@kasiaperzynska That is a good one Tamas.

It's actually impossible for me to say, "here's exactly what I do" because it depends a lot on the piece of content that I'm promoting.

For example, I promote an infographic completely different than a blog post. And even between blog posts my promo will depend on the topic, the type of post, the audience etc.

But here's the outline that I follow for most posts:

1. I email at least 100 people before the post comes out. This is the grunt work that VERY few people are willing to do. But it makes a big dent (especially if you don't already have a huge audience). The key to this step is finding people that WANT to read your content.

2. Next, I email the post to my email list. This is probably the #1 thing that I do. If you know of a way to get your new content in front of 80k people, let me know :-)

3. Then I do all the social stuff you all know about, tweeting etc. I find this makes very little difference vs. email outreach or email newsletter promotion. 

4. Finally, I promote using email outreach...with a focus on link building.

For example, for a guide like this one, I'll find pages that already link to CRO-related resources. (Even better if there's a broken link).

Like I said, the specifics will depend on the content. But that's the action plan :)

@swaycopy No problemo, Josh.

Those are pretty much the rules that I follow. But I do make a ton of exceptions. Otherwise, starting every email with "I'm PUMPED" would get old really fast :-)

The only other rule I follow is that every email follows the old AIDA formula from sales letters.

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

Here's how I applied that to a recent email that I sent out:

Interest

Desire

Action

@davegerhardt Thanks man.

I love the caveat, "other can capturing email addresses". You know me too well :)

Other than building an email list, here's what I'd focus on if I was building an audience from scratch today:

1. Make your blog a personal brand (even if it's a company blog).

I was having dinner the other night with a friend and he told me he yells at his 5-person marketing team every week. He points to me and Bryan Harris and says, "How are these guys getting more traction than us?! They're two guys in their home offices. We're 5 people!".

And I told him: "Yes, Bryan and I work hard. But we have a HUGE advantage over you: we're people. You're a company blog with 5 authors that no one knows or cares about."

So no matter what, put the people that write for you front and center. Even the biggest company in the world (Apple) has a personal brand element with Steve Jobs. Some examples of company blogs doing a good job at this include Moz (esp. WBF), Buffer (with Kevan being the mainstay for years), and HelpScout  (Greg Ciotti is the face of the blog).

2. I'd only publish kick-butt, "wow this is freakin' amazing" content.

You can't build an audience in 2015 with 400 word posts. You just can't.

That used to work, but with almost 2 million posts coming out everyday on Wordpress alone, you need to do some crazy stuff to stand out. So I'd set up your blog so that only epic stuff comes out.

3. I'd make the rounds on podcasts, communities, guest posts, text interviews etc.

When I first started Backlinko I spent 20% of my time writing and 80% of my time promoting my content and my site (I learned this ratio from Derek Halpern).

I emailed hundreds of people asking to guest post or hop on for an interview. In fact, at one point I set up an "interview me" page on Backlinko:

That's how crazy I was about getting my name out there.

All in all I estimate that I did 150+ guest posts and interviews in a 2-year span. That way, no one who followed SEO could miss me.

@massimocw Thanks Massimo.

Unless you already have a huge audience, it's really hard to promote an ebook. And if that ebook requires an email? It's 100x harder.

That's because most influencers won't share something that's behind a wall.

But they'll happily share something that's amazing and freely available. And if you get links to that page, it will rank for your target keyword. Offer a PDF version and you'll get A LOT more emails than you would if you published it as an ebook.

@onreact_com Hey Tad. Glad to see your question come through (as expected, it's a good one).

Do you still send out messages yourself?

Yes. I have a policy where I hit "send" on any message with my name on it. Otherwise, it's dishonest. But I have my team set up everything else (finding the email address, drafting the email etc.)

How much do you automate (if at all)?

In my experience anyway, email outreach can't be automated without turning into a spamfest. The only automation I do is using tools to find people's email addresses. Otherwise it's all manual.

Do you rather send a few highly targeted messages or rather dozens or even hundreds of them...

