If you want to get thousands of natural inbound links, you absolutely must use a method called linkbaiting. In link baiting, you use the Social Networking sites to your own advantage in order to get links. By creating a story, video, or other product that is funny or interesting, you create “buzz.”
In other words, you make people want to link to your site—and only ONE successful link bait can turn your site into one of the most respected sites in its topic! So—even if you ignoreall the other advice I give you, please do create link bait.
One huge advantage of using link bait (as opposed to, say, a linking farm) is that the search engines will not blacklist you. They see these links as completely natural, because they're coming from people discussing your topic on forum, posting it, blogging about it, etc.
In order to create link bait, first you have to find out how linkworthy a topic is. It's good to look at some of the social networking sites listed above to see what topics are getting tagged in your particular niche.
Every social network has somebody writing about their topics. In fact, if there is nobody talking about your favorite topic, then it should be easy for you to create your own link bait by simply writing about your (their) favorite topic, using their lingo. Be sure that it's a topic you're passionate about. Note that I didn't say “write what you know.” It isn't necessary that you be an expert, only that you have a strong opinion about it. One of the best forms of link bait is when you disagree with the opinion of a so-called expert in your field. Controversy is sure to stir up discussions!
If you don't have a strong opinion at the moment, and there's nothing newsworthy going on, consider interviewing a professional in your field and then writing a summary of that interview. If you're particularly good at creating software tools, make something useful. Or perhaps you have knowledge of the history of your industry, or you can write a step-by-step “how to” list. The goal here is not to write the only outrageous story; the goal is to cause a stir.
You'll need to perform your normal sort of keyword focus in order to optimize your link bait. Use the keyword tools that you normally employ (I'll talk a lot more about selecting keywords and the best tools to use for search engine marketing purposes in my book, Complete SEM Gorilla.)
Now, once you have created your link bait you'll want to track your “buzz.” In other words, you've got to find out what people are saying about you. You should probably subscribe to RSS feeds to cut down on the time factor. You'll find some of the blogs, forums, and message boards via a search engine, but RSS feeds will make your life a lot easier.
When creating link bait, you are giving your site both search engine ranking and great links at the same time. The two go hand-in-hand and together they create the best visibility for your website. In my opinion, this is the #1 WAY to improve your standings and drive traffic to your site---with virtually no effort.
Ideas for Link BaitÏ Interviews with experts
Ï Giveaways: anything that's free, like e-books, lists, tools, and software
Ï New plugins or themes
Ï Newsworthy
Ï Your disagreement with an expert opinion
Ï Helpful information
Ï Jokes
Ï Product testing
Ï Contests
Ï Exposing a scam