SEO That Work

Video 1: Content Amplification Hey guys, it’s Brian.

And this Module is important for two reasons: First, most people take the “publish and pray” approach to content marketing.

They publish content and HOPE that it goes viral, HOPE that people comment and HOPE that people link to it.

As you can probably guess, the STW system is all about taking “hope” out of the equation.

Instead you’ll leverage my proven, battle-tested content promotion and link building strategies for getting real, tangible results from your content.

With that, let’s jump right into strategy #1: Content Amplification.

What is Content Amplification and Why Is It Important?

Content promotion in the STW system has two distinct phases: The eyeball phase The link acquisition phase.

Let me explain these for you.

The eyeball phase is just what it sounds like. Your goal is to get as many eyeballs on your content as possible. Obviously, you’re aiming for Linkreator eyeballs. But at this stage, any eyeballs will do.

The goal of the eyeball phase is to get people sharing, commenting and talking about your content.

And if you followed the steps to creating your first Power Page, this will happen when you combine your Power Page with Content Amplification.

Sure, you may get a backlink here and there in this phase. But that’s not the primary goal with the eyeball phase. The goal is simply to generate traffic, social shares and brand awareness for your business.

If you get some links, great. If not, it’s no biggie. But the social proof you’ve built up with Content Amplification will make link building MUCH easier later on.

With that, let’s break down the 4 techniques that make up the STW Content Amplification process, step-by-step.

First, we have the F to S Method.

Now I should warn you: The F to S Method is designed to be used BEFORE you publish your Power Page.

If you already published your Power Pages, no worries. The rest of the strategies are designed to be used after you publish. And you can use the F to S technique after you publish your next Power Page.

But before I break this strategy down, step-by-step, let me show you a quick example of how NOT to promote your content.

Before I get into that, let me show you an email I got last week: What’s wrong with this email?

Well, a lot.

But there are two issues that I want to point out because these are issues we AVOID with the F to S method.

First, the post isn’t aligned with my interests. I’ve never written once about marketing for non-profits. I’ve never worked with a non-profit client. It’s not something I’m especially interested in.

Second, he asks me to share his post from an ice cold email. That’s waaaay too pushy...especially coming from someone I’ve never heard of before.

How Does the F to S Method Work?

Here’s the deal: The Linkreators in your industry (especially the bigger names), loooove to get their egos stroked.

Because they’re used to being in the limelight, they NEED this ego stroking even more than your average newbie blogger.

And one of the best ways to stroke their ego is to trust in their expertise.

As you saw with the bad outreach email I just showed you, there was zero ego stroking happening. It was a straight pitch.

How Is the F to S Method Different?

With the F to S Method, instead of asking for a share or link, you ask for quick feedback on your content.

Yes, you’re asking them for something. But instead of asking them to publicly endorse you, you’re stroking their ego.

And this “little” difference with what you’re asking for makes a HUGE difference. And it makes them much more likely to share your content with their audience.

That’s the F and S of “The F to S Method ”. The F is “feedback” and the S is “share”.

Let’s break the process down, step-by-step: Step #1: Identify Linkreators That Are a Good Fit For Your Power Page Remember: When you align your content with the interests of your Linkreators, your results are MUCH better than writing stuff that they’re mildly interested in (or not interested in at all).

That’s true for content development. But it also rings true for content promotion.

For example, as you saw earlier, I get daily pitches from people to check out their content. I’m MUCH more likely to check it out a piece of content if it’s a topic that I’m interested in (link building, SEO, list building) than one that I’m only sort of interested in (social media, mobile marketing, analytics).

So take a look at the Linkreator list that you developed in Module 1 and find 10-20 people that would be a great fit for your Power Page.

If you’re not able to find 10, just Google keywords that describe your Power Page topic and see which Linkreators come up and go through the top 20.

Add any that seem to be genuinely interested or passionate about your Power Page topic to your F to S list. Repeat until you have at least 10 targets.

For example, let’s say your Power Page was about Paleo Diet desserts. You’d Google keywords like “paleo diet desserts”, “paleo desserts”, “paleo diet recipes” etc.

When I searched for “paleo diet desserts, I found this post by Greatist.com: http://greatist.com/eat/paleo-dessert-recipes Because this site is about all sorts of topics, I know that the author probably doesn’t have a genuine interested in the paleo diet.

On the other hand, I also found this post founded by Joel, who obviously loves taking and writing about the paleo diet:

http://ultimatepaleoguide.com/paleo-desserts/ Joel would be a great target for the F to S Method.

