 |
 |
|
 |
| |
Newsletter |
|
| |
Subscribe to our
FREE
Monthly Newsletter
For
Business From Home
Home Business Advice
Tips, Tutorials,E-books
Promotions & Specials
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
Who's Online |
|
| |
We have 6 guests and 0 members online
You are an anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|  |
Links are the pathways by which all information on the Internet
is connected. Whether you are traveling your preferred search
engine or your favorite website, your paths are directed by the
links you come in contact with.
Untapped Linking Tactics
By Kim Roach (c) 2006
Links are the pathways by which all information on the Internet
is connected. Whether you are traveling your preferred search
engine or your favorite website, your paths are directed by the
links you come in contact with.
Because of this, links have become the lifeblood of the Internet.
Major search engines like Google evaluate your incoming links to
help determine your search engine positions.
However, a link is much more than just a ranking factor. A
quality inbound link can bring your website a steady stream of
targeted traffic and buyers.
In this article I will reveal the untapped methods of obtaining
quality inbound links. We all know that reciprocal links are
dead. Smart internet marketers also know about the power of
article marketing and rss syndication. This article looks to
explore beyond those techniques, unveiling linking tactics that
are largely undiscovered.
Read on to find out about which links you can gain to build buzz,
how to leverage the power of wikis, why everyone needs an
affiliate program, and how to use the web 2.0 craze to garner
hundreds of high quality inbound links.
We will begin our journey with editorial link opportunities.
The right links can generate massive buzz and word of mouth
marketing. This type of marketing can occur from links like Yahoo
Picks, Forbes Best of the Web, and USA Today Hot Sites. Get
listed on the following sites and you've certainly got a winner.
- Yahoo Picks of the Day/Week (http://picks.yahoo.com/picks)
- Forbes Best of the Web (www.forbes.com/bow)
- USA Today Web Guide/Hot Sites
(http://blogs.usatoday.com/techspace/around_the_net/index.html)
- NY Public Library Best of the Web (http://www.nypl.org/links/)
- Exploratorium Ten Cool Sites
(http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cool/general.html)
- Librarians Internet Index (http://lii.org/)
- Reference Desk (http://www.refdesk.com)
Wikis
Wikis are some of the best sources for link building. With a bit
of digging, you can find plenty of wiki pages with high link
popularity and PageRank. Not to mention, many wikis rank well in
the search engines. This is especially true for Wikipedia.
However, like everything, there is a wrong and right way to go
about it. Many people try to spam wikis with hundreds of links.
Because of this, there have been strict measures taken to find
and eliminate these culprits.
To benefit from the Wiki community, you must be an active
participant adding quality and relevant information to their
collection of content. You must add value to a page. once you
have done this, you can then incorporate your link if it's a
good fit.
However, don't just add information to pages that present
linking opportunities. You should also be contributing to the
wiki just for the sake of adding great content to the database.
When appropriate, add quality links to articles, even
links you do not control. Using this strategy, it is much more
likely that you will be able to benefit from the many wikis
available online.
To find potential linking opportunities, simply go to Google and
type in "your keywords" inurl:wiki. This will help you to find
sites that have wikis related to your keywords. For example, if
you are looking for wikis related to search engine marketing, you
would type in "search engine marketing" inurl:wiki.
For a comprehensive list of wikis you can start contributing to ,
go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis
Library Sites
Ok. Are you ready for the MacDaddy of all links? You may be
surprised to hear that some of the best links on the Web can only
be obtained from public shool library Web sites. Yes I know, it's
hard to believe that an unattractive school website that lives
out in the .us or .org jungle would be of value to you. But in
fact, these are some of the most trustworthy links you could ever
hope to obtain.
Library web sites are some of the most trusted sources on the
Internet and Google knows it. So, if you have an extremely
valuable site that would prove a valuable resource to people
around the world, then you should certainly get in contact with a
librarian to suggest your site as an addition to their list of
resources.
Here is a list of library sites to get you started:
- Virginia Pubic Library Websites
(http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/directories/valib/libweb.asp)
- Ohio Public Library Web Sites
(http://winslo.state.oh.us/publib/libtable.html)
Affiliate Links
Affiliate programs are one of the best ways to obtain thousands
of inbound links to your site. With the right software, you can
use an affiliate program to super charge your search engine
rankings.
Using an affiliate program, you can get hundreds and even
thousands of other people to promote your products with no risk
on your part. Your affiliates send visitors to your web site
using banner ads, text links, articles, and email promotions. For
every visitor who decides to buy, you pay your affiliate a
percentage of the sale.
The beauty of this system is that it allows you to create extra
revenue without spending any additional advertising dollars. You
can use affiliate marketing to explode your online sales and
catapult your search engine rankings with no risk to you.
However, you have to make sure you have the right software to do
this. Some affilate tracking software doesn't lend any link
popularity back to your site.
Go to http://www.assoctrac.com to find out about some very
powerful affiliate software.
Press Releases
As I wrote about in a previous article
(http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/aug/7.html), press
releases enable you to tap into multiple news sites across the
Internet, including Google News, Yahoo News, and MSNBC Searchbot.
