If you’re building a niche blog/site, link building is just part of the process. In fact, it’s a HUGE part of the process, it’s the part of the process that if you skip the whole thing doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written content worthy of a Pulitzer Prize ~ if you don’t build links you will not get ranked in Google which means you won’t get free traffic from them.
I’ve spoken extensively on link building, and hopefully you know how important it is. These are the tasks that I know I hate ~ and have to force myself to do. I now prefer to use software so the process goes a little quicker and I can work on other things. When you’re just getting started you may not have the money to spend on software, so you’re going to have to pay in time. No matter what… you’re going to pay somehow.
I found it nearly impossible to force myself to go from article directory to article directory to paste in my articles. However, there was something in my brain that didn’t mind doing blog posts so much. For some reason, they just seemed easier for me.
So instead of mass distributing articles to article directories by hand I created a network of blogs for myself. I did some searching online for free blog platforms and found some great lists. I went to each site, set up a free blog thereby creating a platform where I could write a short post and add a link to my site ~ be it niche site, or lens or whatever.
Once the site was started I would add it to RSS directories ~ to get it indexed and give IT some links.
As time went on this little network grew ~ since a lot of the sites I build could fit into “gift giving” or “holiday shopping” niches I did a lot of my free blogs on the general topic of shopping, so I could easily fit in most of the lenses or sites I built.
Was it time consuming for me to go from blog to blog to blog adding a post. You betcha. But since I didn’t have money for someone else to do it for me at the time, it’s what I had to do.
I did finally come across a cool tool that made life quite a bit easier. It’s called ping.fm It’s free, which is fun.
What is ping.fm
It is a site where you can write a blog post and then have the post sent to your free blogs around the internet. They have a huge network of sites they are linked up with ~ they don’t work with every blog of course, but they do work with a bunch of the big names for sure.
How does ping.fm work?
You go into ping.fm, create an account.
Add blogs you want to send posts to, to your account.
Write your blog post.
Choose the group of sites you want it to post to and hit send.
Automagically your post will immediately be published on all the blogs you had in that group.
It’s very spiffy and works like a charm.
What about duplicate content?
I know that’s going to be the first question. I never had any problems. The links that came from these blogs showed up in a yahoo site explorer search, and my rankings seemed to improve.
The key to link building is this:
You don’t have to do everything… but you do have to do something.
If you hate article marketing, then don’t do it.
If you don’t mind creating profile links then get the 5K link packet or Angela’s link packet and build away.
If you love commenting on other blogs then do it.
If you hate twitter, then don’t do it.
If you don’t mind writing short blog posts then create blogs to do that.
The key is to find a couple strategies for building links that you like (or can at least tolerate and will do) and DO them. Do them regularly, consistently, persistently until your site is ranking on page one for your targeted keyword.
How many links does that take?
That completely depends on your keyword, so I can’t tell you that. The question you can ask is this:
Is my site on page one for my targeted keyword?
If not ~ keep building links.
I know link building is monotonous and boring, even mind numbing, but it’s part of the process. If you want to see success (without buying traffic) for your niche sites you’re going to have to build some links, some how, some way. Test a few things out, see what works for you, and then put your effort and energy into that. Don’t worry about all the people who say you “have” to do this, or you “should” do that. Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant if it’s something you just won’t do consistently. It’s much better to find a linking method that YOU can and will do, and then do it.
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