You’re about to begin your journey to becoming a link building ninja.
Oh? You don’t know what a link building ninja is…
Hmmm. Let me grab my dictionary.
Here we are… A link building ninja is one who is skilled in the art of highly advanced link building; one who can find link building opportunities untapped by other marketers; a person trained to reverse engineer the link building strategies of others and destroys their Google rankings with ninja stealth. They rarely discover how their competitors stole all of their precious rankings.
So with that, let’s dig in…
1.Here’s One Link Building Tactic That Nobody Talks About…
As you probably know, syndicating your RSS feed to all the different RSS directories and aggregators can be a great way to get one-way backlinks.
Plus, they’re one of the best ways to get indexed fast in Google.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to put your RSS feed on steroids and grab 10 times as many backlinks.
The secret is in creating custom RSS feeds.
The idea is to create multiple, custom RSS feeds and submit those to several RSS feed aggregator sites. This spreads your links all over the Internet.
Talk about some link juice!
You can do this using a service called RSSMix.
Watch this step-by-step video tutorial to find out how to create your own customized RSS feeds.
This site allows you mix any number of RSS feeds into one new feed, which opens up lots of new link building opportunities. You can create your own customized RSS feeds from your articles, videos, podcasts, Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, and more. In fact, even EzineArticles has an RSS feed for each user.
Any of the content you have on the Internet can be put into your own customized RSS feeds. These can the be submitted to the top RSS directories, giving you hundreds of one-way backlinks.
Here’s another quick tip on how to use the power of RSS Mix…
If you use Web 2.0 properties like Squidoo, blogspot, social bookmarking sites, and others to generate backlinks, you can create one big RSS feed from all of these sources using RSS Mix.
By creating one big RSS feed, you can then submit that feed to all the different RSS directories. This ensures that Google indexes all of the pages that contain your backlinks.
If Google doesn’t index the page you have a backlink from, then it doesn’t count. You can use RSS feeds to make sure that all of your backlinks get counted in Google. I hope you see the power in this technique!
You can also do this for all of the articles you submit around the net. If a particular page doesn’t have an RSS feed, don’t worry. You can turn any page into an RSS feed using Dapper.net. Any time you add a new resource, add it’s RSS feed to your “One Big RSS feed”.
If you want to get a little more advanced, you can use a service called Yahoo Pipes. Yahoo Pipes allows you to apply filters to your main RSS feeds. So, for example, you could create a customized RSS feed for all of the content on your site related to “diets”. You could then create another customized RSS feed for all of the content on your site related to “workout plans”.
You’re basically breaking your main RSS feed down into more targeted feeds. This technique allows you to create unlimited RSS feeds!
You can then submit each of these to all the different RSS aggregator sites, multiplying your results and the number of backlinks you receive.
2. Widgets
Another unique way to build hundreds of inbound links is known as widget marketing. Widgets are mini internet applications that are offered via a 3rdparty. They can easily be integrated into web pages, Facebook profiles,iGoogle start pages, and more.
Because of this, a widget can spread your link to thousands of otherwebsites.
Some popular widgets include quizzes, games, weather reports, and Flickrslideshows. It seems that everyone is starting to create their own widgets.
Amazon.com has their own widget to let customers show off their favoriteAmazon products. USA Today offers a widget that enables bloggers to displaythe latest new updates.
Why shouldn’t you have one also? If you don’t know how to program, don’tworry. You can instantly turn your blog into a widget at WidgetBox.com.
Once you have created your widget, you can promote your widgets on the following websites…
The popular online dating site JustSayHi used widgetbait to rank on the frontpage of Google for highly competitive terms like “Free Online Dating” and”Online Dating”.
They did this by creating popular quizzes and turning them into a widget.Some of their quizzes include titles like “How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight?” and “The Geek Quiz”. You can check out an entire list of the quizzes they have created at http://www.oneplusyou.com/q
However, keep in mind that they have recently changed their name to mingle2.com, which is ranking #1 in Google for “free online dating” - largelydue to the links they’ve built using widgets.
