Struggling to consistently create content that gets links?
Then this post might be for you.
Or… at the very least change the way you think about the content you create.
Right now I publish maybe 30-40 new pieces of content a month with only 1-2 or them being meant for linkbuilding.
In this guide I want to review the different types of content I create and why I create them.
In my own quest to build more links to my websites, I’ve seen an uptick in the links I get to content when created in a certain way.
Let me explain…
The Types of Content I Create
For most businesses, when they create content, they create it for their audience, the email subscriber, the end user, or the prospective customer, etc.
But did you know there’s another type of audience out there?
An audience that if tapped into can increase your bottom line and help your business grow.
Who are they?
They are other websites, businesses, competitors in your niche/industry… aka the people with websites and the power to GIVE a link.
When it comes to creating content for links, I break it up into two types:
- Content For Normal Visitors
- Content For Other Webmasters/Businesses
Each type serves a different audience with completely different objectives.
Content For Normal Visitors
This type of content drives credibility, authority, and trust around a given topic.
This is the type of content that turns cold traffic with no knowledge of your brand into hot traffic ready to buy from you.
This is the type of content you optimize for search engines in order to rank higher and ultimately drive more traffic to your products. You pixel that traffic and then retarget them via Facebook or Google across the internet.
This is NOT the type of content you want to be promoting trying to get links from.
Can you do it?
Sure.
But this is Automated Outreach, and I do things that get the most results with the least amount of effort.
Promoting content to other websites meant for customers tends to result in less than stellar results.
Why?
Because the people you’re reaching out to are usually experts.
They are usually VERY knowledgeable about the subject matter and can sniff bullshit a mile away.
Not to say that the content you or I write for our customers is bullshit, but it’s usually toned down.
Last year I wrote a 5,000+ word guide on a popular health supplement where I must’ve spent at least 2 weeks researching and writing the whole piece.
It was meant to be a critical analysis, which meant I had to make it even MORE thorough because my link prospects would call me out if they found a misrepresented fact.
So… I cited, sourced, and fact-checked everything I said.
And I added graphs and pictures to illustrate points.
It was a beast, full of detail my college professor would’ve been proud to read.
But… if I gave it to my mom to read, I guarantee she wouldn’t make it past the table of contents (yep I had that too!)
And guess what…
That’s totally okay because it was content meant for other website owners to consume, NOT for my general audience.
This is intentional.
Content For Other Website Owners
And that brings me to the next type of content.
Content meant for other website owners and/or businesses in your niche.
When it comes to linkbuilding, these are the folks that matter.
These people have the power to edit their website and give a link.
The thing about these people though is that they are extremely busy with inboxes bursting at the seams.
These people know their niche inside and out and generic content doesn’t interest them.
So… when you create a piece of content and share it with them if it doesn’t immediately appeal to their interests or spark a bit of curiosity you’re done.
Cooked…
And before they even LOOK at your piece, you need to sell the hell out of it in your email copy.
How to best appeal to their interests?
Content angles and positioning.
Content Angles & Positioning
As if you didn’t already know, there is a crap ton of content being produced every second.
Literally 1,000’s of pieces of content about every conceivable topic.
Content angles provide you with a way to spin a topic in such a way that it makes it different than anything else out there. This “spin” gives webmasters a REASON to care about your content vs. anything else out there.
There are a ton of different angles and ways to approach a topic, but below I’ve listed my 3 favorites.
- Critical Review
- Comprehensive Deep Dive
- Expert Analysis
When I build new content with the goal of acquiring links, each piece falls under one of those categories.
Critical Review
The first type is “critical review”.
For this type, I specifically look for a popular topic or something trending and produce a critical analysis of it.
Anything health related is RIPE for this type of approach.
One example off the top of my head would be apple cider vinegar.
People are RAVING about this stuff.
If you have a health blog, can you come in and create an argument AGAINST apple cider vinegar?
Or at the very least a more realistic analysis.
Comprehensive Deep Dive
The next type of a comprehensive deep dive.
This type a liken to the “Skyscraper Technique” coined by Brian Dean.
Basically how it works is you take a popular topic and build an amazing guide and/or enhance what already exists.
You can do this by adding images, videos, infographics, custom data, and first-hand experiments. The deeper the dive and more unique insights uncovered, the juicier your content becomes.
Juicy content = better link conversion rate.
Take a look below at the result of one of my outreach campaigns. Specifically, this content was the combination of a critical analysis (above) and a deep dive.
Expert Analysis
The last type in my top 3 is the expert analysis.
The key bit with this one is that you need to objectively be an expert on the topic being talked about.
What does this look like?
Well, I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), which gives me that “expert” angle.
If I wanted to build a website about accounting stuff (I might do this in the future) I would always leverage my CPA credential in my outreach efforts.
Every script I write will mention that fact that I am a CPA and I know what the hell I am talking about when it comes to accounting stuff.
This automatically sets me apart from the masses and increases the chance of a link during outreach.
