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Linking

Along with keywords, linking is the heart and soul of online marketing.  The original Google algorithm made linking one of the great deciding factors in how high a site should be ranked in the results.  It’s a great idea.  In theory.  The search engines believe that if a site is good enough, great enough, informative enough, it will just naturally…grow its own links.  Like the saying goes, Build it and they will come.

Have you ever thrown a party without inviting guests?  Did the guests telepathically know that a party was happening?  Of course not.  So, online marketers need to get the word out and drum up interest.  Black hat marketers believe that linking can be engineered out of thin air–and many do a pretty good job of it.  More legit Internet marketers resort to other, more painful (and slower) linking strategies.

First tip:  do not ever ask someone else for a link without something in exchange.

I have one site that has a very high Google PageRank and tons of traffic.  Naturally, I get an email about once every three days asking something like this:

“I have a website called BooksAboutTrees.com and would like you to put a link to my site on your site.  Thanks.”

Can you imagine going into a store and saying, “I would like this pound of sugar, and I hope that you will just give it to me for free.”

It’s all about “you scratch my back, I scratch yours.”  In online marketing, we’re looking for an exchange of ideas, money, or just bartering stuff.  And it’s the same thing with trying to get backlinks on another person’s site.

How to Write a Proper Email to Get a Link

So when I get an email like that, it gets deleted right away.  But a different type of email always gets my response, and I always respond to it positively–provided the message is delivered properly.

The proper message is:

Hi, I like your website [compliment the site owner] and would like for you to put a backlink to my site on your site [just be straight and honest about it].  In exchange, I propose writing an article [here is the exchange], which would be around 350-400 words long on any topic your propose [be specific about the terms of the deal].  If you’re interested, just let me know.  Terry Edward, owner of BooksAboutTrees.com [tell us who you are].”

And do not call this a joint venture.  It’s a simple deal.  Usually, it consists of one more email from me back to the other site owner giving a few specifics about what I want.  I am well aware of the limited nature of the deal, so I don’t make huge demands by asking for linked text, research, etc.  It’s just a quick, evergreen article.

Works all the time.