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I’ll show you how to create an expert roundup in this guide. This expert roundup guide is written step by step so you can easily follow and replicate it. I made three successful expert roundups, getting 15000 highly targeted visitors, around 1500 new Twitter followers, 2000 social media shares, 90 email subscribers, and 42 new backlinks.

You can easily replicate it whatever your niche is: finance, blogging, internet marketing, dating, you name it. That’s the beauty of expert roundups: They can be created in almost any niche and bring great results.

Here are the expert roundups I created:

Check out the 50 SEO Experts roundup. First, the numbers: We got 3519 highly targeted visitors, around 300 new Twitter followers, 500 social media shares, 20 email subscribers, and 14 new backlinks in the first 30 days after we published the expert roundup.

Considering this was my first roundup, it is pretty good, and I’ve made some mistakes. I will mention them so that you can avoid them. Also, I got an invitation to participate in another expert roundup created by Hussain Omar.

As you can see, this roundup helped me develop significant connections with awesome bloggers and influencers in the SEO niche.

In general, these people are very busy and otherwise will be, let’s say, at least challenging to interact with.

What is an expert roundup?

An expert roundup post is a blog post that features contributions by multiple experts in your niche. Typically, as the host blogger, you will provide an interesting topic for discussion or a question and then reach various experts to share their opinions.

Each participant should be someone with some authority that has something to contribute to your audience.

The most effective roundups pose a question that the experts can efficiently respond to. It should be a question that people would like to find the answer to and contain some actionable advice that will help them.

As you can see, a roundup can be about any topic so that you can do it in any niche you are active in, such as travel, dating, fitness, diets, finance, you name it. In each niche, there are bloggers and experts that people would love to hear their opinions.

Check out the 5-minute video I found on YouTube about expert roundups, which briefly explains how to create an expert roundup.

So now that you have a pretty good idea of what expert roundups are, let’s see what your benefits to hosting one are:

Expert Roundup Benefits

Before speaking about benefits, I’d like to warn you there is some work involved. You should prepare for at least 40 work hours to plan, create, and promote a successful expert roundup. That is what it took me for the first one, but I found out I can automate using tools, so I think it’s safe to say you can end up with 25-35 hours of work for a roundup.

The good news is that there isn’t any deadline, so you can split your working hours between your other essential tasks. Other than time, you may spend some money if you decide to give a little boost to the roundup and do paid Facebook advertising or even send a press release with the conclusions to get more traffic.

Here are the benefits for the blogger who organizes the expert roundup:

Establish yourself within the blogging community in your niche

This is an excellent strategy to establish yourself quickly or your company within the blogging community for your niche. Especially if you are pretty new and not many know you.

And since you will be linking, sharing, and promoting your contributors’ responses, many of them will be willing to help you down the line.

It will give you heavy targeted traffic.

Most of the experts who participate will send traffic directly to your post by sharing it with their social circles. Because a roundup compiles intelligent insights from knowledgeable figures, it’s the type of content people actively want to share.

It will earn you some good backlinks.

As I’d like to say, backlinks are the currency when discussing SEO. Everyone who wants to optimize a website needs backlinks.

Experts roundups are a pretty effective way to get yourself some backlinks in two ways: First, many experts have a page on their blogs with all their contributions, interviews, etc.

Secondly, research bloggers and journalists can use the roundup conclusions in their materials. For instance, several bloggers quoted my roundup and wrote articles on what we should focus on in SEO.

You will get email subscribers.

Email subscribers are more important than social shares, followers, and even most of the backlinks you will get.

I explained why in this article. You should create a 1-3 page booklet with the roundup’s conclusions. Offer it to your visitors in exchange for their email addresses.

#2.5 Establish relationships with blogging influencers in your niche.

The biggest advantage roundups provide you with is RELATIONSHIPS, not just the social media shares and backlinks generated. That leads to more successful blog posts in the future and guest blogging gigs with some of the best blogs available in your niche.

A relationship can bring hundreds of thousands of leads and clients down the road versus a link or Tweet that can generate a sale or two.

How do you prepare your expert round?

Before creating the roundup, several things need to be done. All of them will influence the response rate, making it a success or a failure, so make sure you have them all right:

Do your research

Before launching an expert roundup, I encourage you to check previous roundups created in your niche. This will help you develop a new topic/question (especially if you are in a small niche with many influential people) and make a list of people who already participated.

Google your niche + experts, your niche + experts roundup, your niche + specialists, your niche + roundup to find previous roundups.

Prepare your website/blog.

The blog/website where you host the roundup is essential, and there are several things you need to take care of:

Ensure your hosting package will support traffic spikes so your account will not be blocked or your website slowed down.

Check your website for broken pages or images, and list your contact link, email address, and social profiles in visible spots. The About Us and Contact pages should be updated and working.

If you haven’t written anything new for an extended period, update your content. Not many will contribute to a website that is not up to date or has visitors.

