Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The purpose for the website/blog is to provide solid information; research findings, statistics, ideas etc.. and will be updated regularly. The primary objective however, is to request backlinks from well-established 'authority' websites.
Your suggestions will be duly appreciated!
Some corporate websites have been linked to, but they're usually stock listed multi-million dollar companies and some charity, non-profit organizations.
I take it, I don't have a chance? Has anyone on this forum managed to obtain any .edu or .gov backlinks? If so do let me know.. Cheers!
[edited by: martinibuster at 12:58 am (utc) on Jan. 8, 2010]
[edit reason] Removed specifics. [/edit]
My spin is content. I put up content very specifically that is of interest to these types of sites.
Lets say you're a mortgage broker. Will a .gov or .edu link to you because you have a live rate ticker on your site? Not a chance. How about if you had managed to dig up mortgage rates for the last 100 years? Or maybe even prior to that - I don't know mortgages, but that'd be of some use. Or alternatively you do some statistical analysis of mortgage rates. Or hey, how about an article on some connection between mortgage rates and the recent economic struggles. If it's unique and informative enough - not just an opinion piece - you can get some links.
Or take jewellery. Some research articles on diamonds. Or something about mining of gold - that's nasty stuff I think, some unique info on enviro-friendly gold mining (if such stuff exists, I dunno). Call up some company doing enviro friendly gold mining and get some info. Then call the mint in your country and get a link to your research article. Heck, define an enviro rating system and rate every mining company in your country.
Sorry, all my link building techniques involve work. But the idea that you have to be big to get these links is false. Big companies may get those types of links without work - but you can get them if you do the groundwork.
With regards to creating unique findings and publishing on a website to get authority links... I think that can even be outsourced if one can find a student, working professional or even a journalist to write a well cited and researched piece. Sure, it will cost but a couple of authority links will more than make up for it.
I'm still unclear whether I should build a website or a blog in order to publish very unique research findings? If you were an authority site owner of a .gov or .edu, would you link out to a blog or a website? hmm...
Write on items, build tools if necessary, that expand on your industry.
Then present those to those that would care :)
Now here are the considerations for deciding the viability of the choosing a blog format.
Before building anything, research using a variety of search queries. Start with the Google External tool and find popular keywords then run them through G/Y/Bing and determine what the top sites are, your competitors. Then do competitive intelligence, outline their strengths and weaknesses. Their weaknesses can be your strength. But will that be enough?
Then present those to those that would care :)
This is a very good advice we often (well at least I) do not think presenting our work to those that could have an interest in reviewing and linking to the presented research.
Thanks for bringing it up!
Getting a backlink from a .edu website is much easier than a .gov especially if you know the professors and staff.
Do authority sites prefer to link to blogs or websites?[
I could care less, because I believe "blogs" to be almost totally valueless where the "brain dead" achieve their fifteen minutes of fame.
Yes, I have for over 10+ years had world wide .gov and .edu sites linking back to my sites.
If it get's to the stage that blogs become more important than "real" websites then it's clearly time for me to fold my tent and walk away.
I have yet to see a "blog" which carries any very useful or intelligent information, just the ramblings of the very "ill informed".
Getting a backlink from a .edu website is much easier than a .gov especially if you know the professors and staff.
My wife is professor at a Tier-1 US University, just got a huge grant in her field, and a blogger on Huffington Post as well as her own blog. Total links that she has given me? 1. One! on her personal blog on the About Me page.
She feels that her field of study doesn't have anything to do with my e-commerce site and so it would look odd. Nevermind she gets blog ideas from me all the time..... and yet she SAYS she loves me. /rant
Maybe I can get her to read the around in the Link Development section.... sigh.
I believe "blogs" to be almost totally valueless where the "brain dead" achieve their fifteen minutes of fame.
Blogs are just websites consisting of chronologically ordered articles. A lot of my favourite web sites are blogs written by experts.
A number of universities, particularly the relevant departments, have included the site in their list of resources. Some of their libraries have also included the site as one of their recommended external resources.
One other important source of links are the professors' websites (or their section in the main .edu site). The site is cited by some of the teachers as a go-to resource in this particular field of study.
The site publishes a top 10 findings per month, and that is often cited in the sites of various senators and congressmen. When the site publishes heftier papers, we get a lot of backlinks from the embassies -- which is a good thing because if it is published in the by the website of the US embassy in Estonia, chances are that it is published by the site of the US embassy in Manila as well
But this is a site primarily geared for the gov and academic audiences. And even then, we have to rely a lot of personal networking and contacts to get our site listed in their resource list. We have people working on coordinating with the people on the Capitol Hill to let them know of new contents on the site, and we have people coordinating the executive side to let them know of the contents. Many have also signed up in the regular updates of the site.
With the content the primary impetus for getting links to the site, I find that networking and coordinating the second best way to win .edu and .gov links. You have to know them, and let them know that you have content that they are interested in.
My wife is professor at a Tier-1 US University, just got a huge grant in her field, and a blogger on Huffington Post as well as her own blog. Total links that she has given me? 1. One! on her personal blog on the About Me page.
Decent sites with with interesting content will get lots of free, one way links, including library, .edu .gov and real nonprofit .org with no need to even ask.
A decent site with interesting content about poker affiliates isn't going to gather .edu or .gov links.
I don't think we share the same criteria of what constitutes decent or interesting. Anyway, if I was to ever put up a site like this the main topic wouldn't be poker affiliates even if those were the internal money pages.
