You have now optimised your blog by installing the plugins discussed in my previous post: WordPress Blog Optimisation – The Must-Have Plugins For Your Blog and have started adding content for your readers.
One of the effective ways to get free, targeted traffic to your blog, is to use different link building techniques.
Your goal should be to rank as high as possible in the search engines, especially in Google. Now, you’re probably hurting your blog rankings by having too many links to too many other sites.
Here’s what I mean…
Outbound Links
I see a lot of bloggers using what is called a blogroll, which basically refers to a collection of links to the others blog they like in their niche (especially their friends’ and business partners’).
While this is cool for driving traffic, most people don’t really know the right way to use this tool. By placing these links on every page in the sidebar, header or footer, you are not doing any justice to your entire blog, but dragging it down! Ouch!
Note: Google de-values site-wide links like that. Every link from your page to another site, causes it to lose a little rank. You don’t want that, do you?
If you are using a blogroll, be sure to place it on your Home page only. If you have your friend’s blog link on every page of your blog, you are not helping them in anyway 
To boost your friend’s blog rankings, you could occasionally link to them from some of your posts where relevant as Google values such links highly.
Now the exciting part…
Inbound Links
This is a very important part of your blog linking strategy in order to attract more traffic to your blog. These links are commonly known as backlinks and they are critical for your Search Engine Optimisation plan. In order to increase your blog rankings, you need to have very good backlinks.
So, how do you create backlinks?
Here are the Top strategies to create backlinks for your blog:
1) RSS Feed Submission
Submit your RSS feed to feed directories such as FeedAdage and OctoFinder. Every time you create a post, that feed is going to get pulled and a link will come back to your post. When people click on your blog post title on these sites, they will be redirected to your original blog post – sending you free traffic!
The more RSS directories you submit to, the more links you get!
2) Article Marketing
This is a very effective marketing method if you are using the key article marketing strategies to drive high quality traffic to your site.
Here’s how to get tons of backlinks using this strategy:
- Distribute your articles to a number of article directories. You can use tools such as Automatic Article Submitter or Unique Article Wizard.
- Take advantage of the resource box as this is the only section where you are allowed to put links to your websites. Don’t put too many links and confuse the reader. Most article directories allow up to 3. Link to a relevant post or page on your blog using a relevant keyword.
So, the more articles you write and submit, the more links to your blog you create!
3) Video Marketing
This is very powerful as the search engines love video content and will rank your videos high in the organic (free) results.
Here’s how to take advantage of this strategy to have more inbound links:
- Distribute your videos using services such as TubeMogul or TrafficGeyser.
- Link from video description back to a relevant post or page on your blog. That will create inbound links and help your blog to get ranked in the search engines.
4) Press Releases
They are also favoured by the search engines and can show up in the organic (free) results depending on the keywords used. They are different from articles which are about opinions and information, as they deliver news of the events taking place.
The key is to write them in such a way that they rank high in the search engines and provide your blog with the much needed good backlinks to help boost the rankings.
5) Social Bookmarking
This is a great way to create quality backlinks from high page rank social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com, Delicious.com, StumbleUpon.com and so forth.
You don’t have to use all the sites available on the web, you can just use 5-10 good ones. And it’s important to use appropriate keywords or tags for your bookmarks.
Doing this process manually can be very time consuming. So you need to find a service that allows you to submit your new blog posts to multiple social bookmarking sites across the web at a touch of a button such as OnlyWire.
6) Blog Comments
This is an effective technique to use in order to get backlinks to your blog using other people’s blogs. While it helps with increasing your chances to get your blog indexed higher in the search engines, it also helps to get traffic back to your blog and potential sales.
7) Forum Posting
This is also an effective way to get loads of free traffic and get high search engine rankings with unlimited backlinks. You will need to place a hyperlink and a little bit of information about your blog in the signature file so that it can show at the bottom of your posts. So, when people click on the hyperlink in your signature, you have effectively generated traffic to your blog.
The key is to post regularly in the forums that interest you and relate to your business, in order to build traffic and create success with this strategy. I love WarriorForum – it’s a very popular and most used internet marketing forum and ranks high in Google (PR #2). And it’s constantly being reindexed for content. So you could “piggy-back” this forum’s PR so to speak and get some free search engine traffic.
Note: You can also use these strategies for whatever website you want to receive high search engine rankings for.
Check out some effective link bait techniques that you can use.
I’m done now… What about you? How do you create backlinks to your blog? Let me know in the comment box below 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you fill out this form to receive my post updates via e-mail, leave a comment and share this with your friends.
Happy Link Building!
Professional Internet Marketer
Certified Marketing Consultant
Mavis Nong is the creator and author of this blog.