I do both. If my team sees an opportunity to mention something really specific, they do that. Otherwise, we use a script. In both cases, however, we reach out to hyper-targeted people. So even if the message isn't targeted, the person receiving it was hand-picked because we feel that they'd like the content we're promoting.

I'd also love to know how much time you spend on updating/improving existing content vs creating new one (50/50 or more like 1/99 like most bloggers)?

Yup, it's about 50/50. Once Backlinko started to get some authority I found that updating and improving existing content was a better use of my time...especially for SEO. When I publish a brand new post I'll rank #8-20 before promotion. And it's an uphill battle against Forbes, Moz etc. from there.

But when I have a post that's already #8, it makes more sense to push that to the top 3.

@empteam No problem, Elvis. 

First: Epic Skyscraper content has worked well for me and it raises the bar for content online. So it's a win-win. Glad to hear that it's helping your business as well.

Second: I'd tip my cap to them (and it has happened before). All's fair in love and SEO :-)

Third: I'm insanely competitive. And I'm competing against some HUGE mega authority sites. So I know I need to work harder than they do beat them. So that passion to beat the crap out of big brands drives me. Not very zen, but there you go.

@marygreenim Hey Mary. My pleasure. Thanks for the invite :)

1. What is one thing that you would change about Inbound.org's SEO and why?

I'd also use the domain authority Inbound has to create and rank landing pages like this amazing one that came out a while back: http://inbound.org/top/blogs

That page ranks #1 for "top marketing blogs", #6 for "marketing blog" and several others...which I imagine are great keywords to attract new Inbounders.

2- I'm interested in how you felt starting your company. There were clearly others out there that were already experts doing something similar, what made you feel like there was enough space to support you running this business as well?

Totally. I had imposter syndrome coming out my ears.

I had a feeling Backlinko would do well because it scratched my own itch.

In 2012, after Penguin came out, most of the SEO advice out there was obsolete. And most of the new stuff I read was basically "publish great content and you'll rank". Which I knew from my own experience wasn't true.

I was so frustrated. There were literally a handful of blogs putting out actionable SEO advice (Moz, Hubspot, Point Blank SEO, Kaiser The Sage and a few others). But it wasn't enough.

So I figured that even though the space was competitive, there were other people like me out there looking to actionable white hat SEO content. Luckily, I was right :-)

3- We would consider you an expert, I'm sure many would. At what point do you start considering yourself an expert within your skill? When is it finally OK to say: Yes, I kick ass at this, I'm an expert.

Like I said, even when I started Backlinko I still didn't feel like a real expert.

But I had a few experiences that boosted my confidence:

I took a site (post-penguin) from a blank Wordpress installation to $10k/month in revenue in 120 days using white hat SEO.

I also had a few client successes that showed me I knew more about SEO than at least my clients did :-)

So yeah, once I built Backlinko and started developing + testing more strategies that actually worked, I felt pretty confident considering myself an "expert". But I started doing SEO in 2008. So it took me 4 years to feel like an expert!

@luizcent Hey Luiz. No problem. I'm happy to be here.

1. Do you still do client work? If not when did that stop and if so how do you track your profit margins?

I stopped doing client work about 2 years ago. I make exceptions when I get a call from a big brand that I like and respect. But it's literally 2-5 hours per month. The rest is Backlinko.

Tracking profit margins is easy. Gross revenue - expenses= profit :-)

2. Where was your favorite place to work remote from?

That's a tough one.

I'd have to go with Thailand. Unlike other parts of SE Asia, the WiFi is pretty good. So you can literally work from the beach!

@sbizideasblog 

Hey Brian :)

That's something I've been thinking more and more about.

In many ways I'm doing the same things I did to build Backlinko from day 1.

For example, I sent 200 outreach emails to promote my last post. And I'm thinking to myself, "Do I really need to do that now that I have 80k email subscribers?". I honestly don't know the right answer.

So I'm torn between two schools of thought:

Noah Kagan's "double down on what works" approach vs. "what got you here won't get you there".

But I do know that to take Backlinko from one of the top SEO blogs to THE #1 SEO blog, I'll need to shift my approach.

