Link building takes time and effort but the long-term benefits are worth it. So how will you build link popularity for your site? That’s our focus for today.

In a previous article, “Why Should You Build Links?“, I talked about how important it is to build your site’s link value since it will increase your chances of getting linking requests and gradually get other sites to link to you, increasing your link popularity at the same time. There are certain things that you must bear in mind when you build link popularity:

• Go only for the relevant links. Quality scores over quantity any day and you need to ensure that the links pointing to your site are from web sites relevant to yours.
• List your website in all the major directories.
• Submit your website to the about.com site if it is relevant to a particular topic.
• Which sites link to your competitors? Find those and try getting them to link to yours.
• Make a list of links when you get in touch with related sites for linking.
• You can also try to get websites complementary to yours to link to you. if you sell dog food, then you might want to a website dealing in kennels to link to you.
• While visiting websites related to yours, if you comment on their guest books or participate in their forums, include your website URL in your signature.
• Write a testimonial for the website you want to link to you so that they can link to it on your website.
• Affiliate programs are a great way to build link popularity

Search engines prefer to see links that come naturally to your site and there are several ways to achieve link popularity, increase your search engine rankings and generate huge traffic to your site.

How Great Content Can Help With Link Popularity:

Just as search engines love natural inbound links, they also love quality content. This is a major factor that brings in natural back links. You can write keyword rich articles, publish them in high-ranking websites, and also submit them in article directories. By adding a resource box where there’s a link to your website, you can see a lot of traffic and inbound links.

Consider Blog Publishing

By starting a blog, you can post the kind of content you want your niche market to see. Unlike in article directories, you can also freely add links to your products or services where appropriate. Blogs can be submitted to blog and web directories enabling you build link popularity. In addition, RSS syndication will also make you more visible.

Posting In Forums:

These are search engine friendly places where you can sign up for free and provide useful content. Apart from the advantages of establishing yourself as an expert, you can also generate a lot of natural inbound links to your site through your signature file on the forum.

Obviously, there are plenty of other ways to build links to your site. High page ranking by the search engines equals traffic equals better conversion rates and profits.

Popularity: 33% [?]

A major advantage of social bookmarking sites is their complement to search engine optimization which is something no website can do without. Who doesn’t like being Google’s favorite? These social bookmarking websites are easy to use. They work wonders for generating massive traffic to your websites when you add a bookmark tool on your web pages. Your visitors do the rest of the work - the ones that come by read your content, love it, bookmark it with the bookmark tool, and start the link building process. Does that sound sweet?

You’ll find social bookmarking most popular at the social marketing sites mentioned earlier - YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Squidoo etc. one of the best ways to begin benefiting is to sign up with social networking sites that are suitable to your business and create a profile. To get the best out of your association, there are certain vital things you need to do that will help your website, which we’ll cover in a later part in this training series . If you are too impatient to wait, just go ahead and grab your copy of the complete Social Bookmarking Guide at right away.

Social bookmarking is a vital marketing strategy that has a major impact on the following for you, as an online marketer:

Links - You know inbound links are the biggest things that influence your website’s rankings. Using social bookmarking can give you millions of new inbound links to your website. And you what is really wonderful about these links? They are neither pushed nor forced nor bought - they happen independently and naturally.

Managing your reputation - Google just loves these social bookmarking sites. Depending on what you give your visitors to talk about on Digg, MySpace, YouTube and the like, you can literally shoot up in search engine listings very quickly.

Page Ranking - We all know just how long it can take for a new website to get ranked by the search engines. But with social bookmarking and media sites, you don’t have to wait. You can get the word out there by uploading videos on YouTube, creating profiles on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter -and build some links to these.

Search engine optimization or SEO - social bookmarking complements seo quite nicely. Here’s how it works - you bookmark your site or blog, creating an inbound link. Others visit and bookmark your content - so more links. Search engines love quality links. If your content is optimized well with the help of keywords - you are well on your way to seo success.

The collective outcome of the above benefits of social bookmarking is traffic that will convert to sales and profits. Mission accomplished! But how do you actually go around achieving what we’ve discussed above with the help of social bookmarking? You can get the complete guide right away and get started. Social Bookmarking Guide is an investment well worth it!

Popularity: 24% [?]

