Thought some might find this interesting.
1) I bought a keyword rich domain name. Check your logs for good keyword rich domains. The domain name I just bought is like {region}(niche} dot com. It's clearly region specific.
2) I built an almost completely plain text website. Not quite an article directory, it's trying to be a generic resource. Quite a few articles on products, written as unbiased as I can. Also articles and info and links for people in my niche, i.e. how to start a business in my niche, regulations, etc.
3) I created a tool for my competitors. Most of my competitors are not tech savvy - the program took about 3 hours of my developer's time.
4) I'm going to give away the tool for free to my competitors. They will have to call by phone to get it however - it won't be just a download, they'll have to talk to me and agree to the 'price'. The 'price' will be a link back to my keyword rich domain from their homepage. Now here's one thing I think is important. They'll be linking to {location}{niche}.com - which is not where they are located. So they are unlikely to have any concerns.
5) implementation. I have a list of people in my niche who've asked me to email them once in a while. And I've got a list of people in my niche who have previously dealt with me. Everyone gets an email. I've also had a software company in my niche indicate they will email their client base on my behalf (a few thousand businesses).
The end result should hopefully be something like 10-50 one way inbounds from good quality sites in my niche (all independent businesses) using keyword rich anchor text that matches the domain exactly.
I just put the site live today and changed the DNS. Emails should start going out this week as I have time.
