Forum Moderators: martinibuster
After being shy for a while to ask, I started on and said I'll lose nothing to send out emails and see what will happen. Let me tell you that: Getting ONE-way, yes I said one-way, links is EASY. And I'm not talking here about getting them through directories, nor am I talking about necessarily getting them from cheap (aka low ranking, or bad) sites. But I am talking about getting one way relevan links from sites that have good content, are related to your site, and that may even have good ranking too.
How is it done? Easy:
Whenever you find a web site or blog that is related to your site or even has one ore more pages related to your site, send an email asking nicely for a link to your site. That's it!
I can't remember that any of those whom I sent an email to asking for a link (aka one way link) to me have not put a link! Even though I have ads in my pages! (Not having ads, some say, will help you more in link building at the beginning. Sounds logical to me.)
So, here is what the email you send could look like:
While searching Goolge for widgets, I discovered your site. Your site looks interesting. I have a site about widged widgets and would love it if you put a link to my site in your links section/widgets page.
That's about it! You do not have to lie about saying that his/her site was "interesting," for if it was not, maybe you should think again about asking for a link in the first place.
One creative guy at this week's SES show was actually handing out cigarettes to various webmasters outside if they would promise him a backlink when they return home. I wonder how many he'll actually get. ;)
The goal behind my post was not to state something new, but to motivate those who are still shying out of link exchange to take the plunge and do it and not to worry about thinking for a far fetched idea or of giving anything precious in return, most people would just link to you if you simply apprach them in a nice way. At least it worked for me almost all of the time till now. That's all.
so familiar :)
But thanks anyway Shafaki!
For:
a) reminding me
b) your inspiring enthusiasm
c) helping first timers in actually doing it
d) sharing your thoughts
e) giving an example
f) ....
g)
One creative guy at this week's SES show was actually handing out cigarettes to various webmasters outside if they would promise him a backlink when they return home.
That's "black lung SEO"
Anything newer to suggest, aside from a week-long trip cross country trip to barter for a link or two?
>>so familiar
Any suggestions for something new and exciting you'd care to offer as a better alternative?
May be it's only me, but I'm sick of software-generated standard testimonies on how excited someone was to find my site and how he/she likes it.
On my site I give my Email and invite to contact with specific requests about my widgets and/or reciprocal links requests. Anything else is SPAM, no?
How much of such emails you think are genuine and not mass mailings coupled with Email gathering robots?
And some of this crap even arrive to Email that is listed in my domain's Whois only and nowhere else.
R
Buy one of my widgets, tell me how you like/don't like it, mention that you are looking for one-way links, and I will give you one ;)
Seriously, point me to broken links on my site, non-loading images, misspellings, whatever helpful, and I will link right away.
R
Seriously, point me to broken links on my site, non-loading images, misspellings, whatever helpful, and I will link right away.
That's what I call a useful tip.
While searching Goolge for widgets, I discovered your site. Your site looks interesting.
Now I know who was sending me all those mails ;) (Pun intended)
That aside, I have been receiving the kind of mail you have given example of. I generally don't take a second look at those, but thats just me. Guess people outside the industry may spend some time in reading those, since you mention you have been fairly successful.
Thanks.
Hi Ken;
I own (business name) business in (city/state). We sell (some VERY related product), our website is blahblah.blah
Could we get a link from your site.
Thanks
name
business name
business address
business phone
business email address
If they're site is VERY related, I usually list it. If they want to link back, that's up to them, I don't ask.
Write 300 words on a topic related to your site's theme. Impart some truly useful information that the other guy's site visitors will like. Put a short author bio at the end, with a link to your site. Offer it to a few webmasters of sites you'd love to have a link from. Give it to them with the condition that they leave your link in place when they post it. Everybody wins. If you get a bite from a webmaster of a site you really really want a link from, offer the content on an exclusive basis. You get one-way links from great sites that are on-topic. And savvy webmasters jump all over that because you're offering something that's truly of value to them.
Also, I like the idea of offering articles on an exclusive basis --if you outsource them, you'd probably pay $5-$10 for 1 to 3 links from a "good" site; not a bad deal at all! ;-)
wouldn't webmasters start to worry that they may be hit by some "duplicate content penalty" if they put these articles on their sites?
It's a risk, sure. But then, any content you put out there for public consumption is at risk to be pilfered and used again - even what you post to your own sites.
Here's what I tell my prospective partners on that score...
Assuming it's a site I REALLY want that link from (authority, high PR, highly ranked for main keyword, etc.), I'll offer an article for exclusive use on their site. While they do have to trust me up front, it's easy to check for duplication. All they have to do is copy a full sentence that's likely to be unique to my article and search for it at the big engines within quotation marks. I recommend that people do it once a month or so, and if they see any other site with the same content, simply eliminate my link in the bio section, and/or remove the article from their site.
It's akin to recip link partners who remove links or move them without notifying their partners. You ultimately have control over what is on your site, right?
