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Tip 6: Make use of social media

What′ s social media and why at all should it matter?

On the Web there′ re thousands of vague definitions. Here′ s what Wikipedia says:

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks… Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web–based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co–create, discuss, and modify user–generated content.

Here′ s how I′ d put it in simple words: social media is a modern way to use Internet to share content and ideas with a lot of people. This can be some writing, like blogs (as in Technorati ), pictures (like in Flickr ) or videos (the big example is YouTube or all–in–one, like in Facebook.

Being social is a tendency that can′ t be ignored in today′ s Internet. The essence of any social media site is that it sees streams of people coming each day, and these people are hungry for information. They′ re waiting for stories or something interesting to happen. You can tell them your story and see if someone picks it up... And what you see then is links you′ d never get with your own hands.

Just a couple of examples of top social media sites.

Social networks

Good examples are Facebook and Twitter. These are huge social networks uniting people for thousands of reasons. Here you can create your own profile and not just find friends. You′ ll join communities, write your own posts and attract readers to it and to your site through it. These social networks have huge traffic and if you′ re popular there, your site can benefit a lot thanks to these resources.

Social bookmarking sites

Quite clear from the title — you can "bookmark" webpages there and share your bookmarks with other people. All bookmarks work like links, and the more bookmarks your site has, the better you profit. Here′ re the sources you must have heard of: Delicious, Digg , Reddit, StumbleUpon, and dozens more!

These are big help in spreading your news like a virus — and a good place for your news. Some links you set up there may have SEO benefit, plus, they drive more people to see your site and its content, encourage them to pass on your news — so they can generate traffic and links — without much effort on your part.

Blog Search Engines

One of the great places to show your own blog and find other′ s: Technorati. If you′ ve got a blog, this resource is for you. That′ s a kind of a Search Engine and directory for blogs. If you′ re a member you can claim your blog here, and people from around the web will see what you′ ve written. This way you can easily let other people pick the story and link to you.

Here′ s one useful link to find a huge list of blog directories you can submit your blog to. Check which would work for you: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20–essential–blog–directories–to–submit–your–blog–to/5998/.

DO IT NOW! Check some social media sites to see if they can help you build links.

Tip 7: Get paid traffic–effective links

As I already said before, there′ re two basic options when getting links: free and non–free. Now we′ ve come to the second option. Yes, like any other thing that bears some value, a link can be purchased or sold. Who sells links? Normally, grown–up, well–optimized sites that have good traffic.

Who buys links? Any site. Even a top–ranking site that′ s getting a lot of organic traffic quite often buys links from other traffic–rich web pages — to get more visitors.

People buy all kinds of links: those looking like simple text, or like images (or banners) or flash banners.

Lots of people also buy links for SEO — the major downside is that buying links for SEO is against Google′ s Webmaster Guidelines, and Google puts a lot of effort into detecting and disabling paid links. There′ s a risk that Google and the company will simply ignore your paid links. Therefore, even if you buy links for SEO, the way to be sure these links are worth it is if they have good traffic, too.

All sites start from getting links. And when they′ re good enough — others will want to buy links from them, too. I′ m sure one day you′ ll be able to earn pretty penny this way, too.

It works like in real life: while you′ re studying to be a dentist, you only go to other dentists. As soon as you′ ve got your diploma, you can have your own practice and patients of your own. Even when you′ re highly qualified, still you′ ll go to another dentist to fill your own tooth. You sell your service, which is the result of your experience — and go to others to buy the same kind of service. Same logic here: high–ranked sites are often selling links — and still buying incoming links from other sites.

Sites that have good traffic or good factors (those Q–factors we talked about): PageRank, popularity, age etc.) can make pretty good money selling links. And these are what you need to find: good sites to get links from. First of all, like I already said, for traffic.

Consider these 3 options for getting paid links:

  • Advertising links. You can actually contact almost any website and ask if they are willing to offer advertising spots on their pages (either text links or banners). Many traffic–rich sites have pages that describe their ad sales policies.
  • Paid reviews. If you′ ve got something to be reviewed, you can pay a blogger for it. Of course, there′ ll be a link to your website in the review.
  • Sponsoring events and donations. You can easily get a banner on some popular meetup or conference site by paying for the sponsor spot. Another option is to donate to some organizations and ask them to give a backlink to you on their sponsorship page. Just don′ t get overexcited about this technique. Too many "donation" links pointing to the insurance company website can look suspicious to Google. To find these types of link opportunities, go to Google and search for: "Please visit our sponsors", "Thanks to the following donors", etc.

You can also add keywords related to your site niche and use search operators (site:.org or site:.edu) to narrow the results list down

I believe whenever you make a purchase, you see that the price and the quality are corresponding. Links are no exception. We′ ll see where to pay attention, when choosing links to pay for.

20 comments

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#2439 2011-10-07 15:15:21 Luis Fernando Alejos

Great stuff, Dan! I have to admit, I once opened a MySpace account but never used it. I bet others have mentioned it, but Twitter is now vital for helping spread the word about content. Almost done with the book!

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#1869 2011-03-03 17:03:03 Frank Jones

i really enjoy reading this site, im interested in using the software now

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#1070 2010-03-21 13:29:52 Daniel Price

Hi Dan

If I sell banner space, is this frowned upon by SEs, when they are rating MY site? Is there anything I need to do to the banner links, eg add a nofollow?

cheers
-Dan

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#1103 2010-03-24 11:48:10 Dan Richmond

Yes, just add nofollow and you're safe to go

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#961 2010-01-24 06:43:10 waseem qamar

Twitter is a also very good social media marketing site.

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#3761 2013-12-04 07:46:08 Seo marketing

But how will people find you ? ;-)

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#283 2009-04-03 15:45:14 Donna Goodman

Hi Dan,

I am very partial to this one, but don't forget the powerful site www.squidoo.com where anyone can make a one page lens for free with just about anything they want to put on it, as many back links about your site and products as you wish! It is easy, quick, and addicting once you start!

Donna

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#5416 2023-06-28 11:24:12 Jack the ripper

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