7 Comments Written by Anders on August 23, 2008 – 5:02 am

You can also try to buy Links

Buying links can be done through link broker networks. Link broker networks allow you to search through a large database of Web site owners who have agreed to sell Web site links. You should try to buy links primarily from Web site owners that have Web content that is related to your product or service.

Often these Web sites have already been prescreened for quality factors, thus saving you a good amount of time and energy. You can also choose your specific link anchor text.

DO NOT buy links

Pay-per-post networks allow you to hire bloggers to write a post about your product or service and place your link within the body text. Often you can choose more than one variety of link anchor text. These links are generally purchased for a one-time fee as opposed to a recurring monthly subscription, and for that reason they can be an inexpensive way to build high-quality, relevant links.

Get paid to post networks can be used to effectively generate buzz about your product or service. Regardless, keep in mind that you should primarily select blogs that are substantively related to your Web site. Search-engine-optimized press releases provide the added benefit of generating buzz and lots of Web site traffic, and include the ability to strategically optimize the press release for specific keywords you want to rank for on the search engines.

You can effectively supplement your link-building efforts through strategically buying links on publisher Web sites. Link buying is the process of paying for specific link placements on Web sites in an effort to improve your Web site traffic and ranking within the search engines. Link broker networks provide you with a very efficient way of buying links. Link broker networks act as intermediaries between Web site publishers and advertisers. Membership to link broker networks is free, but requires you to sign up by providing your name, e-mail, and telephone number, and by selecting a log-in password.

You must have a major credit card or a PayPal account to pay for any purchases you make. Link broker networks enable you to search for links from a large database of publisher Web sites, such as blogs, forums, and other content-rich Web sites.

You can refine your search for links by such qualities as popularity, geography, Web site category, and domain type. Individual link-placement fees are prepaid on a monthly basis, and prices range from $10 to as high as $1,000 per Web site. Link broker networks, such as Text-Link-Ads.com, allow you to select the exact advertiser Web sites you want to purchase a link from and give you important information about the host Web site, including description, traffic ranking, link popularity, placement location, and availability of inventory. One of the benefits of buying links through a link broker network is that the network allows you to choose your desired anchor text.

Google has publicly criticized the practice of buying links

Anchor text gives Web site visitors relevant descriptive or contextual information about the content of the link’s destination, but more importantly, anchor text is a factor Google uses to determine the theme and authority of the page. The anchor text you choose includes the specific keywords you want to rank for on the search engines. For more on anchor text, see the task Anchor Text related post.

Google has publicly criticized the practice of buying links and has labeled it spam. Despite this, link buying is a practice used by leading search-engine-optimization firms and remains an effective way to build quality links. However, you should be selective with where you buy links, and you should avoid associating with any known link broker network or individual Web site that has been banned or penalized by Google. Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand.com reports that not all paid links are bad, only those that positively influence PageRank by attempting to manipulate Google’s ranking algorithm.

Therefore, you should avoid buying links from advertiser Web sites that include excessive unrelated links, as well as those Web sites that fail to disclose that links are paid. Aside from link broker networks, you can buy links directly from Web site owners. Approach the Web site owner or Webmaster and ask for a link in return for a flat one-time fee or for a monthly reoccurring fee for the life of the link. You can also purchase links from pay-per-post blog networks, which is covered on the next page.

You can effectively supplement your link-building efforts through paying bloggers and other content providers to review your Web site. Paying content providers to review your Web site has numerous potential benefits, such as providing constructive feedback, building buzz, and generating one or more anchor text links back to your Web site. Pay-per-post networks provide you with an efficient way of getting content providers to link to your Web site.

Payperpost networks act as intermediaries between content providers and advertisers. Membership to pay-per-post networks is free but requires you to sign up by providing your name and e-mail, as well as selecting a username and password. You must have a major credit card to fund your account prior to making a purchase. Pay-per-post networks, such as PayPerPost.com, enable you to offer content providers such as bloggers money to review your Web site.

You are required to provide the prospective content provider a brief overview of what you want them to write about and where you want them to link. In this way, you maintain flexibility if you want the content provider to link to your home page or to a specific page within the Web site.

I recommend you not to buy links

PayPerPost.com allows you to apply restrictions and set minimum standards when choosing prospective content provider partners. Restrictions include minimum length, post type, tone, and category. Minimum standards include traffic ranking, Web site popularity, and blog type. PayPerPost.com requires you to select whether you want the content provider to link to your Web site, and allows you to designate your desired anchor text for the link.

If you are simply making an announcement, a press release opportunity through PayPerPost.com is an easy way to spread the word and gain links. To use this type of opportunity, you can copy and paste your press release into the PayPerPost system and provide a few additional parameters.

Content providers identify what they believe is newsworthy and help you spread the word about your announcement via their blog or Web site. Unlike buying links through traditional link-buying networks, pay-per-post networks appear to be acceptable to Google and the other major search engines. According to search-engine-optimization expert Rand Fiskin, as long as the paid posts are not too far off topic to the theme of the host Web site, the search engines are unlikely to discount links from paid posts.

Therefore, if you are opposed to traditional link-buying networks, pay-per-post networks are an effective alternative method for building links, as long as you purchase posts from Web sites with a similar theme to the topic of your post. ReviewMe.com is another pay-per-post network that allows you to get your Web site reviewed by content providers and includes benefits such as site traffic, feedback, word-of-mouth buzz, and links with target anchor text.

Request One-Way Links

Another method for building links is to request oneway links directly from Web sites. This involves screening potential Web site linking partners for quality and then sending a link request through e-mail. These Webmasters may not have ever considered selling a link, and contacting them could potentially give you the opportunity to acquire highquality links for a very low price.

You should spend the majority of your link building efforts on directly requesting one-way links from pages that are relevant to the theme of your own site. A one-way link request involves sending an e-mail or making a phone call to a Web site owner expressing interest in obtaining a link to your Web site from a page on his or her Web site. It can be the most difficult method of obtaining quality links, but it is likely to produce the best results because the links are coming from handpicked sites that meet the quality criteria that you desire. Most of the sites you should be targeting when doing one-way link requests should come from your competition evaluation efforts.

Target only those links that meet quality link criteria. Also, make sure you request descriptive anchor text with your link. You can also search for relevant keywords in the major search engines and contact the owners of the top results. One of the best resources for potential one-way link requests is DMOZ.org.

DMOZ lists many old and established Web sites whose owners normally do not sell links. Often, these owners are unaware of the value of such a link, and they may not require compensation of any kind.

To ensure the best shot possible at obtaining a link from a Web site owner that you contact, try to establish a conversation related to the content of the site with the owner before requesting a link. This conversation can result in more than just obtaining a link; you are creating a relationship with another Web site owner interested in your niche.

When you contact fellow Webmasters for a link request, remember that you are asking them to take time out of their day to review your own site and add the link to their site. In other words, you are creating work for them. Be sure to go out of your way to show a sincere interest in the site you are requesting a link from. Perhaps you can comment on an article on the site, or alert the Webmaster to a mistake you noticed. A good link request appears genuine and authentic.

A bad link request comes across as spam. Some site owners may be inclined to add the link without any sort of compensation because they genuinely feel that the content of your page can provide their visitors serious value. Most owners look for something in return. In some cases, you can offer to write a relevant article for their site. In other cases, you may want to offer financial compensation. If you can broker a link from a high-quality, authority site in your niche, it will be well worth the trouble.

Quick note: This is Part 3 of 3. Part 1 can be found here, and part 2 here.