Go over to Ross’s blog post of today and read what he has to offer up on his POV on this – well sort of as Ross is very tough to point to in a few words or less….and this piece still has me thinking on it too! http://www.rosshudgens.com/dont-ask-sites-for-links-rebuttal/

🙂

Jim

I find that writing about good blogs, responding to the points they make, encouraging them to make more good points, often leads to people linking to my own blog.

Those links send visitors and hence I find those blogs in my referral data. That validates my choices. But I also discover other blogs in my referral data that I wasn’t aware of before. I wait until I find good content on those sites that I feel I can say something relevant about and then I write about them.

The process is rather self-sustaining, although clearly a well-known, popular blog benefits from this method more than a newly created blog. However, that is how I build traffic and links for all my blogs. I’m willing to take the patient route. I feel it’s more productive and efficient.

@Rudd thanks for the comment. No I do agree with the point, and would very much like to stress that these aren’t the only queries I ever use. I’ve found this idea particularly useful when looking for content opportunities, local business, review sites and so much more.

Like the post that you’ve linked to states; the basic theory can be extended to anything:) I have found links from RELEVANT resource pages to work, like I’ve pointed out…relevant is the key. It’s also worth adding that it’s important to keep good company, and make sure that you’re only looking at a good proposition (not a spammy resource page).

If a resource or links page on a relevant website has five carefully selected and relevant links, how can that do you any harm? In fact I’d stand by my point and say that it would be a great link to get! Just because it’s a ‘resource’ or ‘links’ page doesn’t mean it should be avoided.

@Micheal…I think you’re right here, there are many ways to go about building links. I didn’t mean to come across as ‘corraling’ websites; but surely there’s a benefit to finding relevant websites that do actually link? I did maintain the fact that relevant is key here; not just approaching any old website with a links page…

🙂

Jim

PS no offence meant…just that as Michael says, there are MUCH better ways to find good, relevant links than the ‘corraling’ method outlined herein, eh!

It’s better to spend MORE TIME reading the blogs in the topic area from which you want the links and counting up which ones link out. You become more familiar with their own points of view that way and can write a better, more focused communication by responding to what they say.

Link acquisition should not be treating other Websites as cattle to be herded into the PageRank corral. They should be treated with the same dignity and respect we want people to extend to our own Websites.