Posted by RobOusbey
Whatever your site's topic, whether you are very niche or broad, B2C or B2B, a retailer or a publisher - there are likely to be independent fan sites that overlap with the subjects on your site.
By fan site, I mean fan clubs, unofficial sites, etc - these types of sites are typically run by people who are very passionate about their particular topic. They often serve as a very rich source of information and news about their subject - and are often very keen to link to any appropriate information that gives value to their visitors.
I'll give a quick introduction to identifying the niches to target and finding appropriate sites to talk to, and then give some tips about how you could get them to link to you.
Choose a Niche
SEOmoz members are a hugely diverse bunch, so I'll give just a couple of examples to illustrate how this can work. In reality, this is where a bit of brainstorming and 'thinking outside the box' could help you identify some potentially useful types of company & website.
So, by way of examples (and I'm just looking out of my window here for ideas of companies, don't read anything into this list):
- An online store that sells second-hand books:
- This type of retailer has it pretty easy: aim to find the fan sites of particular authors or series of books,
- Don't just go after the biggest names either - there are definitely some more 'cult' authors that aren't as well know but have strong online followings.
- The website of an auto mechanic:
- Approach the fan sites of particular car models,
- Aim to target fan sites on the subject of any particular repair expertise you have as well, such as classic cars or four wheel drives.
- A chain of hotels:
- This company could look towards the fan pages of the particular cities they have properties in,
- They should also consider anything that makes a particular hotel unique; is it near a sports stadium, or in a particular style of architecture?
You'll find out soon enough that there are fan sites for almost every niche you could ever imagine. Don't worry about getting a bit abstract in your thinking here.
Of course, some sites won't have to look too far to find topics that have gained a fandom. For example: if you're a radio station, then there may be fan sites for your station or for your presenters. If there can be a website explicitly for fans of Ikea in Ohio, then really - anything is possible.
Finding Fan Sites
Honestly, there's only a little advice that I can give here, beyond 'Google is your friend'.
Getting Links from Fan Pages
As with almost every proactive linkbuilding tactic - and with this kind of outreach in particular - we'll have most success when we offer something to a site that earns us a link from them.
With that in mind, here's my five favorite tactics for getting links from this type of site:
Events & Invitations
Look out for opportunities to organize or to be involved with special events. In the simplest form, use this as an opportunity to meet some of the enthusiasts that you're trying to get to know; if you want to meet petrolheads, then go to an auto show. You could sponsor some kind of 'social-media-meet-up' or 'bloggers drinks party' at these sort of events if you want to put yourself out in front of the right people.
Some businesses have the opportunity to add value to some events; for example, when Stephanie Myers announced her plans to do a junket for fan sies (see
May 17, 2010), any hotels, bars or restaurants in her area could have offered to host the event for her and some fans. This should have received at least a few really valuable links from the attendees' write-ups.
Similarly, every TV station really should plan ahead by taking their list of forthcoming talk-show guests, and inviting members from every fan site of those guests to watch the recordings. It would be fair to ask them to write about it in return for the tickets, and they'd be encouraged to link to the show's webpage from that article.
Sweepstakes & Giveaways
I've written before about
link building by running competitions, but it's worth mentioning again here. If you pick an appropriate prize, fan sites should be particularly keen to link to this kind of giveaway. Ideally, see if you can aim for some kind of
'money-can't-buy' prize.
For example: you're running a night club, and Fatboy Slim is DJing one evening - so you get him to sign a turntable slip mat. You can then give them away via your website, and it's a great chance to contact every fan site for Fatboy Slim, breakbeat music, etc.
Exploit Rivalry
In many cases, you might find there's a whole bunch of fan sites for one particular topic; for example, there are more than a few
Twilight Saga fan sites - and I imagine there's some rivalry, particularly amongst the top dozen or so largest sites. Alternatively, you might use this tactic where a rivalry already exists, such as between college football teams - and by proxy, their individual fan sites.
You could create some kind of competitive feature, such as a survey or quiz that will rank the sites' members against each other. For example: "Which Pac-10 Team has the most comitted fans?" or "Harry Potter Trivia: Which fan site's members are the most knowledgeable?"
Create these features in a way that will encourage the sites to refer visitors to you by linking, and then make sure to let them all know about it.
Widgets
LocateTV have an awesome embeddable widget that can be customized to appeal to fan sites. (Eg: visit a
show page and click 'Add to my site'. You can see the embed in action on fan sites such as
ElvisPresleyScrapbook.co.uk.) This high-quality type of widget can be used by savvy editors of fan pages, and gives a good quality link back to LocateTV.
Of course, an embed can be much simpler - even a simple image could do the trick, which could be updated as often as necessary. For example: an entertainment news website could create images such as "Latest Britney Spears News: Release date for new album announced" - and then invite every one of the celeb's fan sites to embed the linked image, pointing to the category page for that person on the news site.
Feature Them
You might choose to engage with fan sites, perhaps to feature them in a list that you publish (e.g.:
"The Top 10 Fan Sites of Renaissance Composers") or to interview that site in particular (eg:
"Interview: Superbowl predictions with Larry from PackerChatters.com".)
You could at least get the featured sites to mention you, but approached in the right way, this kind of content could be very linkworthy and social media friendly; for example, Education Portal's "
Top Shakespeare Blogs" post was well tweeted, by those in the list as well as other Shakespeare fans.
Remember: fan sites are pretty special, particularly since they tend to be keen to link to good quality content about their subject. Just don't abuse it: they generally have savvy webmasters who can spot if they're being taken advantage of.
When you start thinking about fan sites, you'll realize quite quickly that there's lots more opportunities that are specific to your site, beyond those I've outlined here.
It's always fun to talk to people who are truly passionate about something (whether that happens to be Elgar or Ikea), so go ahead and enjoy putting some of these ideas into action.
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