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Write a Link Post [Day 7 – 31DBBB]

Posted By Darren Rowse 12th of April 2009 Featured Posts, Writing Content 0 Comments

Write a Link PostIt is day 7 in the 31 Day challenge and today’s task is to write a ‘link post‘ – a post that links up to at least one other blog.

Someone asked me recently to name a few ways that I built a readership on my first blog. One of the answers that I gave to their question was that I was generous with linking to other blogs.

I wasn’t alone – back then (we’re talking 7 years ago) blogging revolved around the link. One blogger would write something and it wasn’t unusual to have hundreds of others link to it with posts that built upon the ideas of the first post in some way.

The result was that

  • ideas spread across the blogosphere quickly
  • relationships between bloggers grew with each link
  • and as a result everyone’s blog grew

While this still happens today on blogs to some degree much of the sharing of links has moved to other mediums (like Twitter and Social Bookmarking sites) and it’s commonplace for a blogger to rarely link to other blogs on their blog because they’re either doing it in other places or they feel they’d be building up a competitor.

Your Task Today is to Link Link Link

Today your task is to reclaim some of this practice of linking to other blogs and to write a post that highlights what another blogger (or bloggers) in your niche has written.

Reasons to link out on your blog

  1. Giving something of value to your readers – while your readers come to your blog to read what you have to say – I find that in almost every case that I link up to quality content that readers are appreciative.
  2. Builds Your Credibility – regularly highlighting what others are writing in your niche shows your readers that you’re abreast of developments in your field and that you’re ‘connected’ to the network.
  3. Builds Relationships with Other Bloggers – there’s nothing like sending another blogger traffic to make an impression and build connections. Not only that, when you link to others in a constructive way that actually builds upon their ideas and adds value to a conversation that they’ve started it can often lead to ongoing interactions.
  4. SEO – some SEOs argue that linking out to other relevant content in your niche with relevant keywords as anchor text can have an impact upon how the search engines see your own site. You don’t want to go over the top and link out too much – but a few links to quality content on your topic may well show a search engine that you’re worthy of authority. It’s certainly not the main factor in Google’s algorithm but many argue that it helps.

The key with this task is to link to something of value – something that your readers will find relevant and helpful to them.

Of course building this practice into your blogging means you need to be aware of what’s happening in your particular part of the web. To do this you’ll probably want to:

  • Subscribe to other blogs and sites in your niche
  • Watch social bookmarking sites that cover topics in your industry
  • Subscribe to ‘news alerts’ with tools like Googles News alerts etc

6 Types of Link Posts to Consider

There are many ways to link up to another blog in a way that is valuable. Let me give you a few suggestions on ways to do it that go beyond just giving your readers and link and saying ‘go read it’:

1. Build Upon the Points of Others – take an article that someone has written and then add some points and perspectives that they might have missed or not considered. A classic way to do this is to take a list post that someone has written and add an extra couple of points. For example if someone writes a post ‘21 Ways to Write Posts that Are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog‘ – write a post ‘3 more Ways to Write Posts that Are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog’ that links to the first post – that might pick up a few of the points and then extends the article by suggesting 3 of your own points.

2. Take the Opposite Point of View – another way to bounce off someone else’s post is to explore the opposing point of view to their post. You might do this as ‘devils advocate’ or because you actually believe the opposite of what they’re saying is true. Keep in mind that this might not build a relationship with the other blogger if you do it in a way that offends!

3. Build a Resource on a Topic – pick a topic in your niche and then spend some time what other bloggers in your niche have written on that topic previously. What you’ll probably end up with is a list of posts from other blogs all on the one topic. You could present them simply as a list of links or could state the main points from each post or even use quotes from each one. These types of posts often do well in social media sites – particularly if you gather a large list of helpful resources on the topic.

Example: DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers – this post was simply a collection of tutorials that others had written on a similar topic. I included a picture and short description of each one as a list. The post was passed around the web in many social media sites. Yesterdays post here at Problogger 27 Must Read Tips and Tutorials for Bloggers would be another example of this.

4. Speed Linking – I used to do this regularly on ProBlogger (example) (note: I’ve moved most of it over to my Twitter account). The idea was that on a given day I’d link to 5-6 posts that I came across in my daily reading for that day. The links generally didn’t relate strongly to one another but covered a broad range of topics that I felt were relevant to my readers.

Example: a while ago I wrote a post 25 Great Photography Tutorials and Links from Around the Web. It was simply a collection of a few great tutorials that others had written from the month or two before when I published the post (plus a few of my own links from our archives). This post made it to the front page of Digg and other social media sites simply because it contained some great tutorials.

5. One Question Interviews – this one takes a little co-ordination and advanced planning but is when you shoot a question out to another blogger (or bloggers) to get their perspective on a topic relevant to your readers. I find these most effective when you email the same question to 5 or so other bloggers in your niche and then compile all the answers into one post side by side so your readers can see different perspectives.