All search engine optimization programs talk about increasing a website’s page ranking. A high ranking with the search engines translates into greater traffic for your business. If you’re dealing with a specialized market, like pencils, for example, the market might be less competitive- the chances of getting a good page ranking with the search engines are pretty high. In a more competitive market however, like finance, it’s a much harder proposition.

The Science Behind It

The science behind how a page ranking works is pretty simple. Large search engines like Google analyze how many ‘vote’ links point to a particular site- the more links, the higher the ranking. Most search engines use a complicated algorithm to determine page rankings. As a result, search optimization tools are often geared around cracking or finding the gaps in this system.

So how does an online press release play into this situation? In simple terms, it’s a way to bypass all the algorithms by securing high rankings the easy way. Here’s why online press releases work:

• Internet press releases are fresh, unique content which the search engines love to hone in on. This actually one of the basic, golden rules of online marketing- if your content is original and unique, it will get indexed. Online press releases work because they are based in this simple principle.
• Online press releases also provide inbound links, which point back to your website. This is another search engine magnet and is a great way to drive more traffic your way. Inbound links are the strongest way to increase page rankings.

Critics And Skeptics

There are still a number of people who don’t believe that online press releases boost page rankings. This is mainly due to two reasons- one is that, believe it or not, the online press release phenomenon is still very new. Many don’t realize its marketing potential and find it hard to believe that it can be such a powerful tool. Secondly, a number of people have complained that these press releases simply don’t translate into thousands of dollars instantly. The reason for that is simple- the press release wasn’t effective. If you write a poor press release, you can count on poor returns.

The bottom line is clear and simple. If you write a strong online press release, you can bank on the following results:

• You don’t have to wait for your site to get spidered. You can count on landing a solid page ranking in a very short span of time.
• You can generate a large amount of traffic on your press release alone. This means people will be visiting your site even before the actual product is released. This is a bit like having people line up in front of a store before a big sale- that buzz alone can generate huge amounts of traffic.

To be absolutely sure of getting the best page rankings with your online press release get Press Equalizer now.

Popularity: 26% [?]

I’ve already discussed how effective online press releases are in boosting page rankings in my last article “Do You Know The Incredible Back Door Shortcut?“. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that internet press releases give you a number of free backlinks to your site. But why are these backlinks so important in the search engine optimization game?

Links For Sale!

One of the most expensive propositions on the internet today is buying links. Since they are such an important part of search engine optimization, people are willing to spend a lot of money buying lists of links. Exactly how much are people willing to spend? The numbers are pretty big- in fact, many people have invested so much in buying links that it’s almost run them dry. This is how important backlinks are in search engine optimization.

For those who simply can’t afford to invest in expensive backlinks lists, the online press release is really a life-saver. You don’t have to shell out loads of cash and you don’t have to worry about the kind of links that you’re purchasing. Best of all, you don’t have to worry about being labeled as spam- online press releases are completely legitimate. In fact, they are exactly what search engines love!

Why Online Press Releases Are Better

To understand why online press releases are better than buying backlinks, we need to understand how the press release works in our favor. It’s actually very simple- when you send out a press release, you also include a link back to your site. The search engines pick these up because they are original content- best of all, the links are all pointing in your direction. Having a number of press releases circulating in cyberspace is exactly like having a number of free backlinks.

Online press releases have a number of other advantages over buying backlinks:

• Perhaps the most important factor is the money factor. Releasing an online press release will cost you less than a fraction of the amount needed for a well-populated backlinks list.
• A winning edge that the press release has over other methods is the content. Since it is original and unique, it immediately makes a personal connection with the consumer. This builds a feeling of trust in the consumer. That’s something a backlinks list simply can’t do. If there’s one thing that’s as good as high traffic, it’s high traffic consisting of repeat customers!
• Online press releases are structured around one of the most important things in internet marketing- content. This means that you can use your press releases for a number of other promotional activities. Many successful online businesses archive their press releases in a separate section of their website. Others post them as blogs and still others have included them in things like eBooks.