In addition to attracting thousands of targeted visitors to your
site, press releases can also create thousands of quality inbound
links.
However, to realize the full potential of your press release
campaign, you must take time to optimize your press release
properly. Press releases should be optimized in much the same
way that search engine optimization specialists optimize ordinary
web pages to achieve higher rankings. By optimizing your press
releases for the search engines, you will receive much higher
visibility.
For example, one press release from MarketingExperiments.com
resulted in 2,200 visitors and 5 interview requests by
journalists. This is the power of a highly optimized press
release.
Some of the best places to distribute your press release online
include:
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.internet.com
http://www.businesswire.com
http://www.prnewswire.com
http://www.bacons.com
http://www.e-releases.com
http://www.prfree.com
http://www.pr.com
http://www.webwire.com
http://www.marketwire.com
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com
http://www.i-newswire.com
Start your own press campaign to begin creating invaluable buzz,
attracting targeted visitors, and gaining thousands of inbound
links.
Social Search Engines
With the growth of Web 2.0, social bookmarking services have
become extremely popular this past year. However, these search
engines are much more than simply a tool for searching and saving
your favorite websites. These social communities can also drive
massive amounts of traffic to your site and build brand
awareness.
Popular submissions can expect to receive an onslaught of
traffic. In addition, popular sites also receive an abundance of
link love. These social search engines influence bloggers,
publishers and journalists. on average, a website that is Dugg
receives an average of 500 to a thousand new inbound links within
a short period of time.
If you have a very informative site, your traffic may increase
permanently after being Dugg. The key to succeeding with social
search engines is to be a true contributor to the community. You
must have quality content if you want to submit any of your
links. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your time.
In addition, don't just submit your own links. Share the love and
submit other sites that you feel would provide a great resource
to the community.
Some of the best online social communities include:
http://www.digg.com/
http://del.icio.us/
http://www.furl.net/
http://www.shadows.com/
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.prefound.com/
http://www.technorati.com/
In today's generation of web 2.0, publishers have been given
multiple outlets for their work. It's time that we start taking
advantage of the changes occurring in the online publishing
world.
Podcast Syndication
Another publishing opportunity that is undergoing rapid growth
online is podcasting. The Internet is changing. Broadband
Internet connection is allowing millions of Internet users to
start downloading podcasts on every imaginable topic, from search
engine strategies to the adventures of parenting.
According to Forrester Research, podcasting will reach 12.3
million households by 2010. Unfortunately, many webmasters are
not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity.
To begin marketing your own podcasts, submit them to the
following directories:
http://podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Directory.html
http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2005/05/20/where_to_submit_your_podcasts.htm
Integrating these new distribution models can vastly increase
your exposure online.
New Forms of Article Syndication
Article syndication has become quite popular among internet
marketers. It has enabled writers and website owners to gain
hundreds of quality inbound links simply by syndicating their
articles to article directories, article groups, related
websites, and newsletter publications.
However, web 2.0 has transformed the publishing platforms that
are available today. Because of this, there are now many more
outlets for your articles and your valuable resource box.
Fortunately for you, many online marketers have not spotted these
opportunities so I advise you to jump on them quickly.
One of the most exciting new publishing platforms is Squidoo
(http://www.squidoo.com).
Squidoo was created by a revolutionary online thinker named Seth
Godin. At Squidoo, you can create your very own lens, which is
simply your view on a particular topic. This is a single web page
that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr
photos, Google maps, eBay auctions, Amazon books and other
resources.
Best of all, these lenses are getting traffic, credibility, and
even showing up in top Google results. You can use a lens to
increase the number of authoritative inbound links to your site,
position yourself as an industry expert, announce the latest news
within your niche, or promote your podcasts.
I've seen lenses ranging from a pagerank of 3 to 5. Here are
some great examples:
http://www.squidoo.com/fxbootcamp/ : PR4
http://www.squidoo.com/laptopbag/ : PR5
To start your own lens, go to http://www.squidoo.com.
The last linking opportunity in this series taps into
one of the largest sites on the Internet.
Craigslist
Craigslist was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark and serves
billions of unique visitors each month. So, how can you use this
to your benefit?
Classified ads can be very lucrative when used correctly. Since
Craigslist is free, this is a great place to start with
absolutely no risk.
Your presence within this massive site will increase your
exposure and link popularity. Many of the ads also appear in
Google and Yahoo. This is especially true for those who optimize
their ad properly.
I would highly suggest that you incorporate CraigsList into your
overall business plan. You can begin placing your own ads at
http://www.craigslist.com.
Now that you know about many of these untapped linking
techniques, I urge you to begin your own campaign. Just remember,
if you're not distributing quality content, you are simply
wasting your time. The first step is to become an authoritative
site. After that, you will find that links come quite naturally.
In fact, many of them will come without ever asking for them.
===============================================
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews
(http://www.sitepronews.com) and SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com)
newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com
|
|
|
| |
|
| Untapped Linking Tactics | Login/Create an account | 0 Comments |
|
| | Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