Tweak your social profiles

Most experts are active on social media. Depending on your niche, they may be using LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter. If you are in digital marketing, most experts are using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram (in this order).

Check your social media profiles and ensure they are up to date and clean, and share quality information, not pictures from the latest party or when you got drunk. Most people you will contact do not know you; the first (digital) impression is crucial.

Your email address should look like a pro

Add your blog, social media accounts, and website to your email signature.

You may also add your last blog post. Most of the people you contact want to learn more about the roundup guests, as they don’t want their names listed in shady places. Check this tutorial for more tips on setting up your email signature.

How to create an expert roundup

So, you still want to create an expert roundup and enjoy the benefits I’ve listed above. Good then.. let’s go. I will show you how I made my roundup so you can replicate the strategy in your niche.

Choose a good topic

First, you need to decide on a topic and question for your roundup. Questions that focus on solutions to specific problems, software tools to solve a problem, or tips and tactics are great directions when creating a roundup.

Whatever topic you choose, you want to make it as easy as possible for your experts to answer the question. Make your question specific and limit the scope so busy experts can provide shorter answers.

If you don’t have an idea yet, check previous roundups created in your niche, as I’ve shown you, and tweak them slightly.

Create a list of experts

Create an Excel/ Google Drive document with the following fields (Name, Website, Email, Phone, Social Media Account #1, Social Media Account #2, 1st contact attempt, 2nd contact attempt, Answer, Contribution) and introduce each person you are willing to participate. You will use this list many times, so keep it current.

The experts you will contact will most likely reply and will like to participate in your roundup if they know you or your website has a lot of traffic and authority. If you’re new, prepare yourself for a lot of rejection or silence from their end.

And let’s face it, these guys are pretty busy managing big companies, attending conferences around the world, or drinking cocktails at the pool. Answering expert roundup requests from all kinds of newbies is not like their first thing in the morning.

I was surprised to see two or three successful influencers who answered my request quickly and were willing to help me, which I highly appreciated, but this is not a general rule.

Find experts willing to participate in your roundup

Here are several methods we tested and worked for us to find experts willing to participate in an expert roundup:

Check your contacts list

Check your email inbox /contacts list / Skype and business cards for influencers you already know. If they know you or a familiar friend, you can introduce him to make sure you ask him to do it. Politely ask them to participate in your roundup.

This step is critical.

As I’ve said, you will see better response rates, as people you already know will be more willing to work with you.

Scan social media accounts for prospects.

 I’ve used Twitter and Linkedin mostly to get in touch with my prospects, as these social networks are primarily used in the SEO niche. In 3rd place is Facebook, and Instagram comes in 4th. Use the search functions to find out influencers in your niche.

Look for experts who participated in previous roundups

Experts who have already contributed to earlier roundups are more willing to participate as they know the benefits of this type of post. They are also already seen as the authority in your niche, and your readers will like to see familiar names.

Use Google to find previous roundups and contact the participants. Use keywords like: “[your niche] expert roundup”, “[your niche] roundup”, “[your niche] bloggers” etc.

Most roundups list the contributors’ websites and social media profits, so it’s a no-brainer to contact them. If you don’t have those contacts, you may have to search their names on Google and popular social networks to find their accounts.

In the sheet, add all the experts you’d like featured in your roundup, along with their social media profiles and websites.

Search on Google for blogs and magazines in your niche

If the experts have a blog and social accounts, you should get yourself introduced by commenting on their posts before contacting them and asking them a favor to participate. Nothing too much or too intrusive. All you need to do is make your name and face familiar to them.

When they get the email with your request and ask themselves, “Who this guy or this gal is?” an honest answer should come to their minds: “Is the guy that commented on my blog or the guy that asked me that question on the conference.”

You can manually search for experts in your niche using Google or tools like BuzzSumo, ScrapeBox, NinjaOutReach, PitchBox, Outreach—Buzz, or LinkAssistant [Check our review here] from SEO Power Suite.

I haven’t used any tools for my first roundup, but I will use them when creating the second, as it speeds up the process.

Create a list of keywords for your niche, add a blog, blogger, influencer, or expert at the end of every word, and run Google searches. You should contact the people from the first three pages. You may also look for bloggers lists already created by others and contact those from that list.

In the sheet, add all the experts you’d like featured in your roundup, along with their social media profiles and websites.

Fine-tune your list of experts.

If you followed all the steps above, you should now have a large list of experts. Please note that I emptied the email column before taking the screenshot to protect the contributors’ privacy. Make sure you have at least two contact methods for each prospect (Email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Phone number, etc.).

You can use a tool called URLProfiler, which comes with 14 days of a free trial, which is enough for what you need.

With URLProfiler, you can get details about most websites—social media accounts, contact pages, email addresses, phone numbers, etc. It is an excellent tool for outreach, and I recommend it.