She is passionate about helping others create success online.
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Hey Mavis,
Great post on links, I am really needing to dig into RSS feeds, I feel that could help my article marketing and blog posts quite a bit. Thank you for the valuable information as always !
Hi, Mavis:
I absolutely agree with your blogroll comments – if you think about it, why do you need to display it anyway? It leaks you traffic, plus you get punished by Google since most of those links are reciprocal.
Love you inbound strategy list as well!
Little tip on RSS submission: you can create an RSS feed for each of your posts and submit it to RSS directories – imagine how many more links you'll have that way!
Ana Hoffman
Hey Ana, how would you do that?
Dr. Bob Clarke invites you to check..Are You Ready To Take It ALL Off
You can find some of that info in this post, Mavis – http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/rss-feed-link-building/; let me know if you have any questions after reading it.
Ana
Thanks, Ana. I see one of my readers asked you the question
All the best,
Mavis
Hello Mavis, all excellent link building tips.
I put my blogroll on my Resource page. These are non-reciprocal links to sites I think every internet marketer should consider reading.
Mavis,
Very informative post about link building! I picked up a few great nuggets! Thanks for sharing!
Mary Thayer
Hi Mavis,
Great comprehensive post on back-links!
The methods you have identified create such a wealth of sites pointing back at yours and if the content is sharp and well-written you are getting results.
We also like to create links using a range of Web 2.0 sites like blogspot, xanga, squidoo and livejournal among others to create linking strategies.
Thanks for the great post.
All the best
Mike and Midge
Hi Mavis,
I agree with the others: One of the most comprehensive posts about link building I've ever come across so far. I also took some nuggets from it, for example RSS submission.
Take care
Oliver
I'm glad you found this helpful, Robert. Thanks for stopping by. All the best, Mavis
Thanks for the great RSS submission tip, Ana. All the best, Mavis
Thanks Peter. All the best, Mavis
My pleasure, Mary! Thanks for visiting. All the best, Mavis
You're welcome Mike and Midge. Thanks for sharing your linking strategies. All the best, Mavis
Thanks Oliver. I'm glad you found this helpful. All the best, Mavis
Ana, great idea. Thanks for sharing. Michael
Mavis, 7 amazing tips. Thanks for sharing. All the very best, Michael
Hi Mavis,
A lot of good ideas. Some raise a question in my mind. I have heard that bookmark submitters like OnlyWire are self-defeating because they submit all the infor with the same description, same keywords, on the same date and time and as a result are discounted by Google etc. In addition since many of the major bookmark sites are “do not follow” how does that help SEO (apart from natural interest aroused by people looking through the bookmarks, coming to your site, etc). What do you make of all that?
Hi Richard. Thanks for the visit. OnlyWire is highly recommended and I see a lot of SEO wizards use it too
All the best, Mavis
Hey Mavis, I've done all these at one time or another but one of the most effective for me has been getting inbound links. The toughest for me if video marketing (working more on that one) and the easiest for me has been forum posting.
Hey Liz! Great to hear that these strategies have been working well for you. Thanks for the visit. All the best, Mavis
Hi Mavis, great article. I agree about removing the blogroll. One of the first things I do when I create a new Wordpress blog is to remove the blogroll and meta links, they’re just wasted outgoing links.
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Hi Gary,
Welcome to my blog!
So true and yet many bloggers don’t remove them
Thanks for the visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
Nice post about link building , i totally agree with you but i rather using social bookmarking and article submit to get backlinks to my blog
how much backlinks should i build in a day to get PR 3 in 3 months?
OneBlogTips invites you to check..5 Killer Backlinks Tips
Hi there! Welcome to my blog!
In order to improve your site’s Google rank, you must build links at a steady pace and not link too much.
It is recommended to link to your site at the following pace:
1st Month: No more than 3 links a week.
2nd Month: 3-‐6 links a week.
3rd-‐6th Month: 5-‐10 links a week.
Don’t worry too much about PR
Hope this helps. See you again.
All the best,
Mavis
These all methods are very effective in link building but link through blog commenting is very effective to get the rank of the site with fast speed.
You’re right, Raj.
Thanks for stopping by.
Mavis
Can’t believe I overlooked this post! This is great content Mavis! I’m definitely going to implement a couple of these in for my online marketing strategies.
Thanks for sharing Mavis.
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Thank you, Darren. Glad you found this helpful.
All the best,
Mavis
Now mostly people are diverting their attention towards videos as it is the fastest way of delivering information. It covers both SEO and SEM aspects.
Hi Basam,
Yes, it works for those who like the spoken word than the written one.
Thanks for the visit and input.
