BuzzStream has always been a great tool for collecting and organising your link prospecting and outreach. It did, however, suffer a little in the fact that you had to navigate away from it to qualify the sites that you had on your list.
This resulted in a lot of back and forth as you checked the sites and then returned to Buzzstream to pop in your newly discovered information.
This was addressed in March when the guys added a new tool in the BuzzBar allowing you to qualify possible outreach prospects without leaving the Buzzstream interface.
This short tutorial shows you how to integrate the collection of data from Link Prospector into Buzzstream and then qualify using the BuzzBar to find more opportunities in less time:
1. Head over to link prospector and go prospecting
For those of you not familiar with Link Prospector it is a tool that allows you to capture lots of data for potential linking partners and outreach. There are some great reviews and tutorials around the web that can help you out here.
For a quick introduction on collecting the prospects follow points 1 4 on the previous post that I wrote for Search Engine People about Link Prospector and Buzzstream. What follows expands on this technique with the BuzzBar.
2. Make sure you have set your global exclusions
Exclusions are crucial and you will need to build these up over time. Making sure that you exclude any potential site that could clog up your prospecting will ensure that you don't have to remove as much from Buzzstream at the qualifying stage. You may even want to exclude at the prospecting level for sites in your vertical that you already have links from or are not a great fit for the project.
3. Add the SEOmoz data (a new addition) and export
I thought I would mention this new feature from Link Prospector - although you don't need to add it as Buzzstream will add for you when you import your prospects.
Export your data.
Depending on how deep you have gone and the type of prospects you are looking for will determine whether you should export domains or paths. In this example we will export domains so that we can check for possible link and outreach opportunities at a high level.
If you are looking to qualify the prospects a little bit more before uploading to Buzzstream I suggest you have a read of these posts by John-Henry Scherck on his blog.
4. Have a look at your spread sheet and give yourself a pat on the back
Nice.
5. Import using the Citation Labs option
There are a number of options here making it easy to import in a number of ways. Choose Citation Labs.
6. Have a cup of tea
7. Marvel as Buzzstream does its magic
Let Buzzstream do its magic as it imports the data, tries to find contact details and social media sites associated with the sites in question.
8. Choose to view in BuzzBar
Choose the sites that you want to qualify by clicking the tick boxes on the left. If you want to filter them before so that you aren't wasting any time you can filter by a certain Page Rank or via a range of MozMetrics. Intelligent filtering will allow you to leave some duds on the cutting room floor.
Then comes the nifty part.
9. Qualify your prospects without leaving Buzzstream
Historically you had to go back and forth to qualify the sites and get the data into the records in Buzzstream. Not any more. The BuzzBar allows you to do it all within the tool itself. When you are checking dozens (or hundreds of sites) it drastically cuts down the time you spend adding the information that you need for outreach. Here is a quick overview of the interface:
a. See the website right inside the Buzzstream app (just click the button in the top left to go back and forth between the sites)
b. Get some top level metrics for the site clickable for a few more
c. Conduct outreach whilst looking at the site (press the button, choose from your templates and write an email whilst the site is fresh in your mind)
d. Adjust where the BuzzBar details appear on your screen
e. Click here to visit the site you are looking at
f. Adjust project details (edit the status of the site there and then)
g. Add discovered contact info whilst you are looking at the site (just one check and you have the details in your record)
h. Add details for any of the custom fields that you have created in Buzzstream
i. Add notes about that site for when you conduct outreach (just so you don't forget)
That's it! You then need to make sure that you have something of high enough quality to promote and the sparkling personality to get it featured via your amazing outreach!