Yesterday I started dissecting Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall’s 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity for 2006. Most of these tactics I have used myself so I am putting in my experience and also adding Cost and Time estimates so you know what you are getting into! Enjoy.

50. Web 2.0-ify your site. People love to link to anything with AJAX. Even in the narrowest of niches, there is some kind of useful functionality you can build with AJAX.

Cost: Depends

Time: Varies

The cost is based on if you are a programmer or not. If you are you can do this yourself, if not you may need to hire someone. Chances are it won’t be cheap. There are a lot of resources online to help you out. I’m not sure that AJAX is really getting that much attention anymore. It seems to me some of the buzz has worn down now that everyone is doing it. That said, I do have a site I am working on that hits the Web2.0/AJAX theme so we’ll see how that goes.

51. Validate and 508 your site. This (indirect) method makes your site more trustworthy and linkable, especially from governmental sites or design-oriented communities. There are even a few authoritative directories of standards-compliant sites.

Cost: Minimal

Time: A couple hours

As mentioned there are directories that just link to standards-compliant sites but I think the bigger benefits of doing this are trust, usability and just being a good human being.

52. Order a beautiful CSS redesign. A nice design can get links from sites like CSS Vault.

Cost: Varies

Time: Varies

Depending on how complex your site is this can be both time-consuming and expensive (unless you can build it yourself - then its just time-consuming).

53. Hire a publicist. Good old fashioned ‘PR’ (not PageRank) can still work wonders. Andy Hagans now offers a link baiting publicity service.

Cost: Varies

Time: Varies

Good PR isn’t cheap but you can write your own press releases and use a service to distribute them for around $200. I’ve never needed to hire someone as I do PR myself. The benefits go far beyond just getting a coupe links though including building name recognition, branding and just making people aware you exist and what you do.

54. Hire a consultant. Yes, you can outsource link building. Just make sure to go with someone good. We recommend WeBuildPages, Debra Mastaler and, ahem, Andy Hagans.

Cost: $895-$7,500 per month

Time: About 10 minutes to sign up

Outsourcing link development is expensive! But it can be well worth it if the links you get are of quality and serve your website focus. The above-mentioned link builders are all top-shelf. There are less expensive alternatives but you typicaly get what you pay for.

55. Swap some links. What?! Did we really just recommend reciprocal link building? Yes, on a small scale, and with relevant partners that will send you traffic. Stay away from the link trading hubs and networks.

Cost: $0

Time: 20 minutes per link

It takes time to contact people and explain what you want to do. It also takes time to monitor your link partners to be sure they are keeping your link up and that it isn’t being altered to block the search engines with a “nofollow” or other sinister tactic. Reciprocal links don’t have the same juice they used to but they can still do a lot of good. Non-competing sites that are close to your topic make sense to trade with so go ahead and do it!

56. In case you didn’t get the memo — when swapping links, try to get links from within the content of relevant content pages. Do not try to get links from pages that list hundreds of off topic link partners. Only seek link exchanges that you would consider pursuing even if search engines did not exist. Instead of thinking just about your topic when exchanging links, think about demographic audience sets.

Cost: $0

Time: none

This isn’t a tip to get links so much as just good advice. Though if you follow this people will notice and maybe contact you for an exchange.

57. Rent some high quality links from a broker. Text Link Ads is the most reputable firm in this niche.

Cost: Varies but you can get $100 in FREE Links (yes that is an affiliate link)

Time: 5 minutes per link

It takes a little time to research the sites you want to rent links from and then make the purchase. This is a great way to get new sites up and running as it is quality controled and a third party is monitoring everything for your peace of mind.

58. Rent some high quality links directly from Web sites. Sometimes the most powerful rented links come direct from sites not actively renting links.

Cost: Varies

Time: 30 minutes per link

When you make the offer don’t be surprised if the owner of the site hesitates. Most people are not aware of how valuable links are. Then they aren’t sure if renting links is ethical. Then they aren’t sure if its a good deal. Just let them go through the motions and coach them along. It may be a rough start but eventually you’ll both be happy!

59. Become a sponsor. All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors. This can be a great way to gain visibility, links, and a warm feeling in your heart.

