Are you looking to build the number of incoming links to your site?
Brian has post together a useful post with 5 link building strategies that work which you might like to check out. He takes a look at these five strategies (headings are his – comments are mine):
1. Social Media Sites – Some think the best thing about sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious is the rush of traffic that they can bring your site. However the secret sauce is in the secondary link ups that can come from being featured on such sites. Read more here on how to build a digg culture on your blog.
2. Linking Out – Link unto others as you would have them link unto you. One of the best ways to get on the radar of other bloggers is to talk (and to) them on your own blog. Generous out linking has a way of having pay offs to those doing the linking. Of course don’t do it just with the hope of getting links out of it – find quality content to link to and your readers will love you too!
3. Networking Emails – Brian’s right – begging for links rarely works – but sending other bloggers an email with a link from your blog can work IF you do it smartly. Key words from Brian’s post are ‘what’s in it for them?’ Make it relevant, be generous, don’t take up too much of their time, be gracious. Read more on how to ask bloggers for links.
4. Guest Appearances – There are many great things about doing a guest post (or extended guest blogging spot) at another blog in your niche. For starters it has the potential to lift your profile – but the secondary benefits include any links that you might be able to include back to your own blog.
5. Article Directories – I’ve never used this method myself but know of a few bloggers who do submit articles to free article portals. Like Brian says, it’s probably less effective in terms of SEO these days due to the search engines discounting duplicate content – however it could bring in a few new readers if the articles get posted on the right site. I do know one blogger who does something similar by sending other bloggers unique and original articles for them to use – in a sense this is like a guest post but they send the articles unsolicited.
Personally I find that the best way to get links is to write useful, insightful, unique, stimulating, engaging content that meets the need of others. Do this for long enough and the links will start to follow. Do this in conjunction with the first two or three techniques above and you’ll find the pace accelerated.
Use above techniques without quality content and you’re wasting your time.
Getting links to a blog may be easier through my site, I am creating a social blog space, link with your neighbour will be a feature. I am shortly launching a blog chat show too, this will create lots of publicity, the first interview is with a huge US person, I can’t say who but it will drive thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) to the site. I will also be adding a link exchange facility too soon. I think that judging by the number of new blogs adding daily, my site could actually be a good social space for bloggers. I am not here to plug it but hey!
If you can get your head around the fact it is free and not a milliondollar homepage add yours. We are revamping it soon to lose this image problem!
KevinD
fuelmyblog.com
A few sources there that I wasn’t aware of. Thanks Darren. However, considering my blog is only up a month, I think I should just keep focusing on content, SEO and just trying through various means to get visitors. I have a number of articles and guides in mind that should draw in a few people.
Back then when i read the one on how to ask for link exchanges, i found it very useful and got more responses to my requests. Thanks for the reminder.
Allen.H
Nice tips, though it’s still more of an art rather than an exact science. Still, it’s fun to work on it, getting to meet new bloggers and readers in the process.
Hey Darren,
I must say that you have shown how Tony’s advice about ‘enriching content’ with lists can be used on blogs.
I agree when you say that ‘asking’ (begging) other bloggers for links does not work these days. It’s important to offer ‘some value’ to the blogger to link to you.
Also, your last sentence makes all the sense. No amount of link-baiting will keep readers coming back unless you have great content.
Siddharth Thakkar
#6. Participate in Problogger group writing projects.
-Not only did I get links from this site I was surprised how many Quality sites picked up the list (read links) as well.
I find it really hard to ask other bloggers to link to my blog. I do it in a more passive way – I try to write useful content, and whenever possible, I try to add a twist to something someone else has written and give them a pingback/trackback.
I think I have a long way to go. Only two incoming links. >
One that you have mentioned before but isn’t really in this list is blog carnivals. I’ve found them to be great because many of the more popular blogs in my niche participate and that results in my link/post getting out there on those sites.
In addition, I have hosted one of the carnivals and that brought a nice stream of traffic into my site and some of the people have stuck around. It can be a nice way for a new blog to get some exposure.
Being a regular commenter at other people’s blogs works best for me. That and Squidoo (you knew I had to say it – LOL)
Great post – thanks for sharing!
Yes I try to comment on other peoples blogs and I have notices that traffic is up. Although links are still zero for now. Then again I am fairly new at it.
