You will build a prospect list and send personalised requests that offer something useful.
Most link requests that land in an inbox look the same. "Dear webmaster, I came across your website and loved your content. I have a resource that would be a great fit for your readers. Would you consider adding a link?" The site owner deletes it, because the sender plainly did not read the site and wants something for nothing.
This exercise is about sending the other kind of message: short, specific to the person reading it, and offering something useful before asking for anything. You will build a list of fifteen prospects, send three pitches and track what happens.
Start a new tab in your spreadsheet with six columns: site, contact, why it is relevant, what you will offer or ask, date contacted, and outcome.
Fill the first column from the ten opportunities you listed in lesson 6.3, Ways a small business earns links, then add more until you have fifteen. Good additions include sites that link to competitors but not to you, which you can find with a paid tool or by searching for pages that list several businesses like yours; local directories and community sites relevant to your customers; and writers or bloggers who have covered your topic recently.
For each site, write in one sentence why it is relevant to your customers. If you cannot, drop it. A site that is relevant to your readers is worth more than three that are not, as lesson 6.1, Why links still matter, and which ones, explained. Find a real contact for each, ideally a named person from the site's contact or about page, and use a general inbox only when there is no one else.
Then fill in the offer column. What can you give this site's readers? A checklist, a guide, an expert quote for an upcoming article, an event they could list, a correction to outdated information on their page, or simply a thank-you for an existing mention with a request to add a link.
A good pitch has four parts and fits on a phone screen. It opens with a specific reason for writing to this person, which shows you have read their site. What you are offering, and why it helps their readers, comes next. The ask follows, made plainly and once, and you close with your name, your business and a way to reach you.
Personalise every message. Mention a specific article or page, and connect your offer to it. Template outreach is easy to spot, because the sentences could be sent to anyone, and easy to ignore. Keep it honest: do not claim to be a long-time reader if you found the site this morning.
Never offer money, free products or a link swap in exchange for a link. Lesson 6.2, Link practices that breach Google's policies, explained why.
Log the date you send each pitch. If you hear nothing after a week or two, send one short, polite follow-up that adds something, such as a second reason the resource might help. If there is still no reply, mark the outcome as "no reply" and move on. Repeated follow-ups annoy people and rarely work.
Write down every outcome, refusals and silence included, because over time the log shows you which kinds of site and offer get responses, so your next round is better aimed.
Here are three rows from Priya's list.
The first is the neighbourhood community club. Relevant because it runs family events for parents in her area. Offer: a free parents' workshop on helping with P5 problem sums, which they could list on their events page. Contact: the events coordinator named on the site.
The second is a parenting blog that recently published a post on choosing a tuition centre. Relevant because its readers are her customers. Offer: her heuristics checklist as a free resource their readers could use, plus a quote for any future post on PSLE maths. Contact: the editor named on the about page.
The third is a primary school PTA page that already mentions her talk last year without linking to it, so her message thanks them for the mention and asks for a link to her parents' resources page.
Her pitch to the parenting blog read: "Hi Wei Ling, I read your post on choosing a tuition centre, especially the part about asking how progress is tracked. I run a small maths centre in Tampines and made a free one-page checklist of PSLE heuristics, with one worked example each and no sign-up, for parents who want to help at home. If it would be useful to your readers, you're welcome to link to it, and I'm happy to answer questions for any future post on PSLE maths. Priya, followed by her centre name and number."
It is short, specific, and useful even if the blog never links. The community club replied within days and listed the workshop with a link. The blog replied two weeks later after one follow-up. The PTA did not reply.
A finished list has fifteen relevant sites, each with a contact, a reason and an offer. Three pitches have gone out, each personalised, and the dates are logged. The outcome column will fill in over the coming weeks.
Open your spreadsheet and build the list first, then pick your three strongest prospects to pitch, as the activity below describes.
Build a prospect list of 15 sites, send three personalised pitches, and log the date and any reply.
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