Cost: Varies

Time: Varies

Depending on your level of involvement the time involved can vary a great deal from 10 minutes to make an online donation to hours or days. I suggest you be clear when you approach the charity about what you are willing to give in advance so you don’t get pulled into a bigger commitment than you can manage. Most contests and conferences just want your cash though so that is usually pretty strait-forward.

60. Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.

Cost: $0

Time: Varies

I have not done this but I would imagine any costs you incur can be taken from the profits before you send the money along to charity. The real focus here is a humanitarian effort that is noteworthy enough to get people talking (and linking) about it. There are other tactics you can use for the same effect, especially if you have a good PR campaign to accompany your efforts.

61. Many search algorithms seem biased toward older established sites. It may be faster to buy an old site with a strong link profile, and link it to your own site, than to try to start building authority links from scratch.

Cost: Varies

Time: Varies

This is a great idea if you have the money and sites in your niche are reasonably priced. I have done this and it worked pretty well. In my case I got the site for $80. I left the content how it was with the addition of a single link coming off the home page. It took me about an hour in total effort. I don’t think this usually goes this easily though and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an offer as cheap as the one I picked up (in my case the price was just too good to pass up which was the whole reason I did it).

62. Sue Google.

Cost: Varies. Can be very expensive.

Time: Varies.

Legal costs are not cheap and there can be a significant time investment. I can’t imagine a lawsuit being the solution to getting links but I can see getting links as a side-effect of a good case (against anyone - it doesn’t have to be Google).

63. Get sued by a company people hate. When Aaron was sued by Traffic Power, he got hundreds or thousands of links, including links from sites like Wired and The Wall Street Journal.

Cost: ?

Time: ?

Thankfully I have no experience with this and would like to keep it that way.

64. Hold a contest. Contests make great link bait. A few-hundred-dollar prize can result in thousands of dollars worth of editorial quality links. Enough said.

Cost: Varies

Time: Hours to months

SEO contests were quite a big deal at the beginning of the year. Prizes ranged from used laptops to thousands of dollars. The biggest investments in contests are publicity and management. You have to stay on top of things.

65. Build a tool collection. Original and useful tools (and collections of tools) get a lot of link love. What do you think ranking for “mortgage calculator” is worth?

Cost: Varies

Time: Varies

The costs and time involved depend on if you can program yourself or not and how involved the tool is to construct. My canonical fix tool was not difficult to build but it took me a whole day to refine and test it and fix it and break it some more. I am not a programmer! Thankfully these guys are and I love their tools! I’ve linked to them several times over the last year.

66. Create and release open source site design templates for content management systems like Wordpress. Don’t forget the “Designed by example.com” bit in the footer!

Cost: Varies

Time: Hours or days

This is on my “to do” list while I am learning more about WordPress and how it works. If you check the first link in the footer of this page you’ll see the site design was “Adapted for Wordpress by Business Broker” who is a company that buys and sells websites. What does that have to do with a WordPress theme? Nothing. But they got the links. Think of this tactic as a sponsorship opportunity.

67. Offer free samples in exchange for feedback.

Cost: Varies

Time: Hours

Offering free samples is a standard marketing tactic. I have seen people get links from this when a blog owner says “Bob at Company Name sent me this wonderful widget…” Maybe I’ll try this myself here.

68. Release a Firefox extension. Make sure you have a download and/or support page on your site which people can link to.

Cost: Varies

Time: Hours or days

You can also do this with plug-ins for blog or forum software or even myspace profiles. This is a bit beyond my technical expertise so I can’t comment beyond the fact that I’ve seen it done a lot and I have linked to some of these sites myself.

69. It is easy to take pictures of important events and tell narratives about why they are important. Pictures of (drunk?) “celebrities” in your industry make great link bait.

Cost: $0 (if you already have a digital camera)

Time: 20 minutes or so

Shoemoney is probably the best example of this on a consistent basis. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this picture.

70. Leverage new real world relationships into linking relationships. If you go to SEO related conferences, people like Tim Mayer, Matt Cutts, and Danny Sullivan are readily accessible. Similarly, in other industries, people who would normally seem inaccessible are exceptionally accessible at trade conferences. It is much easier to seem “real” in person. Once you create social relationships in person, it is easy to extend that onto the web.