Purchasing backlinks can drive more traffic your way but they can be an expensive proposition, especially when you have to invest in them more than once. Online press releases bring you free backlinks and far more traffic.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Web 2.0 is the latest buzzword in Internet marketing. Not surprising at all, considering what a goldmine it is in terms of all the benefits an Internet marketer can draw from it. Basically, web 2.0 is a platform that allows people to connect, interact with the website and with each other and share information online. Therefore, web 2.0 encompasses all those online communities like blogs and social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, video sharing websites like YouTube, social book marking sites like Del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon etc. You get the general idea. Now the question is, how do you get the web 2.0 to give you a steady rush of highly traffic? That is the focus of part 1 of this training series.

Every Internet marketer loves free-traffic. This has become a huge possibility, thanks to web 2.0 sites where users have a high level of interaction, passing around information to each other.

As a result of this, there are hundreds of niche topics and markets people tend to be a part of. And just because of this, the web 2.0 social networking sites have become a goldmine for Internet marketers.

You have a huge market to which you can market your products and services, and not spend a dime towards this effort. Your first task is to find the most popular web 2.0 community-based websites where you are allowed to insert your URL. This will help people who want to share your information, making your URL more visible as it gets passed around and this, in turn, brings back highly traffic to your website.

You will be amazed at the number of marketers who are still not using the power of the web 2.0 to get a lot more traffic than even the search engines can turn up.

So create your free account right away with the following top ranked sites, and start building your community, with links that point to your main website.

• YouTube
• Squidoo
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• MySpace

There are several more, and we’ll talk about them through this training series. Creating a profile on these sites is quite easy and all you need to do is spend around fifteen to twenty minutes on these sites every day.

Savvy marketers also increase their page rank with the search engines by creating multiple user profiles for related topics. Once this is done, they link these profiles to each other.

On most of these sites you will find a Forum or a discussion board that allows its members to discuss any topic. These are highly influential locations where members share stuff. Social networking sites allow you to belong to different groups or networks within the site.

Web 2.0 sites are great places to share viral videos, which are a very effective marketing medium online. Millions of viewers see and share videos that appeal to them, thus spreading the marketing message and driving traffic to your website.

Social networking sites let you feature links to your website and blog. For any Internet marketer, one-way links and traffic along with high search engine page rankings are crucial to their success. Web 2.0 helps achieve all these, free of cost.

To find out more ways to leverage web 2.0, watch for my next article on “How To Turn Customers Into Raving Fans Before They Even See Your Site”.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Apart from the conventional tried and tested methods as an online marketer you must also keep track of new methods and concepts when it comes to traffic generation. And if it costs you nothing - even better. This brings us to Squidoo, the Web 2.0 program that’s being raved about by everyone who knows about it.

What sets Squidoo apart from similar sites is that it has quality content. Most of the pages on Squidoo, not surprisingly rank high with the search engines. The site itself is ranked seven on Google and in the Alexa rankings Squidoo is rated among the top thousand websites on the Internet.

On the Squidoo website you can set up your own ‘lens’ or web page on any topic that you are passionate about. You can leverage your lens by making a keyword rich Squidoo URL. Most forward-planning marketers create more than one lens for different topics using their primary keywords.

The keywords can also be used in the page title and scattered strategically through the content on the page. The concept of long tailed keywords, which are keywords that run to more than just 3-4 words, works effectively here, bringing in the focussed traffic that you want to grow your list and your profits.

Squidoo owes its success to the fact that its members are a dynamic community that is continuously coming up with excellent content and links. You can easily establish yourself as an expert in your area.

By optimizing your Squidoo lenses to the search engines through keywords, you will be accessing the entire Web 2.0 media tagging system. Your rankings will improve to a great extent if your links to your other sites and content are relevant.

Creating original content is the first step. It must be appealing to the visitors and the community. Since there’s community ranking, with quality content, you can be rated highly by the users. By browsing around the site, you get a good idea about how others are tapping into Squidoo and use the same methods to be successful yourself.

Squidoo tips on tags

When you make your lens pay close attention to ‘tags’. You will be asked to choose your primary keyword or tag along with three more. Don’t stop here. Add at least 25 - 30 more tags. Why do you need to do this? Tags attract the search engines. These tags, with no intervention from you, are coded into the html of your website - so imagine the result. Google just swallows it. So when users use Google to search for your tags, chances are good that your page will come up, or at the very least, the overall tag page on Squidoo. By adding the right tags to your Squidoo lens, you can maximize the chances of your being found.

