How Aaron Orendorff Creates The Most Shared Posts on Copyblogger, Unbounce, & Shopify

They say necessity is the mother of invention. And failure is often one of the greatest catalysts and motivations of necessity.

Four years ago, Aaron Orendorff’s life was crumbling around him. He was living in the middle-of-nowhere, Oregon. In his words, he was “unemployed and unemployable.” He had no idea what he was going to do.

With his back up against the wall, Aaron launched a blog and was off to the races.

Now, Aaron is busy saving the world from bad content as a copywriter extraordinaire at IconiContent. Aaron is a contributor at Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Inc, Business Insider, Content Marketing Institute, Unbounce, and many other major business and marketing publications.

Listen to my interview with Aaron as we talk about how he turned his life around and started to get guest posts on major publications:

Jason’s Interview Notes With Aaron Orendorff

What were the building blocks that helped you start publishing on major sites?

Ignorance. Be aware of your ignorance, but don’t let it stop you. The thought of needing to be “good enough” often holds you back from what you can accomplish.

What was the first major publication you started writing for?

Two relationships that happened organically that helped – Ann Handley of Marketing Profs and Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger.

One email conversation between Demian and an editor was quite insightful:

Editor asked: “Is he a decent dude who deserves a chance?”
Demian: “Yes.”

And Aaron was off to the races.

Note: Aaron and I have found “pet projects” to be one the easiest way to begin connecting with influencers.

What should you prioritize first when getting published on major sites?

1. Get a feel for their publishing schedule and standard operating procedures. Places like Forbes and Inc. don’t do one-off publications.
2. Find out what’s popular on each site and similar sites. Simple process: Use Buzzsumo to find out what’s popular on Forbes and write that for Entrepreneur.
3. Check out editorial guidelines. Pay attention to word count, cross-linking rules, etc.
4. Write the full article before pitching. Here is a gift for you, it’s ready to publish.

Note: My personal experience with personal bloggers is it’s best to pitch 3 ideas, give an outline, and allow them to choose. This is what I did for getting on sites like Blogging Wizard, Mirasee (formerly Firepole Marketing), and Mad Lemmings. Consider what works for you, not others.

What were some of your biggest wastes of time?

1. Personal relationships did not work in getting a lead. It worked better to cold pitch them. Something like – “I finished this piece, perfect fit for this, here’s the article, let me know if interested.”
2. If you are making an ask, make sure it is relevant, short, and to-the-point.

How were you able to get the most shared (and “traffic-ed”) articles for Unbounce, Shopify-Plus, and Copyblogger? What was your process?

1. Sink 80% of your energy into 20% of your content.
2. Create long-form, beast articles that are going to establish you.
3. Start with what’s already popular, either on that site or a similar site
   1. Check Google Trends.
   2. Consider referencing celebrities or pop-culture.
   3. Use Buzzsumo.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of a good story!
5. Understand what’s the heaven and what’s the hell (see: Landing Page Optimization: Find Heaven By Saving Your Visitors From Hell).
   1. Do review mining (Amazon, AppRadius, Angie’s List, Yelp, Google Reviews)
      1. List out top competitors.
      2. Find out their ads, landing pages (what are the testimonials, what are the CTAs), and online reviews.
      3. Copy and paste, spend 3 days stare at all reviews, highlight key phrases.
6. Can also use influencers to juice a post.
7. Repurpose like a MAD MAN!

BTW, this is a key part of my content strategy for growing an eCommerce store from 0 to 50,000 visitors/month in a year.

Any other things to keep in mind in creating viral content?

• It’s not about creativity or invention. It’s about finding what’s already working. Don’t invent.
• There are little tweaks that the pros do that most overlook
  • Asking questions and answering them in the article
  • Creating clear structures
  • Adding examples
  • Double check numbers and stats
  • When you find a great illustration, reach out to that person for a little tidbit extra, just for that article.

What are other “20%” of things marketers should focus on?

Don’t overcome your weaknesses, play to your strengths.

What tools do you use to help you get more traffic from your articles?

“It’s not the best content that wins, it’s the best promoted content.” Andy Crestodina.

• Make collaboration as part of your creation process.
• Get in as many Slack groups as possible.
• Quuupromote
• Buzzsumo
• Google Trends
• Connect with influencers and learn from them!

What’s something that you believe true related to content marketing that most do not?

You don’t need to re-invent yourself every time. Repurpose your content. Most people have never heard of you once. You don’t need to be completely original.

Your Turn

Some of the biggest opportunities are on the other side of rejection.

What’s been your experience reaching out to bigger blogs and news publications? What have you found to work well? What failed?

Share your insight in the comments so we can learn from each other. And #LetsGetRejected.

PS – Love this interview? Check out Aaron’s course on guest posting on HUGE publications to help you grow your business and brand right after leaving a comment.