Cost: $0

Time: Minor, regular upkeep

This is something I am always telling clients to do - ask your friends and associates for links! Often these links are related and come with a warm introduction from the friend (Let me tell you about Jane’s new website. Jane and I are old friends and it is my pleasure to…). The thing to remember is to KIT. ;-)

71. Engaging, useful, and interesting interviews are an easy way to create original content. And they spread like wildfire.

Cost: $0

Time: Hours or days

Interviews almost always get links. The people you interview want to show off and if the interview has some real appeal and great content other people will link to this resource as well.

Bad Ways to Build Links

This section comes with a warning that using these tactics can get your site hurt instead of boosted.

72. Submit your site to 200 cheesy paid directories (averaging $15 a pop) that send zero traffic and sell offtopic run-of-site links.

Cost: $3,000

Time: About 30 hours

I have little experience with paid directories and none with the type described here but my understanding is that these links just don’t pass any credit or value not that they can actually hurt your site. Though it would definately hurt your budget.

73. List 100 Web sites in your signature file.

Cost: $0

Time: 30 minutes

The time is about how long setting this up would take. I don’t think this would hurt your site rankings but it would destroy your credibility at the forums you frequent. Most forums prevent this kind of stuff anyway.

74. Exclusively post only when you can add links to your sites in the post area.

Cost: $0

Time: About 5 minutes per post.

I’ve been accused of this though in my case it was because posts that tend to attract my attention are ones where I think I can help. Odds are I written *something* about the subject at some point and most of my writing is designed to be a complete resource. Can I help it if I already answered the question?

75. Post nothing but “me too” posts to build your post count. Use in combination with a link-rich signature file.

Cost: $0

Time: Less than 1 minute

Most forums prevent this. It is annoying and will earn the ill-will of the community.

76. Ask questions about who provides the best [WIDGET], where [WIDGET] is an item that you sell. From the same IP address create another forum account and answer your own question raving about how great your own site is.

Cost: $0

Time: 10 minutes

As a moderator at SEO Refugee I’ve seen this done a few times. It’s usualy obvious.

77. As a new member to various forums, ask the same question at 20 different forums on the same day.

Cost: $0

Time: 20 minutes per forum

I see this a lot. I can’t imagine it works very well as most forums will kill the post when they catch on and several have rules against live-linking until the poster has proven themselves.

78. Post on forum threads that are years outdated exclusively to link to your semi-related website.

Cost: $0

Time: 10 minutes per post

I see this a few times per month. The posts get deleted.

79. Sign up for profiles on forums you never intend on commenting on.

Cost: $0

Time: 20 minutes per forum

I see this a lot. I mean really a lot. The only benefit I can see is the link in the user profile though some forums block that with their robots.txt. Granted on some forums you get benefits to membership that doesn’t require you to post (less ads, more access, etc.) but at least introduce yourself you taker!

80. Instead of signing blog comments with your real name, sign them with spammy keywords.

Cost: $0

Time: 5 minutes per comment

I’ve seen this done but most blogs use “nofollows” in their comments so I don’t know how effective it is.

81. Start marketing your own site hard on your first blog comment. Add no value to the comment section. Mention nothing other than you recently posted on the same subject at _____ and everyone should read it. Carpet bomb dozens of blogs with this message.

Cost: $0

Time: 5 minutes

I have to confess I’ve done this. It was a long time ago and I needed the money didn’t know any better. Really, this is the best way to get a reputation as an ass. Don’t do it.

82. Say nothing unique or relevant to the post at hand. Make them assume an automated bot hit their comments.

Cost: $0

Time: 5 minutes

I see this often enough to be very, very grateful for Akismet.

83. Better yet, use automated bots to hit their comments. List at least 30 links in each post. Try to see if you can hit any servers hard enough to make them crash.

Cost: ?

Time: ?

I actually had this happen to me last week. Some jerks bot kept hitting my site and attempting to spam the comments. My server held up fine, thanks and Akismet handled the problem expertly. I didn’t even know it happened until the next day.

84. Send pings to everyone talking about a subject. In your aggregation post, state nothing of interest. Only state that other people are talking about the topic.

Cost: $0

Time: ?

I get the concept but haven’t had to deal with it.
85. Don’t even link to any of the sites you are pinging. Send them pings from posts that do not even reference them.

Cost: $0

Time: ?

Same as above. Sounds like I’ve been lucky.

86. Send out link exchange requests mentioning PageRank.

Cost: $0

Time: 5 minutes each.

