Written By: Sujan Patel On October 15th, 2007 | 1 Comment
We all know that link building is tedious, frustrating, and for the most part, no fun. On the other hand, we know that building links can bring valuable traffic, exposure, and long term success of your site. Day in and day out, I’m sure you come across articles on link building, and they are usually the same old, boring routine. This article is for those that want to work on building links, but are up to trying out a few new ways to go about doing it. Keep an open mind, as these methods, while not as common as others, are definitely worth your time and effort.
1. Testimonials. When you purchase a service, product, or whatever else from a company online, especially from bigger sites, 99% of them will allow you to send in a testimonial. If you write one compelling and believable enough, there is a good chance that they will publish it. Make sure you add your link into the testimonial, and it may be the cheapest (free) high PR backlink you’ll ever get. This method isn’t guaranteed, but it’s definitely worth a try.
2. Utilize hired help. If you have an advertising budget, and are willing to spend money to ensure the long term survivability of your site, consider hiring a consultant to do the link building for you. Pay a virtual assistant $9/hr (or whatever) and have their main goal be to get you backlinks (directory submission, blogroll exchanges, etc..). This can help you manage your time better and take a break from the dubious link building process. The money spent will be very much worth it in the long run. (Hint – elance.com)
3. Piss off someone that matters. This may sound harsh and unethical, but it’s really not, as long as you don’t cross the legal line. Sink your teeth into a popular blogger or webmaster, post about it, and watch the links pour in. Be careful not to cross the lines of slander or defamation of character. This can, and has been done many, many times throughout history. Always make sure you can justify your reason for slamming them – have sources, witnesses or friends that will back you up. This can be wildly successful.
4. Give away money. Holding a contest is one of the easiest and most effective ways to gain backlinks. Make sure that in order to enter, the webmaster/blogger is required to link to your site, whether it’s a blogroll link or even a short review. Hint – the more money you give away, the more links you’ll get. Giving away $100 will probably get you several hundred, if not a couple thousand dollars worth of backlinks.
5. Be the first on the scene. With the multitude of new web startups, you can usually find out about them right away, and make sure you fire off a pre-made email interview template to them ASAP. Posting the first interview, or best interview, can garner hundreds of incoming links, even from big sites. This is surprisingly easy to accomplish, as most startups are willing to share information to create buzz.
6. Design a plugin for Wordpress. There are a lot of people out there that start blogs or sites that have the technical know how to design useful Wordpress plugins. If this relates to you, then what the heck are you waiting for? Take the chance, and whip up a brand new plugin and order a few paid reviews on it. Even the slightest success can multiply your incoming links by a lot. The funny thing is, even if your plugin just plain sucks, you’ll still have a ton of links from people that like to tell you how bad it is. Strange world, isn’t it?
7. Sponsor a Wordpress theme. With the amount of bloggers that use Wordpress these days, there are always new themes popping up. Visit one of the popular webmaster or design forums, and take a chance at sponsoring a new theme. When you sponsor a theme (it costs anywhere from $5-100), you usually get a link built in to the footer of the theme, so whenever someone uses it, it’s an instant backlink to your site. There are people that have done this and been almost unbelievably successful with it. $5 could land you several thousand links, if not more. If the theme gets super popular, your credibility rating skyrockets.
8. Write an ebook, and give it away for free. Writing an ebook may seem like a dreaded task for some people, but chances are, you are skilled in at least one area. Take this expertise and knowledge, pump it all out in paper, package it up as a .pdf, and distribute it for free. If the ebook is even slightly helpful, you’ll get your moneys worth of backlinks in no time flat. Offer free copies at one of the popular webmaster forums. This method works great, and if written well enough, can lead to even greater opportunities. (Hint – if at all possible, slip at least one relevant affiliate link into your ebook for a nice residual income!)
