It seems that people really, really want incoming links. I don’t know how many people reading this actually will follow through and DO the things that will lead to tons of incoming links, but I’ll throw some more ideas out there anyway, for those who DO have the motivation.

 1) Articles. Yep, articles with links back to your site. They actually work to some degree, as long as 1) they are well written and specific, 2) they are in a niche that is at least moderately well covered by other marketers building their sites.

2) Articles on steroids… would be to not just distribute articles, but to create a few variations of a full Adsense-optimized website with multiple links to you.  

3) Templates… This works too. Create Wordpress templates, blogger templates, vbulletin templates, myspace templates, neopets templates… whatever floats your boat, and give them away as long as a link to your website is maintained.  (In some cases, you can even sell the template and require the link. I just paid $160 for a vbulletin template. The terms state that the link back must stay unless I pay another $120 to remove it.)

 4) Template Adaptations– A thought for those with some HTML knowledge but no design ability – adapt OSWD.org templates for your favorite tool, whether it be Instant Niche Site Builder or XSite Pro.

5) Organize the unorganized : If you don’t know how to do either 3 or 4, why not find a tool where templates are scattered hither and thither and compile a directory of all the best templates. A well organized template directory site is easy link bait.

6) RSS. I don’t mean putting feeds on your site, I mean offering a really solid daily article, recipe, craft, themed photo, or other valuable tidbit via RSS that other people can host on their site. Include your link in every article, and you’ve got a one-way link, and the webmasters using your feed get free evolving content they can monetize.

7) Syndicate a database of …. anything. If your site is focusing on fishing rods, why not create a widget that people can plug in to their websites that offers a search of fishing rod repair shops by location? You can include a “widget by yoursite.com” link to get the return from the main widget and any results pages too. You’re offering solid, useful content to webmasters that use the widget, and in return you’ll get plenty of front page high profile links to your site. And depending on the complexity of your content, I’d bet you could have something built for under $100 on RentACoder. And if your widget gets a lot of use, you could charge repair shops for inclusion in the database.

Reciprocal linking. It’s not dead, it just needs to be more discriminate. Try SiteSell’s Value Exchange for a way to exchange links that doesn’t turn your links pages into a liability instead of an asset.

9) Buy links… but not necessarily through text link brokers. Why not find a blogger with a closely related subject and offer them cash to link your site to every instance of “keyword” on their website.  You could even offer a Wordpress plugin that does the work for them automatically — just follow along with this tutorial and change ‘fu’ and ‘bar’ to ‘keyword’ and  linked keyword and you’re home free.

10) Social Bookmarks - ok, I know this is probably self-serving, but it does bring links and traffic, so just check it out :)  

My son wants me to color with him now, so that’s where I’ll leave off. Use your imagination to come up with variations. If you offer webmasters something that’s valuable to them, you can get links back. Not just links on hidden link directories and invisible pages, but solid, high profile links.

But you have to take the time or money to create, invent, or develop something worth the link first.

 

 

 

Today I was talking to someone who said, “I spent 14 hours yesterday submitting my website address to directories and search engines…”

And I thought, “well, that’s one way to get links.”

But if you’re going to spend THAT much time, why not think outside the box?

For example, you could make Wordpress or Blogger templates and give them away free as long as they leave your link intact.

Or, if you’ve got a few articles, pull together a quick AdSense site with them plus a few other articles, give it away or sell it really cheap (try the Warrior Special Offer forum for a ready-made market) with your links embedded. I would personally give it away free, with the only stipulation being that if they wanted to be notified of the next free Adsense site I gave away, they’d have to send me the URL where they posted this one.

Lets see, what else do people want… how about a free script or two for their website as long as your link remains.

Or, a cool widget that can do something they might like… like make a tag cloud, or site map, or rotating adsense images? Anything that you can offer that will let you embed your URLs in their sites.

The gist of this message is that if you want links, you can get more of them easier by creating something people want, then letting THEM come to YOU.

Most of these strategies would take far less than 14 hours of work at the front end, and would likely bring in far more incoming links and traffic than directory submission ever will.