The next thing about tags is this. When visitors search on Squidoo using the tags, the results are brought up based on the tags on all the pages and then by page rank. So if your site is about affiliate marketing, one of your tags must be ‘affiliate marketing’ for you to actually receive traffic on your site. Elementary.

Keep adding tags to your Squidoo lens via the edit tags option.

Now you can see how you can use Squidoo to generate traffic and back links to your website. If you are in affiliate marketing, you can display affiliate links.

Popularity: 17% [?]

This article is going to help you learn all about one of the internet’s best-kept secrets; online press releases. So far, only a select few have known about them and have enjoyed high page rankings, numerous backlinks and lots of traffic, just in a matter of days. Now you can learn about this online marketing tool that will completely change the direction of your e-business.

A press release is promotional but it isn’t an ad. It tells the public about events which might interest them, like the launch of a new product. These releases are distributed to different media outlets- if you’re lucky, the press will feature your release and maybe even interview you. This is a golden advertising opportunity for any kind of business.

But I’m Not Into ‘Big Business’

Prior to the internet, press releases were relegated to big corporations and business- small businesses rarely ever invested in press releases. But the internet changed all that. Now anyone with a business can send out press releases, no matter how big or how small they are.

Online press releases won’t give your e-business a tiny boost. They will have a significant effect on the kind of traffic and page rankings your website gets. Here’s why:

• Ordinary press releases have a short life span- oftentimes, if the company’s name isn’t big, they end up in the trashcan unread. With the internet, a press release literally lives forever. Press releases from years back can still appear on search engines and drive traffic your way
• Online press releases spread all across the world in a matter of minutes. This means that you can start generating international traffic hours after you send out your press release
• All of your press releases can be filed in an extra section of your website. This provides you with more unique content that can be picked up by the search engines

Why It Is Effective

There isn’t one reason why online press releases are such an effective marketing tool- in fact, there are three:

1. Greater reach. No matter how original and unique your articles and content is, they only get picked up by one thing- the search engines. Online press releases also get picked up by the media. Journalists, especially from niche publications, often scan through press releases to find out what the next big buzz will be!
2. Higher ranking with search engines. Press releases have proven to boost a website’s rankings in just a matter of hours. Since they are fresh and unique content, the search engines are especially fond of them!
3. RSS syndication. While ordinary press releases just go to the media, online press releases have the added advantage of going straight to the consumer as well through RSS feeds.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Two excellent reasons for search engine optimization are: high rankings with the search engines, increased traffic, letting your visitors find you easily and of course, profits.

A short note on keywords here - be ready with your list of keywords and key phrases. Basic search engine optimization starts with keyword location. Here are some tips on where to place keywords:

1. Title tag - to help the search engine know what the page is about. Title tag is right at the top of your page within the ‘head’ tags. Placing the keyword here will attract focussed traffic to your website. Since it is the text in the title tag that is visible to the traffic, use the text keyword there.
2. The keywords you use in the anchor text must be the ones used to link to that page with other pages on your website. Try and link as many keywords as possible to a specific page
3. The text in the title tag must also appear in the body of the page so that the search engines know that it relates to the title. It will also let your traffic know that they are in the right place for the info they are looking for. The same keywords must be used in the text of the content on the page.
4. Avoid using the same title tag on all pages of your website. If you do this, the search engines will assume that all pages are identical and wont index them. Use the headline of your page as the title tag. This will tell the search engines what the page pertains to and index it.
5. Keyword stuffing is bad practice. Spamming the description or keyword meta tag must also be avoided.
6. Forget about link farms - search engines don’t approve of them. when you link to another site, you must make sure that the content is complementary and relates to your site.
7. In your navigation menu, put links instead of images - search engines cannot read images. Instead, use keywords in these links so that when your visitor has the mouse over these links the title of the link is visible to them.
8. If you have to have images, describe them with the alt tag. Search engines will find it easy to index these images and find your page. it will also help view your website in any browser.
9. Preferably go for manually submitting your website to the search engines. The use of submission software could make you end up paying a penalty or even getting banned. Once submitted, the search engine robots will follow your links and index your website.