@darshu No problem, Daria. And congrats on your success!

That's a tough one to answer without knowing how many subscribers you already have.

If you have a few hundred subscribers, you're probably better off getting more traffic, leads, trial signups etc.

But if you have 5k people on free trials, then you definitely want to focus on closing them. A lot of companies are sitting on gold mines and don't even realize it.

But if your goal is to get more leads, I'd go with The Content Upgrade. I know you want to get people directly on the tool, but I'd see if The Content Upgrade-->email nurture-->tool signups formula works better for you.

@lollyspindler Why thanks Lolly!

That's true. I don't publish on the blog very often. In fact, Backlinko generates over 100K uniques a month from 32 total published posts.

Here's how I squeeze so much out of so few posts:

First, I put an insane amount of effort behind each and every post. Funny enough, this doesn't require any extra work compared to how most people blog. And it's definitely the same amount of work as the 5 posts/week publishing schedule you're using right now.

For example, the post I put out earlier this week took around 20 hours to write. And that's my only post for the month.

If I did 5 posts/week * 4 weeks, that's 20 hours right there.

The exact same amount of time invested. The only difference is that the 20 hours is laser focused on one post.

And in my experience, putting 20 hours behind one mega post CRUSHES 20 400-word "meh" posts. Trust me, I've tried both approaches :-)

Second (and to get to the meat of your question), here's the promotion piece:

-I make sure to email my list about every single post. Because I only publish monthly, it's not overwhelming. Because these people are part of the Backlinko community, they do a lot of the promotion for me. This is why building an email list is HUGE>

-I also email at least 100 people about my post. These are laser targeted people that might be interested in seeing it. For example, people that recently shared something similar on Twitter. Or maybe they just wrote a post about the same topic.

-Once I get the social proof going (shares and comments), I start link building. That's where I use a bunch of different strategies depending on the post, like broken link building, The Moving Man Method, Guestographics, resource page link building etc.

Sounds simple (and it is). But it requires a ton of work.

Because I'm competing with massive brands like Search Engine Watch, Forbes etc. I need to out-hustle them to have a change of leapfrogging them in the rankings.

@winsomewriting That's an interesting one, Brian.

I actually cringe when I read the phrase "make money online". I chased the WarriorForum dream from 2008-2012 and it got me nowhere.

But to answer your question:

I'd actually follow the advice from this post: How to get a $3,000 monthly contract (with exact scripts).

And here's a case study of this approach in action.

So basically what you're doing is finding a service/strategy/approach that people want but don't have time to execute...and doing it for them.

Nope, it's not scalable. But it's a fast and white hat way to make money, build relationships and provide some value...all good things!

@winsomewriting HA! I wish :-)

No problem, Brian

@victorpan Hey Victor,

Good one. I'm not a tax expert and I don't play one on Inbound :)

But seriously, taxes are pretty straightforward because my business (Backlinko LLC) is registered in the states. And because I spend so much time abroad, I can use a nifty exception ("Foreign Income Exclusion") to cut down on my income tax.

I've settled in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Lisbon and Berlin. Of the 4, I'd say I'm most likely to settle in Berlin (in fact, that's where I spend most of my time these days). But I can also see myself in London (LOVE that city)

@timsoulo Hey Tim!

I've learned from a ton of people (including you) over the last few years.

But when I think about this question, 3 people really stand out:

1. Neil Patel: He supported Backlinko pretty much from day 1. In fact, I first chatted with him after I had a grand total of 4 posts published on the blog. And he's been really helpful in helping me take Backlinko from a side project to where it is today.

2. Noah Kagan: Like Neil, Noah has given me fistfuls of golden nuggets and sage advice over the years. He's also just a great guy to spend time with.

3. Derek Halpern: I don't know him that well personally, but his content has helped me with copywriting, biz dev, hiring, online sales, list building and more. He's the man.

@johnwinslotto Good question, John.

If you get most of your subscribers from content marketing and SEO, your list should be on-target with what you sell (that is, assuming what you write about relates to your business).

For example, most people find Backlinko by searching for keywords like "link building", "on page seo" etc.