If you have trouble finding website contact email addresses, try Hunter.io. It’s pretty good at finding working email addresses. The free plan allows you to make 150 monthly requests, which should be enough for your roundup.

How to contact the experts for the roundup

As I’ve said, you might use outreach tools like BuzzSumo, NinjaOutReach, or LinkAssistant, but I wouldn’t recommend using tools, especially if this is your first roundup. Instead, try to get personal and address each contributor one by one.

Here is a special offer for Monetize.info readers:

You can try NinjaOutreach for two weeks without entering your credit card details. Fill out the form, and you can use all the features of Ninja Outreach. 2 weeks are more than enough to find out if this tool works for you and your niche.

If you can’t find a particular expert’s email address, you can try sending your question directly on Twitter. I did this successfully in my first roundup to collect answers from four people I otherwise would not have been able to reach.

Contact the experts on Twitter.

On Twitter, you contact the users by mentioning their username in a message and asking them politely if they want to participate. This way, you attract their attention as they get a message when someone mentions them. When you get their acceptance, you send them the roundup details. For my roundup, I’ve used the following message:

@Username Hello. Would you like to participate in an SEO expert roundup regarding 2020 SEO trends? Thank you

You should also follow them, and if they follow you back, you can send them a direct message. However, the short messages mentioned weren’t more effective, as direct messages are mostly used for self-promotion and spam, so not many Twitter users check them.

Email Outreach Templates

Here is the template you can use to outreach. When you get confirmation of some of the big names in your niches, you may mention those to make it more attractive to contributors:

Outreaching Tips:

Create the expert roundup post on your site

When you receive an answer, add it to a document with the contributor’s bio, picture, and social profiles. You may also create a post on your blog and add the answers directly, one by one, as long as you receive them.

Remember to update your spreadsheet of participants so you will have a clear picture of who sent the contributions and who didn’t. Also, send an immediate thank-you email to the contributor, adding that you will let them know when the roundup is live.

The length of your roundup article depends on how many people you’ve invited to participate and, of course, how many people respond.

Tip:

You may create a PDF file with conclusions that your visitors can download in exchange for subscribing to your list or for sharing the roundup.

Once the deadline is reached, you’ve finished putting together your roundup post, edited and proofread it a hundred times, and you’re ready to hit that publish button.

Promote the expert roundup.

Ok, so you have published your first expert roundup. Well, that’s great, but your work is not finished—not even close. You have to promote it and attract visitors. Not only will you promote the post, but potentially, everyone who has contributed to your roundup post will also want to promote it.

Inform the experts the roundup is live.

Once the post is live, you will want to let the experts know it’s ready for full promotion. But you don’t want to send them a link to the post and let them figure out what to do from there.

Start by creating a ClicktoTweet link to allow the expert to share the post immediately with a custom message.

Promote the roundup on social media

Share the post on all your social media accounts and tag the contributors.

On Facebook, you can tag them all in one place. You are limited to 160 characters on Twitter, so you will need several posts to include them all. You may consist of 3-5 posts daily, and you will tag them all in several days.

You may also purchase Facebook advertising. If you target the audience well with less than 10 dollars, I doubled my reach (1,037 organic and 1,076 paid reach)

Inform your readers about the expert roundup.

Before posting the roundup, you may email your list, letting them know to check your website on the publishing date. Tell them to prepare their questions so the experts can visit the roundup post and answer them.

Remind your readers about the big launch a few days before you post. Then, send them the big announcement email on launch day. Sending multiple emails raises awareness and adds a sense of importance to your roundup post.

Announce other people from your niche.

You have created a nice piece of knowledge, so you may reach people from your niche to check it and add their input. Use the same techniques to find influencers and tell them to check the roundup. Invite other bloggers and helpfully.

Let the press know about the roundup.

Remember to email journalists about the roundup, as this kind of article gets easily noticed in the media. You can go one step further and send them the pdf with conclusions to easily create the press article. Also, you may send a press release with the conclusions of the roundup.

What are the experts saying?

I’ve asked several participants for their opinions on the roundup and tips for expert roundup creators.

Takeaways

Expert roundup posts can help you and your blog stand out when done correctly. Above all else, they can value your readers and blog followers greatly.

Now, you will have a fantastic piece of content that you, the experts, and your audience will love – and will love to share.

Yes, they take time to put together, but they’re worth your time, folks. You will also have made new, influential connections in your niche.

Writing great content isn’t enough to get noticed when you’re starting out. Use expert roundups to make yourself seen and establish excellent relations with folks in your niche. Now that you’ve introduced yourself to the experts, you can create interviews and keep them connected.

Download now all the resources used here and this post in a friendly formatted PDF by filling out the form below:

CONCLUSIONS

We can create a similar expert roundup for your site. Check the expert roundup creation service.

I hope you enjoyed reading our expert roundup creation guide.

It’s your time now: Create one for your website and let me know how it worked in the comments below.

Also, if you have questions, I will gladly reply.