Today with blog pitching for link building and awareness you just can’t say straight what you are actually up to: a link back to your site. Even if you are approaching bloggers with an awesome unique resource that is most likely to appeal to them and that clearly deserves a link back, you should carefully mind your language.
Bloggers and webmasters are so often pitched with link request that unless you pick up words carefully, you risk to trigger an immediate reaction:
- as soon as a blogger sees a “familiar” phrase (“review this site“), he deletes the message;
- as soon as a blogger sees a “familiar” word (“link back“), he wants to earn money (and thus you miss the free link opportunity).
To avoid these, I usually take advantage of “link building euphemisms” (the term invented by me 🙂 ).
Euphemism is a word play technique that stands for intentionally using a word or phrase with a softer, more polite tone over one with a harsher tone.
In other words, I tend to use less widely used terms to express the generally understandable idea: to ask for a link.
Now let’s list some commonly blog pitching terms and think what we can change them for:
- “Please review my site / resource / application / tool…”
Since paid-for-review services have become a well-known method to monetize a blog, the only word “review” may sound as “money opportunity”. On hearing it, some will be insulted (those passionate bloggers who have grown a very popular resource but think earning money from it would mean to betray its audience), others will be ripped off and there will definitely be those who will want to sell it.
To avoid those first-minute associations that will prevent you from making a good connection, choose softer wording: “I wanted to “offer you a post topic idea for your blog” (bloggers are in constant quest for new unique topic ideas and these magic words are most likely to work).
- “Please link back to my site…”
Oh, it’s even worse than the previous one. ‘Links’ have now become synonymous to something that is sold, bought and traded, and to give it for free may sound like a missed money opportunity. Don’t let the person think in this direction, better avoid the word overall. “You might want to share my resource / tool with your readers” – sounds much better, I guess.
- “I wanted to share my newly launched project with you”
While the sentence itself sounds non-promotional enough, the word ‘project’ should be avoided I guess. “Project” does sound like it has some money connotation. “Useful / relevant resource” would be a good alternative for “website” or “project”.
- “Is there any way I can buy a link / advertise at your blog?“
Even when you want to pay money for the link / review, there is a good chance a blogger (especially the one who knows paying for links is against the rules) might be insulted. To avoid this negative coloring, use the word “sponsor” instead – it sounds much more innocent.
All in all, my idea is simple: when creating a blog pitching template, think what immediate association each word is going to trigger and try to avoid too evident promotional coloring in order not to miss a good link and networking opportunity.
