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How a Domainer Does Link Building

Elliot Silver
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9

I will preface this by saying that I am not anything close to being an expert in link building. As with most of my development projects, my budget is tight and I am experimenting with everything, so what I write might not be the best way to go about things, but it’s a learning experience. I know that link building is a great way to drive traffic to a website, and depending on the links, it can create trust and add SEO value to a website.

I receive at least one email per day requesting a link exchange for either my blog or my other websites. People seem to think that because they added a link to one of my sites, I should automatically add one back to theirs – regardless of who they are or what their site is about. Some emails are friendly and others seem to think I would be obliged to link back, which is certainly not the case. More often than not, the link requests are for obscure websites that aren’t even relevant to any of my sites, which is more annoying than anything.

With my geodomain names, I started building links by contacting local bloggers and websites that would benefit from having a link. With Burbank.com and Lowell.com, both sites had decent pagerank when I started (Lowell.com was PR4 after my first launch and Burbank.com had been a PR4 site when I bought it). I contacted people in the area I found via Google who had equal or lower page rank and introduced myself, introduced the site, and asked for a link exchange. I felt these bloggers were either getting a better deal, or it was completely fair, and I just wanted people to see the sites.

This worked well for most commercial sites, but it did not work for city-related websites, which have some of the most trust, but have policies of not permitting outbound links on their websites to commercial sites. However, there are work arounds – like providing specific content that they want or need to link to in order to get information out to the public. In fact, my geowebsites have links from .gov and city-owned websites – whether it was intentional or not. This is the reason why good, unique content is essential! Link building works best when a site links to you because you have the best information.

One of the neatest ways I have been link building (in my opinion) is on huge websites that encourage article sharing and networking. For example, NBC Studios and Warner Bros are both located in Burbank. On the Tonight Show website (on NBC.com), and on the Ellen DeGeneres Show website, there are huge social networks, which include blogs, forums, and article postings. I signed up for accounts as Burbank.com, and I have been able (and encouraged) to post articles – which include links – on the sites.

On NBC, I posted 2 articles, which drove somewhere in the ballpark of 2,000 visits in less than a month.   On the Ellen community website, I posted a couple of articles in the past 2 days. The links in the articles are not “no follow” from what I can see, but I don’t know if it will help with my PR. Whether it does or not doesn’t matter as much as the exposure my sites are getting. The posts are geared towards travel in Burbank, and if people book hotels through the site or find restaurant coupons on the site, it ultimately helps build the brand.

Other places where I’ve posted links might not help with PR and SEO, but they do bring traffic. I have accounts for all of my fully developed websites on Twitter, and I post articles there. I also have a ShareThis button on my articles, allowing people to send links to others. Additionally, I have links on Wikipedia, which I added by signing up for an account. I know Wikipedia won’t help with the PR, but the links bring traffic.

With my blog, I have never really done any link building. I can’t recall ever asking someone to add my blog to their blogroll, and I remember how excited I was when Frank Schilling added a link to my blog. I want to provide good content that people wanted to link to, and I thought it would be tacky to ask so I never did. The only link I think I ever applied for/asked for was the DMOZ link in the domain section. Maybe this is detrimental to the SEO of my blog, but I do have a large amount of incoming links.

This information doesn’t really help anyone, but it’s my opinion on the fine line between looking tacky and trying to get some link exchanges.

With link building as with many other aspects of development, I think good content is essential. Whether you request a link or not, others will agree to link to you if they think you are going to provide their traffic with good information.

Where The Money Is

Elliot Silver
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15

Picture 1The real money with web development (when you aren’t selling a product or service) is in direct relationship deals with advertisers. Instead of having to hope for clicks with Adsense or a parked page, you can work with someone to build a website, add space for 5-6 advertisers, charge a fair rate for top placement, and blow your PPC earnings away.

Depending on the industry and traffic, a fair rate can be anywhere from under $100 a month to thousands of dollars per month. If you have a great generic domain name, chances are good that if you add relevant, interesting, and useful content that visitors will want to see, advertisers will want to capture the attention of those visitors. Also, if you have a great industry defining domain name, you better believe people in that industry will listen when you tell them who you are. This sounds oversimplified, but I hope the information below will be helpful.

My advice is for you to find the best possible domain name that you can afford in an industry you are passionate about. Search for domain names for sale at companies like BuyDomains and Sedo, and also make direct inquiries using the Whois database. Just keep in mind that when you are trying to buy a domain name in private, make sure you make a good offer, or it will be a non-starter.

Once you have your domain name, write up a small business plan with details about how you plan to build and monetize it. I personally recommend using WordPress, which is easy to maintain, gets lots of Google search love, has considerable development support, and there are plenty of people that can help you manage your blog. With WordPress, you can visually set it up in any way you’d like, and you can add many plugins and widgets to enhance your site. You can also purchase fairly inexpensive templates, so much of the hard work is already done.

After the look and feel of your website is created, it’s time to start discussing what you like and know about that particular industry. Write interesting posts and articles about the “buzz word” topics, helping to share what you know with others. Since you are an afficianado of that industry, you probably know the most popular blogs and forums already, so begin letting people know about your website – but don’t ask for links. One thing that annoys people is when you ask for a link back without a reason for them to give it. Don’t be annoying when you post in the forum, but if you really like that industry, this should be obvious.

