Begging for links vs. passive marketing

You may hear a lot of SEO experts talking about the importance of asking people to link to you. And other experts say it’s not important at all.

I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and for part of that time, Google was as likely to punish you for getting a bunch of inbounds quickly as to reward you. It depended on your site authority and other factors, but it was nerve-wracking.

So here’s what I learned about getting inbounds slowly, without doing anything or asking anybody. It’s a strategy that really works – if you write articles people want to read and share.

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Word of Mouth

The most effective overall form of marketing is word of mouth. You can’t buy it. You can’t always fully control it. Sometimes, irritatingly, some minor aspect of something you’re building gets all the buzz while the whole point of your project gets missed.

But marketers know it works. People listen to their friends. If you can get friends to recommend what you’re offering, they’re more likely to buy in than if they see a hundred commercials for it.

When word of mouth succeeds, this is your best indication of what your market is looking for. Or at least, what the market that found you is looking for. And as web marketers, what more can we ask for?

Before you think about changing your marketing strategy, consider a few points about both paid and unpaid marketing.

Marketing by Rocking

You’ve heard it before, and it sounds like some vague goal you don’t know how to reach. But creating awesome content is really the best way to go.

If you create something worth linking, people will link. If you create crap, then tou can beg and network until you’re blue in the face without getting a single inbound link from an A-list site.

On the flip side, you can be the ultimate recluse, not even answering your emails, concentrate on building a fabulous site, and find yourself with a fan base that spreads the word for you. All because you created sharable content.

How to create awesome content

It is a little hard to answer this question, and most people don’t even try. But here we go.

1. Write about a topic people care about.
2. Answer a question or solve a problem with your article.
3. Be sure to use a keyphrase in your post (in the title and an H2 header is enough – don’t use it over and over) that you can rank for in Google.

Two kinds of inbounds

• The shark. A big website can send you quite a few thousand visitors in one day. But the odds are, you won’t pick up many new regular visitors. You’ll get some extra cash if you run CPM ads. You might possibly sell an item or two if you have affiliate links. But by and large, you’re a one-time phenomenon. The traffic recedes, and at the end of the day, all you’ve got is one little inbound link.
• 100 guppies. Lots of little sites can only send you maybe a few dozen visitors a day. But they’re more likely to be dedicated visitors who come back. And tell their friends. These visitors are actually looking for new sites to enjoy, whereas the crowd from the big corporate sites just figures if you write anything else worthwhile, someone will link to it again

You cannot survive without the guppies. Believe me, I’ve had sites get hundreds of thousands of visitors per day from big sites linking in. Then they typically hit another fairly big site or so.

Those links did me a world of good, creating a base of about 20k visitors that actually kept coming back. They sent me more like 300k combined, so that gives you an idea of how many will stick around.

At that point, the site was getting 70k visitors a month. 50k of them are coming from the guppies – all the little sites that linked in since. There’s no question the big traffic sites are how some of the guppies found my site, so yes, it’s definitely great to get those big links if you can.

But this is passive marketing. All you can do is be awesome, try to get the word out a little, and wait for the buzz. It’s not just webmasters you’re waiting on, either.

It’s a journalist writing for a local newspaper or radio station’s website, searching for content. They find you, they post a link, and bam – new devoted followers.

Additional Tips

Aside from being awesome, isn’t there anything else you can do to maximize the chance of people linking to you? Sure – that’s where active marketing comes in.

This is where you:

• Use social media to promote your content
• Network with people in a position to boost your site
• Pay to advertise with people who can boost your site.

Whichever way you go (and yes, you can go the free route and become very successful), here are some tips to keep in mind.

Maintain a varied circle of friends

If you’re an affiliate marketer, it’s good to have other affiliate marketers as pals. But what about bloggers who might use your stuff? What about online journalists who might love a PR piece because it’s quick and easy content?

Or, if you’re a blogger, don’t stick to friends in your niche. Find complimentary niches – say, if you write about what’s happening in the business world and another blogger writes about customer gripes with businesses, you guys need to talk.

You may be able to win over this blogger, who will have a trusting audience who takes her recommendations seriously.

Track your pals

Even if you’re too shy or introverted to network a lot, track where your visitors go, using your analytics software. Find forums and popular blogs in your niche. Look at the responses in comments or posts.

Look at who’s linking to them and what they’re saying. These are the places you might want to advertise, or offer to write a guest post, or start hanging out in the discussion threads, if you’re game. These are also places you should link to, in hopes they will notice you and link back.