Can a site still attract inbound links with no Promotion

[karter2]

Hi All

It sticks me that more than ever before, sites with few inbound links rank for nothing in either Google or bing, infact , the bar seems to have been dialled up

So do you have to spend a lot of time looking, and if you do, whats to say the SE's won't tag the links as un natural

[martinibuster]

Everything needs to be promoted. This isn't an Internet phenomenom. Try opening a restaurant and see how many customers walk through your door without doing any promotion.

Whether you are online or offline, if you want to make money you have to promote your company. Business does not happen to you. It is up to us to make business happen.

Just as a restaurant will not attract customers without promotion, a site will generally not attract links without promotion.

Now here is something that may help you out. Promotion does not have to be spammy or paid for. It's like dating. People get all twisted up about opening lines, should they wink, are they staring too much. Meeting someone new can be as simple as walking up to them and saying, "Hi, I'm Joe Blow. What's your name?" Same thing for promoting your site. It's easy to over think it. It's about building relationships.

[karter2]

Thanks Martinibuster, I am attempting the socializing online approach, elsewhere off course, would mention their names except i guess it would be against ww policy

What do you think of Google Knol writing ?

I am no longer keen on article marketing via article distribution as my last run saw more articles in other peoples names than I who did the article :)
Frankly, it was absurd

[martinibuster]

What do you think of Google Knol writing ?

That is not building a relationship.

[piatkow]

People get very hung up on promoting the site as an end in itself. What you are promoting is the business for which the site is a delivery channel.

If there are other delivery channels which you are promoting then yes the site may still attract inbound links without being explicitly promoted in its own right.

[karter2]

Hi Again Martinibuster

I had the impression that a community was built around Knol and other similar sites and getting into, and getting known by that community would be beneficial

@Piatkow, the websites are the business, and the services are inherent in the sites

I had hoped to concentrate all my content building in the sites, but current Search engine behaviour does render this problematic, especially with the level of content "appropriatiation " going on now
being outranked on SEs by my own content in some one elses name is no fun

[martinibuster]

Thanks piatkow, that is a good description of link building. It dovetails with and enhances sugarrae's post about building links for traffic.

It really does come down to promoting the business. I've seen this first hand where promoting the business over the site (i.e. pet keyword phrases) can increase sales.

Re Knol, I am not speaking of online communities. Forums are great for building mindshare and awareness [webmasterworld.com] if done correctly, but what I mean about building relationships is getting to know your neighbor in the link neighborhood. Ranking well, particularly for the big sites but not exclusively so, is about who you know and who knows you back.