Something else I would do as insert credential in the signature of my email
This would just be another way to subtly communicate my expert status without being too overt.
But…
You don’t HAVE to be certified to be considered an expert.
A REALLY good example of this is Sven Raphael Schneider over at Gentlemansgazette.com.
I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple years ago at a conference and this guy is an EXPERT in men’s fashion.
It comes through in every bit of his communication. From his dress to how he describes men’s clothes.
But he doesn’t have some formal “certification” that has dubbed him an expert.
This is where a lot of other folks tend to be.
If you read any bit of Sven’s content, you know he’s an expert.
Combining Them…?
When doing your outreach, I’d encourage you to combine them and really power up your outreach efforts.
An example…
Because I’m a CPA, I might do a deep dive analysis of the popular accounting software Quickbooks. I’d compare it to other software like Xero or Freshbooks, and break down all the nuances of how it handles at processing accounting data. I could also add a critical review component picking its flaws apart.
During my link prospecting phase, I would specifically look for people who mentioned Quickbooks in their article and outreach to them.
A possible script might look like…
“Hey {%name% | there! }
My name is Shane Dutka, a CPA licensed in Virginia.
You wrote up an interesting piece about Quickbooks and in your post here: {%article url%}
I’m reaching out to folks like yourself who talk about Quickbooks because I just did a deep-dive on the software myself and had some findings you might be interested in learning about and/or sharing with your audience.
Took me about 2 weeks to finish my review, but I think it turned out pretty good.
If you like it, could be a solid link resource for your page above.
What do you think?
Talk soon!
-Shane
(insert a signature with additional expert details)”
So, What Should You Do?
Obviously, I can’t speak to your specific linkbuilding situation, but I CAN provide some guidelines to follow. To take some of the lessons in this article and apply them to your business.
Step 1: Self-evaluate and decide what you’re known for.
During this step, figure out what type of angle you think fits best for your business.
Are you certified in something (CPA example) or have a TON of experience (Sven example)? Consider the expert angle.
Do you love digging around in data, doing research, and putting together reports? Consider the comprehensive deep dive angle.
Do you want to stir up the pot and ruffle a few feathers? Consider the critical review approach to content.
Or maybe you want to do a combination of the above?
All of these options work, it just depends on what you feel most comfortable with.
Step 2: See what’s trending and combine your angle with topic ideas.
Something I didn’t mention but can be powerful is to combine one of the angles above with a trending topic.
Instead of haphazardly picking articles to write and promote, using tools like Google Trends or Buzzsumo, can help validate a topic before you create your content.
For example, intermittent fasting is blowing up in popularity and could make for a ripe topic to tackle for health based websites. See Google Trends graph below.
The idea here is if it’s trending, webmasters and other folks in your niche may be more receptive to the idea of linking to new content covering that topic.
Again, some of these topics may or may not have a lot of search volume and that’s okay.
Your primary goal should be to make a piece of content that attracts links NOT something that will yield lots of search traffic.
The links you do get will strengthen your domain and begin to lift your website as a whole.
Step 3: Check high volume keywords
In addition to checking what’s trending, I also tend to target the highest volume keywords in my niche.
This is mainly due to the sheer amount of prospects available to reach out to.
For example, if you’re in health, the phrase “how to lose weight” probably has a TON of articles written about it.
If you could create something different leveraging one of the angles mentioned above, there would be an endless list of prospects to reach out to simply because so many people like to talk about weight loss.
Step 4: Create the content
Once you’ve decided on your topic and the angle you want to come at it with, it’s time to write.
I have a team of 4-5 writers that create rough drafts, but I almost always get involved writing large portions myself or heavily edit the final product.
Now I’m not saying you need to be involved in the writing, but a topical expert and/or managing editor should be heavily involved in articles to ensure they are clearly high-quality.
You should think of these pieces of content as pillars that are going to support your website’s growth. They should be able to live on for years with modest updates where appropriate.
Like I mentioned earlier when I create a linkable asset I am ALWAYS promoting it continuously…
Ideally, the topic you pick should be evergreen.
Even if you picked a trending topic, it should still be able to exist once the buzz has died down.
Articles I’ve written last year are still undergoing monthly outreach campaigns and getting links.
Step 5: Gather up prospects
This step should be fairly easy given the upfront work. I plan on creating more content on Automated Outreach about building a kickass link prospecting process. In the meantime, check out my guide to scaling linkbuilding.
Step 6: Create your script & begin outreach
The final step is to create your script based on the angle you selected and topic chosen.
At this point, the script should pretty much write itself based on the work you put in creating the piece.
Make sure to mention the angle you took (e.g., expert, critical, deep dive) to ensure your prospect gets who your content is different.
Final Thoughts…
And that’s it.
I hope you enjoyed this break down on content angles.
I really believe positioning your content in such a way can help you stand out among the thousands of other pieces of content and make your articles worth reading.
One of my BEST pieces was specifically built to be a controversial post.
This makes it very hard for people who are interested in the subject matter to NOT want to click on my links and see what I came up with.