Alternate Link Building Avenues – A Panacea To The Current Chaos

Keeping pace with the recent Google updates, the most important challenge that lies ahead of all we digital marketers lies in finding continuously authoritative link building avenues. These avenues don't only need to be viable as a long term opportunity for building links but also very authoritative from the Search Engine perspective. Below are the few methods which can be used for building relevant links in the current scenario-

Flippa Auctions
Flippa is a marketplace where the domains are being auctioned and purchased 24*7. When one has a site which deals in cloud computing, the job is simple. All one has got to do is go to flippa and search for cloud computing. We get an extensive list of all the top ranking domains for sale. Eg: We searched for the keyword 'cloud computing' & these are few of the 87 results that flippa threw back –

 Based on the USPs of each of the domains (the USPs are provided), we can pick up the one which comes closest to our domain. For eg : - For a domain related to cloud computing, we can pick up something like cloud computing point. We analyze the backlinks to this domain using open site explorer. And with that, we have got our hands on to an extremely rich avenue of links which can definitely help a site.

Also we have scope to analyze the most Active Listings, New Listings, Just Sold Listings, Ending Soon Listings, Top Ranking websites & much more. Given below is a screenshot of the active listings which again provides us with a couple of potential domains.








  
Moodle CMS
Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. It is a global development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education.

Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software. Basically this means Moodle is copyrighted, but you have additional freedom. You are allowed to copy, use and modify Moodle provided that you agree to: provide the source to others; not modify or remove the original license and copyrights, and apply this same license to any derivative work
We can use the same moodle for getting a backlink from .edu sites for domains.

Moodle is used by a variety of institutions and individuals including:

• Universities
• High schools
• Primary schools
• Government departments
• Healthcare organizations
• Military organizations
• Airlines
• Oil companies
• Homeschoolers
• Independent educators
• Special educators

In terms of community discussions, there is a lot going on Moodle. There are Forums, Events, Registered Sites & Connected Sites. The CMS gives a sureshot avenue of link using Registered Sites & Connected Sites option. However it also gives a chance to get backlink from .edu sites using Forums as most of the people active on these forums are from different international universities.

If there is a particular service which a site offers in a particular geographic region, we can get in touch with the university representative and have a backlink from a particular .edu site. For eg: If we have a domain which is an internet service provider in Canada, we can get in touch with a Canadian University representative and offer Internet Service for the university students. Such people always prefer discounts for the students since they are managing studies with work. That again is something which can be used to build on for a good pitch.

Surveys
Another potential avenue for linking building is survey. There's generally a two-step process to attracting links with surveys.

The first step is asking people to participate. If it's on a particularly interesting topic, we will reach out to bloggers, experts, and industry news sites to ask to spread the word both on their blog and on social media sites which will be a great way to attract the first wave of links. One can use a site like Monkey Survey to create the survey.

The second step is releasing the results.  These results can be released on the sites like  Survey Savvy

These are just a few techniques which can be used in the current mayhem that Google updates have been playing upon digital marketers. However our quest just cannot end here as Google always has & will focus on providing the best search to its users. Quality Link Finding & Link Building is an ongoing process which needs to be filtered from time to time keeping abreast with Google updates & changes in algorithms.

Author bio:
Aaditya Shah works as a Search Marketing professional at SMG Convonix. He loves every aspect of digital marketing especially content outreach & link building. Closely follows Google updates & algorithm changes & loves to continuously experiment with SEO to decode the mystery around web search. A complete foodie!! -his hobbies include playing Cricket & watching movies.  

Decoding The Content Outreach Mystery

As Google started diminishing the scope of link building via directories, articles & so many other avenues which were a big hit with digital marketing world, one of the avenues which became an overnight hero for link building was content outreach via guest posting. However most of the search marketer struggle with this aspect of link building because of the rejections or poor response they get from blog webmasters. 

Here are a few tried & tested strategies which can be implemented to ensure a quicker breakthrough -

 Size of the mail used for pitching up the content to the blogger

My thoughts here would be conflicting with a lot of bloggers. Everyone is of the opinion the larger the content used for pitching up the content, better is the conversion rate.

I would definitely differ here-

Always the first mail that you send for your content outreach across should be clear, short & crisp. Once I see that the blog webmaster is showing an interest, I slowly start giving him a brief overview of how he & I both can benefit from a long term relationship. I try to understand what kind of content he needs, the work that he does in online as well as offline world, whether he has access to other domains, if he knows other people who blog in a particular niche. This way I start building up on a simple mail & eventually end up making more than one content live using minimal efforts, time & energy.

Often there is confusion whether our real identity or a dummy account should be used for content outreach. I have tried both & both are equally effective as long as you can make a connect with the webmaster via your email.

Also it is my observation that more people are likely to respond if you were to state that you are from a digital marketing company. This might be a small aspect but definitely helps. Given below is the sample mail that I used for one of my campaigns. I have kept it short & simple yet I managed to get a quick response.

 Do your homework before you pitch the content

Every blogger no matter how big an authoritative domain he owns is always on the hunt for the content to serve his audience. There are always specific points in the content, subject title & images that he is looking out for. The best way to know the preference of the blogger is to actually go through the previous content pieces he has been posting. This is one of the easiest ways to know what kind of modifications needs to be done in the content before it is send across to the webmaster.

 Have your content generated as per the guidelines of the blog webmaster

This is the best antidote to your backlog in content outreach. Get in touch with the blog webmaster, get to know what he actually wants to put forward in front of his audience. Get a kick ass content written from your content writer as per the recommendations. This way you are eliminating all the possible chances of your content being rejected.


 Become a tracker for Blog Carnivals

You just can't afford to miss out on blog carnivals if you want your content to go live regularly. This is the best place to build long term alliance with blog webmasters of different niches. There are numerous sites which offer info on the details of these carnivals. One of them is http://blogcarnival.com/bc/.

These are just a few steps that one can follow. Obviously there are a lot more approaches that can be tried & followed for success in content outreach.

The above pointers might seem to be very simple to follow & they actually are. Follow these rules & you will be bang-on as far your content outreach plan is concerned.

Author Bio:

Aaditya Shah works as a Search Marketing professional at SMGConvonix. He loves every aspect of digital marketing especially content outreach & link building. Closely follows Google updates & algorithm changes & loves to continuously experiment with SEO to decode the mystery around web search. A complete foodie!! -his hobbies include playing Cricket & watching movies.