All the best,
Mavis
I have found article marketing gives the best results. However the other points you have raised also help. I would suggest if you are going to post on forums, in the aid to get backlinks, your reply should be on topic and that the forum is powered by vBulletin. The vBulletin platform has already been optimised for search engines and will be of more benefit to your site.
Hi Tom! Welcome to my blog!
It’s all about using what works best for you. Thanks for the tip re posting on forums. Are you getting great results with forums?
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see more of you here.
All the best,
Mavis
I am finding that I am getting a lot of traffic through people clicking the links in comments and forums. I am maximising my time by only commenting where I can add a real benefit to the post. Usually the comment is accepted and people will click to see who I am. I have seen the most Google rank progression with article marketing. I have set up a Google Alert so I know when my articles have been used elsewhere and can make sure that the links are “dofollow” as is required.
I really find forums to be a traffic rich field. so i usually post my backlinks on forums.
Small Business Consulting Services
Hi Elland! Welcome to my blog!
Great to hear you’re having success with forums.
Thanks for the visit and comment. Hope to see more of you here.
All the best,
Mavis
thanks for the war welcome. find you blog to be interesting and very informative keep it up. Thanks again
Come and Visit Us for you Small Business Consulting services. We provide Quality services with 24/7 Customer Support
Small Business Consulting Services
It’s my pleasure, Elland.
Glad to hear you found my blog to be interesting and informative.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Mavis
Forum posting is the best way to get the links and also to get traffic of your niche.
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Hi Jhon! Welcome to my blog!
Thanks for the visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
We all need backlinks. Without backlinks you will not rank in the search engines well, if at all.
Creating backlinks is tiresome, time consuming and pretty boring.
The Automatic Backlink Creator plugin was designed to take a HUGE piece of that workload and do it for you. Automatically!
Search engines look to see that you build links over time and do it naturally. If it appears naturally then you will have an added advantage in getting better rankings and keeping them longer.
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Hi Winston! Welcome to my blog!
I’m happy with creating quality backlinks manually, Winston.
Thanks for the visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
<3 This is a great article mavis, very important part of my journey in the world of webmaster's! you simlpy made my day to day journey a spectacular one! Very informative! <3
Hi Gala! Welcome to my blog!
I’m glad you found this helpful. Hope to see more of you here.
All the best,
Mavis
I’ve already made the social bookmarking and blog comments just what you have said. Right now, I’m still in focus of having a backlinks on blog but do you have any idea if does it matter if the blog have high PR or zero PR can push you to top level of ranking?
You’re doing great, Gala. No, I wouldn’t be concerned about having a high PR. There are top blogs out there with PR0 but they are dominating the top spots.
Keep doing what you’re doing then you’ll notice your blog climbing up. Be sure to swing by here to get more tips
All the best,
Mavis
Almost overlooked this post! This is great content Mavis! I’m definitely going to implement a couple of these in for my online marketing strategies.
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Glad to hear, Sidder. Thank you for the visit and comment. Hope to see more of you here.
All the best,
Mavis
@mavis, thanks for the tip, i was asking about it because i’ve seen that you are on the top site…your site as of today was “86,563″ but no rank at all.. your doing so so great… hope i could climb up to top… I’ll always come to your website to learn more tips and read more comments from others! Godbless!
You’re welcome, Gala. Hmmm, that’s strange that you can’t pick up my PR, I have a PR4
You’ll get there too. Keep coming back for more tips
All the best,
Mavis
@im sorry i can’t see your PR maybe i was using the wrong toolbar. Can you suggest one if it’s ok with you! Anyway, I’ll be reading again your article for some info.. Thanks and please don’t hesitate to email me if there is changes in your articles! Lots of thanks!
As you have subscribed to my RSS feed, you’ll received my blog post updates via email, Gala.
I use Quirk SearchStatus.
All the best,
Mavis
Lots of thanks Mavis, I already downloaded quirk and its great.. I am a newbie that’s why I have a lot of question to you.. Anyway, right now i already been doing backlinks on forums maybe if you have more suggestion about forums that you haven’t or miss to discuss with please notify me.. my http://www.galagamer.com went high from a 1.1million to 896thou.. hope this will continue to increase by your article guides! I really appreciate your great help! God bless you always!
You’re welcome, Gala. Keep coming back for more tips
All the best,
Mavis
This are very important tips if you want to make your blog known and successful a lot of work needs to be done in order. But I think also that Guest Posting it will be a good addition to this grate list.
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Thanks, Bit. I agree, guest posting is very powerful.
Thanks for the visit and comment. Hope to see more of you here, Bit.
All the best,
Mavis
Mavis,
It’s refreshing to see:
A:) A list that makes sense and is easy to read and,
B:) someone who actually knows what they are talking about in this regard!