You must also use your keywords in domain name, file names and folders. Make sure you have a site map for your website for easy navigation. Good content goes without saying.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Regardless of which social bookmarking website you choose to use, the tips that follow will help generate traffic to your website. So lets move to the 5 steps:

Action Tips To Leverage Your Social Bookmarking Campaign

Now, you know what a job it is to appear on the home page of social bookmarking websites like Digg, Del.icio.us, etc. You also know that being there could mean massive traffic and links to your website, in addition to high search engine rankings. Well, its not the Holy Grail anymore, if you know how. You are about to! Read on:

Your Posts Must Have Good Titles

Ask any SEO expert - and they’ll tell you that it’s in the title. It, in this case, is the keyword or keywords. Did you put the keywords for which you want to be found in your title? Say yes, because that’s how the people who see your content or article on these sites will link to you - that is, through the titles. This gets your keywords in the anchor text. This increases your search rankings. It’s a neat cycle.

Keep It Short

If you’ve noticed, visitors on social bookmarking sites don’t have a whole lot of patience to read lengthy text. What you need to do then, is to create content that is interesting, short and easy to read. The first two lines must grab your reader’s eyeball and keep it till the end of your content. Then they might link to it, if they like it.

Use RSS Feeds

Social bookmarking site members are there for information. Not for ads or to do their shopping. That doesn’t mean you’ve lost them. Why not put an RSS feed button on your webpage so that they subscribe to your site, and also submit your site to the social bookmarking sites? You can also position ads in your RSS feeds. That’s more money, more pageviews and more subscribers.

It All Comes Back To The King, Content

Have lots of content or linkbait - the more the better. It enhances your chances of focussed traffic. On social bookmarking sites, users comment. Do away with obstacles like asking users to sign in before they comment. Rather, lure them to comment.

A Word About Coming Up With Content For Social Bookmarking Site Users Here:

As obvious as it sounds, users browse to read as much as they can. They don’t want to linger. So make it easy for them by formatting your content to ensure that they read it and hopefully link to it. No point writing a great article if it isn’t easy to read.

• Make use of paragraph headers that highlights important points
• Get the best out of top ten/five lists - people love it
• Use images instead of words where possible.

You must identify the social bookmarking and networking sites that work best for you. The biggest may not necessarily mean the best for you. So identify those niche sites that can bring you a whole lot of traffic and customers rather than lose time on the passive ones. Check the sites you would like to be associated with to see if the content gels with you. Look for sites where the activity level is high. After you identify the right sites, establish yourself by submitting content and build the community’s trust in you. This will naturally lead them to your website.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Not every affiliate who signs up for an affiliate program will have the same level of enthusiasm to promote your products. And that’s why recruiting is a continuous process so that you have an affiliate army that is fresh and eager to sell at any given point in time. Before beginning to recruit, you would need to know where you could find the best affiliates. You could probably advertise or get your competitor’s affiliates to join you for a better commission. The best affiliates don’t always go looking for affiliate programs. Rather, merchants seek them out.

When your affiliates do start signing up, you would need to have a screening system so that you can review them based on certain factors. This is important, as you will be ultimately responsible for what your affiliates do, in relation to your affiliate program. Here is a checklist:

• Preferably look for affiliates who have an active site from which they work. Often, affiliates who do not have one could turn out to be spammers just out for a short-term buck.
• The affiliate who signs up must have content that is complementary to your affiliate program, with enough content that makes sense. There are sites that are just ad-heavy that should be avoided.
• It is important to note whether the affiliate site has gambling or adult -related content particularly if you do not have a website that is related to it.
• Avoid the misuse of content. It is better to provide affiliates with good content of their own rather than risk them duplicating your entire website. This will not only hurt your search engine rankings but also confuse your clients and visitors.
• Make sure that the affiliates promote your product just as you give it to them. Some affiliates tend to make false claims about the product, with the result that customers come knocking at your door when the products are different from what they expected.

In this context, it is worthwhile for you to know that good affiliates or super affiliates as they are referred to, also make their affiliate program selection based on various issues. Some of these are - the reputation of the merchant, promotional support, communication levels, whether there’s a refund guarantee in place and the quality of the product. On the financial side are the kind of revenue share levels, how well the affiliate program is tracked and the payment reliability factor. So with these in mind, its time to go recruit your affiliate army.

Popularity: 11% [?]