Cost affective way to automate linkbuilding?

[SamBuck]

I have done manual link submissions to directors and other places in the past. As a business owner i find it extremely tedious and find no time for it at all.

I have outsourced it since and seen moderate results. There are systems like linkvana etc which promise to give high pr links, are they good? is there any other way to get niche relevant links automatically & cost affectively?

Thanks

[johnshearer]

This is on Topic..a recent email from Robert Bruce  of Copy Blogger:

By now, you know that content marketing is the new advertising.

Your readers - and those beloved search engines - highly reward those sites that consistently deliver authoritative content that is focused on a topic, industry, niche, or idea.

What does this really mean?

You've got to write.

A lot.

Sure, there's other ways to deliver the goods - audio, video, infographic design, etc.

But ultimately, the writer runs this show.

And, writing - whether in outline, script, or long form - is what underpins all other categories of media.

Writing is the cornerstone skill of all great content creation.

So, when it comes to building your business on the Internet, you're going to be spending a good amount of your time at the keyboard.

Here's a stripped-down system for getting your writing done, fast:

1. Know what you're talking about

Obvious, right?

If you're going to write authoritatively about anything, you've got to put in your time.

You've got to read relentlessly on your subject.

Study, research, painstakingly try to understand the movements and theories and motivations behind your product, service, and industry.

Stay current on, or ahead of, the news.

Get to know the players involved.

This step (which, by the way, is an ongoing process) eliminates the dreaded moments of staring out the window for ideas.

Research is writing.

2. Outline every time

If you don't know where you're going, how will you ever get there?

Don't ever start blindly typing your essay, article, or blog post without a map.

First, think through what it is you actually want to communicate.

Then, write down the skeleton of the thing.

Major points, subheads, title.

A simple outline takes the guesswork - and in many ways, the

actual work - out of the picture.

Give yourself a paved road to walk down, and then walk down that road, simply putting one foot in front of the other.

3. The secret lies in 30 minutes

I stole this technique from Eugene Schwartz, and it is the single most powerful practice for getting words on a page I've ever used.

Get a kitchen timer. Or, use the one on your smartphone.

Sit down at your desk with your notes, research, outline, and coffee.

Set that timer for 30 minutes and punch the "start" button.

DO NOT get up from your desk until 30 minutes passes and the buzzer goes off.

Here's the trick: don't try to write. Don't stress about it.

After a few minutes of sitting there, staring at the page, your cat, out the window, whatever, you'll get so bored that you'll begin to write.

When the 30 minutes is up, go do something else for a while. Then, come back for another 30 minutes of not trying.

If you get six or seven of these sessions in during a day, you'll be so far ahead of the game, you'll wonder why you ever struggled to write in the first place.

3. Write a lot

It is an immutable law of the universe.

The more you do it, the more you'll do it.

It may not get easier, but eventually you will become a writer. And that, my friends, can change your life and your business.

rb

---

Robert Bruce

Copyblogger Media

[AnthonyMangia]

Phew, what a relief.  I was half-expecting an angry mob to bust my door down.

I completely get your point, and you're right, best-on-the-web content does rise to the top, even if you don't necessarily give it a big nudge in the right direction.

I agree too that if you've got some traffic to work off of already, your time should be spent focusing on your content.  The problem here is the have-nots.  If you've got some traffic, you can put up a post, blast it out to Twitter, and move on to writing.  From a small business perspective, it's just never that easy.

Interestingly enough, in the back of my head, all I kept thinking was that while my response is how I truly feel, I could definitely be creative enough to get Joe the Plumber's website to blow up on Reddit if I had to.

Thanks for being cool about it!  I'd love to see this quality of debate on these boards more frequently.

Note: I edited out the first two lines as they were sort of disrespectful.  I originally put them there to get a rise out of people, but on Dr. Pete's advice, I removed them.  I didn't want people to read my response and get a bad taste in their mouth from the first couple of lines and have that taint their opinion.

[EGOL]

Thumbs up Anthony...  Valid post.  Everyone should give you thumbs up for such a generous (and accurate) assessment.

I do hand-write each one. I am a content man.   You look like a content man, yourself judging by the length and generous amount of time you put into this post.  

I agree with you that the content route isn't for everyone and that even with great content you still need traffic into it to generate links. However, I think that attracting the links can be easier than many people think.  For example... if you write a great article about science or tech it might be successful on slashdot and attract a lot of visitors and links from just a posting there.  For other topics stumbleupon, reddit, digg might work.

