If you read the post you’re commenting on and then leave a legitimate, intelligent comment, you’ll help build your reputation and get a link at the same time, not only that, your helping your site make money online. When you do it regularly a solid relationship may begin to form between you and the blogger, which could lead to joint ventures in the future! For a list of “dofollow” blogs, check out the following site: http://www.DofollowBlogs.com/
Buying Links & Reviews – For years and years those with enough money to make the investment could rank for just about any keyword or phrase they targeted simply by purchasing links on authoritative sites in and out of their niche. Unfortunately this is a method Google frowns upon, as a purchased link is basically a flaw in their PageRank system, as it was placed solely for monetary reasons. With that being said, Google has been known to discount paid links. In other words, if you pay theirsite.com to link to yoursite.com and theirsite.com is known to purchase links in one way or another, there is a good chance that the link will not pass any authority to your site, rendering it worthless to your Google rankings. For a long while paid reviews were a big thing in the “blogosphere.” People would pay top blogs a set amount of money and that “big” blogger would take a look at your blog or product and write a blog post about the good and bad things they see, giving you several live, followed links, which sent traffic and incoming links your way.
After Matt Cutts and other Google employees started making it very clear that Google would be taking action on blogs selling links, people started using the rel=”nofollow” attribute when they sold reviews, so the links were now only helpful for the exposure and traffic. If you’re going to purchase a review, go for it, but don’t do it for the links, as they will most likely be nofollowed and even if they’re not, they may be discounted by Google. However, buying selective, contextual links still works to this day, but it MUST be done in a discreet manner! Much like the process of link exchanges, you need to be very selective and you must do it manually! I’ve used the exact technique to buy links as I have to establish link exchanges. I find sites and pages within my niche and personally email the webmaster, asking if they would be interested in selling a permanent, contextual link on a specific page for $10, or $50 or whatever I think its worth.
The amount you pay will be determined on a case by case basis. It all depends on the authority you believe the link will receive, so you’ll need to look at the number of outgoing links and the perceived authority that page has. Also be sure to look at their homepage and be sure they do not publicly announce that they sell links! If they do there is a good chance that Google knows and discount the authority going out through external links! When looking for sites to purchase links from, look for blogs about make money online! There are millions of blogs out there and 99% of the people running them make little to no money from them, so many of them are more than happy to sell you a link or two in some posts for a few bucks! Obviously the more authoritative the blog is the harder it’s going to be to get the blogger to accept your offer. But, I’ve received many solid links doing this. I make it a point to offer a one-time payment for a permanent link! In most cases it’s just not worth it to basically rent a link, paying a set fee each month for a link.
Press Releases (PRweb.com) – Press Releases provide an excellent way to get big Company/Product news out to the masses. Like many of the techniques I’ve discussed the exposure a solid press release can potentially bring your company is the #1 benefit. However, many press release sites do provide “dofollowed” links within the press release. Press Release sites, like PRweb.com allow you to submit your press release to them, and then they get it out to lots of other news sites. Some of these sites will provide live links and others won’t. I do not recommend paying for a press release just for the links. But, you can certainly submit your press release to free press release services for the incoming links! Here is a list of some of the top, free press release services (http://mashable.com/2007/10/20/press-releases/)
Testimonials – One of the most underestimated, yet powerful link building techniques is leaving testimonials for products. This is a very obvious technique, it doesn’t require much explaining, but for some reason many people believe links on sales pages are discounted for some reason. I can tell you with 100% certainty, that unless the page has received some kind of SE penalty, a followed testimonial link DOES count and in many cases it can be a very strong link! This obviously isn’t a way to generate lots of links, as I’m sure you do not purchase a new product everyday and not all product owners will be willing to publish your testimonial with a followed link, but most will publish it and it can certainly turn out to be well worth a minute or two of your time. An example of some VERY solid links people have received by offering testimonials can be seen on the sales page of “Article Marketing Domination.” (http://www.ArticleMarketingDomination.com/) If you do a little research you’ll notice that many of the people who had their testimonial published received a very strong backlink according to Yahoo site explorer, in some cases reporting as high as the #1 backlink!
Creating “Link Bait” – One good piece of link bait can potentially take a blog from a few visitors a day to thousands of daily readers! I know of many people who can thank one good piece of link bait to a good majority of their overall success! Link bait is basically one “thing” that you create, which goes completely viral… something that people WANT to link to for one reason or another! It can be in the form of a widget you create or have created, a top (insert number) list, a controversial blog post etc.
The ideas are limitless to make money online! One of the best examples of good link bait is a list of the “Top 100 make money online blogs” (http://www.digitalproductreporter.com/make_money_online/ formerly 45n5.com) which was created some time in late 2007, or early 2008 by Mark Wielgus, who I had never heard of before he released this list. The algorithm that ranked the blogs in the list itself was and still is incredibly inaccurate ignoring important “reach” factors and taking into consideration worthless things like Technorati ranking, but somehow it caught on and many well-known bloggers in the Internet Marketing niche wrote about it and it didn’t take long for the list to catch on and go viral. That took his blog from close to the bottom to close to the top basically and made a nobody into a somebody. Offering awards and/or badges is another excellent way to create link bait! There are several ways you could work this as well. An award could be worked like this, for example: You run a Mortgage site. You have a small graphic created that would easily fit in the sidebar of just about any blog that states “Top 100 Mortgage Blogs” or something similar. You then find 100 good mortgage related blogs, email the blogger and let them know that you have chosen them as #(insert number) of the best mortgage blogs online and they now have your permission to display the “Top 100 Mortgage Blogs” graphic on their blog! You then offer the code, which has a link to your site, so others can click on it and visit for your site.
Every blog to display the graphic will be a solid link to your site, not to mention the traffic it will probably bring in as well! A badge could be worked liked this, for example: Let’s say you run an Indianapolis Colts Website (an NFL team.) You could have a small logo created that simply says “I’m a Colts Fan, are you?” and provide the code to anyone who wants to put it on their blog. The code will obviously contain a link to your site, so those who click on it can get their own badge! Awards & Badges are used very frequently as link bait online. You’ve probably seen them being used for this exact reason many times and simply didn’t realize the purpose… they work and you can do it in just about any niche! Giving things away is also an excellent way to create link bait. Everyone loves free stuff, but in order for it to be effective it obviously needs to be something people want! Web developers have an incredible advantage in this aspect of link building because they can create WordPress themes and templates (among other things,) which are an excellent way to get incoming links, as attribution is almost always required in order to use the theme or template. You create a theme, allowing anyone and everyone to use it as long as they leave a live link to your site in the footer… it works very well and that is one of many examples of free stuff turning into link bait and further increasing your chances to make money online.