Best wavs to get weighty links
Tip 1: Offer high value on your pages Let’s look closer at each one. TIP 1: OFFER HIGH VALUE ON YOUR PAGESThis first tip is the SEO cornerstone. You must offer value to your visitors. And what’s this value made of? That’s a high-quality product and gripping content that people will naturally like. And it’s a must I’d say — with poor product and weak content, chances of success are really small. And a good and irresistible offer on your site will help you optimize it, get links and traffic, as it’ll just work like a magnet to people — even when you don’t stir a finger. Some hints: if you’re selling some product or service, for example houseware, your site may contain not just a catalogue of goods and a couple of lines to persuade people to buy. To offer more value to your visitors, you might add some articles or reviews about how to choose furniture, or how to take care of nylon curtains, and other useful stuff. DO IT NOW! Take a minute to think of your website’s content. Try looking at it with the eyes of your visitors. Is it really valuable for them? Think what (or what else) you can do to make your webpages useful. TIP 2: BUILD LINKS THROUGH GUEST POSTSWhen we’re writing articles and distributing guest posts, our #1 aim is to get publicity and sales. But alongside with that, guest posts can also make a huge difference for your site’s rankings! How come? Besides sharing some news, the posts hosted on popular blogs can provide high-quality one-way links to your site. Just make sure you include a link somewhere in the author’s bio, or as a homepage of your product, and you’re guaranteed to have high-quality links! Here the context for links will be outstanding. If you write guest posts on topics specific for your niche, links stand in the natural environment — and Search Engines place much value on this. So that’s a great way to get your site higher in the Search Engines! DO IT NOW! It’s rather not a do-it-now task, but a "do-it-regularly” one. Write guest posts and host them on relevant resources, like niche blogs. TIP 3: COMMENT ON FORUMS AND BLOGSHave you ever heard that Google and friends think much of blogs and forums? If not, then I’m the one to tell you they definitely do. What’s the conclusion? Either for traffic or rankings, you must try to get links from forums and blogs. It should be mentioned, however, that for the most part links in blog and forum comments are nofollow and don’t have much SEO value (which is reasonable, as the nofollow attribute was originally used to fight comment spam). Still, it doesn’t mean that you should not take advantage of links you place there, because if your comment is worthy and informative, people may jump to your website if they find it interesting. And sure enough, if the forum thread is popular and daily visited by many people, this may lead to some traffic boost. That’s why it’s better to leave fewer and better comments at fewer and better blogs/forums. If the resource is spammy, inactive or has lower quality content, commenting on it is a complete waste of time. To get a link from a forum, find one with a topic close to your site and join discussions there. How do you get a link? Easy: most often, in forums you can put a text link to your site into your signature.
In blogs, you link your name back to your site. I mean, you specify your name and URL and this transforms into a link to your site, with the name as an anchor, like here:
Here’s a warning by the way: do not leave spammy comments. If you’re a frequent guest at any forum, you must know how weird it may look. Say, you’re discussing the new iPhone and its warranties from Apple, and someone makes a posting: "Get used cell phones cheaply” with a link. Why in the world should I care for used phones??? So be careful not to annoy people with your advertising and links. You may not only earn the reputation of an idiot and spammer. Forum or blog admin may kick you out for violating the rules. Comment on posts that really grab your attention or when you have something to add to the discussion. If you think you can’t answer others’ questions, just ask your own ones. Try to make publicity your priority, and not just SEO links. DO IT NOW! Another do-this-from-time-to-time direction: comment on forums and blogs and put a link to your site in your signature (or name). TIP 4: GET BLOGGERS TO WRITE ABOUT YOUHere’s a relatively new word in website promotion: getting the attention of bloggers and getting them to link to you. What if a good blogger writes a review about your product and puts in some links? This would definitely add up to your sales. Or here’s another option: you can write an informative and useful guest post for somebody’s blog with a link to your website, naturally embedded into the author’s bio. Besides gaining good online reputation this may help you get some high-quality links from relevant resources. DO IT NOW! Try to get reviewers with good traffic write on your site’s topic, and put links to your web pages. TIP 5: BRING LINK BAIT INTO PLAYNow it’s high time you start thinking link bait not link building. That’s