In an earlier blog post (Link requests = more traffic & sales.) I explained how getting other sites to link back to yours will increase sales, and I explained the basic method for asking for links.

Since then a couple of readers made the following comments —

Ed, Good blog and advice, although it’s not easy trying to get other people to reply when you want to exchange. All the same feel free to send me any new updates and I’ll exchange links with you, please let me know.

Graham – www.logo-n-stitch.co.uk

and…

Ed, I agree with Graham it is difficult to find ‘appropriate’ organisations to exchange links with and on the rare occassions they do there usually hidden on some back page etc. Are links worth it alone just for helping with your search engine position and forgetting about traffic coming from other sites?

Mark – www.sharp-technology.co.uk

First of all, I agree totally with the initial comment… that it’s not easy getting other site owners to even reply when suggesting they share links.

In fact I used to find the whole process of link building so tedious it simply didn’t get done. But I was making the common mistake of contacting sites who don’t understand the importance and benefits of link building.

Since then, I’ve discovered it’s far easier and more productive to be less direct about the process.

For example register with link trading community sites, like www.uklinkexchange.co.uk (I talk about them in my book).

They’ve been great for some of the sites I put together for private clients. They’re free, ‘white hat’ (they are not doing anything ‘wrong’ in Google’s eyes), and puts link building on virtual auto-pilot.

Also in my book I mention IBP (Internet Business Promotor) which has an awesome link directly manager, but that’s quite expensive for smaller businesses. The alternative less expensive program is called Zeus, which I also understand is very good at simplifying the link building process.

Here are more tips on link building the easy way…

1) Start blogging and frequently talk about (and link to) other blogs… many times the other blogger will notice and reciprocate.

2) Submit articles to directories themed on your industry/area of interest… articles can contain at least one link back to your site.

3) Comment on other blogs. Each time you comment you get a link back (in theory — if they don’t use NOFOLLOW.) Graham and Mark who made comments on the original blog post both linked back to their own site, and also I’ve repeated their links above. (I’ll bet a lot of my readers clicked those links out of curiosity and ended up on their sites! I did.)

4) Set up a self service link directory where other people can submit their own site. (IBP and Zeus help you with this.)

5) Seek out self-service link directories and submit your site.

There are a lot more link tactics, but there’s enough in this post to get anyone a tonne of links… and a lot quicker and easier than contacting site owners who don’t yet understand the benefits.

-Ed.