I need to take the time soon to request link exchanges with other blogs that I’ve already been linking to who aren’t linking back to me yet. I link to them because I enjoy their blogs, and while some bloggers have probably just found my incoming links and decided to link back to me, maybe others haven’t noticed or taken the time to link back to me.
The question is, if I approach them and they still choose not to link back, do I leave up links to their sites or should I take them down? I’ll probably leave the links up even if they don’t return the favor, just because I like to support other bloggers who I think are doing good work.
It seems to me that the real strength in some of the approaches you mention (articles, guest appearences and social bookmarking) is credibility. As some of the previous commentators mentioned, writing good content is essential, but it does no good if people don’t read it.
Once you have a hook to get people in the door, your content could be the talking. The five suggestions you provide offer that, and even better, a chance to get some the respect to get people coming back for more.
Thanks for the great resoruce Darren!
Thanks for the resources here. I agree with My New Choice up there that blog carnivals can be a great way for a new blog to get some exposure, as well as older blogs. blogcarnival.com has a ton of carnivals listed, and at least one is bound to be in your category.
I don’t mind swapping links with other bloggers, as long as their sites have comparable PageRanks. I’m perpetually pestered by link farms that want me to link to their PR0 pages.
Very informative topic, and with it comes a question – with the digg effect temporarily bringing sites to its knees, how can a beginning blogger prepare for such a high increase of traffic, even if it’s only for a brief time?
hey darren,
getting backlinks from sites like digg or other social networking sites is harder or near impossible for smaller sites who don’t have your kinda traffic. diggers especially seem to hate bloggers and usually bury stories even if they are well informed.
thanks for the tips
[…] Digg – More Than a Traffic Spike Many people think that hitting the digg front page is worthless after the original traffic spike, but “pro blogger” Darren Rowse and I both seem to agree that there is more value than just a simple traffic spike. The amount of backlinks I received was crucial in starting to get more and more traffic. At the time I purchased mygamingspace.com, the site was getting about 500-700 plays per day. Now the site gets 1500-2000 and even 2500 plays on a good day. […]
The Social Media Sites are certainly worth the effort…
Good advices! My site is about languages and i can welcome anyone who wants to write a guest post about languages. I am doing that today and it works! ;) I haven’t tried social bookmarking sites, though.
Thanks for the tips, Darren. I’ve found that the more effort I invest into building other bloggers up and encouraging them (writing about them, linking to them, including them on my blogroll and participating in the communities around their blog), then the more links come my way, even though I haven’t been doing those things with the express intention of generating inbound links. It’s just been sort of a happy fringe benefit :-).
Basically, what it comes down to is building relationships, real ones, not just contrived link exchanges. And like you said, having compelling content to boot makes folks want to pass on what you’re saying.
Cheers,
Sharon
[…] How to Build Incoming Links to Your Blog ProBlogger Jan 2007 entry (tags: seo) […]
I’ve only been in the blogging community for a short while but these tips help me on the websites that I maintain as well as the new blogs that I have recently started. Thanks for your tips and advice!
Andrew
Hi,
Social Media Sites is the best if you are a new blogger.
– William :)
Good stuff. I took your advice on #2 and it helped. I wrote about the ten best blogs in my niche and it got some attention. Thanks for the advice
I found #5 to be the most helpful for me. It hasn’t helped a ton with my Google page rank, but it’s done wonders for my Yahoo rankings. Why? I don’t know. I’ll write an article that pertains to my website, http://www.theairsoftsniper.com , say, for example, about choosing the right rifle, and all the sudden links to my website start popping up in all sorts of places! I highly recommend this method, and it’s not even that hard to do – most article submission sites don’t require a ton of words.
[…] Aaron Wall and Wendy Piersall have talked about it. Darren has also been known to create a post here or there on the […]
Even more great link building advice.
Thanks Again
Well, my page rank is still 0, but I’m doing my best. Some good ideas here, I’ll have to see if I can’t try them out and make them work for me.
I agree about Digg not taking kindly to bloggers as Matthew says further up the post.
These things are sent to try us though.
Great tips. I wrote some articles a few years ago and I still see them being re-published on other sites today so it was definitely worth while, although I’m not sure how well search engines rate those links.