How to ethically build profitable niches

Here's a summary of how I think we can ethically and
profitably build connections in website niches:

1. Identify "tribes" of people with common interests
that we want to target with your products.

2. Find the bloggers in those tribes who have
readership and influence, and who regularly write about
your niche topics.

3. Of those tribal blogs, identify the ones that will
also give you SEO benefit through linking (primarily,
blogs that don't add rel=nofollow to links in their
comments).

4. Comment on these bloggers' posts and REALLY
contribute and add value. Link not only to your own
resources on the subject, but help strengthen the tribe
itself by cross-linking these bloggers to each other.

That's it. By practicing this kind of linking, you not
only get the SEO benefit of keyword-rich links in your
comments, but you visibly serve a community of active
web users.

You strengthen tribal communities in your niche by
connecting people to information they really want,
whether you're the source of that information or not.

On top of that, you will trigger really strong
reciprocity and goodwill in the bloggers whose sites
you contribute to regularly. You add value to THEIR
sites with your comments, and you send THEM traffic by
recommending their sites to other readers.

Pretty soon, the most visible and influential members
of your target tribes are going to jump at the chance
to work with you.

Here's where we'll take your new CONNECTION-building
strategy to the next level.

We're going to talk about Article Marketing. Now, I
know most of you are already familiar with article
marketing to some degree. But this (just like last
time) will put a new and different spin on what you may
have tried.

The most common article marketing practice involves
placing articles up on major article directories like
EzineArticles, GoArticles, and ArticleCity. And that's
great. If you're already placing your niche articles
there, keep doing it. If you're not, you should start.

The main reason you want articles in those directories
is because the search engines love them, and it's quite
likely your articles will rank for your keywords if you
wrote them well. If those pages rank high, and they
link back to you, it's an instant SEO boost. It's
because of that SEO benefit that posting articles to
directories is still a worthwhile and vital part of an
SEO link-building strategy.

Now, some folks proclaim that by putting your stuff in
these article directories, webmasters who need content
will pick your stuff and publish it on their site or in
an email newsletter, with your link intact. You get
instant traffic! Hooray!

Well, the sad fact is that most of the time, your
content WILL get picked up from article directories,
but it'll be unscrupulous webmasters who scrape out all
your links and use their own. You may get an
occasional ethical webmaster who really does use those
directories according to the terms and conditions, but
in my experience - it's becoming rarer and rarer.

So, that being the case - YES - put articles on the
directories - all the articles you have EXCEPT your
very best ones.

Put the lower-end keyword-targeting stuff up on the
directories, but reserve the long, feature-style human
interest ones for your new allies.

That's right - we're going to take your best articles
and approach your tribal bloggers (especially the ones
with blogs that have some authority). If they're
active members of their tribes, and they're active
posters, they know it can get tough to come up with
good content to keep their readers happy.

If you're already a solid contributor to their sites,
now is the time to offer them a UNIQUE and UNPUBLISHED
article for their site. They get f'ree, high-quality
material that their readers will value, and you get a
byline with links back to your own site.

This is one of the most powerful traffic generation
methods I know. Of course you get the machine-benefits
of SEO in this case, because you're getting your links
on niche authority sites.

But the real benefit is that you are putting your best
content in front of your most qualified audience, and
while you're at it, you're building powerful alliances
with influential members of your niche.

Do you think this sounds hard?

"How will I get all these guys to want to post my
articles?"

You know what? You only need ONE to post for you.
Then, you contact the other possible targets and either
send an email to say,

"Hey - I wrote an article about blue widgets that your
readers might like and John Doe over at the Widgets
Blog was kind enough to publish it for me. I just
thought I'd let you know so you can hook your readers
up. If you're interested in publishing any of my
future articles about blue widgets, I'd love to speak
to you about a unique, unpublished article I'm working
on right now. Thanks!"

After you get the first one, the rest should be happy
to line up to share in the f'ree quality content you
want to provide to their readers.

So where can you go from here?

If you're already regularly having your content
published on different niche blogs, why not try to
leverage for more prominent placement? Maybe work out
a deal for a permanent homepage link? Why not seal a
deal for a regular recurring spot so you can start to
REALLY engage that blog's audience?

Are you more worried about your bottom line rather than
exposure?

If you have an affiliate program, do you think it would
be hard to sign these publishers up? You're already
giving them great content - do you think they'd be
opposed to getting paid to publish it? Some might,
sure. But most of the time, you'll have a much more
friendship-based relationship with these guys rather
than a business one.

And if they see they get paid for something they were
already doing, I can almost guarantee that they'll be
more willing to mail for you or post for you every
single time you ask.

Remember, you've been a long-time contributor by this
point. You started with commenting, continued with
unique content, and proceeded to full on linking and
affiliate relationships.

If our last newsletter was about building connections
instead of links, this newsletter is about cultivating
and strengthening those connections.

You want to find all the sites that cater to your niche
and weave your own stuff through them. And if you use
a little brainpower, it's not even that hard. You're
simply creating mutually beneficial situations, and
everyone really does win!

We're really going for the long-term strategies here -
by really spending time in your niches, you get to know
the players, and more importantly, they get to know
YOU. You become the preferred provider of your product
or service because you're one of THEM. You're a
trusted and active member of their tribe - not some out-
of-towner with a snake-oil pitch.

Never forget - markets are people.

What "Web 2.0" is doing now more than ever is allowing
those people to talk to each other, so find where they
gather, and join the conversation.

Contribute regularly and wisely, and you'll even begin
to STEER some of those conversations your way.

If you cultivate the relationships you build through
contributing, then your business will be the first and
last name on the lips of your tribe when they decide to
buy...

... or better yet, when they make a recommendation.

Until next time,

Richard Fewster
CEO
webizmarketing.com