about creating something that inspires other people to link to it. What do you need that will work as a link bait? The answer is easy: you need stunning content that people naturally want to link to — not because you ask them to. They can pass it to each other, link to it, tag it, and in other ways tell others about the bait. It’s much about being creative. Doing something people will want to tell each other — and putting your link in it. Quite often, your idea will get a life of its own — and start to spread like a virus. Everyone wants to see it, and There’re billions of examples of link bait to be found on the Web, generating huge traffic. I’ll show you just a few: Grab the famous EepyBird Coke/Mentos video: Check an article about funny place names: Or see how much caffeine is enough: Want some link baiting hints? Though it’s totally up to you to think of something unusual and grab everyone’s attention, I can give you some good tips. So what can you do to make a link bait? Let’s see. who was telling unbelievable stories. Whatever one was talking about, Steve always had a story about "how I did something and what happened”. Once he said he drove a police car — and we were only 7! After that everyone wanted to be friends with the boy-who-drove-a-police-car. And though now we all realize this was fiction, back at that time, Steve was the coolest guy to hang out with — due to his stories that worked like "link bait”. 46 Hints for a Million Link BaitsI put down and categorized some link baiting tips for you — hope they’ll inspire you to make link bait for your particular site. Go through this list — and I’m sure you’ll come up with great ideas of your own. News TipsNews are great — when something’s in the mind of everyone or is about to be so, that’s your chance to get some links. 1. Write useful comments on something that is happening. 2. Make a compilation of news stories on a theme. Add a little analysis in there, and you’re good to go. 3. Make an interview with an authority in your niche. 4. Blog about important events in your industry and take pictures when you are on an industry event. Even if you’re not the only one, you’ll get a lot of attention. If you are interested, here’s a comprehensive guide on live blogging - http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/complete-guide-to-live-blogging/. 5. Write an interesting article on a topic important in your niche. And, besides becoming an industry leader, you can attract a few links. Education TipsMillions of people go online to get a bit smarter. They need to do milliards of tasks that require loads of knowledge. So feed these guys hungry for knowledge, and they’ll give you links. Want some ideas? 6. Make a special report on some field related to your niche. 7. Write a "History of something-related-to-your-niche” — this can be an e-book or an article. 8. Write a "How-To” guide for your market. Showing people how to do something is extremely helpful. However, if you decide to create such a guide, don’t forget to keep it up-to-date so that it does not become stale in a couple of months. 9. Gather and analyze statistics — people love stats. 10. Write a "Mistakes to avoid” article for your niche. By nature, people are afraid of making errors, and will surely look through your warnings. 11. Create a case study. Real case studies with real results and the description of methods that work will definitely catch attention. If there’s something you’ve successfully implemented - tell the world about it and people will share it. 12. Create a glossary of terms. Not everyone in your industry knows all the jargon being used. If you create a glossary of industry terms and acronyms, you’ll do somebody a huge favor. 13. Write white papers. 14. Run webinars. Check HubSpot’s Webinars page at http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-webinars/, with a thousand of inbound links from 140 root domains. Freebies TipsI don’t want to say people are greedy. But we all love free stuff! Give people something for free — and you’ve got chances to get people linking to you. Examples: 15. Make a free tool that others can put on their sites but that links to you. It should not necessarily be complex. If it can save someone a couple of minutes, it’ll be used and shared. 16. Offer scripts for webmasters, WordPress and Drupal themes to use freely. Note that the theme should be used by sites with relevant content. For example, if you’re a travel blog, create a travel theme. 17. Offer widgets. 18. Offer plugins and extensions. 19. Create a Facebook application and maintain it over time. Everyone who’s using this application is practically linking to you. 20. Create icon sets. If you don’t know design, you can hire someone to do that for you. Then give it away in a new blog post, and don’t forget to notify design blogs about it! 21. Create badges. Pioneer TipsBe the first to do something — and write about that. Flying to Mars would be great of course, but there’re more down-to-earth things that haven’t been done yet. 22. Be the first to write the latest news in your niche. This is tough; but still, there’s a chance that once you’ll hear someone talking about something new, so don’t miss it! 23. Test something new — and write about it, make a video, or take pictures. 