Guest Posting, Outreach, and Promotion for Amazon Affiliate Websites

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Doug Cunnington, PMP
Remember the overall Roadmap of the Niche Site Process.

Remember the overall Roadmap of the Niche Site Process. Click the image to see the full version.

When you publish new content, are people going to find it? Well if you use the keyword golden ratio, then a few people probably will.

But the real magic is when you can rank in Google for higher search volume terms. To rank well, you need to have great content that’s well written and it helps a lot to have backlinks pointing to your site.

Outreach and promotion steps can include:

Guest Posting with High Touch Outreach

Here’s my 2-step process:

  1. Network within your niche or related niche.
  2. Ask to guest post.

The longer you spend in on step 1 the better you’ll do on step 2. It’s all about the networking, and it’ll set you apart from your competition. In fact, your competition won’t be able to replicate your links if you do this part right. (Get all my templates for outreach here.)

The great part about step 1 of guest posting is that you’ve already started if you do blog commenting.

Here are some ideas for networking:

  1. Comment on a blog
  2. Email the blogger
  3. Share the blogger’s content on social media
  4. Chat or direct message the blogger on social media
  5. Link to or feature the blogger on your site
  6. Be friendly

You can do any or all of those steps, and the more is better. The whole idea of this High Touch Outreach is to make sure the person knows, likes, and trusts you. That way when you ask to guest post, you’ll be able to ask as a friend rather than some random blogger.

If you’re having trouble with guest posting, I wrote this: Why Your Guest Posting Campaign Is Failing (and how to fix it).

Here’s a good tip…

Get Used To Rejection

Look, the reality is that you’ll hear “NO” 7 to 9 TIMES more YES. It’s a real bummer.

You have to push past that and keep trying. Adapt as needed. Just remember that you’ll get this type of a response:

  • People will ignore your email.
  • People will tell you they write their own content.
  • People will ask if you really read their blog.
  • People will ask you to pay.
  • People will tell you maybe in the future.

When you get rejected, do this…

Send More Emails

Commit to send at least 100 emails

In  a lot of ways, it’s a numbers game. Sometimes people email me asking about what they can do to actually get accepted to guest post. When I probe further, I find out that they’ve only sent 8 emails.

So, I tell them to send more emails, reach out to more people. If you’re working on getting some guest posts, commit to send at least 100 emails. That is the way to get some feedback on your approach and start adjusting, adapting, and changing.

Here is my trick with guest posting for niche sites…

  1. Pitch you guest post idea to bloggers that you have already connected with, say through commenting on their blog, via email, or social media.
  2. Suggest that they put in their own Amazon Affiliate Links.
  3. Write an awesome post and link out generously to the blogger’s site, authority sites, and most importantly your own site.
  4. People love it when you can provide high quality original or royalty free images.

Here is the exact script that I use…

Hi (name),

I am a big fan of (site name). You may have noticed my comment on (post name) – great article too!

I’m writing to you because I’d love to contribute a guest post.

I’ve been brainstorming some topics that I think your readers would get a ton of value from:

  • Idea A
  • Idea B
  • Idea C

I’ll make sure the piece overflows with information. You can even add your own Amazon Affiliate links within the post if you want.

Here are some other guest posts that I have done recently:

  • Sample 1
  • Sample 2
  • Sample 3

Cheers,

(your name)

It is no big deal if you don’t have any samples yet. I just added that part and it increased the conversion rate. Obviously, only provide the highest quality samples if you have them. (Get the rest of my templates for outreach.)

Guest Posts on Guest Posts… very meta!

I actually wrote a few guest posts on guest posting:

Here are a couple primers that helped me when I started out:

Twitter

Even if you have a small following, you can still tweet your followers to let them know about your new content. In the early days of your niche site, Twitter is a pretty fast way to get traffic.

If you don’t have a Twitter profile for your niche site yet, you should create one. Right out of the gates, you need to make sure this is set up right. (Thanks to Amy Schmittauer from Savvy Sexy Social for the tips.)

  • Choose a Twitter account name that is niche relevant. Try to make it memorable and not confusing.
  • Be sure you have an avatar, or profile picture for your account. Accounts that don’t have pictures looks like spammers.
  • Completely fill out your profile. You can add a link back to your niche site so definitely take advantage of that.

Here are a couple quick tips on getting started on Twitter if you don’t have a big following yet:

  • Find your fans (or potential fans) by searching for the influencers in your niche. Start following whoever is following the influencers.
  • Interact with the influencers by sharing their content and interacting with them.
  • Interact with your new followers.
  • Share and retweet helpful tips, resources, how-to guides, and quotes, and so on…
  • If a person follows you, then follow them back.
  • Post 5 – 6 times a day since the Twitter feed moves fast. Use a tool like, Buffer to make this easier to manage.

Pinterest Affiliate Marketing

Pinterest is really a search engine. I called it social media for a long time, but now I see the power for affiliate marketing sites — especially new sites.

Coming soon: Affiliate Marketing On Pinterest (Scheduled for Sept 23, 2019)

You should use Tailwind for automation.

If you need a course, check out the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche by Alex and Lauren from Create and Go. I’m an affiliate so I get a commission if you buy through my link.

Facebook

The same ideas apply to Facebook as Twitter. It’s a good way to get the word out about your site and become active in the niche’s community.

If you don’t have a Facebook profile for your niche site yet, you should create one. Here are the prerequisites:

  • Create your page. You can probably choose the “Company, Organization, or Institution” page type. It’s not super important at this time – choose whatever is the most relevant.
  • Add the details about your niche site to the Facebook page.
  • Add a profile image & a Timeline Cover image. Again, these images go a long way to make sure that the page does not look spammy.

Here are a couple quick tips on getting started on Facebook if you don’t have many “likes” yet:

  • Notify your network about your new page. Tell you mom and dad, all your cousins, aunts, uncles, and your neighbors. Just get the word out!
  • Ask them to like the page.
  • Share content from the influencers in your niche.
  • Interact with the influencers by commenting on their posts.
  • Post quotes with custom graphics – these are hugely popular. Add some of your own quotes in the mix for good measure.
  • This helps to establish you and your niche site as authoritative.

Is Social Media Necessary for Niche Sites?

No. I actually don’t like social media all that much. It bums me out because of the nature of a lot of social media. It’s just not my thing.

But if you wanted to and enjoyed Facebook or Pinterest for example, it would be a great way to get traffic to your new site.

Outreach & Promotion Resources

From the blog:

From YouTube:

Multi Profit Site:

External Resources:

 

Go back to the Introduction to Amazon Affiliate Marketing Niche Site Process and Overview

About the author: Doug Cunnington is the founder of Niche Site Project. He shows people how to create Affiliate Sites using project management and a proven, repeatable framework. Doug loves creating systems, using templates, and brewing beer (but usually not at the same time).