This might be a stupid question ;), but Ive been wondering:
Is that pretty much the only way you use to get links - Finding opportunities for content that could attract links
(say..you notice there's a bunch of websites in your niche that suggest to their visitors "that" they should do XYZ, but not where...and then you dig up the information on where exactly their visitors can do XYZ (+how much it costs, advantages, disadvantages..of the different places)
and then you send out link requests/phone calls to all those sites (that say "that" their visitors should do XYZ) asking them for a link by mentioning you got some piece of content their visitors might be very interested in, b/c it would tell them exactly where they can do XYZ (content their site lacks, and would definitely add value to their sites)?
Is this basically the kind of approach you take for every linking campaign? (just curious)
Some people mention that link building is a ton about psychology & human emotions, how people tick etc. - and Im sure there are ways to get people to link to your stuff in those ways (e.g. ego/award linkbait....controversy....) - but you don't seem to do anything like that, but "only" follow the approach outlined above (pretty successfully), right? (wrong?)
I don't think we share the same criteria of what constitutes decent or interesting. Anyway, if I was to ever put up a site like this the main topic wouldn't be poker affiliates even if those were the internal money pages.
Makeveli, that's roughly what I do. Part of it's content development, part of it's learning the techniques to find potential sites who may give you a link. A lot of it's actually asking for the links. It's not the only way to do it, and it's not the only thing I do, but it's a big part of it.
Don't discount networking at pubcon as another way to get good links.
I noted in the supporters section I think that I'm about to start a link building campaign that's roughly based on networking/client relationships.
I noted in the supporters section I think that I'm about to start a link building campaign that's roughly based on networking/client relationships.
I sell calculator type website plugins to vendors in my niche (including my competitors). The service is about $200 a year. There's been large pressure in that industry recently - that end of my business is floating to a great extent due to my existing relations with my clients. But that won't last forever. So I'm dropping my price to $50 - if they give me a link to my main money site from their site. These people are all direct competitors to me.
Secondly (again, I already detailed this) I recently found an academic that wanted a custom calculator created. They wanted it released as an informational type of service. I partnered with them, they gave me the calcs, I created the software. I'm going to release it via GPL. Then the academic is going to do link dev for me. Not deliberately - they just want to promote this information calculator that's their baby.
Another example of content I'm using to gather academic links is some research data I came across. I've purchased the rights to it (this type of stuff is normally proprietary) and am publishing it on my site. Then I light up the emails with 'visitors to your .edu site who are doing research may find this information of use in their research.'. A few bite.
None of these are new ideas, they've been around for years. But no reason why they won't still work.
Now I'm thinking I should consider if there's any type of calculator that would be of interest to academics in my field. Nothing comes to mind immediately, but it's something I'll keep in the back of my mind.
linkdomain:examplecompetitor.com site:.edu. This will give you a list of all ( or most of) the pages on .edu sites linking to any page on you're competitors domain (just replace .edu with .gov to get a list of gevernment site links). This way you can reach out to them specifically and say "i noticed on page example.com/articlx.html you link to site Y - I just launched a site that has content on the same topic you might want to link to as well."
Requests this specific tend to do pretty well.
"i noticed on page example.com/articlx.html you link to site Y - I just launched a site that has content on the same topic you might want to link to as well."
I'm OK with how you found the site - that's fair game. The problem with what you're suggesting is that that email is basically spam. It's a blatant link request for your benefit and it's missing a key ingredient I put in all my link requests:
WHY would they link to you? Why is it to their benefit to link to you?
You need to give them a precise and specific reason why *it's to their benefit* to link to you.
Having listed your competitor's site is not a reason why they should link to your site.
I suspect that these link requests don't do as well as we might hope. An email like that gets the spam button from me. Not that I link out very often anyway - but I have been sold on the idea before. But never 'because it was good for the outbound link'. Bring something to the table.
Let me elaborate. Good content don't mean nothing for getting links - you're missing a step. They're not linking to good content. They're linking because linking to good content makes THEIR site better. See the fine difference? But you need that point in your emails.
Better to say something like (this is weak, but better than nothing) "you link to mystupidcompetitor dot com. My site is similiar, but you'll see our site actually has a differing but better approach to widgets. Would you consider linking to us as well? I believe it'll give your visitors a more rounded view of the subject".
Scrape the bejeepers out of the academic site using Xenu. Find all the broken links. From those, find any that are in your niche. Email the site owner and tell them about the broken link. Now you've got a reason for them to link - they're fixing their site, you've given an easy replacement site.
that's about all I can think of for a 'reason' if you've got just another site and they already have good links on the site, just not to your site.
Martini buster posted a very interesting thread recently in the supporters section about some finding broken links in your niche that didn't involve scraping the crap out of a site.
Haha - I like your thinking wheel. In my head the same question always comes up only that there is often a "(why) in the world" added to it.
not trying to be a wise-guy, but I think the vast majority of posts by people wondering why nobody links to their (quality) content, could be answerd with a simple question:
"If you were in their shoes, would you link to it?" - "No..."
I believe "blogs" to be almost totally valueless where the "brain dead" achieve their fifteen minutes of fame.
Depends on the blog. Experts on a subject write very useful blogs; teens with angst they need to express online do not. The latter makes me disgusted when I hear the word blog as well but there are exceptions.