6. Suggest Further Reading and Give Examples – another common way to linking to others as well as creating value for readers and extra depth in your posts is to to add links to what others are saying on your topic in the day to day writing of posts. Your post might not be a ‘link post’ in and of itself as you cover a topic comprehensively from your own perspective – but this doesn’t stop you giving your readers some suggested reading at the end of your post on the topic at hand.

There are 6 suggestions for you but there are so many others that you could try. For more ideas check out a post I wrote called How to Add to Blogging Conversations… and Eliminate the Echo Chamber.

What others have said on this topic:

Your Task – Write a Link Post

OK – we’ve talked about why and how to do it – now it is time to go and write a link post. Once you’ve done it come back and tell us how you did it, what you learned, where the post is and what impact it has with readers and other bloggers.

PS: if you can find something relevant on another 31 Days participants blog it’d be great to share some link love to other bloggers in the community. I’ve seen quite a few 31DBBB participants starting to team up and support one another – why not reach out to someone today and see where it leads! There are loads of people over at the forum talking about this now: Day 7 – Write a Link Post

Want More?

This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs.

Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. The last assignment had me rethinking and redesigning which took all of last night. After that I was energized to see the link love post on my new site! On to the next task, my articles for the day.

    Link Love
    My Most Visited Top 5 Sites for Life Hacks
    http://www.diysanctuary.com/2009/04/my-most-visited-top-5-sites-for-life.html

  2. I had actually had a link post scheduled for this monday as I had done an interview with another blogger who has a great craft blog as well! Here it is!! Feedback and comments welcome-I always comment back on your blog as well!!

    http://toddlercraft.net/333/interviewwithmakesandtakes/

  3. There were so many great lists that I decided to compile some of the participants in today’s assignment.

    Here is the link:
    http://www.bizziemommy.com/great-advice-from-my-fellow-31-day-challengers.html

  4. Just wrote my link post. :) It was fun, especially since I love being right in the middle of the latest internet kerfluffle, in this case the Amazon.com ranking #amazonfail awesomeness from this weekend.

    http://sonjafoust.com/2009/04/13/the-newest-kerfluffle-in-the-romance-world/

  5. agree. Link. Link and link. Hoho..i wonder how many link already i try to build..

  6. I finally got my link post written. The thing that took time was not the writing, but the accompanying image (inspired by Day 6) because I didn’t just take a Flickr image but modified it extensively to match my post.

    <a href=”http://jonreid.blogs.com/oneanother/2009/04/whither-the-emerging-church.html”Whither the Emerging Church?

  7. Argh, messed up the link, sorry. Try again:
    Whither the Emerging Church?

  8. I went for the gusto or the oblivious I guess and linked to https://problogger.com and http://stephaniewilliamsphotography.com/blog/ but don’t click through to them from here. Go to my blog and then click through.
    http://christinebowen.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/be-a-better-blogger/

  9. Hey Darren,
    It’s been a while since I commented last, but I wanted to share a Link post I just did for my 1,000 post thanking everyone who actually wrote posts for various reasons.
    http://workingathomeinternet.com/WP/2009/04/13/our-1000th-post-thank-you/
    And do check out the New Header that Lara Kupla designed just today after the post.
    I didn’t really do it for the project, but it seemed to fit today’s theme perfectly.

  10. I’ve always been a fan of linking, so today’s assignment was already done. lol

    http://www.themomtrap.com/2009/04/how-to-find-legitimate-mystery-shopping.html

  11. Even though I am pretty late with the link post, I am happy I took the extra time. Feel free to check it out.

    By the way, does anyone know a good career-related post on assessment centres?

  12. Today I found that someone added my blog to their blogroll. I returned the favor. I’ve noticed an increase in traffic.These are two link posts I’ve done that have in the past weeks that are getting traffic to my blog:

    http://lifelessons4u.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/why-do-people-lie/

    http://lifelessons4u.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/peaks-and-valleys-of-life/

  13. Hi Darren,

    This is a great idea for a post. I just finished writing my dental hygiene post for dogs and thought that various links would be beneficial. Since I’m still new at this, I just included a few but at least it’s a start. Here’s the link to my post for all who are interested:

    http://tookooldoggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/dental-hygiene-for-dogs.html

  14. I have always been writing link posts, so instead of forcing myself to write a new one when inspiration doesn’t strike me, I am going to be using one of the posts I wrote in the past.

    I spent quite some time working on AJAX comment posting for my theme on WordPress 2.7. Here it is:

    http://limetouch.com/archives/ajax-commenting-in-wordpress-27/

  15. I tend to link a lot, but it’s usually just one or two articles per post. This was a little weird for me, but I gave it a shot. I gave a shout out to some bloggers who inspired me when I was getting started.

