I am a chill dude. Unlike The Grinch, whom I saw at the Macy’s Turkey Day Parade in NYC recently.
But some blogger outreach emails test the limits of my loving kindness.
When I lived in Koh Lanta, Thailand, I read a book about a monk named Luang Poo. Pronounced “Long Poo”. (I am not joking).
I recall one vivid encounter detailed in the book. A monk visiting his home village in a remote section of Thailand was instructed to live outside of the house for a stretch.
For some reason (ok; for his enlightenment), people from the village cursed him out, spat on him, threw filth on him and even slapped him around. He questioned the events but remained calm, cool and collected, embracing the experiences and becoming a poised and balanced monk in his own right.
Why the hell am I talking about Luang Poo and an incident from his book when this blog post is not about eating a high fiber diet?
Some bloggers treat these lame email pitching bloggers like the folks who spat, slapped and cursed out a devout Buddhist monk. Except that unlike the monk, said bloggers take the uninformed, fear-based pitches personally, wanting to nail these misinformed bloggers to the post.
Before we dive into the networking mistakes, it’s OK to get annoyed or even kinda pissed, but please don’t get too worked up when very human, often friendly enough, but totally ignorant bloggers make these mistakes, OK guys? They know not what they do.
If you are making these mistakes own the errors and turn things around with your blog.
Sweet blogging success awaits the connected, helpful bloggers who avoids making these big time blogging blunders.
On to the 4 blogger networking boo boo’s.
1: Generic Emails
Hi,
I love your blog. You are a really good blogger.
I have 3 guest post ideas for you. I believe my content will benefit your readers. (No you don’t)
Signed,
John Doe
Generic emails are the ultimate blogger networking mistake. Think it through; fear makes ya do dingbatish stuff, but do you believe that an established, pro blogger who receives an avalanche of requests daily would respond to someone who doesn’t even care enough about them to look up and use their name?
This is networking insanity, a form of dead on delusion suffered by many struggling or newbie bloggers.
Personalize every single initial email you send to another human being. Give your email a chance to stand out from the 10, 20 or 100 emails – or more – that seasoned pro bloggers receive on a daily basis.
2: Cold Emails
Some folks address me by name. Smart. But said bloggers come in cold.
I have no idea who they are. Never seen one of their comments, or a Retweet of my latest post, or a Facebook Share.
Skipping tip #3 makes you a potential connection. Maybe a little more intimate than a stranger, because you did enough legwork to know my name, and to maybe mention a recent post I published, or tweeted.
The thing that’ll put ya over the top is…..
3: Asking Before Giving Persistently
Some cats (meaning cool people) ask me for help before helping me.
My take on that: get in line behind all the kind, generous bloggers who helped me for years.
Friends take care of friends. But networking-challenged bloggers all but scream “Stranger Danger” by asking for a guest post, a tweet, for me to place their InfoGraphic in my post, for a link swap, or for anything, without having helped me out for weeks or months or years.
Do you want to know how I became successful? Minus tossing salt over my shoulder thrice daily and voodoo doll usage I simply helped many successful bloggers by promoting them and by commenting effectively on their blogs without looking for anything in return….for weeks, months and years.
I had to pay my blogging networking tuition. So do you. Ain’t no way to land features on established blogs persistently unless you pay your blog networking dues.
Help top bloggers. Generously. For a long time. Promote top bloggers:
- on social media
- on your blog
- via interviews
Publish personalized, authentic comments on top blogs. Guess what will happen? Invites for features, guest posts and interviews will flow your way, without even asking folks.
Recommended Reading: 13 Tips to Become an Unstoppable Networking Machine
4: Looking for Guest Post Love in all the Wrong Places
I once received a guest post pitch from someone wanting to place their holiday candle guest post on Blogging From Paradise.
I wish I was kidding. But I am not.
I politely explained how guest posting was permanently closed on BFP and how they should only pitch candle bloggers.
Never pitch a guest post to a blogger outside out of your niche. Align every pitch with the blogger niche.
Guest post on blogs aligned with your niche.
Stay on topic or stray off course.
If you want an up to date, awesome list of 300 plus websites that accept guest posts read Dmytro Spilka’s phenomenal resource:
List of 300+ Websites/Blogs that Accept Guest Posts and Contributions
The Course
If you are having a helluva time building a successful blog or if you are succeeding but need to revisit the fundamentals buy my course:
11 Fundamentals of Successful Blogging Audio Course (Plus a Bonus Audio Course)
Your Turn
What damaging networking mistakes can you add to this list?
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Ryan Biddulph
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27 Comments
Same deal here Soumya. It floors me how bloggers will not take 3 seconds to find your name before sending an email. Thanks for sharing 🙂
That’s it Shantanu; the connections and value are the lead off’s, and money does in fact follow over the long haul. But the silliness that networkers engage in often cuts the creating and connecting off at the knees. Far better to just give, and let go. That is pure networking gold. Great to see you back and thanks as always!
I have noted the same things too Lisa as far as cultures. Interesting how you have seen this too. Smart networking is giving and getting out of the way. As bonds form from us being generous, the tags and traffic and profits and interviews flow in. Yes both of those blunders you note are annoying LOL. We’ll keep setting a good example and I know things will keep on turning. Thanks Lisa!
Hi Ryan, this one really made me laugh. I get some too and it annoys me when they don’t use your name and just say ma’m. Really? They could not take the time to look up my name?