And because Backlinko is an SEO training company, those people tend to convert really well for us.

So I don't need to survey them to know that they'd be interested in my premium training products. And most importantly, they DO convert.

So if you haven't sold to your list yet, it might be time to take a segment and offer them a low-cost product just to see if your list is valuable.

But if you're really unsure of whether your list is a good fit for your product, I'd definitely send out an email that says "Hey, I want to send you awesome stuff. Tell me more about you and what you want to learn about."

@crajagopalan No problem, Rajagopalan.

Obviously, I can't promise any specific traffic figures (because it depends on a bajillion variables). But if I wanted to take a new site from zero to hero, I'd laser-focus on two things:

1. Publishing insanely valuable Skyscraper content: There are countless people that have had success with this approach...even though they run a brand new site. Here's a good example.

Of course, that also requires a ton of content promo. But it can work quickly.

2. Building your email list: This is the rocket fuel that makes the machine run on overdrive. Without this, you rely on other networks (Facebook, Pinterest etc.) for content promotion. And as we've seen with Facebook, they can pull the plug anytime.

But with an email list, you own the distribution channel.

@milleramandany Hey Amanda,

Good question.

You definitely want to update the original article. If the post got any traction at all, it might have some links, comments, social shares etc. When you 301 that page you might lose some of that stuff (definitely comments and social shares).

But when you update the existing page, you get all the old signals + new ones.

In fact, I recently re-published a page with a new case study, new info etc. It was 75% new content on the same URL. And it went from #7 to #2 overnight...and it now ranks #4 for my target keyword.

@garryrudnyk 

That's a great question, Garry. Brand citations and traffic from forums, comments etc. can be really powerful (Even though they usually don't have any direct SEO benefit).

And because they're from diverse sources, you're not at risk of a penalty of some algo change from Facebook cutting your traffic down by 50% overnight. So if the traffic converts for you, I say go for it!

@massivekontent Happy to help, Jason.
1.Could you see yourself moving to almost quarterly 'event' pieces at this point with the amount of work involved in each new piece you publish? Or is it more just releasing something when it's ready?

Yes, I published 6 brand new posts. But I also re-launched 2 older posts with 75% new content. But yeah, not the typical blog schedule for sure.

I'm not sure I could go down to quarterly, but I think many companies would be smart to make that move vs. publishing "meh" content once per week.

The other nice thing about publishing once every 4-8 weeks is that it pushes you to really bring it. How lame is it to publish some "10 tips for X" article after 8 weeks of waiting? So I know that I need to publish something awesome when I do hit "publish".

2. You employ a relatively thin main column width and the images in the content are also reasonably narrow. Backlinko is extremely readable on my mobile phone. How many readers (%) are accessing your site via mobile these days?

Yup, that's true. It also makes things easier to read on a desktop. Around 15% come from Mobile. Because Backlinko is a B2B site most people are at work when they visit the site.

@steviehamilton Sure thing, Stephen.
Apart from the income it generates, what do you get out of it (if anything)? I'm interested in any specific benefits you get from running a course like yours, be they tangible or intangible benefits.

-You get the satisfaction of really helping people grow and get better at something. Blog posts are nice, but they rarely take someone from point A to point B. A course gives them the structure they need to have real breakthroughs.

-You build a community. SEO That Works has a private mastermind community that's AWESOME. Because it's private people share their best tips and insights. So I'm proud and happy that I'm part of that. 

-You have a list of people that you can draw on to help when needed. For example, I want to launch a new product this year. And for customer development, who do you think I reached out to? SEO That Works students of course!

-A whole lot more

Do you ever have to hande dissatisfied customers, and if so, is there a pattern you've identified as to why they are disssatisfied? How do you handle these situations?

Every business has dissatisfied customers. That's why I have a 30 day 100% satisfaction guarantee. That way, if you're not satisfied you get your money back. That cuts down on 99% of issues one might have with dissatisfied customers. That way everyone walks away happy (if someone's not happy I don't want them to pay).

