about this assignment is that most of you already have experience doing this. And you’ve seen it pay dividends.
When?
Right here. If you’ve written a blog article about that day’s 31DBBB lesson and linked to the post here about that lesson, you’ve written a link post. And if you’ve posted a comment on that day’s post with a link to your blog article and gotten a bunch of visitors and comments as a result, you’ve seen the value of writing a link post first hand.
Today’s lesson includes some great advice for writing effective link posts, here are some tips – some from the lesson, some my own additions and examples.
1) Read other blogs. If you want to write about other posts, you have to read other posts. The 3 best ways to do that are
- Use an RSS feed reader and subscribe to the blogs in your niche
- Follow bloggers in your niche on Twitter
- Sign up to receive Google Alerts for keywords related to your niche
2) Post a comment on the original article with a link to your article. This will draw readers from the original article to your article. Be sure write a couple sentences in your comment to show how your post is related, something to get people curious enough to click.
3) Stop what you’re doing and write fast. The goal of a link post is to extend the conversation from the original post to your link post. The longer you wait, the more people will have already read the original post, and the fewer people will click to your post. Also the longer you wait, the further down the page your comment will be displayed. You’ve probably already noticed in this series that the people who post their comment & link early in the day get a lot more replies to their comment & visitors/comments on their post.
4) Tweet a link to your post and @mention the author of the original article. This will ensure the author of the original article is aware of your article. If your article is insightful and well-written, they may retweet you, which could bring lots of people to your blog.
About 6 weeks ago, Michael Hyatt wrote and tweeted a link to a post called The Leadership Strategy of Jesus. I saw his tweet and commented. Then I realized I had more to say on the topic, so I wrote a post called Leading Small and posted another comment to Michael Hyatt’s post with a link to mine. Then I tweeted “New blog post: Leading Small (inspired by @MichaelHyatt) http://bit.ly/bHSe62” Mike retweeted me, which brought my post a bunch of readers. Several people retweeted Mike’s tweet, which brought even more visitors (though unfortunately not many comments).
One mistake I made was to post the comment on Michael Hyatt’s post as a reply to a reply. Because the IntenseDebate commenting system collapses replies to comments, most readers probably didn’t see the link. Ideally, I would have thought of writing a link post right from the start and included a link to my post in my first comment.
Another example was published here about 3 weeks ago… John Saddington of Church Church posted 10 SEO Myths Ministries Need to Avoid Like the Plague. Several of the points in that post are inaccurate, so I grabbed my bro, Kurt, who is our director of search marketing, and we collaborated on a post we called Putting the Truth-O-Meter to 10 SEO Myths. I posted a link on John’s post. John and several Church Crunch readers commented on our post. It was good for both of our blogs, but even more importantly it was good for our readers who got a more complete and accurate understanding of the issue.
Discussion
- Do you have any other tips for making link posts more effective?
- Can you cite an example of an effective link post you’ve written in the past?
- Post a link to the link post you’ve written today.
The Extra Mile
A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further today…
- Reply & give other bloggers feedback on the little things they do.
- When other bloggers include a link to a new article they’ve posted today, click, read, and comment on it.
- Check previous posts in the series for new comments.
- Tweet, share, & bookmark this post.
92 Comments
I think when you link to someone else's work it shows readers at your own blog that you are not just living on your own cocoon and that you do read the works of others. Sometimes it even brings in more readers.
Here is my post for today:http://williamdicks.blogspot.com/2010/05/biblical…
BTW, I do already link to others a lot.!
Great link post! And I love how you tied in some lists. I found the post to build well off of the linked content, and was able to stand alone very well. LOVED it! Thank you for sharing!
Re: Dan King replied to your comment on 31DBBB Day 7: Write a Link Post Thanks for the heads up Dan! I appreciate it!
Paul, just a note to let you know that I've linked to your post about the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog in my blog post for today. My blog attempts to minister to Christian husbands in crisis. The post for today is The Best Safety Device is a Careful Man and starts like this:
"A safe man is careful with: His eyes. Your natural (fleshly) question might be 'How does it make me unsafe to my spouse if I look at other women (real, magazine covers at the supermarketcheckout line, billboards, Internet per, etc.)? Isn't that her problem?'"
http://preparation4eternity.blogspot.com/2010/05/…
My fingers wouldn't type the words Internet porn correctly…
Kim, the link you included in your comment is to an article you posted yesterday. I don't see any articles posted today on your blog and there are no links in the article you posted yesterday.