9. Order up a Press Release. For as little as $20-$50, you can hire someone to write and distribute a professional press release for your site. Press releases have the potential of being picked up by major media outlets (especially if your site is groundbreaking or super creative). At the very least, Google and other search engines love press releases, so natural incoming links are almost guaranteed. A professional press release also gives you an air of credibility that just may convince someone to link to you.
10. Build How -To lists. This may not seem creative in itself, but think outside of the box. We all know that “101 ways to cheat at World of Warcraft” types of articles are wildly popular, and usually result in massive amounts of backlinks from relevant sites/blogs and social bookmarking sites. So take it a step further and make an unforgettable, maybe even controversial how-to list. Example – “10 Ways To Kill Your In-Laws”. You get the point….
Written By: Sujan Patel On September 6th, 2007 | No Comments
Link popularity. Backlinks. Inbound links. Call them what you will, but your successful web site marketing plan will only become successful when you have acquired quality links that point to your domain in specific ways.
If you are lazy or unmotivated - stop reading. If you are seriously committed to the long term success of your site - here are some tips to get you rolling with building quality links.
Step One - Directories
Not all quality links are free. Google has come out and said that they will weight an inbound link from a paid directory (like Yahoo’s) so as to have more impact than a free link on a random directory. Why? Because you are serious about your site and it’s content. Shelling out $300 bucks a year is not fun - but if you can write some clever titles and descriptions, your listings will really benefit your SEO forever.
Don’t think that Yahoo is the only player in the game either. There are free directories like DMOZ that are also critical - and many niche directories that are in high standing like Best of the Web.
Step Two - Anchor Text is Critical
Here’s a simple question… If you were a search engine, which of the following links would provide you with more information?
http://www.domain.com/
or
Blue Widgets
Of course it’s the second one - and it’s because it’s using descriptive anchor text. This is an isolated example, but what if you were to build 100 new links to your site using anchor text that matches some of the search phrases you wish to rank for? Well, you’d be well on your way to ranking prominently - that’s for sure!
Step Three - Stay Ahead of the Game
When blogging became big, everyone started a blog and tried spamming for backlinks. It worked, but only for a short window. The lesson learned here is that if you’re going to be successful with building quality links, you need to be constantly thinking of a new way to go about doing things. Of course, the more legitimate and sincere your efforts are, the more likely they will be to succeed.
Written By: Sujan Patel On August 14th, 2007 | 1 Comment
Looking for an easy way to score inbound links to help your site’s ranking and scoring on systems like Google PageRank? Who isn’t, right?One of the easiest ways to grab more inbound links is by setting out some high quality link bait for others to enjoy and gobble up.
If you’re unsure of what link bait is, I’ll try my best to sum it up on a high level. Link bait is the creation of content and clever titles that encourage others to link to you and your goods once they come across it.
Clever Titles
Writing clever titles to your posts are one good way to get people interested in what you have to say. Things like lists, open ended questions, or references to popular topics are all great ways to grab the attention of readers everywhere - regardless of how they come across your site.
Good Bait = Good Content
People love lists. From the top ten ways to lose weight while sitting at your desk to the top five things you should be doing with your site optimization plans… quality content is the driving force behind long term link bait.
Be Original
Your link bait will do nothing if it’s just a regurgitated version of what someone else had released in the past. For starters, you’re probably guilty of plagiarism. Beyond that, your content is newer and probably hits up a smaller audience. What good is that? You need to come up with original ideas that really hammer home something that compels readers to check into the full length article.
Use Media!
Videos, pod casts, images and diagrams… are all wonderful ways to set the hook on your link bait efforts. Readers love to come across things that our out of the norm. If you’re scanning through a dozen new topics on your RSS reader, what will make one stand out more than the next? - Quality media! A YouTube video for example is begging to be clicked upon when it’s surrounded by boring text!
Remember, link bait is all about enticing readers to do something. Whether it is to comment or track back to your article, setting the bait out to your targeted audience is key. After a while, it’s not uncommon to see variations from market to market with regards to how to set bait. In other words, what may work for affluent business owners may not at all work with stay at home moms. So, use that to your information and test what works best!
