Grow Your Brand By Leveraging Someone Else’s

Here’s a scenario: you just started a new website about a topic you are passionate about, and now you want to get some sweet content up there from people other than yourself. Interviews. Guest posts. Articles. These will not only fill your site with interesting things for visitors to read, but it will also boost traffic because, hopefully, bringing on guest writers will get some of their audience on your page.

That is what I call equity arbitrage. And it is brilliant. In the world of podcasting, it’s been going on for a long time, and it works. I did it. I did a bunch of interviews to promote my book Jab Jab Jab Right Hook when it came out. Now, not only did I tap into the audiences of those podcasts, but those shows also get to leverage my name over and over again to build their audience. Everybody wins.

So we established it’s great. Awesome. Yay. But now the question is: how do you get those interviews?

Well, I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret: people that have “fame”, even if it’s Z level fame like mine, love to talk. They love it. It’s fun, and that is good news for you because it means there is a very good chance that you will get an interview.

Now, I’m not saying every single person you ask is going to jump at the chance. But the more you ask, the more opportunities you’ll have for people to say yes. So that’s what you do. You just keep asking and asking and asking. Audit all the websites or blogs that are similar to your own, and reach out to the people who did interviews there. And you’ll start to see that people like to give interviews.

And here’s a curveball: sometimes you need to ask the same person eleven times. Sure, one could say that you’re being annoying. But if you come from a good place, and you do it with tactful pride, you’ll be fine.

The last piece of advice I would have? Listen. Seriously. Listen to what is going on in the world of the person you are emailing. Maybe they have a new book coming out or just redesigned their website. That is the time to strike. When they want something, like a book sell or thoughts on that website redesign, do it. Provide them with value upfront, and proof that you’re a solid guy or gal. When they want something and you want something, interests align.