In terms of patterns, the #1 reason people withdraw is that they don't have time to take the course.

I'm guessing publishing content for a course that deals with an always-changing subject like SEO means you have to have a pretty robust content management process in order to publish new content and keep older content accurate. What lessons have you learned from publishing course content that have had a positive impact to how you create and manage content for your website (and client websites)?

That's definitely true. I've made 5 major updates to STW over the last 3 years. Not to mention hundreds of tweaks, additions etc. I don't have clients so that makes things easier.

So in terms of content I have an editorial calendar for Backlinko. And I make quarterly upgrades and updates to SEO That Works (more if I discovered something cool I want to add to the course).

@boredmarketer 

Coffee definitely helps.

But I'm actually a big Pomodoro fan. To the point of being semi-insane. When that timer goes off I'm DONE.

So the Pomodoros help break things up for me so I don't need to work so hard to concentrate.

My writing process goes like this (which I learned from Neil Patel):

1. Idea/goal of the content.

2. Big picture outline

3. Detailed outline

4. Write in small Pomodoro batches. Continue until draft #1 is complete.

5. Edit until every word and sentence is perfect (I'm insane about editing my posts).

Hope that helps dude!

@aimeemillwood Hey Bill!

Aimee nailed it. When I first started with Backlinko I pitched both these sites and heard nothing back.

It also helps if you have an existing audience. That way those big sites assume you'll share the content with your audience...which is more traffic for them :)

@cgimmer Happy to help, Christopher.

1. Promote to my email list: This is actually a skill in and of itself. I test subject lines, link placement etc. to get more subscribers to my content. That being said, it's still relatively quick.

2. Promote to people that shared similar content: You can use BuzzSumo for this (click on "View Sharers" on any piece of content. Even 20 emails can make a big difference.

@_babshaybell Actually, 100% of my focus is on Backlinko right now.

So my secret is that I put all that time, creativity etc. into one site.

To your second question, paid traffic and PR are two options. But I don't have a ton of experience with either of them

@melissa04470579 No problem, Melissa.

I'm not a big definition guy, but I'd say content marketing is marketing...with content :)

In terms of better implementing, I'd read some of the other answers from this thread. Lots of golden nuggets (from me and other inbound community members) to help you out.

@gadgetalks Rajesh, I'd follow The Skyscraper Technique. It's perfect for a new site that wants to get some fast and significant traction.

Like in this case study, where Chris generated 17k visitors to a brand new site...in one day (!).

You alwayys want to mix up your anchor text

@krystianwlr 1. Do you run any other projects than Backlinko? No.

2. Could you describe your business model? Backlinko is an SEO training company.

3. How difficult it was to build your personal brand in SEO area? Somewhat difficult as the space is very crowded/competitive.

4. What was your biggest win and... the biggest lose this year? Biggest win: hitting my revenue target for the year. Biggest loss: I haven't done a great job taking time off.

5. What's your favorite link building method - outreach, PBN's, content, technical SEO, relationship link building... or maybe a mix of all of them? Content + outreach.

6. Have you ever been hit with Google penalty? If yes, how did you manage to get out of it? Yes, several. I never got out of one.

7. Have you ever encountered negative SEO? Yes.

8. Why SEO? The traffic rocks.

9. What do you think about Paddy Moogan's Link Building book? It's excellent.

10. What's your favorite set of tools (I'm not referring to the list on your blog, but rather the tools you actually use)? I actually use the tools from the list on my blog.

11. How do you manage to scale content creation? I don't scale it. I only use content curation once and a while.

@mrsam2 Phew that's a tough one, Samuel.

I wish I knew how powerful an email list was. I mean, I knew it...but I didn't know it. Know what I mean?

For my business (online training), everything lives and dies based on the email list. So I wish I focused on that from day 1.

More specifically, I wish I knew about The Content Upgrade. That literally tripled my blog's conversion rate. If I had that on day one my list would be 3x bigger than it is now!

@jbensontips You're welcome, Jeffrey.

I'd definitely go with The Skyscraper Technique + Content Upgrade. The Skyscraper Technique drives traffic and rankings...and the Content Upgrade converts that traffic into subscribers. It's like magic for building an email list!