Step #2: Warm Up Your Targets Look: You CAN try to cold outreach the people on your list. And that can work.

But you’ll have significantly more success if you warm them up a little bit first.

Here’s a little “warming up” checklist that only takes a few minutes to execute: Follow on Twitter, Pinterest, or FB Share two of their latest posts/videos Two blog comments (Optional) personal complement email Step #3: Get Permission At this point, you’re on their radar screen. So it’s time to reach out and let them know about your upcoming content.

I’ll have the full script in the worksheet, but here’s how it looks: I know you get a ton of emails, so I’ll keep this short. I’m publishing something about X soon that I think you’d really be interested in. Would love to get your quick feedback on it…mind if I send you the link?

Notice the subtle but massively important difference between that email and most needy emails: You asked them permission.

You might be wondering: How can I show my content to them if it’s hasn’t been published?

The easiest way to set this up: Publish your content as a page in Wordpress and set it to noindex.

That way, you can simply send people a link. And because it’s a noindex page, only people with that URL will be able to find it.

My friend who runs one of the biggest infographic agencies in the world and regularly uses the F to S Technique to get placements in major news outlets like Time Magazine, and TechCrunch has password-protected staging areas that he sends to journalists.

But the tech doesn’t matter that much. The idea is that you’re giving them an “inside scoop” and asking them to contribute their highly-revered expertise.

When they get back to you and say, “sure, send it over”, send them this script: Awesome, thanks. Here’s a link to the post: URL Step #4: We Are Live!

At this point you’ve already done most of the heavy lifting. Now that you’ve received (and incorporated) their feedback, it’s time to share the live content with the people that helped you out.

(Again) I’ll have the full script in the worksheet, but here’s a quick overview: Just wanted to give you a heads up that we are live! URL Thanks again for the feedback on X. I wouldn’t have thought to put that in there.

Thanks again, Your Name Again, there’s no pitch here. And that’s because there’s no need. They’re already invested in the content and feel like they’re a part of it. You also use words like “we” in your email to emphasize the partnership.

Example: GrooveHQ.com Alex at GrooveHQ was able to get people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Oli Gardner to share his post.

He followed the F+S Method that I showed you here.

Resulted in 1k email subscribers in 24-hours to a brand new blog. http://www.groovehq.com/blog/1000-subscribers Next up, we have strategy #2: The Evangelist Technique.

What is The Evangelist Technique and Why Is It Important?

Like the F to S Method, you can use strategy before you publish your Power Page. But it also works great if your Power Page is already live.

Before I break the process down for you, let’s revisit the crappy outreach email I showed you earlier: So How Is The Evangelist Technique a More Effective Approach to Content Promotion?

The Evangelist Technique is different mainly because you’re a) selecting laser-targeted Linkreators and b) you’re not being pushy.

Remember: The best targets for outreach are people that are interested in your Power Page’s topic.

The question is: How do you find them?

As you saw with the F to S Method, Google search and the Linkreator list you developed in Module 1 can work great.

But the Evangelist Technique uses a different strategy to find people that might want to share your content: we’re going to target people that recently shared similar content on Twitter.

The fact is: If someone shares something on social media, you better believe that they’re interested in it. And more important than that, they have a proven track record of sharing that content on that topic with their audience.

Once you find those people, all you need to do is get your content in front of them.

OK, so let me show you how to do that, step-by-step.

Step #1: Find People That Shared Similar Content On Social Media (esp.

Twitter) Your first step is to find people that recently shared content on your Power Page’s topic already.

I prefer Twitter, because unlike Facebook and Google+, all tweets are public.

How Does This Work?

Well you can simply head over to Twitter and search for a keyword in your niche.

And that will show you people that shared content on that topic: BuzzSumo also works well. Just search for a keyword around your Power Page’s topic, and you’ll see what’s been heavily shared: and click “view sharers”.

And you’ll see who shared that piece of content on Twitter: Next, export the list of sharers, remove any spammy profiles, and grab their emails (I’ll have strategies for finding people’s email addresses in the worksheet).

Step #2: Give Your Sharers a Heads Up Remember: When someone shares a piece of content, you know a few things about them: They’re interested in content about that topic.

Their audience likes to read content on that topic.

They like to share content on that topic.

So when you make your pitch, it’s an easy sell.

Even so, with the F to S Method, you ask for permission before sending them a link.

I’ll have the full word-for-word email script in the worksheet.

Here’s an example of an Evangelist Technique email that I used for a Power Page that was coming out soon: And when they get back to you saying “sure”, you send them a link.

And many people will be happy to share it on social media and (sometimes) link to it from their blog.

