That's one of the most important equations in internet business.
We've covered content. We've also listed the first 4 strategies for getting backlinks. (If you came directly here, and want to know about those, or are not sure what back links are, and why they're important, see Link Strategies Part 1.)
Here are more link strategies:
Links from Shareware
I recently came across a traffic strategy that most people are not aware of - viral marketing by creating basic freeware applications and then submitting them to the major software directories (like Download.com).
This was by a guy named Chris Rempel who's using freeware programs to generate thousands of "downloaders" (visitors) daily, and he's promoting affiliate programs with that traffic. (He is not a programmer.)
He claims his best day so far was when one of his freeware applications got downloaded about 22,000 times in 24 hours, bringing in about $9,100 in affiliate commissions.
See his specific strategy for doing this, one of 5 traffic techniques he uses, in
Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate
. (It's a salesletter, but you don't have to buy his ebook, to enjoy the traffic and profit strategies he shares on the sales page itself.)
Links from Forums
An easy way to get free inbound text links is to post at forums. Forum postings generally allow a back link in the signature.
But be aware that if you post merely for the sake of getting back links, forum moderators will know, and will remove your posts, or even ban you. So write helpful posts. Look for discussions you can contribute to authoritatively. This will build your credibility, and more people will click on your link.
Links from Blog Comments
Commenting in blogs is another easy way to get free inbound text links.
Similarly, bloggers like comments that add value to the conversation, and hate valueless comments submitted for the sake of back links. Most have learnt to sniff those out, and get annoyed at having to spend time removing them.
Some bloggers use a spam-filtering service like Akismet, and report spam commenters. Commenters who are reported often, might find their comments at other blogs automatically rejected by Akismet or the other filtering services.
What to Do (and NOT to Do) for Blog Commenting
Blog commenting is typically in this format: Name, Website or URL, Email Address, Comment Text. Name is required. Email is required but not published. Website is optional, but if entered, is not published either. Instead, it is automatically linked to the text you entered in the Name field.
Since your website address or URL is linked via your name, that (the name field) becomes in effect the anchor text of your link. (See Anchor Text in the Glossary for explanation of what it is, and it's importance for search engine optimization.)
So here we have a dilemma -- since your web page is unlikely to be about your name, how do you make the anchor text of this link search engine friendly? The answer is to get creative.
You could for example, enter your name as "Jane (Muffins Lover) Pitt", if your keyword is 'muffins'. Or "Joe on Article Marketing" if the blog is about article marketing, and that is your keyword too.
But bear in mind that NOT all bloggers allow use of keywords in the Name field. Look at the comments before yours, to see whether keywords or nicknames were allowed. Follow suit.
Do not leave comments which are too short. Bloggers may view comments like "Good post - I agree" or "Thanks for a great post" as spam. Of course you can thank the author, but do add some useful information or share an experience, or useful resources you found. An informed comment will also bring traffic clicking on the link to come to your site.
Do not add links to your comment that are not related to the post or to your comment. That will look suspiciously spammy.
On that note, do not add your signature to the end of your comment either. You already have your signature in the name and website fields. People who want to visit your website can click on your name.
Do not use automated comment submission tools. While these may be able to submit comments to hundreds of blogs for you in a day, the links won't do much good. For one, hundreds of comments with same anchor text and website address is the first red flag to search engines that the comments were made automatically. Search engines are quick to devalue such links.
For another, you have no control over your comments. What is acceptable for one blog may be considered spam by the next. You risk being blacklisted by Akismet and other spam filtering services, with the result that any future comments of yours will be automatically rejected.
Choosing Blogs
Because of so much comment spam, a large number of blogs have set comment links as NoFollow. (See NoFollow in the Glossary if you're not familiar with what it is, and its impact.)
You get traffic by commenting at blogs that use NoFollow links, but you get both traffic AND the all-important link juice that boosts your search engine ranking, if you choose blogs that do not set links as NoFollow.
To check whether a blog's comment links are NoFollow, look at its source code, which is the HTML code of the blog web page. Here's how to do that.
Open the blog page where the comments are, in your browser. On the menu bar at the top left of the browser, click on View > Source (for IE) or View > Page Source (for Firefox).
A new window opens showing the HTML code of the page. Search for the 'nofollow' word by using the 'Ctrl' + 'F' Find function. If you do not find it at all, the blog's links are not 'NoFollow'.
Let's not forget... links out of your site
In addition to inbound links, add some good quality outgoing links as well. Search engines want to see that you are linking to other quality sites that are relevant to your site's theme. It adds to your site's stature if you take care of your visitors' interests by referring them to related authority sites.
A Last Word on Back Links
Having said so much about building back links, just bear in mind that the guiding principle, to get website on search engines, is to build quality links. Quality links are those from the "right places", i.e. from relevant sites. Better still, from trusted industry related sites ("good" neighbourhoods). A website with 50 quality back links can outrank and beat a site with 1000 links from "wrong" neighbourhoods such as link farms.
So keep your link building strategy real, and don't try to trick the search engines.