Written By: Sujan Patel On August 13th, 2007 | 3 Comments
Everyone knows the importance of links. Links can bring more visitors and boost your Page Rank. If you are a webmaster or blogger link baiting should be high on your optimization check list. We have created a list of link baiting techniques that will help your blog or web site.
- Valuable Content - The #1 thing that is really going to make people link to you is creating an article or post that offers something valuable to the reader. If the reader thinks it is valuable you will most likely gain a link and more readers.
- The title - the title of your article must draw the reader in “How to…”, “Free SEO Tip, “The top 10 optimization strategies”- the title should be hard to pass up. Readers want free. Valuable information. Give it to them. Copyblogger offers some great tips on headlines.
- Create Lists - people love lists. They are scannable, easy to read and fun to read. Lists are great for link baiting.
- Create Surveys - People love to give their opinions and they love to read the results of surveys they were involved in. Creating a survey brings in readers and these readers will use your link.
- Claim Your Blog on Technorati - You need to claim it and find other blogs that you like and add them as favorites. If you give someone a link they could give you a link at some point.
- Join Contests or Writing Projects - ProBlogger offers writing contests and projects which results in thousands of links to him. To return the favor he lists all the writers and links back to their blogs. There are several larger blogs that offer contests or projects. Take the time to enter. You will not regret it!
- Article Marketing - Ezine and GoArticles are examples of places where you can submit your articles. As a bonus you get to include a link back to your site. Sites like these can have high page ranks because of the amount of sites linking to them, so you will obtain a quality link with this method.
- Offer to be a Guest Blogger - You have valuable information to offer, so offer to be a guest blogger- instant link back to your site.
- Press Releases - Press releases can include a link back to your site. People may never read it, but you have more backlinks.
- Have Domains for Sale? - If you have a web site up advertising the domain add a link to your blog and/or web site. Links are links. Obviously higher quality links are better but you might as well leverage what you have.
- Link to Authority Sites - If you link to sites with credible information you become more credible and you increase the odds that others will link to you.
- All Social Bookmarking Will Bring You Links - Don’t forget how crucial social bookmarking is. It will boost your blog and your business
- Post Comments On Other Blogs - When you post comments on blogs the blog owners will go look at your site. Many appreciate the comments and return the favor by commenting on your blog or adding a link to your blog. Additionally, other people commenting may come to your blog. The more traffic you get the more links you get.
- Digg - Digg is huge and if you want to obtain some links Digg your own articles, the best ones, and hope that others will see it. You can ask your friends to bump up your numbers and remember that the title is what brings people in.
- StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon has 2.7 million users and they are stumbling all day. If you Stumble the articles/posts you like and the blogs you like you bring in a lot of traffic. If you have something valuable to offer people will link back to you.
- Sphinn - Sphinn is focused on search engine marketing. You can find articles, Sphinn people or add articles and be Sphunn; either way you get more work,
- Reddit - Reddit is another place to submit your articles and this brings you traffic- traffic that is interested in your topics, so you have a great chance of someone linking to your site.
- Del.icio.us - Del.icio.us bookmarks articles and every article is given its own page. Essentially it works like a search engine that people can forever reference. Each bookmark is a targeted link. Del.icio.us is great for all bloggers.
Written By: Sujan Patel On April 6th, 2007 | 16 Comments
Link building is a very simple process if you plan it out correctly. If you are unorganized and link building randomly, it could become a huge mess. Before you start a link building campaign, do a little bit of research and find out your keywords, competitors, and current link partners. These three things can make or break your link building campaign. Once you have these, get organized. I usually start by using a spreadsheet (Excel) to organize the data I gathered. Now, you are ready to start link building…
1. Directories (Note: submission fee involved)
This should be the first place you start to look for links. Directories are trusted by the search engines, some more than others, but overall are very good links to have. Submitting to a ton of directories (submission ranges from 10 dollars to 300 dollars) could get a little pricey, so it might be wise to choose just a handful of directories that are the best for your niche. Here’s how:
Start by Looking at a list of directories (organized by page strength) Now find the section where your site would best fit under, remember only choose directories you are willing to pay for (could get pricey, so set a budget from the beginning). Now run the page strength tool for each section of the directory your site would actually go under (use spreadsheet to keep track). Do this for all the directories and you’ll have a list of the best directories for your niche. Pick and choose which ones you want. Save the list so you can go back later and add your site to other directories when your budget permits.
