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.
