With the recent debate over Google penalising sites that sell and buy text links, perhaps it is time for bloggers and Internet Marketers to get back to basics. Building links (or backlinks) is critical for your site in terms of gaining traffic from various sources, with other benefits such as SEO and site popularity.

Buying links provides an easy solution to achieve these aims. However, there are many free methods you can use with the same results. These often require significantly more time, but the end results are usually better quality links that last longer, and another benefit that is seldom acknowledged - it builds your social network.

Many of these methods are especially useful for beginning bloggers, who are often overlooked. By putting them into practise, you will build a growing catalog of backlinks to relevant sites.

1. Submitting articles to article directories
If you are a blogger, there is no reason not to use article directories. With your post catalog, pick out useful posts and spend some time changing them into articles. Take note to submit differently worded articles to the directories, to avoid search engines flagging them as duplicate content (I made this mistake earlier). Not only will you build links through these directories and subsequent publishers, they can be a source of traffic referrals. This approach can also be used to market your products if done correctly.

2. Ask for link exchanges
A direct way to build links is to ask for link exchanges. Simply approach the owners and offer to put up reciprocal links. Be sure to target sites in the same niches to maximise the benefits. A common advantage is that if the other site has a greater audience, you can tap on this additional traffic source.

3. Show link love to other bloggers
You might have noticed that I have a weekly post that links to other blog articles that interest me. By doing this, not only does it spread awareness of useful articles, you also practise the virtue of giving to receive.

4. Guest blogging
I have recently been practising this and apart from the main objective, it also exposes me to the other blogs’ audience. Note that you might be giving a hand to other bloggers in their posting management, and that could go a long way in building blogging relationships. If you have loads of articles to share, be on the lookout for sites which request for guest bloggers.

5. Forums
By placing a link in your signature, and participating actively in forums, it will expose your site to the forum readers. Not only does it provide a link harvest, but forums rank well in search engine results.

6. Social bookmarking sites
I mentioned that good results were experienced with Sphinn and StumbleUpon in my first month. While I am not too sure about its effect in building backlinks, but it definitely contributes to exposure and traffic for your site. Another point that I would note now (which I would recap in my month-end traffic analysis) is that when I reduced my participation visibly in these networks, my traffic also suffered. There are a couple of points to learn from this, but it will be for another post.

7. Memes and viral linking
This is an extremely fast way to build your links but the risk is in being linked to unrelated sites. I have seen comments that this will be penalised by Google’s algorithms, and I try to avoid these now. However, if it is for a good cause, I do try my best to be part of it.

8. Web directories
There are a whole host of web directories to submit your sites too. By doing so, it helps to get your site indexed by search engines and the results can be more referral traffic from these sources. Here is a list of 50 directories on Linkforever.net that you can submit to.

9. Comments
Leaving comments is not a particularly strong way of building links. However, it does help to garner some traffic if you get noticed by other readers and contributes to bond building with the community. Sometimes that can be more beneficial than getting a few backlinks alone.

10. Blog carnivals
Truth be told, this is similar to guest blogging, except that you submit your existing blog posts to a carnival host who then features it on their blogs. If you are simply looking to linkbuild, a very fast and efficient method. But if you want quality backlinks that contribute to your SEM, article directory submissions might be more beneficial (done in the right way of course). I use this more for exposure than anything else.

Again, these methods are very common and you can read about them widely. The issue with most people is that they require a huge sacrifice in terms of time. But you can select 3-4 of them and focus your efforts in those areas. Rome was not conquered in a day, so you should not expect your blogging efforts to be any easier. Also, determine where you are heading in terms of link building. If it is to become popular in the community, showing link love and guest blogging would generate a lot of buzz. If it is to market a product, you can ride on article marketing or forums. Mix and match with your goal in mind.

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