DEEP DIVE

Give before you ask

If you read my article last week, then you know how much I love reciprocity. The principle is hardwired into human psychology. When someone does something genuinely valuable for you with no strings attached, you naturally want to return the favor.

Below are some of the most creative ways to invoke reciprocity. 

1. Don’t do broken link building

Broken link building worked wonders back in 2015, but not so much these days. Do not go off and try a broken link building campaign. You will be disappointed with the results.

The below screenshot from my LinkedIn post this week illustrates how I feel about broken link building. 

2. Leverage your email list for e-commerce partnerships

If you have an email list (and if you don't, what the hell are you doing?), you're sitting on a gold mine for reciprocity-based link building.

I've built links to several of my sites by reaching out to e-commerce brands with a simple offer: "I'd like to promote your product to my email list of X people who are interested in Y. All I ask in return is consideration for a link on your site."

Why does this approach work?

• You're leading with genuine value.

• They get actual customers and sales.

• The link becomes a natural thank-you rather than a transaction.

To make this even better, mention their product within your email list, get some clicks/sales, and then reach out with the data to show them. 

Even if they don’t give you a link, you’re on a fast track to building a relationship.

3. Social media promotion as currency

The email list tip above applies to social media too. If you have a decent social following, use it. That said, I would offer three to four posts instead of a one-off. A social media post is typically valued lower than an email blast.

Pro tip: Before reaching out for a link, share their content, tag them, and drive real traffic their way.

4. Update their outdated design assets

This is one of the coolest ideas I read in Jon Cooper’s post. I’ll let the image below do the talking.

I don’t know how well this exact strategy will work these days, but the idea helps get the creative juices flowing. The core principle is simple: Identify your unique skills that you can execute quickly at scale, and that will provide genuine value to others.

Something similar recently worked on me. An AI quiz generator reached out to one of our affiliate sites offering to build a quiz for our page, free of charge. 

Ideally, the interactive element would boost engagement and potentially increase our conversion rates by giving users personalized results.

When they sent over the HTML code, I realized they added a hyperlink back to their homepage within it. But guess what? I couldn’t care less. The quiz worked and I was happy to test the theory with little time investment on my end. 

5. Buy their stuff ahead of time

I tried this strategy about 10 years ago and it crushed with individual bloggers and authors: Buy their stuff before reaching out.

When I visited a blogger's website, I would immediately look in their sidebar and menu nav to see if they’ve published any books (you’d be amazed at how many have).

If they had, I'd purchase their book on Amazon and read 30–50 pages of it. Then, in my outreach email, I'd mention specific parts I enjoyed.

This works brilliantly for several reasons:

• These bloggers aren’t selling a ton of books, so they notice when someone purchases. 

• Even better, they genuinely care about the topic. When you show them you’ve read their work, they LOVE it. The specific book references prove you're not just another spammer.

• You've already supported them financially.

Use the intro email to build a relationship, and then explain what you do. Also, at this point I would share an article of mine that’s similar to the concepts within their book. 

If the article is good, more often than not you won’t even need to ask them to share it. They just will. 

6. Use the donate button to your advantage

Many bloggers and content creators have donation buttons on their sites. Before sending outreach emails, I'd make a small donation ($5–$20 depending on the site size) and include the transaction ID in my email.

A side benefit is that PayPal donations often reveal their personal email address, giving you a direct line of communication instead of hitting their "info@" address where your email competes with 50 other link requests.

This works, but it can come off as ungenuine and transactional. In fact, I remember two to three people refunding the donation because it looked more like advertising. You’re better off buying something from them instead.

The strongest reciprocity rule comes from a purely interpersonal nature where neither money nor commercial exchange is at issue.

Yes, this strategy can work wonders, but finding ways to invoke reciprocity without exchanging money is even better.

6. Build their website

Website-building companies LOVED doing this back in the day, but Gregory’s approach was much more strategic.

This also reminds me of the affiliate marketing business The Free Website Guys. They’ll build your website completely for free BUT when you sign up for hosting, you need to use their BlueHost affiliate link, which has insane payouts. 

We call this a loss leader. They lose a bit of money up front, but their $100 cost to build your website gets paid off a month later and 10x’s in a year.

7. Update their content

I’ve always loved this approach and it’s even worked on me before. Once you find a website you want a link on, look at what keywords they’re ranking for in positions 4–10. Then offer to update their content to get them into the number one slot. 

If I were reaching out to my old employer (Ammo.com), I’d see these rankings:

I noticed it’s sixth for “10mm vs 9mm.”

According to the screenshot below, it’s getting about 1,166 visitors to this page each month. If I could get it into the number one position, that would increase to 3,400.

This would 3x the number of monthly visitors to this page. 

What’s more, I know this is an informational piece of content where they are trying to capture email addresses. Assuming a 1% conversion rate to the email list, these are the new numbers. 

• OLD: 1,166 visitors x 1% = 11 emails per month

• NEW: 3,400 visitors x 1% = 34 emails per month

We don’t know the LTV of a subscriber or customer, so we can’t accurately back this into additional revenue generated, but this sort of clear value add makes it easy for someone to say yes. 

More often than not, websites know of these opportunities and can see the value, but they don’t have the TIME. You do, if it gets you a link! 

8. Take them golfing

I worked with James eight or nine years ago, and he was always an amazing link builder. 

Little did I know, he was doing it from the golf course. 😉

Your next steps

Reading articles and theory is cool, but you know what will actually move the needle for your business?

Action. Don't just read this.

Implement it or send it to a team member.

Here's what to do next:

1. Audit your existing assets. What do you have that provides genuine value (email list, social following, design skills, etc.)?

2. Create a list of 10–20 high-value link targets in your niche.

3. Research each target to find their products, donation options, or content needs.

4. Provide value first and then follow up asking for a link.

5. Track your success rate compared to your previous outreach methods.