Sign up for news aggregation sites that are specific to the industry (like Domaining.com is to ours). You will also want to submit your site to the major search engines, and you may want to submit it to the Yahoo Directory, which costs about $299/year – this should help with SEO. Later on, you will want to submit your site to DMOZ, but don’t do that until your site is fairly established. Some people think you should sign up for a search engine submission service, but others say it’s a BS waste of money. I really don’t know so I can’t give you advice on this.

By doing what I’ve mentioned above, you will begin to get traffic – both naturally (via type-in and links) and via organic search. The companies who make the products or sell services to people like you will hopefully begin to notice your website, and you should start looking to find the contacts who manage marketing or advertising. Use company directories, search engines, or attend tradeshows to find these people, and let them know who you are and what your site is. One way to do this is to request an interview with people within the company – not only to provide interesting content, but to make them more aware of your existence. When they know your domain name, website, and traffic, they should want to advertise – or recommend their affiliate program, which can be even more lucrative.

I know all of this sounds time consuming – it is. However, you will end up with a website about a topic you enjoy, and not only will you have increased the value of your domain name, but you should also have a good opportunity to sign on direct advertisers, which is lucrative, since you are able to cut out the middle man. There really is no easy magic way to make a lot of money online – except by the people who sell the books about making a lot of money online 🙂 You will need to put the time in, but it will pay off.

WordPress 2.8 Bug? Missed Scheduled Posts

Elliot Silver
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17

The scheduled post feature on my blog no longer seems to work, and all scheduled posts pass their post time with a “Missed Schedule” error message. I spoke with a couple of friends who have blog websites, and I mentioned this issue and that I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.8. Both of them said I should have waited for a couple weeks to upgrade to make sure there aren’t any bug. Well… too late for me.

I am wondering if anyone else who upgraded to WordPress 2.8 is experiencing the same issue as my blog. If you are, is there a way to fix this, or do I need to wait for another version with the bugs fixed?

Secondly, if you don’t have this issue – or if you haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.8 yet, apparently it’s a good idea to wait until a couple of weeks after a release to upgrade.

“Newspapers Can’t Do It…”

Elliot Silver
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17

Another geodomain owner has made the transition from a travel and tourism guide to a full-blown journalistic publication. Shaun Pilfold and his team have transitioned their website about Kelowna, British Columbia into the website about Kelowna. The Kelowna.com executive team hired some of Kelowna’s top journalists and photographers, as well as some of the best-known local personalities, which is going to drive continued growth at the company.

In addition to advertising online, Kelowna.com is also advertising the new website on the local radio, including a great line about how newspapers and television stations can’t do what they are going to do online. With a great domain name, they are able to grab the attention of radio listeners who will certainly remember how to find them online.

Sure, they didn’t need to have the Kelowna.com domain name, but it certainly gives them much more instant credibility within the community who will see the website and feel as if they’ve known about the site forever. I know the team is working hard to make the site better, and they will succeed.

As I’ve learned, there are always minor glitches that can happen right at launch. If you happen to see something funky on the site, please make a comment here, and I will let Shaun know about it. Congrats to the Kelowna.com team – and here’s to much more success.

Find a Top Web Designer

Elliot Silver
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3

I am lucky to have found a great graphic designer who has helped me with a number of projects over the last year and a half. I initially found Mike after holding a logo design contest at 99Designs (formerly part of Sitepoint). I wrote a creative brief, added a cash award for the winner, and somewhere around 15-20 designers participated. It turned out to be much easier to find a designer than I initially thought it would be.

I would like to suggest another way to find a great web or graphic designer using 99Designs as well. Search through either current or past design contests, which can be found on the home page. Many of the top design contests have dozens of designers, all of whom submit one or multiple entries. You can search multiple public design contests to see which designers seem to have a style that you’d like for your project.

You can then look at the profiles of your favorite designers, and see what other contests they’ve entered and recently won. Additionally, many designers have their external portfolio website listed on their profile, allowing you to contact them outside of the 99Designs website. You can also send the designer a private message via 99Designs asking for a price quote for your project.

If you prefer to keep things more trackable and on site, you can set up your own design competition, and using what I suggest above, send private messages to the designers asking them to participate in your contest. 99Designs is a great site to find designers who will compete to complete your website design project.

Monitor Your Adsense Ads

Elliot Silver
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0

When developing a website, I really like to use Google’s Adsense. Not only can I customize the ad units to integrate into my website, but I can also use graphical banner advertising, which not only generates revenue, but it helps give the appearance that advertisers want to be advertising on a particular site. Technically, they may not know they are advertising on certain websites at the time, but they are able to block them if they don’t wish to advertise there any longer.

One drawback though is that certain advertisers, who may have opposite beliefs than your website, can still advertise on it. For example, on a religious website, a website that is owned by a group who has conflicting beliefs can still place advertisements depending on the keyword match they are choosing. These links can take visitors of your website to another site, potentially angering the visitors, especially because people don’t always realize how Adsense works.

A website owner is able to block certain urls from appearing, however, there may be hundreds of different website urls with the same message that want to advertise, so it can be a never ending battle. That said, it’s very important to monitor your websites to make sure objectionable advertising isn’t being displayed. While the ads don’t violate Google’s TOS, it could violtate your own site’s standards.

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