Linking To Others - Beware!
You just never know what post on your blog, will be the one that will begin to make the difference in your traffic levels.
Case in point: A few days after beginning this blog, I decided to write a post which would hopefully ‘catch wind’. Maybe a few other bloggers would link to it, or even, it might get ‘Stumbled’. Alas! I was to be disappointed. My 101 Tips To Drive Traffic Away From Your Blog, was a bit of a flop, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not big into writing at the weekend, but on Saturday I was compelled to write “Is Your Content King, or Queen?“. After publishing, I continued preparing myself for other non-blog related work. A little while later, I logged on to check out my stats. I was shocked. Hundreds were flooding in from Stumble Upon, to the post I’d just put up.
But why? How? Through a mistake that otherwise, may have been very costly.
You see, in the post I linked to some of the top blogs around, in order to prove my point that a truly successful blog is built around quality content more than design, or community development. However, rather than linking to their homepage, I deep-linked either to relevant, recent, or one of their top posts. The benefit of this is two-fold.
- The blog owner may possibly receive an email because of the trackback, making them aware of your post.
- The blog owner may have visible trackbacks, meaning there is a link that just might get clicked on in their comments section.
Sounds great! However, therein lies a possible mistake.
I never considered my last post all that great. At least, I never recognised it to be. If I had known Steve Rubel, and a few other high profilers, were going to arrive at one of my posts, that wouldn’t have been the post I would have directed them to. I would have sat and tried to brainstorm the best post possible, but I just never thought about whether they would actually visit this blog or not. Therefore, I foolishly linked, and it could have cost me.
Why?
If the post had been rubbish, I would have tainted my reputation by wasting their time in coming to see it, and when you taint a somewhat non-existant reptution, you’re creating unnecessary struggles.
Thankfully however, the post exceeded my expectations; but I have learned a valuable lesson.
If you’re wanting to catch attention, make sure you’re ready for any response. E.g. If you buy a ReviewMe ad from a blog, have a handful of excellent posts to await any new visitors, in order to try and secure their subscription.
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10 Responses to “Linking To Others - Beware!”
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I personally deemed it to be a good post… which I bookmarked non-socially and subscribed to your feed.
Jake - Thanks! I really appreciate that. I hope my content will continue to be beneficial to you, I’m going to try my best.
[…] Armen tells why you might want to be careful when linking out from your blog […]
Just goes to show how good-quality content is c.r.u.c.i.a.l
Great. Now you have me afraid to link! Oy.
Fruit Engine - Is that an acronym for something?
clkl - If you’re linking to popular blogs, just make sure you’re linking from a great post.
Don’t worry if it isn’t your #1 effort. As long as what you write isn’t spammy, it could still be of value to some.
Matt - True to a point Matt. I think it should be well put together in order to have a good impression.
That’s a very good point. I just started a blog and have thought of making a few posts that link to other sites/blogs, but after bringing up the trackback stuff, I’m not so sure. lol. I guess I’ll have to make sure I post a really good one!
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