The Art of Asking

The answer is always no until you ask. A friend of mine told me that in college and it's stuck with me ever since.

In the search marketing industry, asking is very important. We ask businesses to choose us as their SEO/PPC firm. We ask clients to upload our recommendations onto their websites. We ask for links. We ask coworkers to go to Starbucks with us. There's just a whole lotta asking going on.

• Over at YOUmoz (the user-generated content blog at SEOmoz) David Chase pointed out the importance of asking. He asked SEOmoz staffer Rebecca Kelley to digg an article. She did. It ended up on the homepage.
  
  
• Speaking of YOUmoz, I recently wrote a Joey Altherr to ask him a followup question about a post he contributed. He responded, but then added me to his Google Talk list and asked me to Digg an article. So I did what any good and decent blogger would do. I digged it. All because he asked.
  
  
• Yesterday I asked Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land to consider including my post, How to Make Viral Video Work for Your Business, in the daily recap. He did. I've never met the guy and he has no idea who I am. But I asked and he said yes.
  

You just really can't make it in this business alone. As Lisa Barone pointed out today on the Bruce Clay blog, you have to go out there and make some friends. A little asking can go a long way. So go ahead, get your ask on!


Technorati: seo, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, online marketing, internet marketing, digg