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Why Everyone Fails at LinkBuilding, and How You Can Succeed!

Discussion in 'Link Development' started by Borduhh, Jul 4, 2013.

  1. #1
    Short Answer:
    Stop calling it link building. Start calling it relationship building. Have you ever seen an automated marriage or even an automated relationship? NO, because it just doesn't work.

    [​IMG]

    Long Answer:
    It's not you fault! Just look at the word... link building. It sounds so fake, and with the hundreds of tools claiming they can get you to the first page of Google overnight this term has skyrocketed to the most spam related term in marketing.

    Before the process is reveled, what is link building exactly? Most would say it's the process of building links from other related websites to yours so that you can rank higher in the search engines. That would be true if a computer chose who each website linked to. As we all know though that's not how things work. Most times the webmaster is the person that has the ultimate decision.

    Now would you ever walk into a club and say the things you write in a prospecting email to pick up a date?

    [​IMG]

    If you answered yes to that question than this thread is not for you. If like the other 99% of us you said no, it is time to make a change! Me personally, I would buy that person a drink and get to know them. So why do we do things differently online?

    The New Process:
    So you ready to talk about the new way? Yes... Good! Let's talk about how you find people to talk to. This is one of the only parts of this process that you should use tools and software. Tools like OpenSiteExplorer that finds websites that your competitors are linking to and Topsy that shows you social media activity related to a keyword can help you find numerous prospects to contact. But this is where tools stop because people want to talk to other people... not robots.

    From here use a software like BuzzStream to keep all your prospecting outreach straight (NOT CONTACT PEOPLE). Then do your homework on your prospect list. Look for a person to talk to inside the company/website, don't just send an email to the address. Use social media like Facebook and Twitter to see which employees are vocal in the organization and what their interestes are. This helps you personalize your outreach.

    I know personally if I get an email in my inbox saying:

    I would actually read it and might even respond to an email like that. On the other hand if I stumbled across something like this:


    Not only would I delete it, I would most likely mark it as spam.

    Let's break this down. What makes these two so different other than the obvious? In the first email a few subtle things happened that increase your chances drastically.
    1. You used their name! You would not believe how much this makes you stand out.
    2. You didn't just spam them asking for a link. You don't go into a bar bluntly asking people to have sex, so don't bluntly ask a webmaster for a link. Take the time to get to know them. Then create a connection with them. This not only gets the link, but gets the respect too!
    3. IMPORTANT! You asked what you could do for them. Regardless of what you think, most people do not care about you or your website. But they do care about theirs. So just ask what you can do to help them, or even send them a small token of your appreciation.
    These small things are going to separate you from the hundreds of robots that spam webmasters each day!

    From here, keep the relationship healthy. Don't just ask for a link, build a life long friend! Then when you have something OF VALUE or you find they have a partners page, ask for a link. Make sure you have enough rapport to make this jump. The bottom line here though is to simply be human!

    Before long you will see that you have random links coming in from your new friends. But even better, you can ask for introductions and meet their friends too! This becomes a snowball effect and then you have more friends than you can handle.

    I hope this helps everyone become a more professional, and more importantly a more human relationship builder. Please let me know what you think in the thread below and please share any stories where this may have helped!

    DISCLAIMER: This will not work every time for every webmaster. But it works a hell of a lot better than the old spam until you get blocked method.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2013
    Borduhh, Jul 4, 2013 IP
    Focl likes this.
  2. Borduhh

    Borduhh Well-Known Member

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    #2
    It definitely depends on the subject line. If it looks something like:
    Instant spam versus something like:
    But I do agree that even removing my name and using something like:
    ...would also work great. My message is simply just to personalize your approach instead of using a tool.

    Thanks for your thoughts :)
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2013
    Borduhh, Jul 4, 2013 IP
  3. Auxi

    Auxi Well-Known Member

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    #3
    This thread is like TV shopping commercial :)

    My promotion is shorter: lesser is more than more. Don not force stuff too much. Good luck :)
     
    Auxi, Jul 4, 2013 IP
  4. Borduhh

    Borduhh Well-Known Member

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    #4

    Thanks, it was only about 2 paragraphs... until the rant :)
     
    Borduhh, Jul 4, 2013 IP
  5. affilorama

    affilorama Active Member

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    #5
    I agree! Most of us are so into building links we don't see what matters more these days: relevance and relationship. Link exchanges don't work like before. If you want to place your link on a high PR site then you need to work for it: participate by leaving informative, helpful comments, or write up a high quality article for the site as a guest post.

    Have a good weekend!
     
    affilorama, Jul 5, 2013 IP
  6. Vig

    Vig Active Member

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    #6
    I was involved in a thread that related to this topic, but the majority of people said that the only bad thing about attempting to build a relationship is that it could take awhile to establish.
     
    Vig, Jul 5, 2013 IP
  7. Borduhh

    Borduhh Well-Known Member

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    #7
    It absolutely does. But after think of it like this. You build one relationship and not only do you get a link most of the time, you also get introduced to countless others that you can help!
     
    Borduhh, Jul 5, 2013 IP
  8. Vig

    Vig Active Member

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    #8
    Are you talking about online or offline? Offline, definitely. That's one of the best methods a business owner could go about doing, in my opinion. But online is a whole different monster. It's hard to get "introduced" to others that can help you out over the internet, so the process MIGHT not be worth all the time and effort. I definitely agree that relationship building is a core component to a successful business though. :)
     
    Vig, Jul 5, 2013 IP
  9. Borduhh

    Borduhh Well-Known Member

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    #9
    With social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn I think it has become easier than ever to be "introduced". Comment on a post, retweet some of their work, or even do a opinion piece on their work and e-mail them about it. Just being noticeable most times is all it takes.

    Now I am not saying that if you are trying to be friends with the US President that this will work. But to meet other webmasters in your niche, this works almost all of the time. The real takeaway here is to provide value for them.
     
    Borduhh, Jul 6, 2013 IP
  10. SERPpoint

    SERPpoint Active Member

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    #10
    And it is true that any method of link building/relationship building you are using, it should look:

    natural
    relevant
    slow
    high quality sites
    progressive/continuous work
     
    SERPpoint, Jul 7, 2013 IP
  11. emdiworld

    emdiworld Greenhorn

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    #11
    But According me, it is very time consuming and It will take more time get placed in the google ranking.
     
    emdiworld, Jul 9, 2013 IP
  12. Focl

    Focl Notable Member

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    #12
    If you want to be succesfull in linkbuilding you need to create natural links as it is possible.

    What means, nofollow links, image links, articles, backlinks, homepage, sitewide, footer, incontent etc..
    And other very importnant thing is to have links only on relevant and quality sites.. no links on spammy sites.
     
    Focl, Jul 9, 2013 IP
  13. Borduhh

    Borduhh Well-Known Member

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    #13

    You are right. It does take more time than spamming the net. But look at it like this, would you rather use duck tape to build a car in 3 months or use nuts and bolts to build it in 12 months? What car do you think is going to last longer? Don't cut corners with marketing.


    I agree! Making a few relevant relationships is worth more than 1,000 spammy links.
     
    Borduhh, Jul 9, 2013 IP
  14. YesThatsMe

    YesThatsMe Member

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    #14
    You are right... it is so easy to make out idiotic spam compared to very friendly and genuine messages. I always have to laugh when I fetch my inbox. I sometimes think "Do these spammers really believe that there are iditiots out there who would not spot that it is a spam message?". It´s sometimes pretty funny.
     
    YesThatsMe, Jul 9, 2013 IP