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Untapped Linking Tactics
By Kim Roach (c) 2006

Links are the pathways by which all information on the Internet 
is connected. Whether you are traveling your preferred search 
engine or your favorite website, your paths are directed by the 
links you come in contact with.  

Because of this, links have become the lifeblood of the Internet. 
Major search engines like Google evaluate your incoming links to 
help determine your search engine positions.  

However, a link is much more than just a ranking factor. A 
quality inbound link can bring your website a steady stream of 
targeted traffic and buyers. 

In this article I will reveal the untapped methods of obtaining 
quality inbound links. We all know that reciprocal links are 
dead. Smart internet marketers also know about the power of 
article marketing and rss syndication. This article looks to 
explore beyond those techniques, unveiling  linking tactics that 
are largely undiscovered.  

Read on to find out about which links you can gain to build buzz, 
how to leverage the power of wikis, why everyone needs an 
affiliate program, and how to use the web 2.0 craze to garner 
hundreds of high quality inbound links. 

We will begin our journey with editorial link opportunities.

The right links can generate massive buzz and word of mouth 
marketing. This type of marketing can occur from links like Yahoo 
Picks, Forbes Best of the Web, and USA Today Hot Sites. Eric Ward 
was the first Internet marketer to create a service that helps 
websites to get into these editiorial hot spots at 
http://www.urlwire.com. Here a just a few of the places that 
URLWire (http://www.urlwire.com) can help you get into. 
 

Yahoo Picks of the Day/Week (http://picks.yahoo.com/picks) 
Forbes Best of the Web (www.forbes.com/bow) 
USA Today Web Guide/Hot Sites 
(http://blogs.usatoday.com/techspace/around_the_net/index.html) 
NY Public Library Best of the Web (http://www.nypl.org/links/) 
Exploratorium Ten Cool Sites 
(http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cool/general.html) 
Librarians Internet Index (http://lii.org/) 
Reference Desk (http://www.refdesk.com) 

Wikis 

Wikis are some of the best sources for link building. With a bit 
of digging, you can find plenty of wiki pages with high link 
popularity and PageRank. Not to mention, many wikis rank well in 
the search engines. This is especially true for Wikipedia.  

However, like everything, there is a wrong and right way to go 
about it. Many people try to spam wikis with hundreds of links. 
Because of this, there have been strict measures taken to find 
and eliminate these culprits.  

To benefit from the Wiki community, you must be an active 
participant adding quality and relevant information to their 
collection of content. You must add value to a page. Once you 
have done this, you can then incorporate your link if it's a
good fit. 

However, don't just add information to pages that present 
linking opportunities. You should also be contributing to the 
wiki just for the sake of adding great content to the database. 
When appropriate, add quality links to articles, even 
links you do not control. Using this strategy, it is much more 
likely that you will be able to benefit from the many wikis 
available online.  

To find potential linking opportunities, simply go to Google and 
type in "your keywords" inurl:wiki. This will help you to find 
sites that have wikis related to your keywords. For example, if 
you are looking for wikis related to search engine marketing, you 
would type in "search engine marketing" inurl:wiki.  

For a comprehensive list of wikis you can start contributing to , 
go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis 

Library Sites

Eric Ward (http://www.urlwire.com), the top spokesperson online
for link building, uncovered a very unique way to obtain very
high-quality links into your website. Eric Ward is one of the few
that know the power of public shool library Web sites. Yes I know, 
it's hard to believe that an unattractive school website that resides
in the wilderness of the Internet would be of value to you. But in fact,
these are some of the most trustworthy links you could ever hope 
to obtain.  

Library web sites are some of the most trusted sources on the 
Internet and Google knows it. So, if you have an extremely 
valuable site that would prove a valuable resource to people 
around the world, then you should certainly get in contact with a 
librarian to suggest your site as an addition to their list of 
resources.  

Here is a list of library sites to get you started: 

Virginia Pubic Library Websites 
(http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/directories/valib/libweb.asp) 
Ohio Public Library Web Sites 
(http://winslo.state.oh.us/publib/libtable.html) 

Affiliate Links

Affiliate programs are one of the best ways to obtain thousands 
of inbound links to your site. With the right software, you can 
use an affiliate program to super charge your search engine 
rankings.  

Using an affiliate program, you can get hundreds and even 
thousands of other people to promote your products with no risk 
on your part. Your affiliates send visitors to your web site 
using banner ads, text links, articles, and email promotions. For 
every visitor who decides to buy, you pay your affiliate a 
percentage of the sale.  

The beauty of this system is that it allows you to create extra 
revenue without spending any additional advertising dollars. You 
can use affiliate marketing to explode your online sales and 
catapult your search engine rankings with no risk to you.  

However, you have to make sure you have the right software to do 
this. Some affilate tracking software doesn't lend any link 
popularity back to your site.  

Go to www.assoctrac.com to find out about some very powerful 
affiliate software. 		

Press Releases 

As I wrote about in a previous article 
(http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/aug/7.html), press 
releases enable you to tap into multiple news sites across the 
Internet,including Google News, Yahoo News, and MSNBC Searchbot.  

In addition to attracting thousands of targeted visitors to your 
site, press releases can also create thousands of quality inbound 
links.  