2. Competitor’s Links
Finding sites that link to your competitor is one of the best ways to get links. This sounds easy enough, but it can get awfully time consuming. Before you start, find out who your competitors are and remember to use a spreadsheet to track who you have contacted and when you contacted them. Download the spreadsheet. Now you’re ready to start.
Go to Yahoo and use the following:
Link:www.your_competitors_website.com
All the results you see are sites that link to your competitors, go to each site and find their contact info. You should contact each one individually and ask for a link (one way or reciprocal). You can contact the site through email or by phone (calling tends to work better, but is more time consuming). Remember to be polite and professional when contacting the sites’ owners or webmasters. Use the spreadsheet above to keep track of all your information. This is not going to be a one day thing. It is going to take time, so organization is the key.
3. Link Building Software
Link building software is the automated way to find contact information for sites that link to your competitors and sites that rank for keywords in your niche. The software usually ranges from 50-300 dollars. I have used many different types of software. I do not recommend using software to link build. More than half the time it pulls the wrong contact info (email address). If you must use software, SEO Elite and Arelis (IBP) are the best ones.
4. Natural Links
This is quite possibly the hardest method to link build. A natural link is when someone links to your site because you offered them something useful, such as excellent content, great resources, a tool of some sort, fantastic services or the lowest prices. Only the best sites in the niche get natural links. Let’s face it, not everyone can be the best and not everyone can get tons of natural links. If your site is around long enough, it will eventually get a few natural links.
5. Purchasing Links
There’s nothing wrong with paying for links. Buying links could give you more time and be more cost effective than looking for links. There are a few things you should you should keep in mind when purchasing links:
- Be sure the link you purchase comes from a site that is closely related to your niche.
- It is best if the link is placed within content and, if possible, place keywords around the link.
- Use keywords in anchor text for your link. Each link should have slightly different anchor text.
- Make sure that the link’s webpage is indexed by the search engines and note how often it is looked at.
- Check for page rank (don’t be fooled by high page rank), but be sure the link is on a good page (use page strength tool and check the keyword density).
- Do not buy sitewide links. These are links that will be placed in the footer or other known advertising positions.
- Watch for scam, there are quite a few of scammers out there so just be aware. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Keeping all these things in mind and doing some research will ensure that you get the most bang for your buck. Text Link Ads and Text Link Brokers are good places to start buying links. Remember: don’t go out and buy a hundred links in one day…spread it out over a period of time.
6. Press Release
Press Releases will not only get you links, but traffic as well. Hire a professional to write the press release and be sure that it has a good title (add keywords if possible), a few keywords within the content and a link back to your site. Now that you have a well written press release, you are ready to distribute it. The more you pay, the better it gets distributed and prices range from 20 to 300 dollars. Pr Leap and PR Web are some good places to distribute your press releases. The benefits of a press release are enormous, if done correctly, so make sure to be thorough. Remember: a press release represents your company’s image, so make sure it represents you in a good way.
7. Forums And Blogs
Participating in forums and blogs (in your community) can drive some traffic to your site and get you well known, it can also get you links. Add a link to your site on your signature, or if you post comments on your favorite blogs, why not fill in your URL when it ask you for it (this is not available on all blogs). DO NOT SPAM the forums and blogs. The purpose of you being on the forums and blogs is so that you learn and participate with them. So please do not go out and add a link to every forum and blog, that will just get you banned.
There is no easy way to link build. The bottom line is that the more time and effort you spend, the better return you will get. This article is just to ensure that you spend your time and money the right way.