24. Research and document something that no one researched before — good if your research topic is relevant to your niche, of course. 25. Write a review of something new. If you’re the first to do that and if it’s useful, it’ll get attention and, consequently, links. Besides, this is a sure way to gain favor with the creators of the product or service you’ve reviewed. Ego TipsEgo instinct can be of huge help to you. When people are displaying or measuring their abilities, or competing with each other, they can be unstoppable. Human ego drives people when they show their success to others. Here’re just a couple of hints: 26. Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest and set an award for it. By asking your participants to write about the contest and link to it, besides links you’ll get wider coverage. 27. Create a quiz, test, or another way users can measure themselves. At http://www.okcupid.com/politics you’ll find an example of a 2008 politics test by OKCupid, which attracted tons of links. 28. Ask users to give you input or opinion on a given topic. People may well wish to link to their own comments — sitting on your website. 29. Make an online game — users will be playing and most likely inviting their friends to join. Besides, if you make it embeddable, other webmasters may put it on their sites with a link to you. See what Travelpod did with their Traveler IQ Challenge at http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq. Humor TipsWho doesn’t like humor? Or who doesn’t want to tell another friend the joke half the office is laughing at? Or is there an Internet user who never watched a single funny YouTube video? Humor creates the mood, lets us get links, and helps us make sales. 30. Make a funny video and upload it to YouTube. 31. Make funny images — they’re much easier than videos to produce, and can generate a lot of fun. Don’t forget about memes, which are extremely popular today. 32. Write a funny story. 33. Use satire: make fun of industry figures, leaders or political personalities (but be careful not to overdo!). Controversy Tips Controversies work as high-class link bait. Maybe because human mind is seeking harmony? Or because everyone is likely to be proving their point of view until their rivals give up. Who cares about the reason, as long as you’re getting links? 34. Write on a very controversial topic, to strike up a discussion between supporters and those who disagree with your views. 35. Take a contrary viewpoint to a hot topic or recent posting in other sources — you may end up getting a lot of links (and a lot of angry responses LOL). 36. On the same theme in someone else’s blog, post "Why <blogger name> is WRONG about...” 37. Every industry has its own myths. Write a story that kind of demystifies some things to get some serious attention. Eye-Candy TipsMake something that just looks good. I’m not saying you should paint another Mona Lisa (though who knows?), but there are things that online community may adore. 38. Make interesting pictures, flash movies or images that are just good to look at. 39. Use a cool and unique design for your website. 40. Create a funny and one-of-a-kind 404 error page. Below are some examples to inspire you. http://www.southparkstudios.com/404 http://www.southparkstudios.com/404 http://www.leao.com/404 http://www.slonky.com/404 41. Create infographics. Cool infographics not only help people easier digest lots of data, but can also attract links, especially when you make your infographic embeddable. Generosity TipsTry helping others, or taking care of environment — besides just doing good, you’re getting promoted. 42. Help animals and boast about it. 43. Ask your users to donate to someone badly in need of money. 44. Start a green initiative of any kind. Blog. Just Blog45. Run an outstanding blog on your niche themes. A non-commercial blog will often attract more dedicated users than your commercial site. But from your blog, you can send good traffic to your main website. 1 More Tip46. And one more thing — simple as it is. You can just ask people to spread your idea and tell friends about your webpage. Create a “Tell-A-Friend” page on your website. It works! After you made a list of some useful tips, like this one — don’t forget to invite your visitors to bookmark and share this list. But again, I have to warn you. While thinking of "link bait” don’t forget about the real purpose of your website and the value it’s supposed to bring. Do not overdo — you don’t want your site to be an online circus arena. DO IT NOW! Create unusual content that can be stunning and attention-grabbing: either extremely useful or very funny and entertaining. Think of something unique that people will like to pass on to each other and link to. TIP 6: MAKE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIAWhat’s social media and why at all should it matter? On the Web there’re thousands of vague definitions. Here’s what Wikipedia says: Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks... Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. Here’s how I’d put it in simple words: social media is a modern way to use Internet to share content and ideas with a lot of people. This can be some writing, like blogs (as in Technorati (http://technorati.com/)), pictures (like in Flickr (flickr.com)) or videos (the big example is YouTube (youtube.com) or all-in-one, like in Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/). Being social is a tendency that can’t be ignored in today’s Internet. The essence of any social media site is that it sees streams of people coming each day, and these people are hungry for information. They’re waiting for stories or something interesting to happen. You can tell them your story and see if someone picks it up... And what you see then is links you’d never get with your own hands. Just a couple of examples of top social media sites. Social networksGood examples are Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/). These are huge social networks uniting people for thousands of reasons. Here you can create your own profile and not just find friends. You’ll join communities, write your own posts and attract readers to it and to your site through it. These social networks have huge traffic and if you’re popular there, your site can benefit a lot thanks to these resources. Social bookmarking sitesQuite clear from the title — you can "bookmark” webpages there and share your bookmarks with other people. All bookmarks work like links, and the more bookmarks your site has, the better you profit. Here’re the sources you must have heard of: Delicious (delicious.com), Digg (digg.com), Reddit (reddit.com), StumbleUpon (stumbleupon.com), and dozens more! These are big help in spreading your news like a virus — and a good place for your news. Some links you set up there may have SEO benefit, plus, they drive more people to see your site and its content, encourage them to pass on your news — so they can generate traffic and links — without much effort on your part. Blog Search EnginesOne of the great places to show your own blog and find other’s: Technorati. If you’ve got a blog, this resource is for you. That’s a kind of a search engine and directory for blogs. If you’re a member you can claim your blog here, and people from around the web will see what you’ve written. This way you can easily let other people pick the story and link to you. Here’s one useful link to find a huge list of blog directories you can submit your blog to. Check which would work for you: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/5998/. DO IT NOW! Check some social media sites to see if they can help you build links. TIP 7: GET PAID TRAFFIC-EFFECTIVE LINKSAs I already said before, there’re two basic options when getting links: free and non-free. Now we’ve come to the second option. Yes, like any other thing that bears some value, a link can be purchased or sold. Who sells links? Normally, grown-up, well-optimized sites that have good traffic. Who buys links? Any site. Even a top-ranking site that’s getting a lot of organic traffic quite often buys links from other traffic-rich web pages — to get more visitors. People buy all kinds of links: those looking like simple text, or like images (or banners) or flash banners. Lots of people also buy links for SEO — the major downside is that buying links for SEO is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and Google puts a lot of effort into detecting and disabling paid links. There’s a risk that Google and the company will simply ignore your paid links. Therefore, even if you buy links for SEO, the way to be sure these links are worth it is if they have good traffic, too. All sites start from getting links. And when they’re good enough — others will want to buy links from them, too. I’m sure one day you’ll be able to earn pretty penny this way, too. It works like in real life: while you’re studying to be a dentist, you only go to other dentists. As soon as you’ve got your diploma, you can have your own practice and patients of your own. Even when you’re highly qualified, still you’ll go to another dentist to fill your own tooth. You sell your service, which is the result of your experience — and go to others to buy the same kind of service. Same logic here: high-ranked sites are often selling links — and still buying incoming links from other sites. Sites that have good traffic or good factors (those Q-factors we talked about: PageRank, popularity, age etc.) can make pretty good money selling links. And these are what you need to find: good sites to get links from. First of all, like I already said, for traffic. Consider these 3 options for getting paid links:
You can also add keywords related to your site niche and use search operators (site:.org or site:.edu) to narrow the results list down. I believe whenever you make a purchase, you see that the price and the quality are corresponding. Links are no exception. We’ll see where to pay attention, when choosing links to pay for.
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