You can read the full story at…
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/widgetbait-gone-wild
You can also turn your widget into a Facebook app with a free tool called App Accelerator. Popular Facebook applications can send thousands of visitors to your site per day. It’s just a matter of being creative and taking action.
3. Instant Backlinks
Here’s a cool trick for getting instant backlinks…
At first glance, Zimbio might look like any other user generated conten tsite. However, when you look closely, you’ll find that it’s a link-generatingmachine.
You can use Zimbio to get new backlinks every time you post to your blog.
Once you’ve created an account, simply submit your blog URL or your feed URL, and Zimbio will instantly import your blog posts, providing you with instant backlinks every time you post to your blog.
Plus, your articles will also be promoted to related wikizines within Zimbio, driving even more traffic to your website.
Here’s another interesting technique for getting instant backlinks…
Want to build your reputation and create high quality backlinks at the same time? LookUpPage.com allows you to do just that.
You create a personal LookUpPage with information about you, your website, and contact info. Plus, you get to add links to all your different websites with anchor text included. These are the types of juicy links that Google loves. So go set up your unique profile page, build your brand, and get some authoritative backlinks at the same time.
Naymz is another free website that allows you to set up a profile centered around your name and reputation. All you have to do is sign up, create a profile, and add your website URL under the “links” category.
4. Here’s another interesting find. It’s called Cool Site of the Day. This site lists some of the most interesting sites from around the web. Best of all, you can submit your site as well if you think it’s up to snuff. Not only does this present an excellent link opportunity, but Cool Site of the Day is known for sending thousands of visitors to their featured sites.
If your site is chosen, it will be featured on the homepage and announced to their email list of over 150,000 subscribers.
Much like Digg, Cool Site of the Day also has a ripple effect. The featured sites are often picked up by journalists throughout the world. Some of the previously featured sites have been quoted on the BBC News website, featured in USA Today, picked up by radio stations and quoted in a number of other media outlets.
Sites similar to Cool Site of the Day that you can submit to include…
Do you have a unique or entertaining website? If so, you can drop your links at the following websites…
5. Blog Reviews
Another great way to build inbound links is through blog reviews. No, I’m not talking about paid reviews from sites like ReviewMe.com. There are actually lots of sites that are willing to exchange reviews.
There’s a site called ReviewBackthat allows you to exchange reviews with other bloggers. Reviewback is an excellent alternative for those who don’t want to spend their money on ReviewMe.
You can also find a nice list of web sites that offer review exchanges at
http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/04/02/sites-that-do-blog-review-trading/
YoungEntrepreneur.com is just one of the popular online blogs that does mutual reviews.
This is an excellent opportunity to get a very high-quality, authoritative backlink.
6. Recoup Your Link Juice
Here’s an innovative way to increase your rankings. I call it recouping your link juice. Here’s the idea…
If you’ve been online for any time at all, then you probably already have incoming links from other websites.
However, are they using the anchor text for the keyword phrase you would liketo rank for? If not, you can email the website owner and ask them to changethe anchor text to your desired keyword phrase. This one simple step can helpshoot up your ranking for your desired keywords.
7. Coupon Sites
Here’s a tactic I see very few sites using - submitting your website to coupon directories. Besides building links, you can also generate new customers and build some buzz around your brand.
Some of the most popular places you can submit your coupons to are Coupon Cabin, Ultimate Coupons, Free Shipping, and Deal Taker.
For a complete list of coupon sites, go to…
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p4bAsllwd0FlMmPng37LvTA
There are lots of ways to create coupons for your site. For example, checkout the following web page to see a Link Building Service that is using coupon sites to advertise their service.
http://www.couponcodes4u.com/discounts/linkexchanged.com
Coupon sites are an excellent option if you sell any kind of product or service.