Kudos Mavis, great tips here for many who struggle to understand what half of this stuff is/does.
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Wow, Alex! That means a lot to me coming from you
Thanks for your kind words.
Mavis
If you are an active member of blogger community and comment luv community. Getting links will be nor problem for you.
There are effective ways to create backlinks effortlessly
Thanks for the visit and comment, Mano.
Mavis
Blog comment is one of my favorite methods to gather oneway links. Yahoo site explorer is a free tool that facilitates me to get high PR backlinks site from my competitors with ease. This strategy is extremely powerful if we use it wisely.
Messy
glass top computer desk
Hi Messy! Welcome to my blog!
You’re right. Yahoo site explorer is brilliant.
Thanks for the visit and comment. Hope to see more of you here, Messy.
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Mavis, Im back again. I always to thank you about your link exposed. I forgot to add rss feed on my site. hahaha! My mistake! Did I miss big traffic without the rss feed? I really appreciate your help!
Welcome back, Gala! You have missed on getting subscribers, but it’s all good now that you have added it.
All the best,
Mavis
Thanks for sharing the great tips
keep posting
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My pleasure. Keep coming back for more tips
Hi Mavis,
Great post! I’d love to hear your thoughts about the recent Google Farm update. Content farms such as EzineArticles.com in particular have been hit bad. Do you think this means we should alter the emphasis of our link building efforts?
Thanks!
Pete
Thank you, Pete. Here’s my take on the recent changes:
http://www.iblogzone.com/2011/03/how-to-beat-changes-organic-traffic-generation-rules.html/
Hope this helps.
Mavis
Hi Mavis,
Those are excellent link-building tips. I don’t focus so much on RSS feeds and bookmarking for link love but mainly just to get a new site indexed in Google fairly quick. What I do love are the other strategies that you talked about that I do on a daily basis- blog commenting (with useful comments of course-no spam), forum posts, forum profile links and another favorite of mine is one that you didn’t mention in your article and that is reverse engineering. I use the free version of SEO Spyglass and look at my top competitors’ links to cherry pick their best ones for myself. It’s a great way of finding additional backlinks to your site. Links also do not need to be relevant to your niche so you can find any top affiliate or blog site and reverse engineer their site for backlinks.
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Hi Ken! Welcome to my blog!
I have heard of SEO Spyglass but I haven’t used it yet. Thanks for sharing your golden strategy
I appreciate your visit and input. Hope to see more of you here, Ken.
All the best,
Mavis
Hi,
Very interesting blog optimisation link building. Very comprehensive post. Creating backlinks is tiresome, time consuming and pretty boring, but when it comes to the results, when you start climbing your way on important keywords for your website from page 7 to page 1-2 in a few days you will realize that it was worth the time and the stress, work, boredom and so on. Thanks for sharing !
Best regards,
Maria
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Hi Maria! Great to see you here
I agree, the results are worth all the trouble.
Thanks for the visit and kind words.
All the best,
Mavis
Hello Mavis,
This is a great article. Thanks for sharing. I am using 1,2,5 and 6 using tools and found it really very effective. On number 1, I use a tool that submits to 48 rss directories with a single click. On number 2 I use a tool that enables me to submit my spun article to thousands of article and blog directories. On number 5, I use social monkee and onlywire. In this era, tools are vital if you want to become efficient with your time. Thanks again for your great article Mavis.
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Hi Sonny,
Great to see you here. You’re doing great implementing all these strategies. Thanks for sharing with us.
I need to get going with social monkee. I watched the intro video and didn’t take action since then
I appreciate your visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
Great, great content! I think this is one of the most well-written and useful posts from your site so far, Mavis…and that’s saying something!
Great work.
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Thank you, thank you, Steve! I appreciate your kind words and encouragement
All the best,
Mavis
Thank you mavis for the SEO guidance… This is really great article and very very important to all webmaster. I’ve learn from you a lot!
You’re welcome, Starfall. Hope to see more of you here.
All the best,
Mavis
I have got fast results by submitting good contents to many article directories.Very fast promotion of the site.
Great to hear… Thanks for the visit and for sharing your experience, Basam.
All the best,
Mavis
Forum posting has dual advantage,first is brand promotion and second is links for ranking of a site.
Agreed, Zain.
Some great points Mavis… You seem to have had the hang of this for a long time!
I wonder what your thoughts are on article marketing like this though, since the Panda update? Is it still as relevant a strategy as it was when you wrote this post?
Nice that you dug this one out to share again!
All the best,
Jym
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Thanks very much, Jym. It’s an oldie but goodie – I figured people can still learn a ton from it
.
I would still write and submit quality articles, Jym. Quality content rules!
I appreciate your visit and comment.
All the best,
Mavis
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