Next up, we have one of the most one of the most underrated marketing strategies online.

Strategy #3: Forums I’m not going to lie to you: I LOVE forum marketing Where else can you find a digital watering hole where your target audience hangs out.

The one downside of Forum Marketing is that most people on forums aren’t the Linkreators.

That being said, some forum members are Linkreators. And non-Linkreator folks make up a large chunk of your potential commenters, social sharers and customers.

Let’s break this down, step-by-step: Step #1: Find Forums There are forums on EVERY topic under the sun… And a lot of them have thousands of active users.

In internet marketing (screenshot) In the low-carb world (screenshot) And in the personal finance space (screenshot) (You get the idea) I’ll give you exact search strings in the worksheet, but I’ve actually found this simple search string works best: For example, if your Power Page was about saving money, you’d search for: saving money forum personal finance forum And you’ll find very active forums:

Step #2: Add Value as a Member Here’s the deal: Like any online community, forums are VERY sensitive about self-promotion.

In fact, forum communities tend to go “torch and pitchfork” on any stranger that tries to promote stuff on their forum.

But that doesn’t mean they’re 100% anti-self promotion. Quite the contrary.

But they only accept and embrace self-promotion if it comes from one of their own.

That’s why this step is dedicated to establishing you as a community member BEFORE sharing your content.

Here’s a simple checklist you can use: Create an account w/o signature link Post 20 high-quality posts Post 10 quickie posts Let’s break these down: First, you want to create an account and ensure that you don’t have a signature link back to your site (if the forum allows them). That way, you fly under the radar at first.

Then, you want to post 20 high-quality posts. These can be threads you start that add value or in-depth responses to people’s questions. Don’t worry too much about word count. Just focus on helping the other people in the forum.

Example: Brian on The Warrior Forum To pad your post count, also post 10 quickie posts.

Example: Brian on The Warrior Forum Step #3: Time to Share Remember: People on forums are actively looking for great new content to read.

(That’s why they spend time there in the first place) So as long as you add value, your content will be accepted with open arms.

Here’s exactly what to do:

Start a new thread with the title of your Power Page. So if your Power Page is “50 Low-Carb Desserts” your thread title would be: Next, start the thread off with a link to your Power Page.

Next, re-publish your Power Page as the thread (double check that Google has indexed your page first!)

Finally, hang out on the forum to answer questions and receive praise (which you WILL get).

Example: 17 Untapped Backlink Sources This was one of the first posts I ever published at Backlinko. I had zero traffic and zero following.

I re-published the post at the Warrior Forum, which brought me 131 new visitors in 2-weeks, and led to a number of links, blog comments and shares.

To date the thread has nearly 8,000 views.

Last up, we have The Content Roadshow.

What Is The Content Roadshow and How Does it Work?

Before I answer that, let me tell you a quick story: Back in the early days of the movie industry, studios had a problem: How can we get nationwide attention about our big budget pictures?

Remember: Back in the 20’s and 30’s TV wasn’t around and even having a radio was a luxury.

So what did the studios do?

They took their movies on a national roadshow. They’d show the movie in big cities like Chicago, New York and LA. Then, the people in those big cities would tell other people about the movie via word-of-mouth.

And you can do the same thing with your content: take it on a little roadshow and spread the word about it.

Here’s the exact step-by-step process: Step #1: Find people that are interested in your topic The easiest way to do that?

Google search.

For example, if your Power Page was about gardening, you’d Google things like “gardening tips”, “backyard garden”, “gardening guide” etc.

This is similar to how you found targets for the F to S method. But here, you don’t need to be as picky. As long as they show SOME interest in your topic, you’re all set.

Example: 17 Untapped Backlink Sources I took this piece of content on a Content Roadshow (and it’s one of the reasons it was so successful).

I just Google’d keywords like “backlinks”, “link building” and grabbed anyone that seemed like they were interested in the topic.

Step #2: Send them a permission email Again, this is a non-pushy email simply to gauge interest.

The other benefit of this email is that it starts the process of with a tiny, micro-commitment (unlike asking them to share on social media).

I’ll have the full script in the worksheet, but here’s a sneak preview: Hi NAME, I was looking for some information on TOPIC today when I came across your post: TITLE. Great stuff!

It’s funny: I actually just published an article on TOPIC last week. Let me know if you want to check it out.

As you can see, this is very similar to the Evangelist Technique. The big difference is that -- with The Content Roadshow -- you’re targeting anyone that might have an interest...even if they haven’t shared something similar on social media.

OK, that’s the complete Content Amplification process.

Worksheet time baby!