You can offer discounts, promotional codes, or even rebates.
Be creative!
8. Underground Link Building Tool
Here’s one of my favorite tools for finding hidden link buildingopportunities. It can be found at…
http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-builder.php
This tools searches for websites of the theme you specify that contain keyphrases like “Add link”, “Add site”, “Add URL”, “Add URL”, “Submit URL”, “Add Article” etc.
I’ve found lots of great link building opportunities using this tool.
9. CSS Galleries
CSS galleries are another untapped source of traffic and links. FreelanceSwitch.com has received over 25,000 visitors from CSS Galleries . If you have a savvy CSS design,be sure to submit it to all of the major CSS galleries.
Each of these sites can also send you quick and easy traffic.
10. Internal Link Structure
One of the best linking strategies that people take for granted is the power of their own internal link structure.
Proper internal link structure will insure that your website gets properly spidered and all pages are found and indexed by the search engines. It will also increase the PageRank (Link Juice) that flows to your internal pages, thus raising your search engine rankings.
Simply by optimizing your internal link structure, you can increase your search engine rankings. By adding the right links in strategic places, we can boost our own search engine rankings without having to get links from external websites. Most people simply do not realize the sheer power of their own internal linking structure.
You can essentially, direct the flow of Google juice within your website.
You can improve your internal link structure through 3 main methods:
1. Text link navigation
2. Footers
3. Inline Text links (Contextual Links)
For example, if there are certain keyword phrases you want to rank for, you can create internal links to the page you want to rank high on Google. These links can be placed in the navigation, footer, breadcrumb links, or within the content.
You can go to beau-coup.com to see some good examples of internal linking using contextual links within the content. They also use breadcrumb navigation to improve their internal link structure.
You can go to Americanbridal.com to see an example of how they’re using footer links to rank for their desired keyword phrases.
Keep in mind that contextual links (those that are placed within the text of a page) are more powerful than navigation and footer links. If you’re using Wordpress, you can use a plugin for related posts to increasethe internal linking to relatd content. This is good for both your seasrch engine rankings as well as increasing your pageviews.
In addition, you can also use a plugin for preventing the duplicate content that is caused by Wordpress blogs. The plugin is called the Duplicate Content Cure.
If you’d like more information about how to optimize your internal link structure, check out the following resources:
A video tutorial on internal link structure by Aaron Wall
A Guide to Internal Linking by Rand Fishkin of SeoMoz
A Guide to Internal Linking by Jim Boykin
SEO Fast Start Guide by Dan Thies
11. Convert your Articles into Podcasts
Another great way to build one-way backlinks is to convert your blog posts into podcasts. You can use free online software to automatically convert your blog posts into podcasts without having to do any extra work. By turning your blog posts into podcasts, you open up a ton of new link building opportunities.
One of my favorite tools, Odiogo.com, will instantly give your blog a voice. Odiogo will automatically convert your RSS feeds, text articles and blog posts to iPod-ready audio files. Once you’ve installed their free service, you can then submit your new podcast to all of the podcast directories, generating tons of new backlinks to your site.
If you don’t have an RSS feed or a blog for your website, then you can use a service called Read The Words.
Read The Words can convert any web page, text file, Word document, or PDF file into an audio file that’s ready to be submitted to all the different podcast directories.
12. Building Links with Tickers!
Here’s one of my favorite link building tactics that I see very few people using…
Have you ever been to a forum and seen those countdown tickers that countdown to a particular date or event?
http://www.brides.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=48916&start=45&tstart=0
Some common tickers include pregnancy countdowns, wedding countdowns, weight loss countdowns, etc…
People use these tickers when posting to forums and on their blogs. Most people include the tickers in their signature file.
But here’s the cool part…
Every time they post to the forum with their ticker, the creator of the countdown ticker gets a link back to their site.