    How’d I Get Here?
    http://www.sex-lies-dating.com/3029511

  16. I’m happy this is one of the tasks in your series. I had written a link post before but wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It’s a good opportunity to network and keep the creative juices flowing by adding new ideas and questions off another post. It’s also a good way to validate someone else’s work. My post link ended up linking to a recent post from Jesse Newhart

  17. Great project you have going here Darren. Really enjoying following your steps each day, breathing new life into my blog and getting it on its way! I was blogging a few years ago but had no real structure around it. This has been a great exercise.

    Invite comments and thoughts on my list post by anyone interested in communications and IT. http://jeffzwier.net/2009/04/getting-along-with-the-geeks-four-ways-communicators-can-improve-their-relationship-with-it/

    Will keep commenting as I go along. Thanks again for this great little program.

  18. Darren, This is a great series.

    I’m inspired and want to suggest to bloggers in my sphere that we get together. This way we could link to each other more often and also use twitter etc to promote each others posts.

    So if you blog about Leadership and/or Productivity could you please leave your blog and email addresses and twitter name in a comment on this post and I’ll sort a way for us to help each other.

    Cheers
    Paul

  19. Wow Darren, So much good info for a newbie. Thanks for doing this! I am going to spend some time catching up with the lessons tomorrow. I still haven’t published my list!

  20. Darren,

    Took Day #7 to task on both blogs w/a couple of link posts…great feedback thus far…thx again!

    http://whatdidericsay.com/2009/04/satisfy-your-cravings/

    http://www.whybuyusedcars.com/2009/04/13/6-more-sites-for-the-best-used-car-info/

    Enjoy!

  21. Anyone other birthing bloggers doing this 31 day challenge?? I just wrote a post linking to seven other great birth posts.

    http://birthingwithguinever.com/2009/04/13/surfing-for-pregnancy-posts-and-finding-the-7-best/

  22. I use links a lot in my fashion blog. i have been trying to do at least a few posts each week which link to smaller shopping sites with the hope that I drive traffic to them. In the future, I am hoping to set up some partnerships to give my readers more value with exclusive offers or giveaways. Today, I linked to another fashion blog for the first time with the hope that link love is good for all aka a rising tide raises all boats.

    http://www.mamathreads.com/

  23. This fit in nicely with what I needed to do with a particular post I was going to do about a twitter application I had found after a long search. I had been in contact with the blogger and discussed putting his info in an article and linking back to him so it was great timing. Feels good to give some respect to someone who provided great content. I also linked up his twitter account from my blog post as well.

    Here is the post and by the way this is an awesome application for pulling in multiple twitter account feeds to your website – if you ever need to. Read my post and you will understand the application working on that made this a necessity and something a little fore thinking in the bridge between offline business and twitter.

    http://www.sagaciousnews.com/listing-multiple-twitter-accounts-on-your-website/

    Thanks for Great Stuff So Far Darren.

  24. It took me a little while but I found a wonderful blog in my niche…
    http://www.uninvitedwriter.com/2009/04/bibliobibuli-literary-blog.html

  25. This was a great assignment. A few months ago, I wrote a post about the types of movies men like and a blogger from England gave me some “link love: when discussing a movie night with her boyfriend. It became on of my most popular posts.

    I was in the middle of working on this post about movie adaptions. So I checked with other bloggers in my niche (and on my blog roll) and found that they had written similar posts. There was even a blogging challenge by a book society on the same subject.
    Here is the post: http://justchickflicks.com/2009/04/13/movie-adaptations-or-when-good-books-go-bad/

  26. To find a possible link post, I search the web for related post that predicts Manny Pacquaio will win over Ricky Hatton on May 2, 2009.

    Here’s the url of the link: http://entrebankph.com/manny-pacquiao-knockout-ricky-hatton-is-a-sign-of-good-business/

  27. Okay, all done:

    3 Sources of Inspiration
    for the Highly Productive Person

    http://bionicbutler.blogspot.com/2009/04/3-sources-of-inspiration-for-highly.html

    ~Dane
    BionicButler.com

  28. I have been meaning to write a post that connects two topics I care deeply about: Cooking with Kids and Community Service.

    As I was working on this post, your next assignment came though – so I combined the two.

    http://whatscookingblog.com/2009/04/13/cooking-with-kids-for-community-service/

    As usual, thanks for the wonderful tips and guidance,

    Michelle Stern, Owner
    What’s Cooking: Cooking Classes and Gifts for Children
    http://www.whatscooking.info

  29. Darren,

    Thank you for the great idea. I was just trying to figure out what to write for tomorrow, when I decided to check your feed. This 31 day series is a real gift. I’m sure we’d pay handsomely for this info at a seminar.

    PS I see that adsense has made it’s way back onto your blog.

  30. Finally I get down to completing this task. With this I am again back on track and ready for Day 9, without any homework remaining.

    Here is a link post(one of my favorites):

    Hot Lists: Top Google Talk, Chrome and Gmail tips: http://www.threetipsaday.com/2009/04/top-google-talk-chrome-gmail-tips-tricks-list/

    Had great fun doing this task.

    Now reading link posts from other participants, lots of wonderful stuff seems to be in these comments.

    Best.

    Shantanu
    http://www.threetipsaday.com
    @threetips(twitter)

  31. I have just created a geo link post- it maps the blogs around the world. If bloggers wish to be linked in this post they can easily do so.

    http://spacebug.com/blogs_map.html

    Cheers
    Amir Shevat

  32. Well, I wrote about Smart Diary Suite and fibromyalgia. If you’re interested, check it out here: http://smartdiarysuite.blogspot.com/2009/04/fibromyalgia-and-smart-diary-suite.html

    Any feedback is more than appreciated!

    Thanks,

    Dennis

  33. This was a fun, and research-y kind of project. Seeing what others had to offer in terms of downloads that help you organize I was able to see a real need for graphically designed content! That is what my blog offers! Is anyone else out there designing unique content of any kind and offering it free on their blog? I just redesigned my birthday party planner pages…you can download and print your copy! :)

  34. I tried the “add to a list method” of link posting. It does expand your own thinking, and you really focus on the other blog.

    “Stuff Christians Like” blog has a post on worship leaders talking between songs or during interludes:”The Worship Leader Mini-Sermon.” My response : “TWLM continued… ”

    http://danahanson.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/the-worship-leader-mini-sermon-continued/

  35. As a BlogHer Contribuing Editor and a personal blogger who does this regularly, it was interesting to see the idea fleshed out. I don’t incorporate some of these link post types, so it’s something to think about.

    Here’s my link post for the assignment. I bounced off a friend’s post who recently started up a new blog and used the opportunity to link to a great post on BlogHer at the end that features a bunch more cool links:

    I’ll spare you a rhyming title for National Poetry Month

  36. I really had fun doing this assignment and it didn’t take a lot of time since the person that I linked to had most of the information on their blog. Here’s my example…

    Vote for Fitness Challenge Finalists!

  37. I read a great article on another blog about a subject I had been planning to write on. So, I posted my article with a link at the end recommending their post as further reading. I’ve enjoyed when other blogs do this because it really adds to the points being made from a different perspective.

    Here’s the post: http://www.theeffectivespirit.net/2009/04/resentment-spiritual-garbage-can.html

    This challenge is really helping me to learn about and focus on the really effective aspects of blogging.

    Thanks Darren!

  38. I’m a little behind but got this done today. I read a post in my reader that struck a chord with me, so I added a few points and linked to her article:

    Coupon Ethics
    http://www.moneywisemoms.com/2009/04/coupon-ethics.html

  39. For those interested in social networking programs, here’s a good post, in List form, regarding tools you can use within the Linkedin program to rapidly create a digital network.
    http://tinyurl.com/c7yhhv.

  40. I can relate to some of these concepts already. But of course must wait until I have a chance to access my blog to which I ahve only recently regained access (as it and my email and my entire website were locked).

    I hate hackers.

    BTW, could someone email me the links for days 8 and 9? Is today number 9? I’ve lost track since I lost a whatever email was sent while my site was blocked.

    Thanks.

  41. I made a link list (combining two days of tips in one, eh eh?) of creative candy- goodies that make me want to jump into action and do something great. Hope they do that for y’all as well: http://thenewmckechnie.blogspot.com/2009/04/31dbbb-day-7-show-some-link-love.html

  42. Wow, I got 3 days behind and boy did I miss alot. I’ve actually been doing links but I don’t know that I’ve tied them in to my other posts the way Darren explained. Here it is…

    mylifeonthexyzlist.blogspot.com

  43. My new post on LED lighting for your home. LED lights are cool!

    http://conservationtutorials.org/2009/04/14/cfl-no-led-lol/

  44. I do try to use a fair amount of external links – only if appropriate or if I think it’s useful for others. I did however, mention something I read on Dana Hanson’s blog in a recent post and included a link to his site: http://teamportugal.blogspot.com/2009/04/did-i-waste-day.html

  45. Great idea, and I do try to do it more often. I have just written a post about “Reasonableness” questions on the 3rd grade math test, and linked to a fellow Texas (though high school) teacher who write about reasonable and unreasonable answers.

    http://learnmegood2.blogspot.com/2009/04/unreasonableness.html

  46. Wow, I got 3 days behind and boy did I miss alot. I’ve actually been doing links but I don’t know that I’ve tied them in to my other posts the way Darren explained. Here it is…

  47. your post just gave me tons of ideas to put in my site.

    i’ll be linking problogger. hee hee.

    thanks!

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