Others that annoy me are in my Twitter stream tagging me to their latest post for no reason. I don’t mind if they mention me in the post and I am tagged but those that do it just for attention are a major turnoff for me.
I think different cultures have a different way of connecting too – I’ve been noticing that of late. Some cultures are very bold about connecting. Others not so much. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not yet 🙂
Thanks for making me laugh this morning Ryan – have a great day!
Hello Ryan,
Its good to be on your space after a few days gap 🙂
Great tips over here.
I totally agree, about being out there and helping out others, with out seeking anything for return, and picking thatparticular niche, in which we have command and we know that we can help others with our writing skills and products which
we are offering is the key.
Indeed money do matter, but starting many with the mind make up that we need to make only money through blogging then surely
we ain’t going to travel very long in that. First we need to establish connections, relations with our audiences, other
pro bloggers and follow some well known bloggers in our own niche as a mentor.
Thanks for sharing these among us.
Shantanu.
I hate it when they refuse to address me by name. How difficult is it to find out someone’s name from their blog, Ryan? I was nodding along on every line in this post. I once had someone ask me for guest posting on my blog about vaping. I had to Google to find out vaping was and then went and gave that person a piece of my mind.
I love this post and I love how you help out your fellow bloggers.
Definitely AR! Big difference maker, knowing someone’s name and using it to build bonds. Thanks much.
Very good tips! I’m especially particular on No.2, being a marketing manager of a non-blog related company. I always make it a point for my team to research the names of the owners or the people in charge. Addressing the blogger by name makes the communication trail more personal.
Cool G good to see you dude.
Hi
I saw you tweet about travel and I thought I’d checkout your website. Looks like Ryan has come a long way. Keep up the good work.
It’s funny you mention that Rhonda 😉 I shared a few of these balloon shots on my Facebook profile with my reactions to silly blogging questions often grounded in these mistakes. So yep; definitely some parallels here.
All good tips. Everybody has to pay their dues. Help out others on social media support groups. Write engaging comments that show that you read the blog post. I love the Turkey Day balloons. Do they represent the 4 types of people that make your mentioned blunders?
Dude very creative! Thanks for the video idea Jub 😉
Good quality stuff Ryan. I’ve been putting in some comments and guest posts this month. Will hit about 15 guest posts and 100 blog comments, my biggest total for both so far 😀
It has been great, already had a couple people ask if I’d like to guest post etc. and of course plenty of emails received like you mentioned above.
I’ve found with pitching guest posts, video is a fun way to do it (unlisted upload on YT)…I get why the top influencers don’t like video if they get 100’s of mediocre emails/day…but the standard blogger is always like wholly crap that was unique and fun. Easy to do when walking around town as well 😀
Jub
Toiletries? That’s crazy Prince. Fear and desperation and a lack of clarity do funny things to us, LOL. Building bonds and getting clearer on your ideal blogging buddy – from your niche – is the way to go. Thanks for the comment bro.
Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing Jeanette 🙂
Loving the comment Freddy! Being genuine, caring and helping without asking for anything in return makes you The Hunted, not The Hunter. Easier way to do this blogging bit.
Being personal is huge Stu. Great add buddy.
Exactly Andrea. Losing that annoying, desperate sales person rep is tough I am guessing.
Good deal John.
Hey Ryan!
Great tips on these points.
I believe being genuine about helping others and genuinely building a blog in a niche where you know you can help out the audience should be the first step before reaching out to successful bloggers. A lot of new bloggers start with the mentality of doing this “blogging thing” just for the money. I know I did. But later on you find out that the way to success is by genuinely helping others. Being of service to others.
Also, I think you should work on a building rapport by participating on their blog, before reaching out. I would take my time doing this, the more you do it and the longer you wait the better.
Sometimes when you become someone who shares great value and have great knownledge on the niche, you are the one who other bloggers want to connect with. Grow your value to the marketplace while engaging and opportunities tend to drop in from time to time.
Thanks for sharing man!
Cheers! 😀
Hello Ryan Biddulph
Awesome. This is exactly post What I am looking for.
Thank you for sharing. Have a nice day.
Ryan,
Your course sounds intriguing, but can not afford it at this time. Will be added to my wish list for future purchases. Getting information on how to improve my blogging from an expert like you would improve my writing skills immensely! Will share your post on all my main posting sites.
The pictures in this post are so funny, Ryan. Back to business; I some days back received a guest post pitch from a folk asking to write on toiletries and indirectly advertise some kinda fuss product. I wonder how some people use to do it.
Well, the placement of email to send post pitch in contact page has sometimes been the reason for all these. The tips here are simple and on point. Asking for guest post opportunities in the wrong place and sending cold emails when there is no rapport built by the sender and the receiver is very bad.
Thanks for the advice here, Ryan.
Absolutely – networking can make or break your blogging efforts!
Once you’ve made a name as an annoying, salesy stalker, it’s difficult to get rid of it.
Hello Ryan,
Great post. You have put some great tips and insights here. Guest posting on relevant blog is very helpful to build authority online and also help you in SEO as well. Some of the bloggers think that guest posting is only the way to create backlinks but quality and relevancy also a big factor and if it is done unwisely than it may harm your reputation and SEO as well. Thanks again for this beautiful post.
Happy blogging 🙂
Vishwajeet
Good advice. Receiving generic emails out has to be one of the biggest turn-offs I’ve experienced both in agency and blogger life. You have to build a communication line by showing what you can do together and being personal! Thanks for this 🙂