In terms of link building, when a post has just been created, usually the website is the one that is most active in doing the outreach. The more active they market the link the more backlinks they'll get. While this strategy works wonders, it will usually last only for a while.
To most people, when marketing stops, backlink stops growing.
When a website only has a few posts, marketing may not be that difficult or time consuming. But as the website matures, it may have hundreds or even thousands or more posts to promote. It's almost impossible to market each and every page everyday as it will consume much more resources that revenue.
In terms of content marketing, webmasters need to think about the long-term benefits as a part of their link building strategy. But without the right content, webmasters will have difficulties in earning links as soon as they stop doing the outreach.
In order to make content works on its own without the efforts of marketing and re-marketing, webmasters need to make the content to have a momentum sufficient for it to run for months or even years.
The key for this long-term strategy is to create a content that acts as a source.
Be A Source To Drive Backlinks
Acting as a source means to have something that other people will link to. The goal is to be the one that others rely as a source to cite.
Bloggers, websites and even news channels need sources to verify the contents they are creating. On the web where information gathers, writers tend to constantly seek out sources that will back up their claims, strengthen their argument or to just provide further reading for readers.
So if you can act as a reliable source for them, your content can serve as a citation, and you're in a great position to earn a lot of backlinks, passively.
Becoming A Source
Before you can enjoy the fruit, you need to do a lot of work.
The first thing to do is to get fresh data about the current trend related to your niche. You may want to survey your customers or do a survey in your industry. Using the external data, you can use it to leverage your internal data to see what could possibility be the most effective option for your new content.
Research is probably the most time-consuming process before you can create a great link-magnet content. To save a lot of your research time, you can try seeking curated contents others have written. This will help you since they've already pulled substantial amount of information you can use, all in one place.
Another way is to combine insightful data from multiple credible sources into one massive resource. You can then update the existing data with your own by adding your own list of fresh data.
Research For New Data
There is a little chance for you to get passive backlinks if you are citing others. The goal of becoming a source is to make others cite you, not the other way around.
In order to be a great source for others, you need to feature something that is unique and features something or some thoughts that haven't been written by others on the web. To do this, you must do prior researches to make one powerful authoritative links.
Besides having the ability to do outreach on its own, this type of content can also bring syndication. So for example if you pitched one site with your high on search engines, giving you even more traffic and links.
If you can this correctly, you will not only get traffic and backlinks, but also data. The insight can help you determine what can be updated on your website and contents, and what can be improved. The information also eases you to brainstorm new acquisition ideas.
Don't Stop Promoting
You post is up and running, and it's becoming a source for others to cite. But don't stop just there. You still need to promote your content, and should never call a stop for actively doing outreach and promotion to backlinks.
Content promotion should serve as your content's first push that gives it the momentum to earn backlinks on its own. But be aware of the shifting trend and new information sources that can debate your content. Most people will rely on the latest data because newer data tends to be more powerful and actual.
To counter the issue, you may need to update some parts of the content to reflect the newer counterpart. But again, the promotion should start from the beginning. However, this time should be easier because you've already managed to get more backlinks than those newer sources.