The bottom line is the easiest most obvious answer. It's also the toughest to do. Give people a reason to link to you. Think about it. Sites get linked to for a reason: usually if they provide the most information or the best resources on a particular topic. Is there any reason WHY people should link to your site? How is your content? Even if you are not a writer, ask the writers if you can use their stuff. The answer is usually yes. The writer gets a link from you. And you get great content. Now people will start linking to you. (Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets)
We all want to get on the top ranking sites listed in Google with few, if any outbound links. But what if they don’t have a links program in place? Here’s one way to get yourself linked from these choice sites. The top sites in a keyword category often don’t have a links program, but they do have an e-zine or content library on their site. So... Write a 300-500 word article on a topic of real interest to their target market and submit it to the Webmaster, as well as to other e-zines reaching the same target audience. Include in your article sig file (or credit box) your site link and an enticing description. In other words, give the site owner something they can use that delivers real value to their constituents. By providing them with an asset, you’re reaching them in a new way that goes beyond a simple link request. A couple of notes:
* Don’t market in your article. Deliver real value instead.
* Before writing anything, subscribe to their e-zine first or go through their site content. Fill any gap you see - create something new that they don’t already have on file
* Market in your sig file only – and be sure to include your full site URL! (Scott Smith)
Become an "expert" in your particular field and write related articles. Market those articles to online content providers. Be sure to include your byline at the end of your article, including your name, company name, and URL's, and make sure to use appropriate keyword-containing link text. Visit this URL for a list of places that accept articles:
http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/articlebanks.html (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.
I am hopeful that http://www.marketing-strategy.info is a good idea for link building – giving up “brand” in favor of white labeling. How does white labeling work? If you have a good product or content but a weak brand, then why not give up the brand altogether and concentrate on your content? Focus on why a human would follow the link that the other site has made for you – a compelling reason. That will usually come down to superior content. MarketLeap.com allows you to “brand” their stuff with your logo, but it involves a link to do it. (Dixon Jones with Receptional)
Write a testimonial for a product or service that you particularly like in your topic area. Many companies will put testimonials throughout their site, with links back to the company providing the testimonial. (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.
A very effective strategy to gain quality links as well as traffic is to license content from your site for free in exchange for a link back to you. For example, we encourage anyone to post individual articles or the entire MarketPosition newsletter on their own Web sites so long as they properly credit us for the material and link back to http://www.webposition.com/ or http://www.marketposition.com/. (Brent Winters of First Place Software)
If you're asking someone for a testimonial, tell the Webmaster to whom you're writing that you're willing to put a link to their site under their testimonial if they're willing to reciprocate. That way, everyone wins. Actually you win twice! First, because you have a good testimonial for your product/service and second, you've increased your link popularity -- all with one link! Make sure that the link under the testimonial opens in a new browser window so that you don't lose that visitor to the linked site. (Gil Sery with Search Engine Optimization Pros)
Create teaser articles. See if you can get the first third of the article listed on their site with a keyword rich text link leading back to your site where they can find the rest of the article. Be sure you get the bio with an additional link to your homepage as well. (Debra Paynter with Promotion Strategies)
Offer something for free (such as a downloadable report), and then ask for a link back to your site if the person finds value in the free item. This works because you're giving away something of value, and when people find it valuable, they're likely to reciprocate. (Mike Adams, the Email Doctor)
Spend time building valuable content on your site through different keyword windows. As you do, more and more people will begin linking to your site, as they're linking to your valuable content. (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.
Offer yourself as an expert. Contact editors and writers and let them know you are available to be used as a source in exchange for a link and always push for the bio. (Debra Paynter with Promotion Strategies)
Have an easy way for people to link back to an article or content if they like it. Example: an icon that generates the HTML code they can copy and insert into their own HTML pages. (Mike Adams, the Email Doctor)
A sure fire way to increase link popularity is to have a high quality newsletter or article section on your site. If you have good content on your site, people will want to link to you to provide their visitors useful information. You can take this approach a step further by offering your article or newsletter to other sites with the condition that they link back to your site. This is especially good when you can get a high quality site to use your linked story on their site. (Chris Churchill with NetMechanic)
Use emotional content to give people a reason to link to you. A site built on a single theme may often benefit from using content which employs:
* unique theme-related information which appeals to the emotions
* original and appropriate humor
* content of extremely useful nature (references materials)
* original cartoon work
* animation that appeals to the senses or tells a short story
* something with an uncommon emotional element
Web sites that employ emotional elements often find that other sites with a similar theme will automatically link up to them just because of that emotional appeal. (John Alexander with Search Engine Workshops, TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites, and Beyond-SEO .
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/leglinkpop.html
