CainIV - 5:53 am on Nov 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

Time and patience. I have received hidden gem links back months after requesting. Remember that often the best links you get are on websites that never sell links, and like something you said in your request.

Approach is key. Martinibuster laid this out at Pubcon. You have to find a down-home, very charming way to get that person to care about reading your mail.

The closer the themes are between what they offer and what you offer, the better chance you have. Be flexible. Improve content. Link bait, for lack of a better term. Cater pages to attracting links, even if it means you might shape them differently in 6 months. Never say no, and never 'assume' you can't get a link from any website. Give people a reason to link...

In a lot of ways, you need to point out the inherent value in your content. You need to make it extremely easy and beneficial for them to link to you.

Just the other day, I finally got a link on a pr7 edu website where I had had an ongoing relationship with the professor for close to 8 months.

Cool thing is, we have become friends. Very few, if any other links have been added to that page except mine for the last 2 years.