Link Building Campaign: Link Exchanges and Ezine

I am currently working with a group of clients here in Chicago on how to get set up for some online marketing and link building. We had a meeting this past week to discuss some of the things than can be done both to increase quality targeted traffic, as well as providing useful informational services for their clients.

It’s great to have a team of people to work with because with proper planning, much can be accomplished with relatively little work for any one individual, since tasks can be divided up among the group. Marketing efforts can be a daunting task, but with a targeted strategy, everyone working together, and good communication,  you can get most out of your time and money.

This is a brief review, as well as a resource guide, for two of the marketing and link building efforts we will be making. Each business is different, and not all marketing and networking resources that are available online will work for every business. We have chosen these two marketing resources, among others, for our business marketing strategy, and I will be posting tips and resources for additional strategies soon.

Link Exchange

One of the first things to do, in order to easily gain some quality inbound links, is to use business relationships that you already have in Chicago. Chances are, you probably have been doing business with people who also have websites. Time to capitalize on this great resource.

• Gather a list of current business associates that you already have a relationship with, and who also happen to have a business website.
• Contact these associates, either by phone or email, and simply ask if they would be interested in a link exchange. Quite possibly,  some of these associates may not have even realized how link building will improve their own website.  Once they learn this, they may be more than happy to exchange links.
• If they have a blog as part of their website, a post exchange may also be possible. Sidebar links are good, but links from posts and pages that are hooked to keyword anchor text are even better. What is anchor text linking? Exactly what you just saw me do. That link you just passed over goes to a video on the subject. Doing this, tells Google critters exactly what the link is about. Rather than having a link to your business name, like most sidebar links, anchor text links are connected to keyword phrases.

Ezine Articles

The fist place to submit your professional and unique content would be Ezine Articles. A few tips:

Choose your categories wisely. Look to see how many articles you will need to write in order to show in Ezine’s top ten authors for your market. If one category shows that author number ten has published 999 articles, while in another related category shows the number ten author as only having submitted 12 articles, it might be a good idea to choose the low road.

• Two self serving links:  You can have two anchor text self serving links back to your site
• Two non self serving links:  These are outbound links to other resources other than your own site
• Signature:  You can have one resource box at the end of your article where you can provide information about yourself and display links to your websites.
  

Personally, I only use up to two links in the text itself. Sometimes more is less.  Read their rules for more details.

Listen and watch these quick tips and strategies to help you write efficiently to increase your article inventory and effectively to bring more targeted, quality traffic to your website.

• Audio: Strategies Audio Training Series  :90 Strategies Audio Training Series!
  This 20 min.  long audio series is full of helpful tips and strategies for successful article writing and marketing.
• Video: How To Submit Articles to EzineArticles