Trying a different link gathering approach

Need some feedback

[Swebbie]

I run several niche content sites in addition to my main business site, which is about writing site content and articles for clients. I've been thinking of ways to build up more one-way links to the niche sites, and one idea is this...

On my links pages, instead of listing reciprocal linking code and all that jazz, what do you all think about offering a page of high quality content in exchange for a return link? I'd give them exclusive content and copyright rights, so I'd basically be ghost writing. I plan to be very picky, just as I am with link exchanges. It'll be more work, of course, but I think getting one-way links from related sites would help a lot more than swapping. If they come to me through the links page, that'll save me the time of having to seek them out for this offer. Ideas? Criticisms? Cheerleading? LOL

[Rosalind]

This isn't a new idea, it's a variation of the very popular "write and article and get it posted on an article site" technique that a lot of people are doing. Go for it.

Just write something with your link at the bottom and post it on one of the article syndication sites. If it's good and popular you will gather a lot of links, although not all of them will pass pagerank. Watch out for the webmasters who try to shaft you by removing your byline and link, though.

There's no need at all to write unique content for each link you want to gather.

[Swebbie]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I do article writing & distribution for a living, so I'm fully aware of that angle. This isn't that. Anyone can pick up those articles. The content is anything but unique once it's been out there for a few weeks. I'm talking about offering it exclusively to individual sites (each one gets a different article, and no one else gets it). They also get copyright rights. There are places where you can sell this kind of article, but I figured the better long-term pay-off might well be using this approach.

[Meike]

It sounds like an interesting approach, Swebbie. I don't do link swapping, but I would be inclined to take someone up on an offer like that if the content and the linked site were both relevant to my site topic. I'd be interested to hear the results if you actually try this out.

[odddogatwork]

i think its a great idea, and it will allow you to be very choosy.

definately worth trying.

[Wonderstuff]

And you will also be able to link directly to a selected keyword(s) within the text - 'content writing' for example.

[ken_b]

Might well be worth a try.

I'd certainly look kindly on the offer, IF the article was actually unique content that I would have exclusive use of.

Unique and exclusive are the keywords for me.

[sugarrae]

I solicit this from my niche sites hoping people just like you will find it... I have a page that basically says ... send me an article and if I publish it, you get a link. Conditions are that article MUST fit the theme and style of the site/visitors and that they agree that they will never publish the article online - AKA they are giving me the exclusive copyright, as long as I maintain a linkback. I'd love to see more sites offering this, rather than having to wait for them to find my page offering to publish them. ;-)

Sometimes, if I find a good fit, I offer them a "regular column" with each page they write containing their link as well as a bio page about them. They get links and foot traffic while building an "expert reputation". And of course, I get great content.

[neuron]

I think that's a great idea.

One thing you want to do is do this with a lof of different domains. That is, it will probably help you a lot more if you can get 500 articles on 500 different domains rather than 500 articles on just 5 domains. That is, don't put 50 or 100 articles on any one site, just try to stick to one or two articles per site.

Articles are worth something, but so are links. Let's see, 250 to 500 word per article = 1 link. Articles in that range are going to cost between $2.50 and $50, depending on source and quality, say $5 to $10 bucks. That's a relatively permanent link for just $10 bucks, and a one-way at that.

Likely, the people you gave articles to would put them on new pages, but they'd still pass PR and link pop to you. Whether the foolbar shows PR or not is irrelevant.

The thing is, where can you find sites to do this for? How do you solicit them? Finding the sites would be difficult to do. Hmm, I gotta couple dozen sites I guess I could get you started with...

[Crush]

Interesting thread this one. Swebbie, we are doing what you saying now. Except why limit it to one person. You can "sell" it to a few.