How I Get Free Backlinks

_{Day 29/100 Turns out I can’t count. I think I’m back with the right number…}

Hey friends, hope you’re having a good day.

I wanted to share my favourite, free way to get backlinks.
And then my turbo charge for it.

Everyone knows about Google Alerts. Or at least that’s what I thought, but it seems it’s one of those things people talk about and then never do. So, here’s the skinny.

Alerts is where you can set up an email from Google, every day, to tell you things that now appear in their indexing system.

We’re going to use it to find out where people are talking about your stuff, and then email them asking for a link.

Step One. The easiest one.

Get your fine self over on to Google Alerts and set up these these alerts at minimum.

Step Two. The annoying one.

You get an email. It’s the big G telling you about a new mention they found of your brand, name, or just your site in general.

Sick, nasty.

Now we need to claim it.

Two parts to this. One is finding the right person to email. Two is sending the email and asking for the link.

I’ll let them fight it out for which one is the most frustrating. But we can make the process a little easier.

I usually find people on LinkedIn. Just search the site/company and see who is in charge of putting things on that site. Most of the time this works every time.

And when it doesn’t Hunter.io does a pretty decent job of getting me the right person.

Now, we need to email them.

You could just send something super boring.

“Oh hey, noticed you spoke about me and you didn’t link me. Can I get a link please?”

That’s not only cringe, but needy and cringe.

We can do better.

Offer them something in return. The likelihood that the person putting the link on there is a marketer too is high. So, offer something you would want. Offer them a link, a mention, a post etc.

Subject: Quick question about [Publication Name]'s mention of [Your Brand]

Hi [Journalist/Editor Name],


I recently came across your article "[Article Title]" and wanted to thank you for mentioning [Your Brand] in your piece. Thanks so much for talking about [topic/industry].

I noticed that our brand name wasn't linked to our website. Would it be possible to add a link to [yourwebsite.com] where you mention us? 

I'm not here to ask for something without nothing. 

I'd be more than happy to:
- Share your article with our [number] followers on social media
- Provide you with [relevant offer based on your business - exclusive data, early product access, etc.]
- [Another value proposition relevant to the journalist/publication]

Please let me know if this is something you could help with. I'm also available if you need any additional information about [Your Brand] for this or future articles. Perhaps an interview with one of the founders...?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

[Your Name]
[Your Position]
[Your Brand]
[Your Contact Information]

Or find out where they have linked to external businesses before. Most of the time a no is them just getting rid of tire kickers. A little persistence here goes a long way.
Handle this with tact, and you’ll win more often than not.

Subject: Re: Quick question about [Publication Name]'s mention of [Your Brand]

Hi [Journalist/Editor Name],

Thank you for your reply regarding our request to add a link to [Your Brand] in your article.

I understand your policy about not linking to businesses. However, I noticed that in a recent article published on [Publication Name] titled "[Recent Article with Links]" dated [date], there are links to other sources in a similar context: [URL of example article].

I'm not questioning your editorial decisions, but I'm genuinely curious about the criteria that determine when attribution links are appropriate. Our website primarily serves as an educational resource for [industry/topic], similar to other sources you've linked to previously.

What do we need to do to get the link? 

Best regards,

[Your Name]
[Your Position]
[Your Brand]
[Your Contact Information]

Worth throwing yourself at an afternoon of this every now and then. We’ve gotten a good 20+ links this way for Penfriend and I’ve gotten to know a fair few other publishers online from just asking and being nice to them.

That all being said, do you have anything you want a link to?
Pitch it in the replies, lemme know your offer and I’ll get it on the site. Inge recently got us over 50DR and I would love to share some link juice with you :D

✌️Tim “Show Me What You Got” Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. I’m serious. I want to give you a backlink. Send me your best articles, the ones you need links for. And an offer. I’m the one that runs the site after all.