Paul, that is really weird. I began writing this yesterday, but saved it and posted it today. You are right, the date at the top shows yesterday's date. Don't know how that works. It took two tries and the link is at the bottom in a PS. Please try it again.!
Oh, OK, I see the link now.
To clarify, the idea of the link post is to expand the conversation started in a post on another blog. In other words, it's a post where you write about the same subject matter as someone else's blog post, you reference some of what they said in their post, and then you link to that post. It doesn't appear as though you did that with your post today.
Paul, I know I was being a little cheeky with this post. To be honest, it's hard to find any other guys (or women) who are blogging about marriage in the same vein as I am. I did not want to reference some other blog and disparage it. I get the idea though and I think I have done something like it in the past.
Here is my link post "Operation Broken Silence and Sam Childers"–
http://www.nolanbobbitt.com/welcome_to_nolans_wor…
Since I'm the Social Media dude for HighCallingBlogs.com (a partner with Paul and OurChurch.com on this project), I figured that my link post should highlight some of the "best of" from the featured work in our network. So here's my link post (which is also a list post)…
10 must-read posts [from @thehighcalling blogs network] http://bibledude.net/2010/05/10-must-read-posts-f…
Let me know what you think! Thanks!
…and I am the example of the late poster. : ) http://ragamuffinray.blogspot.com/2010/05/under-t…
I don't guess anyone will read this anyways, right?
…"And so the journey begins." love that line. Yes i read your post, you did great.
Hi Fellow Bloggers,
I wrote a post for a feature called, Photo Play, that High Calling Blogs is holding. In the post, I linked to High Calling Blogs.
I must admit that I still like I'm using someone's blog site to promote my own when I comment and then insert a link to my blog. Anyone else feel the same? It was hard for me to even ask my friends either through FB or email to comment on my post. And the response was low.
However, here in the workshop, connecting is one of the aspects that we are all about. So here's a link to my post:http://openmyearslord.blogspot.com/2010/05/photo-…
And, yes, Stuart. You got to me. I will sign up for Twitter.
woot! woot!
That was for the link to HighCallingBlogs.com!
I can also relate to promoting your own links on someone else's blog (in the comments). I personally try to shy away from that myself, UNLESS I feel like it really adds value to the discussion.
Eeexcellent…our plan is coming along nicely. Soon everyone will be on Twitter…then we will send the tweet which will activate the subconscious instructions we have planted in everyone's minds through YouTube videos, and the world will be ours to command!!
Yes, Twitter can be used badly, or it can be used well. It took me a while to buy into the idea that it could be used in productive or informative ways, but now I'm hooked.
Pingback: How to Post Links in Blog Comments Without Being Spammy « Live Intentionally
A number of people, including Chris and Janis have expressed reluctance at the idea of including a link to a related blog post of your own in the comments of another blog. I can understand that. You should be really careful because you don't want to be perceived as being self-promoting or spammy.
I think it's a topic worth discussing in more depth, so that's what I wrote my link post about on LiveIntentionally.org
How to Post Links in Blog Comments Without Being Spammy http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/05/11/how-t…
I'm curious to hear what you all think.
Excellent! I've seen your tweets about this but have been to slammed to read it yet 🙁 Thanks for sharing this – I'll read it very soon (tomorrow, I hope).
WOW have I been overwhelmed this past week! And I don't mean just with this 31 DBBB. While I have done link posts before (without knowing it), today's lesson was really great for me. I used the new knowledge to turn my weekly post into a link post. I really love the site I discovered that talked about my topic. My comment can be found athttp://traciemiles.blogspot.com/2010/05/letting-g… . My post that links to Letting Go Of The Steering Wheel of Life is athttp://guidedreflections.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-… .
Wayne, I think the comment you left on Tracie's post was really good. You took her idea and began to add to it with your own ideas. I think in your own post, you could have expanded on that further. For example, in your comment you referenced the example of Israel entering Canaan. You could have expanded on that example in your post but it wasn't mentioned. In your comment you also suggested that perhaps in some situations timing may not be key to obedience. Why no mention of that or examples in your post?