I’ve been asked this recently what the heck is a linkable asset and why do I want one? so I thought I would share. Marketing speak – linkable assets are any part of your online “content” that attracts organic or friendly links from others.
For example, I consider my I Recommend page as a linkable asset. I maintain that page so people could link to it as a resource or reference. I’ve also seen demos who have a page of project examples from one stamp set. I find that very helpful and have linked to it.
Essentially, (and this comes straight from the marketing book), within your blog you can build many linkable assets such as:
* An online directory
* Curated content
* Apps and tools
* Message board or forum
* Active two-way blog discussions
* Tutorials
Don’t you agree that everything above is a valuable asset that other people may want to link? Especially if it’s not a sales page or direct commercial activity. If you give valuable enough information, they’ll link to them often. You can find ways to get links to these assets via guest blogging, forum commenting, swapping links with fellow demos from different countries, and so forth. It’s called building backlinks. And by building content that people organically want to link to because they’re worth something, it’ll be that much easier to get those backlinks.
To make any page on your blog valuable, assess how it can be of service to your your Stampin’ Up! audience.
* What do they need?
* What will make that page a destination for crafters, scrapbookers, etc?
* Does your audience need to be able to go to a page that lists holidays or card verses?
* Does your target market need to know how to use those tools they purchased?
* Does your audience need videos and tutorials on how to do something?
* Does you customers want to know how to use a tool 3 different ways?
* Could a color directory help them to put colors together?
* How about card templates, scrapbook layouts, or challenges?
* What about listing a basic toolkit for beginners?
* Can you make your blog a one-stop resource for your audience by curating other people’s valuable linkable assets?
Did I get you thinking? Good. Starting with one idea, build it out to make it as useful as possible so that it truly adds value to your target market. Then ask your customers how you can make it better. Promote the page to your friends, family, fans, and customers to show that you care about their needs. By promoting your new “resource” page, you’re bringing awareness to the asset in a good way.
Finally, once awareness takes hold, if the page continues to be a value to your target market, other people will discover it and start creating their own links – the good kind of backlinks. These are the backlinks that Google likes the most; the ones you have no control over that tells them that your asset is valuable and worth a higher page rank. The more people who link to your page, the more ranking you will have.
Hopefully, that answered the question. Feel free to ask me any details below in the comments.
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