10 Blogs Every Link Builder Should Read… That Aren’t About Link Building

There are lots of great link building blogs.  But to really gain competitive advantage to dominate the SERPs, you can’t just read blogs about link building.  You need to go beyond what your competition is reading, and become a fantastic all-around marketer.

1) Social Triggers

Derek Halpern writes about how to turn traffic into subscribers into customers by understanding social psychology and the power of language.

Social Triggers is his excellent blog on the topic.  While it’s geared towards the blogger/affiliate community (with guides on list building and increasing online sales), Derek’s blog is about how to use language and persuasive psychology to get people to take action – exactly what link development professionals need to do.

Favorite Posts

How To Eliminate “Wallet Closing Words” From Your emails, Sales Pages, and Speech

Why We Buy What We Can Get for Free

How People Make Decisions (and How it Helps You Grow Your Business)

2) SpinSucks

SpinSucks covers professional development for marketing and PR professionals.  This includes a broad range of topics, from traditional PR and crisis communications to advertising, social media, and SEO.   

When you look through the ‘link building’ lens at the world of the web, you tend to see it in one particular way.  Reading Gini Dietrich’s and the guest bloggers writing helps you understand the world of marketing from a PR-driven view.

Favorite Posts

PR Pros Not Keeping Up with What Journalists Want

Sixteen Ways to Use Pinterest for PR

How to Pitch a Story Like a Pro and Get Results Every Time

3) Neuromarketing

It’s easy to forget that people, not websites, make links.  Neuromarketing explores the intersection of neuroscience and marketing.  It turns out there’s an extensive academic literature of experiments – both choice-based, and increasingly based on imaging techniques like MRIs – about how our brains are affected by marketing activities.

The Neuromarketing blog covers academic research about neuromarketing, making it easily digestible by lay people.  It runs the gamut from covering advertising to neurobranding to marketing decision making. 

Favorite Posts:

Make a Crazy Request, Close the Deal

UCLA Brain Scans Predict Ad Success

 Persuade with Silky Smooth Copy

4) The Bad Pitch Blog

Who would’ve guessed there’s a blog about terrible PR pitches? There is – the Bad Pitch Blog.

By studying these bad pitches (non-personalized, irrelevant, weasel-worded, and more), you can learn to pitch better. 

 Favorite Posts:

Visibli Bites the Bad Pitch Bad Apple

 The Bad Hitler Pitch

This Post is for Everyone

5) PSFK

The best link builders have their fingers on the pulse of the internet – they constantly see what’s new and what’s cool, and understand how they can use it to help their companies grow their online presence.

My favorite source of interesting digital trends, both online and off, is PSFK, a trend spotting blog from the consultancy of the same name.  It’s a great place to spot trends you can use in substantial, thoughtful content pieces (3D printing? Standing desks? Crowdsourced Everything? PSFK has it first.)

Favorite Posts:

Just about all of the Digital and Web Tech category.

6) BuzzFeed

The other side of the coin from PSFK, BuzzFeed seems to be executing every media business model simultaneously, with a focus on the viral, adorable, and eminently spreadable.

If you’re looking for linkbait ideas for fun, socially-oriented sites, you really can’t do better than BuzzFeed.  Additionally, studying BuzzFeed and their approach can lead you to success in creating viral content.

Favorite Posts:

28 Animals Who Have Made a Huge Mistake

In Appreciation of English Muffins

Ice Cube’s ‘It Was a Good Day’ Told By Cats

7) ProBlogger

Bloggers read ProBlogger.  If you want to understand what bloggers (and thus linkers) care about, this is the blog to read.

They also cover link building (although from a very different perspective than classical SEO link building), blog promotion, and blog management techniques, which are very helpful to content marketers.

Favorite Posts:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Publish Your Next Post

Blog Comments: 3 Bloggers Discuss the Issues

 How to Create Reader Personas to Inspire and Inform Your Blogging

8) PsyBlog

 PsyBlog features psychology studies applicable to everyday life.  These posts can help inform your outreach – and help you learn to interact with people more effectively.

With studies on social psychology, cyberpsychology, and the psychology of money, this blog is packed with useful information for link builders to better understand the human condition.

Favorite Posts:

Email’s Dark Side: 10 Psychological Studies

Why We Buy: How to Avoid 10 Costly Cognitive Biases

 Psychology of Attention

9) Occam’s Razor

While link building is great, you need to be able to measure your impact and show it’s contribution to revenue.  (This is where bigger budgets, bonuses, and promotions all come from.) 

Web measurement is a different, more analytical art than persuasion, Avinash’ blog make it fun.  Definitely a must-read for anyone involved in online marketing today.

Favorite Posts:

Beginner’s Guide to Web Data Analysis

Best Web Analytics 2.0 Tools: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Life Saving

Best Social Media Metrics: Conversion, Amplification, Applause, and Lifetime Value

10) Bob Bly’s Bly.com

The best link builders are amazing copywriters. They can write copy that is attention-getting, short, and deeply persuasive to get that link, placement, or mention.

Copywriting is an old science – it dates back the birth of the printing press – and much of the best copywriting instruction predates computers, let alone the web and search engines.  People like Bob Bly, Joseph Sugarman, Michael Masterson, and Claude Hopkins all sold millions of dollars of product – without the benefits of the fast, sophisticated analytics and ad platforms we have today.

Bob Bly’s blog is great.  I also recommend Nick Usborne’s blog, and the direct response classic, the Gary Halbert Letter.

What are your favorite blogs that help you be a better link builder?