3 Seldom Used Ways to Get Quality Links to Your Blog

Every site owner is looking for more links. Links boost search engine rankings, while sending direct, quality traffic.

When discussing link building you normally see only two tactics really discussed; linkbait and pitching/link-begging. There are other, potentially more effective ways though that bloggers seldom use.

Creative Commons

The first example of using fresh and free content to get links is through Creative Commons licensing. By setting a CC license on your content you can tell other people that your content is available to use under certain circumstances and with certain restrictions. So one example might be that you can use my content for free provided you do not change it and that you link back to where you got it from.

As the unethical people will copy your content any way, and Google is getting much better at recognizing the originator of a piece of content, the risks are low, and you do in fact get a steady trickle of links from this.

By using the CC WordPress plugin you can essentially make your CC license “official” and it can also appear in CC content searches.

Read more about Creative Commons for Bloggers here on this very blog.

Article Marketing

Article, or Ezine marketing is an older form of link building where you write articles and then submit them to special sites called Ezine Directories. The most famous is EzineArticles.com

People who need a steady stream of new content for their own newsletters, blogs or web sites then come along and are allowed to copy these articles providing they keep in place your author “resource box”.

This can provide both direct traffic and generate links for you. The direct traffic comes mainly from people finding your content on the directory site through less competitive search phrases due to these directories growing a good amount of search engine visibility. When web masters utilize your content on their sites, or their email newsletters appear in a web archive, that shows up as a fresh link to your site.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is a type of article marketing where you write for free for someone else in return for a link back to your own site. These are more personally negotiated, and take a bit more effort, but have the benefit of you being able to target which blogs you want to write for to get the best results, and can often have a link both from your author attribution and, if on topic and not forced, within the content.

You need to start the relationship first with the blog owner. Comment with intelligent responses, and befriend the blog owner in social media, that way you will be familiar and they will have an idea of the kind of ideas you are capable of. Then get in touch with some potential headline ideas for discussion. Do not send a fully written piece until you have at least briefly discussed what the blog needs and audience.

Summary

Getting links for your blog is not just about emailing site owners with pitches or link bait, so think creatively how you can get more links while helping other people share your content.

How the baby that ate its own head can help you get readers and links

Image Every day the baby helps bloggers, columnists and journalists get front page exposure for their content . Well, OK, it’s not really the baby. It’s that undeniable urge that compels us to read the article about the baby. It’s the same thing that killed the cat…yep folks, you’ve got it – it’s…curiosity.

In his book “Tested Advertising Methods,” John Caples lists curiosity headlines as one of three successful headline types. So, let’s familiarize ourselves with the curiosity factor and start reeling in those links and readers.

Irresistible headlines due to curiosity

These three headlines were taken from Digg’s Home page. In fact, more than 50% of the home page articles (at the time this article was written) relied heavily on the curiosity factor.

Blueprint For Dictatorship – Notice how the contrast between the feelings of order/security we associate with blueprints and the feelings of fear/instability we associate with dictatorship make this headline irresistible. Isn’t this headline much better than the obvious – “America is becoming a dictatorship”.

Anti-piracy group pirated my data – It’s the tale of David catching the thieving Goliath red-handed. You absolutely have to know what happened. This title is all good.

Marijuana Shrinks Tumors, Government Knew In 1974 – If you are a cancer patient, a marijuana smoker or a fan of conspiracy theories, you cannot resist reading this article.

How to use the curiosity factor to create irresistible blog posts

This technique has three steps:

  1. Mine Digg/Reddit/Netscape for a curiosity headline (not news headlines) – go to the Digg home page. Look at the articles that became popular in the last 7/30 days. Select one that is not news-oriented.
  2. Figure out what makes this headline unique – Try to understand why this headline is so compelling and if there is an underlying pattern to its drawing power.
  3. Remix the headline – Use the pattern to create new headlines.

