Building Links Outside of Gaming

[jdwanchalk]

We all have PAL to meet people so that we can trade links and whatnot, but how would you go about doing it for other industries?

Say, for example, that you want to get links for a local site that you made covering your town. Where would you go to find links?

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Michael Martinez]

There is a ton of link building advice across the Web that addresses that kind of issue. For example, if the site is tied to a traditional "brick and mortar" business you can ask to be listed in local Chamber of Commerce and community Web directories (some of which are run by city and county governments).

Don't think in terms of whom you can swap links with. Think in terms of where you can create visibility for your site. Relying solely on link swapping is an inefficient approach to link building.

[jdwanchalk]

There is a ton of link building advice across the Web that addresses that kind of issue. For example, if the site is tied to a traditional "brick and mortar" business you can ask to be listed in local Chamber of Commerce and community Web directories (some of which are run by city and county governments).

Don't think in terms of whom you can swap links with. Think in terms of where you can create visibility for your site. Relying solely on link swapping is an inefficient approach to link building.

Yea, I know there is a lot of information out there, I guess I just want to know what routes PAL members have personally taken and whether they have seen success.

[PTC]

same old same old. Go to a website you want a link from, figure out what they need, figure out which of those things they might also want, then narrow it down to things they need and want and you can provide. For an authority link, you better make it something that nobody else can provide either. You'll have a decent chance of getting the link if this is the case.

Best example is someone building a travel website who has not been to each of the areas that they are building a section for, or even if they have, they don't have a huge photo library to use. Offering to go out and take photos of whatever they might need is usually the best way to get a link that nobody else will be able to get, because it's only given once.

[CorryC]

I think its way easier to get links outside of gaming. PTC makes a good point, its all about offering them something in return.

I like to do a lot of guest posts on blogs, thats a sure way to build one way links. As Michael said though, I think it is pretty important to have many different kinds of links coming in (well I guess he didnt say that exactly, but building off what he said).

It is definitely easier to have a forum, but just email people instead of talking to people on a forum. The key is to take a very personal approach. Just be open and be person, not a robot.

[PTC]

I think its both easier and tougher in some ways. You can be more creative IMHO in how you get links, especially authority links. At the same time, I think there is a higher expectation for what kind of website you need to have in order to get good links. I did a round of trying to build super high quality authority links and I got alot of emails back saying I have a great site and it looks awesome, but it needs a little more content before they link to it

[PTC]

Best example is someone building a travel website who has not been to each of the areas that they are building a section for, or even if they have, they don't have a huge photo library to use. Offering to go out and take photos of whatever they might need is usually the best way to get a link that nobody else will be able to get, because it's only given once.

Just occurred to me, if you are able to get lots of traffic... you can always just offer photographers the opportunity to promote their stuff with a watermarked image on your site... all they have to do is link to you. This could be done without making your site look bad.

[Michael Martinez]

You know, if you make your site less focused on the affiliate content and open it up to writing about other stuff that mentions other people, their sites, their businesses, etc. you should find a lot of people will link to you.

"Be creative" is the worst possible advice one could give to someone else, but the problem with suggesting specific ideas is that many people will jump on them and do them to death, and the original person asking for help becomes a tree lost in a forest.

So really all we can say is: "Be creative".

Look at what everyone else is doing to get links and try something else.

[mobilejackpots]

As someone originally from a non-gaming background; I think building links for a gaming site is 3-4 times harder than doing the same for a non-gaming site.