Those of you familiar with the blog will know that I try to post results from a new experiment every Thursday. Luckily, I'm always experimenting with new things and have no shortage of things to write about.
This week I'm going to be sharing some of my results with expert roundup posts.
What Is An Expert Roundup? And Why Create One?
An expert roundup is pretty much what it sounds like. You have a question or two, and you submit it to different experts in your niche. You then compile all of their answers into a single “roundup” post, and publish it.
Why do it? There are several direct benefits of posting a roundup, and they're all brilliant.
Your site will grow in stature.
When your site has some of the best experts in its niche speaking on a subject, people are going to take note and come back for more in future. Your site will gain authority not only because it has some expert advice on it, but because people will naturally assume that all of these experts are endorsing you.
If they're prepared to give you their time, maybe others in the audience should too.
You'll reach new audiences.
Once an expert has answered your question, it's pretty easy for you to get back to them when the post is live and ask for them to help spread the word. Most of them will tweet or FB share the post, and before you know it, you've reached thousands of new users.
The result is something that looks like this:
Not only did I get a massive traffic spike, my average traffic actually increased as a result.
When one of the experts tweeted my post to a couple of hundred thousand followers, I knew I was onto something good.
As well as them sharing with their social networks, some of them will even link to your post from their sites. This has happened to me on a couple of occasions.
Which brings us onto the next point…
You'll attract links.
Since that post went live a few months ago, it's attracted more links from other sites than any other piece of content I've produced, and none of them were asked for.
Do you know how hard it is to get people to link to your posts without asking them or giving them an incentive to do so?
When you're producing something that everyone in the niche can benefit from, and all the experts with their huge audiences are helping spread the word about it, links can sometimes come pouring in.
You'll build relationships.
This one is intangible. As a result of reaching out to experts and getting some of them to answer your questions, you'll ultimately start becoming friends with them.
Some will be so busy that they answer your question, share it out, but it goes no further. Others will remember you reached out to them, and will reach out to you in turn later.
I've had a couple of people who I featured in this post contact me since. I like to think that a couple of them are becoming my “e-friends”, and in this business, that's invaluable.
This is especially powerful in some niches where people don't regularly get reached out to. Think how happy they'll feel and how much they'll want to work with you again in the future!
You can do one no matter your site age.
This is less of a direct benefit of publishing one, but more why you should consider one. It works no matter how old your site is. A new site will benefit because it will create some noise for you, get you on a lot of radars, and help you get some excellent content.
An older site will benefit because it will likely already have a lot of good content, so all those new visitors who come to your site will be more likely to stick around and come back.
You can do as many as you want.
This doesn't have to be a one-off thing. You can do them weekly, monthly, or whenever you feel like it.
Obviously you don't want to annoy the experts by asking them a question every week, so either limit how often you do it, or get a really big list of experts and rotate between them.
All of these things combined.
The best thing about it is that you get all of the above. If you were to create a post JUST for backlinks, it would be a lot of work just for a few links. Likewise, it would be a lot of work just for some social shares or for building a relationship.
There are more specific things you can do if you want to focus on only one of the above benefits.
The fact that you get ALL of them though, and maybe even some more (such as new email subscribers or sales) shows just why everyone should consider doing a roundup post.
How Do You Create One?
Everyone will develop their own method, but here's the order I generally follow:
1.) Come up with an idea.
With this kind of thing, you CAN do keyword research, but in most cases it's better to focus on the audience. What would they want to know from experts in the niche?
Check forums, blog comments and Facebook groups for popular questions. Make a list of ideas and see which one would make a great expert roundup post.
You could even do one every month and really leverage the traffic. Remember what I said about not harassing experts though.
2.) Make a list of experts that you can contact about it.
The more the better! I had success just asking 7; imagine how much you could get if you asked 50?
Unless you are well known in the niche or familiar with a lot of the experts, you might not be able to get 50 first time around though. Just try a few and see what happens, then try some more.
3.) Make an initial contact with them if possible.
People are much more likely to help out if they've seen you around already. Get in touch with them on Twitter (compliments always go well), Facebook, or wherever else they like to hang out.
Just comment on something they've done, ask them a basic question, and let them know you exist.
4.) Email them your question.
Keep it concise, a lot of these experts don't have time to read your rambling email. Here's a good template:
Hey {Name},
Great chatting with you on [inset place you chatted with them here] the other day!
I actually had a quick question for you.
I'm doing an expert roundup post on {insert subject here} and wondered if you'd have a couple of minutes to answer a question:
{Question goes here}
I'll of course include a link back to your website/social profile in the post.
I'm planning to publish it in two weeks time, so if you could get back to me in the next 7 days, that would be amazing.
Thanks,
{Your Name}
{Your website.}
5.) Compile the results.
Once you've got all the answers, it's up to you how you present them. The best thing is to give each expert their own section with a photo, brief blurb about their website, and their answer.
Don't forget the link!
As well as all of that, you can also include charts or graphs showing the combined data. If everyone has given a similar answer, you can show a tally or bar graph of which answer is more popular.
Once you've got it looking really good, publish it!
Read my example post here: http://www.humanproofdesigns.com/what-7-experts-say-about-advanced-link-building-strategies/
6.) Notify the experts
As well as sharing out your post through the usual channels, email the experts back and let them know it's live. Give them a “nudge” to help spread the word.
Most of them will give you a social share, some will comment on the post, and a few will even give you a link at some point.
Now you can sit back and watch your content go viral:
7.) Bonus tip. Create a lead magnet.
If you're getting all this extra traffic but not capturing any subscribers, you'll kick yourself later (as I did).
Create something specific to the post, such as a PDF checklist or additional bonus, and offer it to anyone who subscribes. You'll thank yourself about this later.
I blogged a bit about this concept last week.
The main thing to remember is to offer them something that they can immediately consume, and something highly relevant to the post.
If You Don't Have The Time
There's obviously a lot of work that goes into a roundup post, but it's well worth it (I'm sure you've realized that by now). I hope I've given you the directions to get started on doing this yourself and I know you'll see great results.
But what if you just don't have the time to invest in putting all of this together?
I'm going to be launching an additional service in the next few months, and as you may have guessed, it's going to be producing expert roundup posts for clients.
As I'm still ironing out the process and getting it all smooth, I'm going to offer it to the first five people who contact me, and I'm going to offer it for half-price.
I've set up a special mailing list about it here.
Join the list, and the first five people who do so will get a massive discount. I'll send emails out letting people know in a few days.
Even if you're number 6, I'll give you the discount later when I'm ready to roll out more.
Whatever happens, I hope you ALL end up with an amazing roundup post to dominate your niche with.