I get these every so often. The thing is they work on people that don’t really understand PageRank (PR does not mean SERP position because it has nothing to do with relevance - there, if you didn’t know you do now). I liken these with the “invoices” from registrars trying to get you to “renew” your domain. Slimy.

87. Send link exchange emails which look like an automated bot sent them (little or no customization, no personal names, etc.).

Cost: $0

Time: 2 minutes

I don’t get the point of doing this but the cost is so low maybe a .0001% return is worth it?

88. Send link exchange requests to Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Tim Converse, Google, and Yahoo!.

Cost: May be very expensive

Time: 2-5 minutes

This is just stupidity in action. Ask the people you are trying to screw for help. Good luck pal. Why grab the attention of the people whose job is to stop scams like this? Hope your site survives under the microscope…

89. Get links from nearly-hidden sections of websites listing hundreds or thousands of off topic sites.

Cost: Varies

Time: ?

This was falling out of fashion when I first got into SEO. Hidden links are bad news.

90. Go to webmaster conferences and rave about how rich you are, and how your affiliates make millions doing nothing.

Cost: Potential allies and friendships

Time: Seems like forever to everyone else

This should be pretty self-explanatory. Everyone knows you are full of shit and you lost an opportunity for some valuable networking.

91. Instead of asking people what their name is, ask what their URL is. As soon as you get their URL ask if they have linked to your site yet and if not, why not.

Cost: Potential allies and friendships

Time: 5 minutes

I can’t wait until I finally make it to a conference to see these tactics in action! This is rude. Even if you think you are being campy or cute it is no good.

92. Send a webmaster an alert to every post you make on your website.

Cost: $0

Time: 2 minutes per post
Pretty quickly you should get marked as spam…

93. Send a webmaster an email every single day asking for them to link to your website.

Cost: $0

Time: 2 minutes per day
As above, this kind of tactic ruins credibility and makes people more resistant to the idea.

94. Send references to your site to the same webmaster from dozens of different email accounts (you sly dog).

Cost: $0

Time: 2 minutes

I’ve seen this one too. It tells me to burn any bridges between me and that company.

95. If the above do not work to get you a free link, offer them $1 for their time. Increase your offer by a dollar each day until they give in.

Cost: $1+ (if they give in)

Time: 2 minutes per day

I’ve even seen this one though it has been a while. At this point all credibility is out the window and your domain/IP is probably blacklisted.

96. Emulate the RIAA. When in doubt, file a lawsuit against a 12-year-old girl. (Failing that, obtain bad press by any means necessary.)

Cost: ?

Time: Intensive

Target seems to be following this tactic.

97. Steal content published by well known names. Strip out any attribution. Aggregate many popular channels and just wait for them to start talking about you.

Cost: Reputation

Time: 10 minutes

I discovered this was happening to me last weekend. I opted to keep the jerk’s name and website confidential so that I wouldn’t send him traffic he doesn’t deserve.

98. Send thousands of fake referrals at every top ranking Web site, guaranteeing larger boobs, a 14-inch penis (is that length or girth?), or millions of dollars in free, unclaimed money.

Cost: ?

Time: ?

I assume this means referrer log spamming. When you check your logs to see who has been sending you traffic these sites sometimes appear. You don’t know what they are until you show up. I can’t imagine anyone linking to them…

99. Wear your URL on your t-shirt. Walk or drive your car while talking on a cell phone or reading a book. When you run into other people say “excuse you, jerk”.

Cost: About $20

Time: Varies

Um…? Is this a personal experience?

100. Spill coffee on people or find creative ways to insult people to coax them into linking at your site.

Cost: May be expensive

Time: Varies

Warning: you may get sued for this! I’ve actually seen these tactics work where someone is bullied into linking to someone’s site that they don’t like. It isn’t pretty.

101. Sue other webmasters for deep linking to your site. Well, this is more “hilariously dumb” than it is a “bad linking practice”.

Cost: Varies

Time: Intensive

Legal action equals expense! I agree with Andy and Aaron though, this is just dumb.

Ok, that’s it! My experience with Andy and Aaron’s 101 to Build Link Popularity. The last 30 or so weren’t really link-building tips so much as “don’t dos” but it’s still a great list. Of the legit tactics I think I’ve tried all but a handful and some of those are in development now.

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