Now imagine if you started creating your own countdown tickers and started distributing them to your users and promoting them in popular forums. You could get thousands of one-way backlinks coming into your site.
If you’re thinking this would require some complicated programming, think again! You can create an unlimited number of countdown tickers with a piece of software located at MyTickerScript.com.
This software allows you to create customized graphical countdown tickers.
They have over 12 Ticker types built in, including:
Pregnancy Due Date Countdown
Pregnancy Due Date (When am I due?)
Breastfeeding
Baby and Child Age
Birthday Countdown
Trying to Conceive
Angel Remembrance
Weight Loss
Wedding Countdown
Anniversary Countdown
Adoption Countdown
Vacation Countdown
However, you can also create custom tickers to countdown to any event you choose. This is a great technique for increasing your backlinks, traffic, revenue, and website exposure. Every ticker you create is branded with your websites name and links back to your website.
Think about it… If you had just one active forum member using your ticker, that could equate to thousands of backlinks.
13. Our final link building technique is quite “out-of-the-box”.
It’s buying websites!
Yes, you can buy low-cost websites to get high-quality one-way backlinks. You can use the SitePoint
Marketplace to find some great deals on established websites.
Buying a low-cost website not only gives you lots of powerful link building opportunities, it can also bring you a lot of extra traffic and subscribers.
Lots of people simply don’t know how to monetize their websites properly. You can often find quality websites getting hundreds of visitors a day that aren’t even collecting opt-ins. Imagine if you bought the site with your marketing knowledge, started collecting subscribers, and built a relationship with your list.
Congratulations on finishing this VERY long article. You are now well on your way to becoming a link building ninja. The only thing left for you to do is implement the powerful strategies and tactics you’ve learned. Remember, it’s all about practice!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Holy smokes, good read, Kim. I just happened to be on your site after a recommendation from Adam Nicoloff. Looks like I was here just in time to grab hold of this great post. That’s a lot of powerful stuff you’re sharing here.
Just wanted to point out something real quick. Your very first line:
You’re about to begin you’re journey to becoming a link building ninja?
The second “you’re” should be “your.” That’s all! Have a good one and I’ll be back to read more of your older posts and anxiously waiting for your new ones.
Kevin
October 13th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Hey Kevin,
I’m so glad you enjoyed the article!
Fixed the error too. Thanks for the heads up!
- Kim
October 13th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Just got your email Kim and loved the article, it amazes me how much info you give away to us, marketers would charge big dollars for the info you have. I have posted this to about 19 social bookmark sites, hope you do not mind :-)
October 13th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I’ve read $47 & $77 ebooks that have less value than your free information posts. WOW!
Kurt
October 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Kim,
Solid info! I first started paying close attention to you from a Twitter referral from Rosalind Gardner. The first article I read was equal to the best article on search engine ranking I have read in a while! Your tips from that article on the use of Digg and Mixx to get almost instant rankings were great! I concur with Kevin. There are a lot of powerful linking techniques in this article as well.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Stevie and Kurt. You guys are the best!
October 13th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Kim - thank you, thank you, thank you - I consider myself a “seasoned pro” on link building, yet you have still introduced quite a few new methods to me in your article above. Thank you very much for sharing, and for the email to let me know it existed…..I am now off to the countless links you supplied to start ramping up those links again - and please be sure to mail me when you write your next article :)
October 13th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Nice article Kim. Lots of great stuff! Cheers!
October 13th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Hi Kim, you are awesome! I have been following your emails and trying to implement your ideas. I find that you have been the most useful source of help I have found on the web. I have wasted a lot of money buying useless information(I guess that is why we don’t even know the price before we click “buy”). I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and as I implement as many of the ideas you have given, I will send it to Stumble upon, twitter etc.
My website is about dogs and is called http://www.puppydazzles.com. I invite you to visit it if you have the time. I would not mind any constructive criticism from you. I admire your willingness to help those of us who are struggling to get traffic.
