There are hundreds of ways to get links to your site and people are coming up with new creative ways of doing it each day.  There are books written on this subject and you can find some of them on the resources page of our website if you are interested (there are always new ones coming out so we update them regularly.  

What we are going to cover here are just some of the most common ways people use. 

Links, can be like old spaghetti westerns.  Some are good, some are bad, and some are ugly (if you young whippersnappers don’t get this reference, look it up on that newfangled technology, the inter-web).

Let’s go over some of the basic methods.

Create and Pray

It can work, but rarely. 

Here is the theory.  

Somebody will scour the web, find your content, like it and then put a link to it on their blog, personal page or if you are lucky in an article in a well-known website.  

This is actually what the Big-G (Google) wants you to believe.  They keep saying, write the best article, then people will read it and link to it and it will rank well.

But if you think about that, it is not too hard to poke holes in the logic. 

Let’s work our way through this conversation with The Big-G to see why that does not make sense. 

YOU: Hey Big-G, how do I get my great content to rank on the first page of Google?

BIG-G: By having people link to it.

YOU: How do I get people to link to it?

BIG-G: By being on the first page of Google.

YOU:  But if I need links to be on the first page and need to be on the first page to get links, what do I do?

BIG-G:  <points to the corner of your room> Look a squirrel! <disappears behind a ninja smoke bomb>

Ok, I may be dramatizing a bit, but only a bit.  Now you see the challenge most small websites have in ranking in Google.  It is the classic chicken and egg dilemma. This is not a consistent way for most people to get links unless you already have an audience.

CREATE CONTENT FOR OTHERS

Believe it or not, this is a big one.  And it is totally valid.

If you write a great article for somebody and they put it on their site with a link back to you in the author bio, that is great.

If you appear on a podcast and they link you in the show notes, congratulations.

If an old fraternity brother of yours posts a video of you streaking through the campus while drunk and links to your personal profile… ok, that works to (this is just an example, it is not that it has happened to us.  Really. Honestly. Take my word for it, don’t look it up).  

So why don’t we include this method as part of the Infinite Upcycle?

Simple.

Doing this can be very inconsistent.  We know this from experience. Getting somebody to agree to post your guest post or appearing on somebody’s podcast is not something that is easy to replicate month after month.

You may have a month where you get 4 guests posts, which equals four links, and then nobody accepts an article for months.

Now, you may be thinking.  Can’t I just pay people to post my articles?  

The answer is, yes you can!  

Read the next section to see why that is a very bad idea.

PAYING FOR LINKS

Don’t. 

If you’re short on time and don’t have time to read the rest of this section, that is fine.  Just remember that. Don’t, ever, never, nunca, kesshite pay for backlinks.  

This is in direct violation of Google’s terms and conditions and could get your entire website banned from Google forever.  

Now, does that mean it is never done?  Of course not. You may have competitors doing it right now.  

The Big-G claims they know when a link is paid for, but I’ll be honest.  I don’t buy it. If you pay your cousin in cash during your weekly Super-smash Brothers (go Starfox)  jam session and as a result he mention you on his personal blog, there is no real way Google will know.

Of course, if your cousin takes payment from your other 20 cousins and also gives them a link, then there may be a clue.

My point?  

Can you get away with it?  

Maybe.  

Is it worth the risk?  

Definitely not.

The good news is that if you are using the Infinite Upcycle, then you don’t need this.

You just need patience and to implement your plan. 

ASKING FOR LINKS

That’s it.  I can hear you say “but Ray, that could never work.. Altruism is dead, long live capitalism!”.  Believe it or not, it actually does.

There are however two big caveats to this.  

One.  What you are asking them to link to better be friggin amazing.  Of course, if you have followed the steps I outlined up until now in the Infinite Upcycle then you have that part covered.

Two.  The person you are asking to link to your content needs to be interested in what you are asking them to link to.

Now, we’ll teach you how to find people interested in what you are writing about later in this chapter, but I want to stress how important this part is.

Consider the following example my young padawan.  

Let’s say you have written THE definitive article on underwater basket weaving.  It is amazing. Not only do you cover the best weaving techniques, you even cover tantric breathing techniques that allow you to hold your breath underwater hours for longer than a blowfish who senses danger.  It has images, charts, videos. In short, your article is breathtaking, just short of a religious experience.

You think “people need to read this, it would be a disservice to humanity if this was not read by everyone”. 

So now, two things can happen.

Scenario 1.

You start reaching out to everybody.  You send copies to your dog groomer, your personal trainer, your ex from high school you have not talked to in 20 years.  But the only response you get is the sound of crickets, and a slap from an ex who things you are stalking them.

Scenario 2.

You reach out to the underwater basket weaving community.  You email the underwater basket weaving material suppliers, the hobbyists, aficionados, and the underwater basket weaving equivalent of Lebron James. 

What do you expect will happen?

Exactly what does happen?  These people are interested in what you wrote.  They share it with their friends, they share it on their website.  They invite you to come on their podcast or ask you to be interviewed for their newspaper.

You get seen, and your website grows.

This is not the only link building system out there, and it is not a hack that will rank you #1 in the time you could microwave chicken McNuggets, but it does work.  It is how I have built 6 and 7-figure online businesses, and if you do it yourself. It is free.

So go out young ones.  Build links, grow your business, take over the world!