How to Win Friends and Influence People

Does that title sound familiar at all?

There are plenty of people that have used this age old saying but the following article really depicts how this can be aimed at search marketing…

In 1936 Dale Carnegie wrote the book “How to win friends and influence people” it became an instant best seller and even now some 7 decades later it is still remembered as an excellent piece of work for those that cant get enough self help. Does it still bear relevance in this day and age I hear you ask, and even more so what on earth is it doing on a website based around Internet marketing?

Well, it is well documented that the main points this book makes can today be aimed at this ever growing market sector. More importantly it can be aimed at one of the most important areas of SEO and one area that everyone needs to not only understand but to employ in order to maximise search positioning.

Link building is now recognised as an extremely important sector of this whole game however it is not as easy as just going out there and buying inbound links as that is one of the easiest ways of gaining penalization from Google and the others. So what are the main things we should know about links?

Backlinks – basically these are links that point at your website and it is these that we all look at as an extremely important side to search engine positioning.
On theme links – inbound links that are from a website that delivers the same content as your website. One way Inbound links from an’ on theme’ website are recognised as the best links to have.
One way links – these are links that link to you but that you do not return to.
Reciprocal linking – these are inbound links that you then link back to the website with.
Link farms – these are companies that provide a number of links usually from their client base that you can purchase. This is a sure fire way of getting penalized by Google.

There are a number of different ways of maximising this link building process however there is no substitute for a manual style approach. This is time consuming and extremely tedious however it is by far the only way to complete this need.

OK so we are going to complete this service manually and therefore there are a number of things we should consider and it is now that we go back to Mr. Carnegie’s book and attempt to utilise his theories.

Point 1: Talk in Terms of Other People's Interests

I think we all realise that website owners are rarely going to link to you just because you want them to. Most of the time there must be something in it for them. Is that because they want you to link back to them (reciprocal)? Is it because you have content that they like and want to detail on their site? Is it because you have purchased or traded with them?

It is important to think about what they would like or what you could offer in return for linking to you prior to your initial contact. If the only thing you can come back with is that it would help you, you need to think again about your approach…

Point 2: Make the Other Person Feel Important

If you can make someone feel important then they are more likely to agree with your request. Well that doesn’t take the brains of an Archbishop to work out however the vast majority of people forget this simple point of human nature.
If the website you want a link from has a good ‘on theme’ article or content, tell the owner as this will not only make them smile but will show you have actually taken time and an interest in their website. Again this simple act could persuade them to link back to you.

Point 3: Use Names Whenever Possible

This is not only an important factor with link building but also an important factor in general business life. If you can direct your call / mail to an actual person rather than a generic address / contact, that person is more likely to reciprocate your request.
I think we all now realise that if we receive an e-mail to info@ rather than steve@ or a phone call asking for the person that deals with the company phone lines rather then Steve then it puts us on guard as we think the other person is after something. Therefore you must take a small amount of time and energy to find out the person’s name, it isn’t that hard and does make a difference.

Point 4: Try Honestly to See Things from the Other Person's Point of View

This point could be considered as very similar to point 1, however it is an important area to consider in it’s own right. It’s very easy for us to think about this process only in what it will do for us and not what it would mean to the other company / website. If before we contact them we can think of how they will feel about this contact we are half way there to maybe understanding what would tip the balance in our favour or of course what their objections may be.
Lets remember here that an anonymous contact asking for something from you is almost definately going to fail, however a personalised contact telling us that we have some really good quality information that our visitors would like to see is a far better approach and may well put the receiver at ease and open a dialogue that could benefit both parties.

Point 5: Final Thoughts

I am sure that we can all take the information above and not only align it with our linking strategy but pretty much align the way we do business or deal with people in our personal lives. Really, we all need to deal with each other in a civilized and sympathetic way and we may actually get what we want. However this whole article is based on link building and therefore we should leave the final paragraph to that subject.
You must remember that one website linking to another is a real compliment as the website that is linking is endorsing the content or general theme of the linked to website. With this in mind would you link to another website that had originally asked by way of a mass marketed e-mail? I know I wouldn’t. Take a bit of time to check out the website that would like to link to you, it may pay dividends in the long run as gaining website inbound links is so important and so difficult to gain that paying attention in the first instance may take minutes longer but make the entire process that bit easier and more successful.
Happy linking…

Article note

This article was adapted from an original article written by Jennifer Laycock who is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand.