Link building is the boring, never ending duty that most of us website owners have to engage in. I've mentioned before about some link building ideas which have worked for me, including using snail mail.

Get Links Without Asking

Here's another idea which I have used once or twice with mixed success, but the good bit about it is, you don't have to actually write one of those grovelling emails asking for a link.

Here's what you do - you just link to the site that you want a link from. Easy, huh? Give it the ideal anchor text you think they would like, and even click on it a few times too if you want to up your chances of getting that link back.

If the site you are linking to is a Wordpress blog, the site owner will probably see your incoming link when they login to the admin page, where inbound links are listed on the front page. I think something similar might be in place for Typepad blogs but I'm not sure. Also, if the site owner has any kind of stats package in place, they should see that you have created a link to them and naturally be curious as to this source of new traffic, possibly be flattered and may well consider linking back to you.

Keep an eye on your own traffic logs and see if you see any clicks from the target domain, possibly including from the Wordpress admin pages ("/wp-admin/) or from an Awstats type page. If you notice they have checked you out, and haven't linked back within a week or so, you can abort that mission and take down your own link (unless of course you think it really is good and deserves a link). If you don't see any sign they have looked at your site, just give it a few weeks and double check their links page or blog roll and, again, take your own link down or leave it up if you think they deserve it.

Basically all this is doing is notifying another webmaster of your sites existence through creating a presence for it in their stats, and hoping there's enough goodwill to get you a link back. If you don't get one, nothing has been lost, and if you do - great, move on to your next one.

Write A Blog Post Asking For Links

Put a post on your blog saying explaining that you are looking for incoming links to your sites. You might want to explain what site you have, and what kind of site you want a link from... just like this:

• I have a website about Mayfair in London and am looking to trade links with any London centric sites, or travel sites and blogs.
• I have a website about designer watches and am looking to trade links with any fashion sites, such as clothing or accessories.
• I have a website about Toys and am looking for links from any related sites.
• I have a website about personalised gifts and am looking to get links from any gift related sites.
• I have a website about a hit US drama and am looking to trade links with any other TV program sites.

Got a site that could link to any of those? Email me for more info on the URLs and you can check them out.

Labels: link building

Link building can be boring and arduous task. I don't really like doing it but I recognise if I want to get quality links, I need to invest the time in seeking out appropriate link partners, find their contact details and write a bespoke message, or even snail mail letter, asking for a link swap to be considered.

In the last few weeks I've received 3 link requests, actually from well two known affiliates, which seem to me to be really lazy. When I first received it, I could tell it didn't "scan" like an email wrote specifically to me. This was kind of confirmed when I received an identical email the following week. And then the same email again from somewhere else. I'm guessing it's generated by some script or maybe even an outsourced service.

The emails are like this:

We`re building relationships with sites relevant to `dressing up games` (we found you via the search engines - if this term isn`t a focus area for you, we cover a vast range of retail categories and should therefore be able to find an appropriate subject).

There are two possibilities:

1) We can hand write some content (around 2-300 words) for you to add to a page on toysandvideogames.co.uk. This will be relevant to both of our sites and will contain a single text link in it back to a relevant content page on our site.

- OR -

2) We can trade links with you, directly from a relevant content page on XXXXX (not a links page or directory). We will explain where links are located (on properly indexed and ranked pages) when you reply. We can either do this directly or as a `three way` type link if you prefer.

Funnily enough, the offer is not unattractive but when I see a template email like that, I just kind of switch of and am not interested. There's a slight irony because one of them came from an affiliate who has quite publicly blogged about the way not to write emails if you want to catch his attention.

Or am I just just being over sensitive? Maybe these type of emails work and find a more receptive audience with others than they do with me. But personally I find it a bit naff. The email goes on to say that my site was carefully selected which I don't even believe. When I carefully select a site and have a link proposition, I don't then spoil it all by sending something so obviously not specifically directed at them.

Labels: link building

I wrote a post about link building ideas recently and mentioned that I was going to try and get some links by writing actual letters to webmasters. To be honest this was born out of the sites I wanted links from not publishing contact information for the webmaster rather than a desire to do my link building in any new way.

So I wrote a letter, telling them about my website including a screen-shot, and described where on their site I wanted a link to prove I had actually seen their site and it wasn't a generic mail-shot. I also made sure the envelopes were handwritten. Personally if I think I know what a letter might be, there's a good chance I won't bother opening it so writing the address by hand is a little more intriguing I'd say.

It took a while to get a response, which I'll put down to those pesky Royal Mail people going on strike, but pleased to say from the 2 letters I sent, I got a 100% hit rate and both replied positively.

Ok, so two attempts is a small sample but I was still happy with the results and may do it again in the future as a technique rather than just a necessity where email addresses aren't published.

Labels: link building

I wanted to promote a website so thought I've give ReviewMe a little go. I signed up, set up a campaign with a request that my website get reviewed by in-context blogs. I couldn't find much in the way of a guide or Help on the site, but managed to navigate my way through. It was mostly just an experiment so I just created a budget for 2 reviews at $50 each.

A few minutes later, I received an email from the system to say my first review was complete. Someone was keen, I thought and made my way along to the blog to proudly see the review I had paid for. Unfortunately it was fairly rubbish. The blogger decided not to review the site at all, but did write a post on the general subject of the site and included a link. Ok, fair enough, but it's not what I requested.

As a newbie to the system, it seems to me there's a step missing in the process. I put the campaign up and some blogger of dubious quality can just roll up and do the review and get the money. I'd have thought it would be preferable if he had to somehow apply to do the review and upon checking his site, I could then approve him. If I had seen the guy's site beforehand, no way would I have let him go ahead with it.

The second review I received was much better. It was actually already indexed on Google before I got an email from the system telling me the review had been done. It's provided a reasonable amount of traffic and should hopefully prove useful from an SEO perspective.

So, 2 reviews done - 1 good, 1 poor. I don't think I'd bother using it again because, as I mentioned earlier, I think there's a quality control stage missing where the person who's getting his wallet out should final individual approval.

Although maybe that option is there - if it is let me know! - but I didn't see it.

Link Swap Anyone?

At the moment I'm looking for link swaps for a London travel guide site and a toy site from sites on related subjects, so feel free to contact me about either of those.

Labels: link building, review, reviewme

I always think site building isn't too difficult. Link building, on the other hand, is a real pain. Here's the things I do to get get incoming links:

Submit To Directories
To be honest, I only really bother with a couple of directories - usually DMOZ and Splut. DMOZ gets a lot of stick - rightly so - but I always considered worth the time of submission just in case I can get a site listed and I had mixed success.

Enter into Wikipedia
I don't enter a site into Wikipedia for any SEO benefit, as I understand their links have the "nofollow" attribute, but if I have a page which genuinely is useful in the context of an existing Wiki page, I'll add it on and it's one way to get traffic. Some of that traffic might be webmasters looking for link partners too so its beneficial if you don't abuse it.

Check out the competition
I google for competitor sites URLs and find out which pages are linking to them. There's a reasonable chance the same site might link to you.

Search for related links pages
I think of the main keywords relating to my site and start searching the engines for keyword +links.htm to find links pages which are relevant. Also try links.php, links.aspx, links.asp etc.

Cross Linking
I have plenty of sites and I nearly always find space to cross link a couple of my other sites from each. Some people say you can get penalised for this. I never have, but I do it in moderation.

Buy Text Links
I have done this a bit. To be honest, I didn't see much benefit - none in terms of traffic and nothing noticeable in terms of SEO, but I may have just picked some bad sites to place my ads as I understand this is a popular route. It's something I should do more of, if I wasn't so tight fisted.

Ask In Writing
Ok, I haven't done this yet but I've seen it mentioned and I plan to give it a go very soon. The idea being that webmasters get tonnes of email, including lots of junk and many automated link swap emails which I can't be bothered with. But if you were to actually print out a hard copy letter and send it to the company address, it might get more attention than just another email.

Part of the problem when link building is that I don't mind admitting (but only to you, dear reader) that some of my sites are just affiliate sites. Even as I the creator understand they don't all actually add much value to the web so it's not easy to ask for inbound links. On the other hand, I recently made a website about Mayfair in London, and I really got stuck in with plenty of research and photos and I was much more confident about approaching webmasters and asking for links. So I guess the point is, the better the site, the easier it is to get links - ergo, make better sites, right?

Talking of asking for links reminds me of an email I received recently asking for a link from one of my sites. The site they wanted me to link to was nice enough but I didn't get round to replying. Then they sent another request a few weeks later asking me if I might think again. Once you've ignored someone once its even easier the second time so I blanked that too. Then the other day I got a third email asking me to select from a range of DVDs as a free gift and it would be sendtthe next day if I put a link up. I think I'll hold out for a fourth email and see what's next on offer!

So those are my link building "strategies" although I don't want to make it sound any cleverer than it is - that's all common sense really. If any readers have any tips, please feel free to post them in the comments. And don't forget I have plenty of websites (see the list at www.uretopia.com) to feel free to check them out and see if any could be suitable link partners for your sites.

Labels: link building