@sparxbigdata The strategies you listed there are good.

Here are a few other things I'd look at before you pull the trigger on a topic:

1. What can you do that no one else can? Is it writing, design, video, surfing? That way you'll stand out on day one.

2. How can you scratch your own itch? When I started Backlinko I created the blog I wanted to read. How can you do the same thing?

3. What industries have the same handful of blogs dominated for years? That's usually a niche ripe for something fresh.

@rankingelite Hey Sef,
Where do you think link building is heading?

I think it's pretty much the same as it was after Penguin 1.0. If you build contextual links from authority, relevant sites you're set.

How should we handle link building in 2016?

I wouldn't change your approach if it's working for you. The same type of links that worked in 2015 will work in 2016 (contextual, white hat). It's truly what Google wants.

What types of links that you would build in real time Penguin era?

See above :)

@skeletontweet No problem, Lydia.

That's actually somewhat common. The Skyscraper Technique is great. But it's just that, a technique.

That means it doesn't work in every industry 100% of the time. And it doesn't replace a well-rounded marketing approach.

To answer your question: I'd look at Shoulder Niches related to video. That can open up A LOT of awesome content opportunities that can be tricky to find. Here's a post/case study that should help you find a shoulder niche: http://backlinko.com/seo-campaign

@josephrobison 

1) Do you still run your own authority sites that you keep on the downlow that generate monthly revenue, or do you just depend on Backlinko revenue for your personal income?

Not anymore. I focus 100% on Backlinko and my training course, SEO That Works.

2) Do you agree that long term, it makes sense for a skilled SEO specialist to move away from client work and try to build their own authority site to have their own asset that compounds in value vs trading hours for money? (Asking for a friend)

I think your friend knows the answer to that question :-)

For some people, client work is a dream for them. They love working with lots of clients in tons of different industries. So in their case, they should stick with that.

For me, having 10 clients felt like having 10 bosses. So I shifted to ranking my own properties as soon as I could. And as you said, that way, you're not trading hours for dollars (which doesn't scale).

So it depends on the SEO specialist.

@cgonther85 No problemo, Cole.

I definitely think backlinks from quality, niche-relevant blogs have an SEO benefit. But not as much as a true, contextual link from a non-guest post article.

So if you want to use guest posting as let's say 5-10% of your link building, there's nothing wrong with that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, in my experience, 40-50% of the sites you guest post on will link out to you naturally down the line (especially if you absolutely bring it with your guest post).

So in that sense a guest posting can ultimately bring the A+ links that you want in the first place.

Really good question, Matt.

You're 100% right: it's not always easy to know when to keep the conversation going. I prefer to let the other person lead when I'm the one that initiated the outreach.

Otherwise, I might become "that guy" who emails someone again and again...and it turns out that they don't want to hear from me on a regular basis. In many cases I do get emails from people I reached out to saying: "hey, I have a question" or "can you share this for me?".

And those email exchanges have turned into legit relationships and even friendships in some cases.

So in your case, I didn't email again because I wasn't sure you would welcome that.

On the other hand, if you emailed me asking for feedback or to share one of your posts, I would have seen that as a signal that you wanted to stay in contact.

@emilshour Good one, Emil.

I've taken so so many. But one that stands out is Blog That Converts by Social Triggers. So so, helpful! It's basically how Derek built Social Triggers to 100k subscribers. Not cheap, but worth every penny (and then some!).

@seoguyz Hi Jason,

First, I'd read this post: A Data-Driven Guide to Creating Viral Content [Infographic].

That will show you how to create content that pushes people to share.

Besides that:

1. Make sure your social buttons are REALLY obvious. I don't understand why many blogs hide their social buttons. At Backlinko they even follow you!

2. Ask people to share your post at the end. I learned this from Neil Patel. In his Advanced Guide to SEO he asks people to share his content TWICE:

For branding for a blog at least I'd make sure that there's a PERSON front and center. I go into more detail on this in another question here.

