Resource page link building: eight pitch mistakes and their fixes

Broad or narrow: choosing the angle of the pitch

A common worry is whether to pitch broadly or narrowly. The answer depends on the page you are writing to, because a resource page is narrow by design and the pitch has to match it.

Why a broad pitch gets skipped

A line such as we help every kind of business with their online presence tells a curator nothing about their list. A resource page is built around one subject, so an offer with no subject has no shelf to sit on.

Broad messages also read like a sales deck, and a sales deck is exactly what the curator is hoping not to open.

Where a narrow pitch goes wrong

Narrow can be a trap as well. A pitch aimed at one very small group, such as offices of a certain size in a certain town, may fit nothing on the page you are writing to. The curator's list covers a subject, not your customer base.

Check the match before you narrow. The subject of the page is what the curator reads for, and the buyer you have in mind is not on that page.

Choosing the angle from the page itself

Open the resource page and read its heading, its intro and three entries. The angle is usually sitting there in the curator's own words, so match your message to that vocabulary instead of inventing a new one.

Say you find a page on free accounting tools for freelancers. Your note should speak to freelancers and tools, not to small business in general, because that is the frame the curator already uses.

Asking for a faster yes

Speed matters less than clarity. Still, a reply that takes a minute to write gets sent far more often than one that takes twenty.

Make the answer cost one word

Ask a question a curator can answer with a yes, a no or a name. Would a listing under the tools heading suit your page? is an easy call. Would you be open to a long discussion about a partnership? is not, and most people will leave it for later.

Once a yes is cheap, the curator can give it between two other jobs.

A ready line the curator can paste

Offering a sentence the curator could drop into their own list saves them a writing job. Something like: a free guide to choosing a kitchen scale, dated and updated this season, with the link below.

Keep the line short enough to paste as it stands, and keep your own name out of it when the curator writes in the first person.

What to do with a slow reply

A slow reply is not a refusal. Hold the thread open, send the single nudge from the list above, and set a reminder for two weeks on. Speed is not your job here. Patience is.

If the curator writes back later, answer within a day, even if the answer is only thanks. A reply that lands while the thread is still warm reads as a person, and that counts for more than a quick line.

A made-up week of pitches, worked through

This is an invented example with invented names. It shows how a small batch can run without turning into a mailing.

Monday: pick three pages

Say you keep a site about bread baking and want listings on resource pages. On Monday you find three living lists on the subject, each with a date from this year and a named curator. You write down the entry you would sit beside on each one.

Skip any list that fails the checks in the decision tree. Three good targets beat ten doubtful ones.

Tuesday to Thursday: write three short notes

Each note opens with a sentence drawn from the page you are writing to. None of the three mentions the others. Read each one aloud to check that it sounds like you and not like a form.

Cut anything that could be pasted into any of the three without a change. What is left is the part that was written for that curator.

Friday: log, then wait

The three rows go onto the sheet with dates. Nothing else happens until a reply arrives or two weeks have passed. Then you send one nudge to any curator still quiet and close the rest.

A week like this takes a couple of hours, and nothing in it looks like a campaign. That is the point of the exercise.

Questions a curator asks before replying

Before a curator answers, they tend to ask themselves a short list of questions. Writing your message as if you were answering those questions first is a fair way to prepare it.

Is this page for my readers?

A curator's first concern is the people who read their own page. If your entry helps them solve a problem they already bring, it passes. If it mainly helps you, it fails, however well the note is written.

Say in one line who the page helps. If you cannot, the curator will not work it out for you.

Does the link belong next to the others?

Curators look at the neighbours. A resource page with careful, descriptive entries will not welcome a link that reads like a banner. Check the tone of the existing entries and match it in your own sentence.

A plain description of what the destination contains is usually the right register.

Will this still be right next year?

A curator would rather list a page that stays accurate than one that will need replacing soon. Say what you will keep current, and promise only what you can actually do. A small, honest commitment reads better than a grand one.

Date the page clearly, so a reader and the curator can see when it was last touched.

Who is writing?

A name, a role and one plain sentence about why you care about the subject tell the curator that a person is behind the message. A company logo with no person attached rarely gets the same warm read.

If you work alone, say so. A small, honest sender is easier to trust than a brand that hides its size.

Keeping follow-ups polite

A follow-up is where most pushy outreach begins. One short note is polite. Three in a week starts to feel like pressure, even when every message is friendly.

Write the nudge as a new thought

A good follow-up adds something rather than repeating the first note. Mention a post you have published since, or a detail the curator could use, and keep it to two sentences.

Repeating the same request in the same words tells the curator you did not read their reply, because they may not have sent one.

Respect a closed door

If a curator writes back to say no, thank them and stop. Do not send a reworded version a month later, and do not write to another person on the same site to ask again.

A closed door is information. It tells you where the list stands, which is useful the next time you look.

Know when the file is closed

After one nudge and a quiet fortnight, close the row on your sheet and move on. A closed file is not a failure. It frees time for the next list, and that list may well say yes.

Keep the old row. Over a few months it shows which subjects and which kinds of note worked, and that is worth more than memory.