Asking for Links:

Asking for links seems like it should be the easiest, most direct way to get them. In fact, it’s often the most difficult and frowned upon. As you can imagine, domains that have the ability to give valuable links are bombarded constantly by pages of widely varying quality begging for links. There are, however, a few ways you can increase your chances of getting a favorable response to your link requests:

As with any human interaction, people are more willing to help out friends than strangers. Spend some time participating in blogs and forums on sites that could help you. Get some visibility and the powers that be will be able to put a face (or at least an avatar) to a name when you send an e-mail pitching your site.

Your ability to become a high-profile participant on a site has something to do with your knowledge of the subject (but the sites you’re targeting should be related to your niche anyway, right?). Much more of it has to do with personal charisma and your ability to market yourself. Unfortunately, that’s something very difficult to teach and it’s definitely beyond the scope of this guide. Without delving too deeply into How to Make Friends and Influence People territory, it’s always advisable when endearing yourself to a web community to project an image of humility, warmth, sharing, curiosity and honest (read: non-commercial) intent. Offer advice where you have it, ask questions where you’re interested and even feel free to make an occasional joke if you’re funny.

Who/How/Where to Ask for Links:

As you surf the web for potential links, you'll often run up against sites where link acquisition can be difficult. If the site doesn't provide a clear path to getting a link, don't be discouraged, there are a variety of tactics you can employ, including:

• Search for Other Outbound Links

If you can find a page on the site that's linking out to other relevant sites, either as advertising or direct referral, you can generally use that as a good entryway to your link acquisition. When you call or email, mention your interest in being listed on that page along with their other outbound links - you can offer a trade in services, direct payment or pitch the value of your content.

• Look for an Advertising or Affiliate Page

Any page that lists a contact for advertising or affiliates is ripe for targeting. Be prepared to pay for these types of links, as they are almost always part of a site's monetization strategy.

• Check for a Blog

Blogs are excellent sources for links, and can often be pitched with content (discussed in the next section).

• Locate a Relevant Email Address

Emails for sales contacts and support are not nearly as helpful as website managers, webmasters, directors of online operations or, in many cases, business owners. You need to find someone who has decision-making authority about the content of the website, which in many cases requires an owner (in the event of a small business) or a manager (in larger companies).

• When in Doubt, Call a Phone Number

There's no harm in calling whatever phone numbers you can find, asking to be routed to the person who handles website content or website advertising and making your case.

• Be Friendly, Honorable & Persistent

Many times when making link requests, you'll get initial pushback (from un-returned phone calls and emails to flat-out negative responses). Your best move in these cases is to be as genuine and affable as possible and search for a way for to have the site owners make you an offer.

The practice of finding a link contact can be arduous, but over time, you'll become more and more familiar with the format of websites in your industry. Depending on how valuable or important you consider the link to be, it can be worth a good deal of time and energy to negotiate an acquisition.

Offering Compensation:

Sometimes you may ask for a link and receive a convoluted set of conditions, reciprocations and other such hullabaloo in response. While you may want to go through all of these hoops to get the link, at times it will be easier (once some sort of link has been offered) to simply offer to pay for the link. How much you offer is up to you and should be commensurate with the quality and value of the link. A fair price for a link could be anywhere between $20-150 per month depending on the strength of the site, where they’re linking from, relevance of content, anchor text, etc. Jim Boykin has written a helpful article about link valuation on his blog.

Targeting Content:

Perhaps the most subtle and effective way to “ask” for a link is to create some content on your site that you think would be of interest to the site you want a link from. After all, this is exactly what the search engines consider the intended use for links.

If you write an article, build a tool, make a great design and send an e-mail to the webmaster of the target site essentially saying, “Hey, I recently did a post/built a tool that I thought you might find interesting. If you’d like to check it out, you can find it here. I’d appreciate any feedback you have,” there’s a good chance they’ll look at your content and, if they like it, write about it and link to it. When writing this type of correspondence it helps to be specific, introduce yourself as a reader of their site and contextually relate your content to theirs.

This is especially effective if you can create a piece of content relevant to a recent topic or discussion (either on or offline) in your subject area or a recent article by the individual you’re requesting a link from. It should no longer seem surprising that relevant, topical, quality content is the most effective way to get quality links. Putting it in front of the right eyes just helps the process.