Other than that, I'd answer the question: "What makes this site different" all over the place. For example, at Backlinko, I make sure to tell people exactly why the blog is different than most SEO blogs:

Besides your about page you can do this on your homepage, and even in the sidebar of your blog:

@josephputnam Good question, Joe.

There's a few different things I look at:

1. Is this a topic that people care about...and will care about in 3+ years? Writing about something that's hot can work, but I want my content to work hard for me. So I pretty much stick to evergreen topics that people will search for for YEARS.

2. Is this topic something influencers are likely to share? If not, it's a no-go.

3. Can I bring something new/exciting/different/better to the table? Some topics are covered to death. And I'd be putting just another post that's been done 100x before.

4. Is there a keyword that's rankable around this topic? Are searchers for that keyword likely to convert? That's the "making my content work for me" in action.

5. If I send this to my email list will people say "Wow that blew my mind. MORE of that please."? If so, that's a good sign that I'll go with that topic.

6. Has content on that topic done well recently? BuzzSumo is a must for this.

That's about it. Hope that helps you Joe!

@kikolani Hey Kristi!

That must be really frustrating. I don't sell my strategies as services so it's (fortunately) something I haven't had to deal with. But I've seen people sell services for things like The Skyscraper Technique without giving me credit.

I usually just reach out with a friendly email to "remind them" to give credit. If that doesn't work I usually just let it go. Fortunately, thieves don't usually last long enough to be a long-term problem :)

@mildseo Hey Guy, interesting question.

The most convincing page is the Optimizely homepage:

Why?

First, the page is super simple. And it's "convincing" because the headline is so relatable to anyone that's tried a/b testing. But most important, it's REALLY simple. That means I'm really like to convert (which in their case it to enter my URL). It hasn't changed must for years so it must be working for them.

I stick by the golden rule of landing pages: one page, one action.

@andraepalmer Hey Andrae, I used a bunch of different strategies. But most of them involve having tons of forms on every page.

That being said, the most powerful strategy for me has been The Content Upgrade. It's a game changer.

The first dollar I made from my blog was a small course (sort of an MVP for SEO That Works). It sold so it showed me there was demand for an online course about SEO.

@_hyderali Thanks for your support, Hyderali :)

It would definitely be nutrition. I studied nutrition for 7 years (I have a MS in nutrition) and am very into fitness, health etc. So if it wasn't for Backlinko I'd probably have some sort of paleo diet blog.

@gangradem Hi Mohit, I developed the strategy after years of working in SEO and content marketing.

But if you have a unique strategy that you've developed, definitely name it!

@_mrtoast Corey, I actually do a combo of the two.

The first email is usually short and sweet to gauge interest. So something like "Hey, I noticed you write about X. I have a guide about Y. Want to see it?".

When they say yes, I follow up with more detailed info. So something like, "Cool. Here's the post. Then transition into some sort of pitch."

@peternikolow Hey Peter.

It looks something like this:

8:00am: Wake up

8:30am: Get out of bed (yup, I lie in bed for 30 minutes)

8:30-9:15am: Cook/eat breakfast (I have a hella elaborate breakfast. Omelets, coffee, fruit...the works.

9:15-11:30am: Pomodoros that focused on creating stuff (writing, strategies, making videos etc.)

11:30-12pm: Workout

12:00-1pm: Lunchtime!

1pm-2:30pm: Pomodoros

2:30pm-3:30pm: Check email, social media etc.

3:30-on: Other stuff (reading, cooking, going out with friends etc.)

@mldriggs Hey Lee.

It's a combination of factors:

First, Emil emailed me with a new case study on the same topic (white hat SEO/skyscraper technique).

Second, that post was over 2 years old. It needed an update.

Third, SEO.

That entire process is 20-30 hours. No joke!

@connections8 

1. It took me 4 months of almost full-time work. And that was just the first version! I've invested an additional 250+ hours into it.

2. My developer built a custom platform for us. At the time nothing out there did what we needed. But if I was starting a new course today I'd use ZippyCourses.

3. Email, email, email! There's no other way to market a course that even comes close.

4. Hopefully soon!