However, to realize the full potential of your press release 
campaign, you must take time to optimize your press release 
properly.  Press releases should be optimized in much the same 
way that search engine optimization specialists optimize ordinary 
web pages to achieve higher rankings. By optimizing your press 
releases for the search engines, you will receive much higher 
visibility. 

For example, one press release from MarketingExperiments.com 
resulted in 2,200 visitors and 5 interview requests by 
journalists. This is the power of a highly optimized press 
release. 

Some of the best placees to distribute your press release online 
include:  

urlwire.com
prweb.com
internet.com 
businesswire.com 
prnewswire.com 
bacons.com 
e-releases.com 
prfree.com 
pr.com 
webwire.com 
marketwire.com
24-7pressrelease.com 
pressreleasenetwork.com 
i-newswire.com 				 

Start your own press campaign to begin creating invaluable buzz, 
attracting targeted visitors, and gaining thousands of inbound 
links.   

Social Search Engines

With the growth of Web 2.0, social bookmarking services have 
become extremely popular this past year. However, these search 
engines are much more than simply a tool for searching and saving 
your favorite websites. These social communities can also drive 
massive amounts of traffic to your site and build brand 
awareness.  

Popular submissions can expect to receive an onslaught of 
traffic. In addition, popular sites also receive an abundance of 
link love. These social search engines influence bloggers, 
publishers and journalists.  On average, a website that is Dugg 
receives an average of 500 to a thousand new inbound links within 
a short period of time.  

If you have a very informative site, your traffic may increase 
permanently after being Dugg. The key to succeeding with social 
search engines is to be a true contributor to the community. You 
must have quality content if you want to submit any of your 
links. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your time.

In addition, don't just submit your own links. Share the love and 
submit other sites that you feel would provide a great resource 
to the community. 

Some of the best online social communities include: 

Digg.com 
del.icio.us 
Furl 
Shadows
MyWeb
stumbleupon.com 
prefound.com 
Technorati 

In today's generation of web 2.0, publishers have been given 
multiple outlets for their work. It's time that we start taking 
advantage of the changes occurring in the online publishing 
world. 

Podcast Syndication

Another publishing opportunity that is undergoing rapid growth 
online is podcasting. The Internet is changing. Broadband 
Internet connection is allowing millions of Internet users to 
start downloading podcasts on every imaginable topic, from search 
engine strategies to the adventures of parenting.  

According to Forrester Research, podcasting will reach 12.3 
million households by 2010. Unfortunately, many webmasters are 
not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity. 

To begin marketing your own podcasts, submit them to the 
following directories:  

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2005/05/20/where_to_submit_your_podcasts.htm 
http://podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Directory.html 

Integrating these new distribution models can vastly increase 
your exposure online.  

New Forms of Article Syndication

Article syndication has become quite popular among internet 
marketers. It has enabled writers and website owners to gain 
hundreds of quality inbound links simply by syndicating their 
articles to article directories, article groups, related
websites, and newsletter publications.  

However, web 2.0 has transformed the publishing platforms that 
are available today. Because of this, there are now many more 
outlets for your articles and your valuable resource box. 
Fortunately for you, many online marketers have not spotted these 
opportunities so I advise you to jump on them quickly.  

One of the most exciting new publishing platforms is Squidoo
(http://www.squidoo.com). 

Squidoo was created by a revolutionary online thinker named Seth 
Godin. At Squidoo, you can create your very own lens, which is 
simply your view on a particular topic. This is a single web page 
that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr 
photos, Google maps, eBay auctions, Amazon books and other 
resources.  

Best of all, these lenses are getting traffic, credibility, and 
even showing up in top Google results. You can use a lens to 
increase the number of authoritative inbound links to your site, 
position yourself as an industry expert, announce the latest news 
within your niche, or promote your podcasts.  

I’ve seen lenses ranging from a pagerank of 3 to 5  . Here are 
some great examples:  

http://www.squidoo.com/fxbootcamp/ : PR4 
http://www.squidoo.com/laptopbag/  : PR5 

To start your own lens, go to http://www.squidoo.com. 

The last linking opportunity in this series taps into 
one of the largest sites on the Internet. 	 

Craigslist

Craigslist was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark and serves 
billions of unique visitors each month. So, how can you use this 
to your benefit? 

Classified ads can be very lucrative when used correctly. Since 
Craigslist is free, this is a great place to start with 
absolutely no risk.  

Your presence within this massive site will increase your 
exposure and link popularity. Many of the ads also appear in 
Google and Yahoo. This is especially true for those who optimize 
their ad properly. 		 	

I would highly suggest that you incorporate CraigsList into your
overall business plan. You can begin placing your own ads at 
http://www.craigslist.com.  

Now that you know about many of these untapped linking 
techniques, I urge you to begin your own campaign. Just remember, 
if you’re not distributing quality content, you are simply 
wasting your time. The first step is to become an authoritative 
site. After that, you will find that links come quite naturally. 
In fact, many of them will come without ever asking for them. 

================================================================
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews
(http://www.sitepronews.com) and SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com)
newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com

This article may be freely distributed without modification and
provided that the copyright notice and author information remain
intact.
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