John Lessnau: Link Buying not Link Building
Why buy links? You get the anchor text you want; you get on the page you want; you get the location on the page you want; you get the links that help you rank better.
Why people don’t buy links: Fear of Google, Don’t Understand it; Upfront cost; Hoping for a wave of natural links miracle; Takes time, salesmanship and effort.
What is a safe paid link? Link should be in relevant text; Link should be the only paid link on the page / one of a very few on the website; Lots of variation on your anchor text; Link should be on the inside pages; Links should be long term. Moderation: Don’t go crazy…50 to 100 max on newer sites.
What’s a powerful link? Host web site should have good rankings. Host web site should have lots of natural links. Host website should not be a major link seller. Dofollow, contextual HTML link within text relevant to your website.
My Link Buying System: Search Google for various keyword phrases you want to rank for. Look through the results for websites and web pages where your link would fit. Verify that the potential link partner does not link to major link buyers. Contact the webmaster and make a fair offer for the text link that you want. Your links should pass a hand check to avoid being reported by competitors looking for personal gain. Google “Embarassment to Google” to learn more.
After the buy: Monitor your links to make sure they stay up and the host sites stay clean. Use your rankings as a springboard to gaining natural links. Keep making your site better. Know when to quit buying links.
Rand Fishkin: How To Buy Links Without “Buying Links”
Examples: Event Sponsorships. Process: Locate events (geography, industry relevant); Get in touch; offer to sponsor them; Often, $1-$500 = permanent link from a good page.
Charitable Donations: Process: Find them online, locate their sponsorship pages, check that links pass juice, get in touch, don’t use standard donation forms…make sure to personally check about being listed on the page, added benefits – goodwill, branding, helping people.
Website purchases: Process-find relevant site to buy, negotiate ownership, redirect links.
Viral/Linkerati Traffic Buying: Process-Identify/Create Viral-worthy content; Find relevant viral traffic sources (e.g. StumbleUpon, Techmeme, Techcrunch); Buy Traffic/Ads; Measure/Improve “link acquisition” Conversion rate.
Blogger Product Reviews: Process-Meet bloggers in person, through contacts. Send bloggers free
stuff, follow up with email, don’t ask for link…ask for a review.
Featured content on other sites: Identify sources that can use it, get in touch and offer for free, if you really want it, pay for branding.
Blog Incubation
Aaron Wall: Low Risk Link Buying
Alternatives to buying links: Syndicate Content (Builds Authority/reputation/traffic/Page Rank)
Barter: (Giff Stuff away, Discounts for certain sectors: big in education).
Buy Competing Websites
Social Interaction
Public relations & follow up publicity.
Encouraging Organic Links: Cumulative Advantage, Regular Editorial Voice; Community Participation, Show Social Proof, Beautiful Site Design, Signs of Credibility – about us, etc.
Yahoo Directory: Pick the best category that you have a chance at listing on – want to be in the first 20 results, can sponsor a category if you are not.
Business.com: Submit a leading guide to Work.com…instead of paying recurring, you get free exposure.
Directory Purge of 2007: Google killed many directories. Buy in if home page Page Rank is what you expect, cache dates are recent, and listing quality decent. Likes niche directories, Joe Ant.
AdWords Ads for Linkbait. Create industry leading content for authoritative east-to-link-at topics. Buy AdWords for a wide basket of related keywords.
Clean bought links: Blog about new Google Products and wait for “x” to blog about your blog post. Google checkout, designer portfolio, etc. Sponsor events & advertise. Contests & award programs. Donate or give stuff away (widgets, software). Affiliate programs.
Dirty Links: Try to buy links in content or organic looking links lists…without disclosure. Run really dirty stuff through your affiliate program.
Link Location: “Irrelevant links at the bottom of a page aren’t accounted for in the rankings.”
Build Brand…Have to assume someone will see what you are doing.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.
Todd,
Nice round up on the Linkfluence section. I am not sure if I’ll be doing “how to buy links” sessions anymore.
One, MC is always in attendance during the buy links seminars so the the other panelists are afraid to actually tell the audience how to buy links and I end up being the only one foolish enough to give out buying links secrets.
After the session I was surprised by the number of seasoned PubCon attendees and SEOs that said they appreciated my “Straight Talk” on buying links and actually learned something – also many others they said I should have pimped out my service http://www.LinkXL.com more so people knew what LinkXL is all about.
I hope you allow the shoutout to LinkXL – If not, just delete or edit my comment.
John Lessnaus last blog post..Twitter Tweets about Loopt as of November 15, 2008