Puppydazzles
October 13th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
PS. Thanks for the video on promodashboard. I bought it, but have not really used it much. I have been trying to implement the ‘flyin’ optin page, but after following all the instructions, I don’t see the optin page on my site. I cannot find a way to communicate with Marlon Sanders.
Puppydazzles
October 13th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Amazing!
These kinds of articles remind me of just how much I still have to learn about the internet. I think I should start with flipping through a dictionary first.
Thanx again, Kim!
October 13th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
These techniques are simply amazing! I’m going to implement each one of these techniques on my new sites to start building links especially the RSS method :)
October 13th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Awesome article! There are so many ways to build a bundle of backlinks that many of us never use.
Thanks, Kim, for all those resources!
October 13th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Hey
Great article , I’ll stumble it for you !
Wish you would fill it out just a little and make a PDF…this is the kind of info I need to keep checking on because there is so much to absorb
Thanks
October 13th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Kim,
You are a sweetheart! Those are some excellent tips, and I wanted to thank you for sharing them.
A few of them I have never even heard of. Very nice.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Wow this is an awesome read! One-way backlinks are pure gold in any legitimate form!
Thanks!
October 14th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Hi Kim
Once again you blow us out of the water with your”free” information.
Wow am I glad I found you. A million thanks !
Millionairemumma (Rickrufus)
October 14th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Once again Kim you have me staying up late to not only read but put your great ideas into action. You have a way of going the extra mile for your followers and delivering really useful stuff that they can use. Just love the RSS idea.
Thanks again.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:39 am
yeah Kim
U ROCK
cool bananas:)
w
October 14th, 2008 at 4:44 am
You’re such a generous person, Kim. Your article is loaded with very useful information I don’t see being shared around the net. You show us ways to make money that will not burn our pockets.I’ve been your avid follower since I got hold of your Google Domination videos.
May your tribe increase!
October 14th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Kim,
You are a netmarketing angel! Thanks for all of the great info and I will begin putting it into practice right away. As a newer blogger I have had many questions about building solid backlinks. I have run across a handful of posts/articles suggestion ‘under the table’ methods of buidling backlinks and haven’t been comfortable with the legitimacy of such methods. As I am blogging about my day-to-day adventures of finding, launching and developing an online business as a surprise gift for my wife I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of great and giving people… although we haven’t *met* personally I must say you rank right up there with my other helpful new friends. Thank you again for your generous nature!
peace,
JMichael
http://www.BizLaunchBlog.com
October 14th, 2008 at 9:03 am
You cover everything related to link building i never see such good techniques in my 3 year experiecne to build links using the above techniques.
thanks a lot…
October 14th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hi Kim
Very good post! I have used several of your techniques in the past so I know they work… And, I have discovered some new ones as well thanks to your post. :)
BTW, have added your blog to my blogroll.
All the best,
Francois
October 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Hi Kim,
You have a away of making it appear so easy.Newbies like me always find coaches like you very easy to understand.Kim, please keep coming on.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:53 am
You are a real pearl, Kim. Thanks a lot for the very useful and practical information. I’ll stumble and bookmark your great post.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I love the article. Tons of great tips that folks NEED to read. I’m glad that you added widgets as a technique. I work at Clearspring, the leading widget distribution platform.
One thing to note… building the widget itself won’t increase your link love because most search engines don’t go inside of embed, iframe, or script tags. Those are the mechanisms that widgets get put onto a page.
At Clearspring, our widget platform makes it possible so that you can put html links at the top and bottom of the widget. These pieces of HTML get put in around how the widget gets put on your page so that the links are accessible to search engines. This will up your SEO love.
You can find more info here:
http://www.clearspring.com/platform/seo
October 15th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Thank you Kim for such a great post. I feel you can given lot of time for this post and such a great post which we can’t find it on other famous blogs.
I will definitely try these techniques to build links and once again thank you very much.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
THAAAAAAAAANK YOU MAN, this is the best post i read about link building.
you are better than john reese, while you make this treasure for free.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hey Kim,
First time at your site, and you’ve wow-ed me in a huge way!
Bookmarked your site, following you on twitter, and will recommend your post to my readers.
Great job!
October 20th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Hey Kim,
This is a really great article - thank you so much. Just wanted to let you know though that in going down the lists and checking out some of the opportunities mentioned, I’m finding things have changed. For example CoolSiteoftheDay.com no longer allows descriptions (so you can’t write an exciting paragraph about your site) and no longer charges money to submit - it’s free. Well, that’s good news, eh?
Yahoo Picks, on the other hand, is no longer accepting submissions at all - they appear to be pulling from dmoz. Want a list of updates since I’m clicking on all of them anyway to get the word out about my hyper-cool site, http://www.TravelWows.com ?
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Hi Kim, I must admit that this is pretty impressive, considering that I thought I knew everything when it comes to internet marketing,,lol. No wonder my friend Matt told me to check you out.And I am glad that I did. I will deefinitely be back as I am off to implement some of these techniques into my plans. Thanks a bundle,,whenever you get a chance stop by and see me at http://thenetworkmarketingplace.com
October 30th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
This is wicked stuff. I dont understand a lot of it but I am going to try some stuff I do understand.
Thank you Kim.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Great article. The only other Ninja tip I’d suggest is this: comment on articles and blogs as much as you can. :)
November 1st, 2008 at 4:15 am
This is a great article.
What language are these widgets written in and do you know of any quality starter tutorials for people to use to start learning this language.
I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at creating a quiz widget.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 am
Hi Kim
Thanks for the excellent content! Pls keep up the good work. In record breaking time, this has become my favourite blog.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Wow, I love this article, I surely added my knowledge. Thanks for this excellent post.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Brilliant post. I’m going to Zimbio today to add my sites to the index. Thanks for putting together all the awesome content. Your site is a must read.
November 13th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Kim,
This is amazing! You rock!
You blow the others outta the water!
Thank you a hundred times over!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Dear Kim,
You have some very powerful comments on your information.
I’m looking forward to learning from you.
Bob Canner
Greensboro, NC
December 7th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Stumbled upon the site and actually found it appealing so i checked it out. As I am trying to drive more traffic to my site and create some visibility, this article really came in handy. I checked out most of the sites and took your advice so I hope it pays off, thank you!
December 8th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Hello!
I just want to say thank you. :)
I’m newbie to link building and I’m so happy to know that this kind of info is available(because of you). well thank you and Good luck. :)
December 8th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Awesome - best link building information I’ve seen period, I’m at a loss now of whether to tell everyone about this and spread the word for such great content, or to keep it to myself so my competition don’t get their treacherous mitts on this info!!
Thanks!
S.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 am
Great Article Kim,
I just watched your video on BF and I am impressed. I would love it if you did more videos on Pete’s stuff. Your ability to get across info is great.
Keep up the good work.
Rick
January 14th, 2009 at 5:31 am
Mercy me! Most people would have been SELLING this goldmine,
and making big bucks. Thank- you so much for your generosity.
It is deeply appreciated.
January 25th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
awesome information here, will take me some time to put all your suggestions into practice but i’m sure it will be worth the effort.
ric
April 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Excellent read! Just what I was looking for! Thanks!
April 21st, 2009 at 6:55 am
Wow…This is by far the best link building guide i have come across.
Fantastic…thanks for sharing
April 25th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
thanks! I’ve been looking for some tips on link building and found this article very informative. I have to try applying it though.
May 31st, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Wow, that was a great read. It has sent my head into a spin with all of these options and it has really got me thinking about the possibilities especially with a more programming/graphics background than a lot of marketers. The widgets and the tickers really caught my eye. Thanks for bring them to my attention. I will have to have a harder think about other opportunities now because there must be a bucket load out there.