Let’s do a couple:

Original Headline: How to tell if you are a fanboy
Underlying Pattern: How to tell if [you/someone close to you] are/is a [something that no one wants to be]
Remixed headlines: How to tell if you are a cold fish
How to tell if your boyfriend is a male chauvinist pig
How to tell if you are still stuck in the 80s

Let’s try another one:

Original Headline: Condemned To Google Hell
Underlying Pattern: Condemned to [Do no evil type of object/entity] Hell
Remixed headlines: Condemned to Hawaii Hell
Condemned to Candy Store Hell
Condemned to George Clooney Hell

So start weaving curiosity into your headlines and you’ll see those readers and links rolling in.

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Announcing PostWisdom for FireFox: Your Personal Blog Writing Coach

Imagine reading an article about blogging from your favorite blogging guru. After a couple of sentences you become excited. The article is really good. It contains an amazing technique. A technique that will make you a better blogger. Using this technique, you immediatly whip out a shining blog post.

When it’s time to write another post you use the technique again, and again the results are great. But since you don’t want to be monotonous/boring, you avoid using that technique for a couple of weeks. And then a new really good article captures your attention and the old technique is forgotten.

I’ve been suffering from the “using only the latest writing advice” syndrom for quite a while now. And that is why we developed PostWisdom. PostWisdom is a FireFox Plugin intended to help bloggers remember and use the best writing techniques. It is easy to use and free.

You can download it and read about it here.

I am looking forward to hear what you think about it, so please, leave a comment.

Update: It seems there was a problem with the download link. My apologies. It’s working now. Thank you Dan for the heads up.

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Five blogging tools that every blogger will use in 2007

Why is it that some bloggers are 10 times more productive than others?

Like programming, blogging is an occupation in which huge variations exist between the best and the merely average. Joel Spolsky of the famed Joel on Software made a historic post on the difference between the best programmer and the average programmer. I strongly recommend that you read Joel’s post. While doing so, replace the word “programmer” with the word “blogger.”

So how do you become a master blogger?

The secret of the kung fu master

Imagine a kung fu master during his daily practice session. He moves with accuracy and grace. Every strike is perfect and flows seamlessly into the next. But the most amazing part is that the kung fu master seems to be in another world, contemplating the philosophy of martial arts while his body automatically performs the moves.

How is kung fu relevant to blogging? Like the kung fu master, you should control the tools of your trade to the point that using them is second nature. Then you can focus on the core of the blogging art–thinking!

Here are the five essential tools you will have to master to become a kung fu blogging master:

Finding interesting things to blog about

Tool #1: Del.icio.us

When reading your RSS feeds and surfing the net, you often come across things you can blog about. Use del.icio.us to bookmark them and use them in your blog later. And that’s not all. By subscribing to the Del.icio.us tag RSS feeds, you can see what other people have bookmarked on the tags that interest you and use that for your blog. By doing so, you use the entire del.icio.us user group as your personal scouts!

Tool #2: Technorati

Also subscribe to the tag RSS feeds on Technorati. This is very similar to Del.icio.us, but you get to read everything blogged about the keywords that interest you.

Think everywhere

When you sit in front of your computer, you start thinking about headlines, subtitles, and all the other stuff that make your blog posts great. But don’t you hate it when you think of a great idea for a title or a joke, and by the time you get to your computer you have forgotten about it? Wouldn’t it be great if you could blog everywhere?

Tool #3: online word processors

By using Google Docs, Zoho, or one of the many other online word processors, you can write your post at work, from home, when visiting friends–wherever there is a computer connected to the internet.

Warning: Your spouse, family, and friends may not like this technique.

Get your blogging groove on

Blogging is hard work. To really be effective, you have to be in the right mood. I use a special “substance” to clear my mind.

Tool #4: ZeFrank

It’s enough to watch an episode of the ZeFrank daily show to forget all your troubles, get a good laugh, and enter that blogging state of mind.

Become a master wordsmith

Tool #5: Cogniview’s ultimate copywriting tool

During the first quarter of 2007, we will be launching a new copywriting software tool to serve you, the blogger. This tool (yet to be named) will allow you to write a brilliant post every time. This tool will be the equivalent of having Darren and Brian as your personal advisers.

How can you get this tool?

Easy, just subscribe to our RSS feed. Once the tool has been released, we will post it here and you will be able to download it, free!

This post is participating in the ProBlogger Group Writing Project – Reviews and Predictions.

Happy holidays, everyone,

Yoav