Or, as long as you have just a little traffic into your site, instead of spending the time to "market" just turn out another article.  I agree that links accumulate very slowly this way but they do accumulate and they are great links.  Articles might launch without much rankings at all but a year later they have reached visibility without promotional effort (as long as you do have high quality content).

I think that the concerns that you describe are valid and correctly point to my method as being slower to rank.  But at the same time it is building a more valuable site.

You have done a great job explaining your position and I agree with what you say.  I hope that you will link to this thread frequently when you think people need to see the alternative point of view.

I'll close with adding one more point in favor of your argument.... The type of content that succeeds with passive linkbuilding needs to be above and beyond what the typical author produces.  You need best-on-the-web writing with media such as great photos, data, references, and maybe some graphs.  A big investment and expensive to produce.  Most people don't have the resources or desire to produce it.  If you don't have that then this method isn't going to work at all.

Nice post.  Great debate is what makes a good forum.

[AnthonyMangia]

I have nothing but respect for you and your opinion, EGOL.  I've said that countless, countless, countless times.  And obviously I believe in the power of content, and that's always the first recommendation I make to anybody - as I did above, by recommending content-based link building strategies.

Don't get me wrong, your response is not bad advice - not by any means.  But I do have my qualms with it.

A.  It's kind of misleading.  We get it - your content is amazing and it attracts back links.  My qualm here is that I don't think that's something that everybody can replicate easily.  In order for that to work, you need either a strong community, significant influence on a social network like Twitter, the good fortune of working in an industry that really embraces social bookmarking and blogging, or a lot of elbow grease.

Even if Joe the Plumber writes an amazing resource guide to fixing any plumbing problem in the world, he's still going to have to market it to bloggers (that he doesn't have connections with), on his social media profiles (that nobody follows), and on social bookmarking sites (where nobody cares, because it's not a picture of an adorable kitten).  He's still going to have to work hard to get links to that content, by networking - which IS link building and IS hard work.  Just creating great content isn't quite enough, and to suggest so is misleading.

B. It's kind of lazy.  Take the above poster, for instance.  We both recommended that the right approach here is to write great content - you by saying so directly, and me via recommending content-based link building strategies and linking to the Professional's Guide to Link Building.  But as you can tell, speed of link acquisition and cost minimization are key concerns for the original poster.  Whose response do you think provided more value here?

I just kind of feel like if all you do is recommend that people write great content, and you don't qualify that by saying that you're still going to need to market that content, or by tailoring your response to fit the concerns of the original poster, at what point does this advice lose its value and just become more noise?

I don't mean to disrespect you in any way.  I've seen you give amazing, amazing advice more times than I can count.  And I know your time is valuable, and like the rest of us, you do this for free.  And I respect that.  I just felt as though I should share my opinion on this, because I know that for every thumbs down this post gets, there are going to be 20 people who completely agree with what I've said, even if they don't have the balls to say so publicly.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, OP - I just can't help but speak my mind.  And for those that don't know me, I'm not some random jerk off the street that's complaining about writing great content.  I try really hard to help out everybody I can on these forums, and I mean well.  All I'm trying to do is make the SEOmoz Q&A boards a more helpful place.

[EGOL]

I know a way to make linkbuilding happen with zero work.  ZERO.

Produce kickass content.  Links arrive like magic.... and we are talking about GREAT links... not the spammy links that most other methods produce.

[brycebertola]

I agree with Anthony, the links you can get through automated processes will provide minimal value.

Automation and Link Building shouldn't be combined.

[AnthonyMangia]

Generally speaking, there is no way to automate linkbuilding and get high quality links.  The links that you really want to be getting are from relevant, authoritative websites in your niche.  There are a number of ways to get these high quality links, particularly content-based link building strategies.  Any links that can be automatically built, such as directory submissions, forum profile backlinks, and blog commenting, are typically of minimal value.

That's not to say that you can't scale high quality link building, however.  Ross Hudgens wrote a great post a while back about scaling SEO by eliminating pain points.  Some of the advice in that article is greyhat, or borderline blackhat, but the general message is very valuable.  Obtaining high quality backlinks is always going to be a time intensive process that requires hard work and creativity, but you can certainly make the process smoother, easier, and more efficient.

There are a number of other great resources around the web that discuss scaling link building:

• Scaling Link Building - Whiteboard Friday (SEOmoz)
• Scalable Link Building (Distilled)
• How To Scale B2B Link Building Across An Organization (SearchEngineLand)