One of the writers working for me in the Suite101 Technology Section just recently had some success with a tactic that I thought some people might find useful. She wrote an article rating a group of automobiles (essentially a "best picks" sort of thing - she test drives and reviews them for her site on buying a car). Well she let Saab know about the article (their model was her top pick), and they were so happy with it that they asked for permission to use quotes from her review in their advertising campaign for as long as she'll allow them, including linking to her site. Now this is a pretty new site of hers, on a new subdomain, w/o a ton of traffic or a high PR (if it even got a PR yet in the recent update). So who knows? Maybe spreading the news of your good reviews would give you backlinks. You can always ask that the company issue a press release announcing they were ranked, rated, received a great review, etc. if you're big enough, and ask them to include a live link when they distribute too. EDIT: Obviously you wouldn't get live links in all forms of advertising, but the URL in print and other ad formats, especially with the reach of a large company, could bring you large numbers of direct visits... either way, it's great PR. Jenn
Good point. Also many sites will give a link in return of a testimonial. It can be a good strategy to get one-way links.
Great advice jhmattern very helpfull. Few months ago i had opposite experience, i wrote actually positive review, but owners of the site couldn't read or whatever so they posted on their forum link to negative review of their site, my traffic increased at least twice, but it was very low quality traffic, every user of mentioned earlier forum were only interested in this review and nothing else.
hey Jenn, do you know how your friend tell Saab? I tried something like that review Sony's audio system then send them a email (using their site's contact us) but no reply at all...
All my writer did was send it off to their PR department (see? we PR folks are good for something after all! ) They loved it, wanted to find a way to use it in their own promotion, shared it with the Marketing folks, who requested permission to use it in their advertising campaigns. PR is definitely the best place to send things like this to, because technically when a site publishes a good review, it's "press," and those are the folks who track that and spread the good news around. Jenn
Great, you are nominated for the DP user award of 2006 (if it exists). First the press release tips and sample and now this. Pity i can not use it for my information site however.
lol thanks. ... what is your information site? It's hard to imagine there's nothing you could pitch for use to a PR department somewhere. For instance, if you provide some kind of industry report, surveys, etc. you can announce the results to the PR department of any companies mentioned, and to trade publications and websites who would more than likely want to quote and credit you. Does your site ever discuss companies, products, or services? If so, putting together a simple top picks article relating to them can give you something to send along. W/o knowing your niche I can't give you specific ideas, but you can PM me or post the url if you want to see if anything pops into my head. Jenn
Another excellent example of good content that helps your site get backlinks. Excellent post. It's good to re-assure people these methods still work, as I know a lot of people don't think good content is a way to get good links.
The same works if you send a testimonial to a copy you have used a service or bought a product. I've got a few good PR5 / PR6's through testimonial links.