Comments on: #Protip – 1

By: 011100110110010

011100110110010 — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:16:14 +0000

It’s a great angle. In fact one of my favourite guest post emails was from you. Honest, real and not sycophantic

By: 011100110110010

011100110110010 — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:15:18 +0000

Yo Amy,

So what you’re really saying is you hate the post. I understand, that’s cool

In terms of the “I really loved your blog post” that bit was under my ‘this is how so many people do it, isn’t it shit section’ and with this I totally agree with you. It’s crap, generic and transparent (as in obviously crap)

I understand what you mean in terms of wondering whether it comes across as spammy but you’re only concerned because you send x number of outreach emails a day/week etc. You feel that outreach in itself is some form of spam when from the readers perspective it probably comes across well and honest.

I suppose what I was trying to get across with this was when getting in touch with someone via email, excite them, make them want to open it and come across as a real person and not another guest post request. Think outside the box, what aren’t the other outreach people writing. Those are the ones that will get positive feedback.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:19:18 +0000

Good tips Sean, but don’t you think the whole ‘I really loved your blog post on some random topic’ thing is a bit overdone, and now also says ‘generic’ outreach?

I tend to avoid it, unless I genuinely have read a few things on their blog, because I just think i sound fake and spammy.

And for that reason, even when I have read and genuinely liked something on their blog, I still feel like I sound fake!

By: Dustin Verburg

Dustin Verburg — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:56:03 +0000

I always try to use a little bit of self-depreciation too, but that’s a killer subject line Emma. But I’m usually lame and say stuff like ‘I clicked through on Twitter because I am horribly addicted’ and if I am doing “high level outreach” (especially for a personal freelance project), I’ll usually say something like ‘so I am not just some stupid jerk’ after listing two or three qualificiations or places I’ve been published, and then follow it up with ‘… well, okay I am. But I’m a stupid jerk that has done those things I listed.’

And people say I’m too wordy for some reason…

By: 011100110110010

011100110110010 — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:51:02 +0000

Cheers Emma. I really like the idea of being honest/self deprecating and saying "Sorry for the worst outreach email ever, but there is a point!"

By: Emma

Emma — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:10:28 +0000

Sean – this is awesome. My Saturday night was spend doing 4 hours of outreach to SEO people – some really well known names as well – and I had to make myself look legit and not a spammer. Luckily, since I do know the SEO niche, I know they’ve all seen crap outreach before.

The issue was, I had to Copypasta a bunch of stuff to SEO guys I’ve never interacted with before, which was slightly worrying.

So I just sent a bunch of e-mails with a title that couldn’t possibly ignore (I used “Hi (name), sorry for the worst outreach you’ve ever seen” a lot) and wrote a bunch of random stuff in the first paragraph before apologising for copypasta.

So yeah, I often get outreach saying “Hi Emma, I loved your article (references an articles where I just ramble at length) – it really taught me a lot!” and then the bullshit alarms go off.