Link Building Campaign

Link Building Campaign

Your link building campaign is essentially your off-page search engine optimization. There are a lot of ways to build links but keep in mind it is a slow, never ending process. I prefer Yahoo Site Explorer to keep track of my indexed links. Don’t freak out if you build 100 links in a day and they still haven’t shown up in your backlink tracker after a week. Search engines need to crawl a page after you link has been added then index the updated page. This can take a few minutes to a few months so you need to be patient.

Now before we get started, I’d like to remind you that some methods of your link building campaign will be putting your site directly in the public eye. If you want your website to have any credibility, you cannot go around spamming your link. Not only will people begin recognizing your website as spam but you will get a lot of your links deleted. In other words, if you spam then you’re wasting a whole lot of time. Make sure when you’re building links, you’re making sure the way you’re promoting your website is not spammy. With that said, let’s get started.

First thing, go ahead and sign up for a few fake emails. Yahoo, Gmail, etc. They all work just fine. Make sure they look authentic. “Guy546546545@yahoo.com” looks like instant spam. You’re going to have a lot of links deleted with an email like that. “Jill_volleyball33@gmail.com” looks a little better. If you put a name in your email, I recommend trying to use that name one most forms that ask for your name. It helps you look more like a real person. Also, be sure to change your username between websites that you place your link on, unless you’re using your keyword as your username, to reduce your “footprint.”

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking was originally intended as a way of keeping your bookmarked websites in an online database so they could be shared with other people online or be accessed from anywhere the use may need them without having to take their own computer. And while it still works very well for its intended purpose, you’re going to use it a little differently for your link building campaign. You’re going to sign up an account (activate is via an email sent to you) then go looking for a button that usually says “Submit Link”, “Submit Story”, “Add Link”, “Add URL”, or something along those lines. You’re going to fill out a few simple fields that generally include:

• Website Title
• Website URL
• Website Description

Some social bookmarking websites will require you to choose a category as well and most will require a Captcha to be completed before you submit your link. There are plenty of social bookmarking websites out there, but be sure to submit your site to the top sites including:

• Reddit
• Mixx
• Gather
• Propeller
• Digg
• Diigo
• Folkd

Forum Profiles

Forum profiles are the spammiest form of your link building campaign that I actually recommend. Unfortunately it’s difficult to provide anything to the communities when all you’re really interesting in is a link from your profile. These links don’t carry a whole lot of weight so you want a lot of them as quickly as possible.

Forum profiles are easy to get. You can use Google to find lists of forums to make profiles on. When you visit each forum, make sure they have a “Member List” or similar section. Some forums make you click on a user’s name to access their profile. If that’s the case, I generally move on because you will need to make posts to get your profile seen. So as long as there is a “Member List” section, go ahead and make a new account with the forum.

You’ll normally have to activate your account via a link you’ll receive in an email. Now you need to fill out your profile. The most important part of your profile is the website (sometimes called homepage) box. That is where you’ll get your link from. A lot of people will simply fill in that box and head for the next forum. But don’t be like so many others, be a little smarter about it. Forum administrators will see a profile like that and delete it. So take a few extra seconds and fill in the other boxes as well. Make yourself look like a real person so that if an administrator looks at it, they’re more likely to leave it alone in hopes you’ll be back to start posting soon.

Forum Signatures

Forum signatures are awesome for your link building campaign as well as bringing in direct traffic. You should find a popular, dofollow forum within your niche so that you can target traffic that is going to be interested in what you’re offering. Again, a quick Google search can find you quite a few forums. Once you find a suitable forum, go ahead and sign up. Set up your profile like you would for a a forum profile link then you need to set up your signature. This is where you’re going to be getting your links and traffic from. Set up your link like this:

BBCode: [URL=http://your_url/]Your_Keyword[/URL]

HTML: <a href=”http://your_url/”>Your_Keyword</a>

Most forums use BBCode so you’re most likely to use that. If they allow HTML, it will usually say so somewhere near the signature box. With your signature in place, you just need to start posting. Remember, you’re not just some forum user who posts whatever you want. You’re representing your website/business so post in a professional manner. You want to show people that you know what you’re talking about and establish yourself as an expert in your field. The more you show your expertise, the more likely people are to visit your site and trust what you’re telling them or believe in the products you’re offering.

Article Writing

Article writing is a fairly decent method for your link building campaign. Writing an article takes a decent amount of time so it’s difficult to build links quickly through this method. It is, however, an excellent way of bringing in direct traffic. You can find plenty of information on my Article Marketing hub and don’t forget to check out my blog post about Free Traffic System, a free tool to submit your article to up to 30 different blogs for great exposure.

Directories

Directories are great for your link building campaign. They bring both links and direct traffic. There are thousands of directories out there and a Google search can find you a ton of them, including lists of the high PR directories.

Submitting your website to directories is quick and painless. The basic fields are:

• Website title
• Website URL
• Website description
• Email
• Category

Some directories will also ask for a name and, as with all of your other link building, you should probably use a fake name. Directories are pretty painless so you can get through a decent number in a fairly short period of time.

Blog Commenting

Blog commenting is absolutely amazing. Not only for your link building campaign, but for you own personal growth as well. You can use Google Blog Search to find blogs that are within the same niche as your website which may help bring in more traffic. Blog commenting is very easy but takes a little time if you want your comments to stay on the blogs. Here are the do’s and do not’s of blog commenting:

Do

• Read through a few paragraphs of the blog post
• Use your keyword as your username if others are doing the same, otherwise simply use a real name, include a last name or initial.
  
• Put your URL in the website box (your “name” is your anchor text for your URL)
• Leave a genuine comment about the content

Do Not

• Post spam such as “Cool blog” or “Bookmarked” then move on
• Post affiliate links, especially if the website offers the same product
• Post an advertisement for your website
• Put a link to your website within your post

If you can follow those do’s and do not’s, then your blog comment are unlikely to be deleted or marked as spam. Blog owners don’t care if you think their blog is cool or if you bookmarked it. If you’re going to leave a comment, they want to know that you read their post and have something to say about it. Most people don’t like being used for your link building campaign and if you spam them too much, you’ll end up getting yourself banned from posting on their blog. For just that reason I recommend only commenting on their newest post then come back in a day or two and see if they’ve posted anything new for you to comment on. Blog owners know that someone who comments on 10 of their posts in a matter of minutes is just looking for links. And while that is your goal, you don’t want to be up front about it. Follow those do’s and do not’s, and you’ll be golden.

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