This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Someone just messaged me with this line:
“I’d love to connect with you.”
Unfortunately, many people messaged me the same exact line since I began blogging in 2008. Many millions of bloggers, entrepreneurs and online business owners would love to connect with and collaborate with the many professional bloggers of the world.
But “I’d love to” messages from complete strangers does not open doors.
Blindly pitching strangers whom you never:
- helped
- served
- impressed with kindness
is a common blogger outreach error rooted in the dis-ease of festering ego. Ego believes simply saying YOU would love to do something results in pro bloggers perking up and fulfilling your lazy request. Imagine a Jedi Mind Trick. One ego wishes to do something because the ego would love to seize the opportunity for itself. What mindless fool of a professional blogger falls prey to this absurd blogger outreach tactic?
Based solely on the fact that I’ve been online since 2008 I estimate at least 10,000 human beings have:
- messaged me
- emailed me
- social media commented me
- blog commented me
stranger-danger pitches leading off with:
“I’d love to…..”
Requests ranged from pitching link exchanges, guest post opportunities and other collaborations all geared toward benefitting these stranger bloggers with a Do Follow link on a high DA blog and not benefitting me at all. Do I need free, valuable content? I published 2500 posts to Blogging From Paradise. I have published 5 posts daily to my blog and have even began to rank on page 1 of Google recently, too for highly competitive keywords, like in the case of this post.
None of these strangers:
- helped me
- supported me
- bought my stuff
- hired me
- promoted me
- endorsed me
Why would I do anything beneficial for them if they have not earned my:
- trust?
- attention?
- focus?
I paid my blogger outreach dues over 13 years by generously serving professional bloggers and expecting nothing in return. Putting in sustained time and work challenged me. Fears arose. Discomfort surfaced. But I nudged through the uncomfortable emotions to gradually move higher in blogging circles.
I helped blogging power brokers for a long time and asked for nothing in return to earn their trust. Popping up on the screen of blogging power brokers influenced these pros to endorse me and promote me. Gaining support from top pros helped make my blogging career.
This is how to do blogger outreach properly.
But the “I’d love to” crowd believes a passing desire from a stranger opens the door to all types of sweet blogging growth. Unfortunately for this crowd, 1000’s of blogging creating and connecting hours from a detached energy leads to blogging success.
Work Not Mindless Requests Precedes Success
I’d love to be an NBA player. But calling an NBA front office explaining how I’d love to be a member of their NBA team would result in an instant hang up because I have no professional basketball skills. Tens of millions of basketball fans and former grammar school, high school and college players would love to be NBA players. However, a passing desire from an unskilled baller does not precede an NBA career. Thousands upon thousands of hours of practicing basketball to master this skill positions one to go pro. Professional bloggers take a similar path.
The 2021 NBA draft unfolded recently. The Golden State Warriors selected Jonathan Kuminga with the 7th pick. He played high school ball at The Patrick School. I have followed this high school since roughly 1993. No less than 8 players from this tiny school in Northern New Jersey of 50 to 200 students has been drafted by NBA teams. What an impressive feat! But I personally observed how all of these kids worked tirelessly at mastering their hoops skills from a young age through their late teens and early 20’s to become NBA players.
Jonathan moved from the Congo at 13 years old to pursue his hoops dream in the USA. He saw his parents for the first time in 5 years the other day because now he can finally afford to fly them to the States.
He did not call NBA team front offices and say “I’d love to get an NBA try-out” as a 13 year old living in Africa. He left his homeland and gave 5 years of his life to pursue his NBA dream.
Recently I watched US Olympian Sydney McLaughlin win the 400 meter hurdle Gold medal with a world record breaking performance. She grew up one town over from me in New Jersey and attended the same high school as me, Union Catholic Regional. Even though our high school were separated by 25 years I followed her career to see the immense amount of work, energy and flat out commitment she put in to become an Olympic champion with a professional endorsement deal worth millions of dollars.
Expect to walk a similar path of high energy sacrifice, work and flat out commitment to make your professional blogging dreams come true.
No established, professional blogger will hand you traffic and profits on a platter, courtesy of a guest post or link lobbed your way solely because you proclaimed that you’d love to place a guest post on their blog.
Serve pros generously, patiently and persistently. Be genuine in your interactions.
Engage in blogger outreach with integrity to move higher in blogging circles and to accelerate your online success.
