How to Get Other Blogs to Link to Your Blog

Most of us agree that one of the keys to becoming a successful blogger is getting good targeted traffic. You can have a beautiful looking blog with high quality well written articles, but without any traffic no one will ever see it.

Traffic comes from a variety of sources, but one of the best is search engine traffic. Why? Because it’s free and usually quite targeted. The only problem however, is you will probably be competing with millions of other websites in order to rank on the first page of Google for even some of the most trivial of keywords.

So, if getting to the first page of a Google search is the goal, then how do we nudge out all of those other websites trying to do the same thing? Well, the answer to that can be quite complicated or quite simple – complicated because search engines, in particular Google, use complex algorithms for ranking web pages. In other words, there could be all sorts of reasons as to why a particular web page ranks well.

But rather than get into a long winded discussion on the ranking algorithm of Google, let’s keep it simple and stick with what most think is Google’s main criteria for ranking web pages. And that is… Google ranks a web page based on the number of incoming links to that page. Or more specifically, the number of good quality links.

So with this in mind, you can see why it is important to get other bloggers to link to your blog. The more good quality links you have, the better your blog will rank and the more traffic you will receive.

So how do you get others to link to your blog?

There are numerous methods for getting others to link to your blog and we would like to share the ones that we have found to be the most effective.

Quality Content

How many times have you read the words “content is king?” This phrase is starting to become a little clichéd and hackneyed, but it is still so true that I can’t help but use it again here. Good quality content will really make the difference between a good blog and a bad blog… it’s as simple as that.

The best thing about writing good quality content that provides real value to the reader is that people will naturally want to link to it in order to help their own readers.

How many blogs have you seen that include a regular weekly round-up of their favorite blog posts they have found on the net? Anyone who does this will only add links that provide real value to their readers. You just don’t get added to someone’s favorite links list by writing poor quality content.

If you find that nobody is linking to you, then it may just be because you aren’t getting much traffic yet. If you do have plenty of traffic and still no one is linking to you, then you might want to step back and think about whether the information you are providing has any real value.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a great way of getting links to your blog. Being a guest blogger involves you writing an article for another blogger who places it on their blog. In return for giving them a free article, they include a link back to your blog.

The blog post you are reading right now is an example of a guest blog post. Keller is keen to take guest posts and actively promotes it on her blog. It really is a win-win for both of us. Keller gets to take a breather from writing blog posts and I get a link back to my blog. You can see the link in the author bio at the end of this blog post.

To find blogs that accept guest posts, simply head over to Google and type in a keyword related to your blog topic and the words “guest blogger” or similar. For instance, my blog is about internet marketing and becoming a successful blogger, so I might type in:

• internet marketing guest blogger
• internet marketing submit a blog post
• affiliate marketing guest blogger
• learn to blog guest blogger
• blogging guest blogger
• blogging submit a blog post

Remember, a blog owner will want to take a look at your blog and the quality of your blog posts before accepting an article from you. So, before you go emailing hundreds of bloggers, take a look at your current content. If it is of poor quality, you might need to take some time to start adding at least 8-10 strong solid blog posts to your own blog first. This will greatly increase your chance of securing a guest posting opportunity.

Also think about the overall look and feel of your blog. Is it simply full of flashing ads and pop-ups? Does it look professional? In other words, is your blog worth linking to? Even if you are a capable writer and can provide fantastic content, no self respecting blogger will link to your blog if it looks like a spammer’s blog.

Make Friends

In order to be a successful blogger, you need to ensure you start making friends with other bloggers in your niche. This not only provides a network of people who you can regularly connect with, it’s also possible they will link to you. This could be either in a blog post or in their blogroll. Other benefits are that they are more likely to add your posts to social networking sites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook.

One of the best ways to start making friends and become known within your niche in the blogging world is by commenting on blogs. But remember that like real life, one random comment isn’t going to get you a friend. So, leave a few comments and Tweet or Digg some of their better posts on a regular basis. And make sure the comments are valid and interesting. Comments such as “nice blog” just don’t cut it.

Also, be aware that this probably will be harder to achieve with some of the bigger, more popular bloggers. Everyone wants to be their friend, so concentrate more on becoming friends with bloggers who are in a similar position as yourself. This way you can support each other as you develop and move up through the ranks.

Just Ask

Sometimes just asking can get you a link. Although this method has a low level of success it can sometimes work, so it is worth a try if you are keen enough and have the time.

You can achieve this in a couple of ways. Try sending an email to a blogger telling them about your blog and how you would love them to add your link to their blogroll. You can entice them a little further by telling them that you have added them to your blogroll.

Another way is to email a potential blogger with a link to your latest blog post. Ensure, however, that the post is a particularly good one before doing this. This can work particularly well if you go after bloggers who post a weekly round-up of their favorite links. It will save them scouring the net looking for links.

Blog of the Week

We’ve used this technique quite successfully on one of our niche product blogs. Simply find a blog in your niche that you like and write a great blog post about it – so you might talk about why you visit it regularly, some of their best blog posts, the layout of the site, the great theme, how the blog owner replies to all comments, how one of their suggestions made you more money and so on. In the blog post, link to their blog a couple of times. Then go and leave a comment on their blog directing them to your post.

What we have found with this technique is that in the majority of cases, the owner of the blog is so happy that they will write up a blog post telling all their readers that they have been nominated as blog of the week on your blog. Of course, you will get a link to your blog in the process, plus their readers will generally head over to your blog for a look as well.

And Finally…

When it comes down to it, no one is going to link to your blog if you aren’t providing value. So take some time out to take a really good look at your blog. Is it a blog you would visit or are you just using it as a tool to try and make a quick buck online? If it is the latter, you really need to rethink your motives.

Just remember that the most successful bloggers are those that continually provide value to their readers with the monetary success being a secondary concern.

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Topic Tags:

bloggers, blogging, guest posts, inbound links, social networking, website content