The blogging world can be seen as one big tree. The branches of the tree are the niche leading blogs and the buds are those who have either just started blogging or have been around awhile, but have not been able to turn into a branch themselves. The survival of the bud is partially dependent on the branch. In a similar manner, the survival of blogs is partially dependent on whether they can get enough quality links from well-established blogs. Getting the links to help you increase the amount of traffic that comes to your blogs is not easy, but there are a number of things that you can do to make the road to getting more links an easier traverse.
Quality content equals to quality links
Bloggers are always attracted to quality content. You have to ensure that your content is relevant and has fresh ideas that will interest readers. Not only should it interest your readers but also the readers of the blog you want a link from. So your content has to be usable for users over the "bloggersphere". Another important thing to know though is that you should only ask for links for your best articles.
Relationships, Relationships and again Relationships
You need to develop relationships with the blog owners you want links from. Just like a small business that seeks to develop into something bigger and better by building relationships with suppliers and other people within their industry, we need to develop good relationships with your fellow bloggers before you can even attempt to ask for links. Another critical point to note is that we should not spam them after they have given you a link and you should always offer to add their links to your blogs. You can develop relationships by commenting regularly on the blog you want to link with. Comments should be relevant and deals with a topic covered by you in your blog. I have developed relationships with bloggers through forums and Social Bookmarking Sites like Digg and Socialmedian.
Do not waist time with Blogs that do not exchange links
Many blogs are set up for personal use, focuses on creating there own content and does not want to take the risk of linking to a blog which may eventually share opposite views from them and their readers. The foregoing blogs rarely exchanges links. There are however some blogs that do not have the same apprehensions and uses links to improve their own content or to share other blogs with their users that they think will be useful to them. Spend time analyzing the blog you want to link with, if they usually offer links, then you can give them a try, but do not waist time on those sites that do not provide link outs. Additionally, offer links to particular articles rather than to the front page of your blog as most bloggers, including myself, offer link outs to articles and after I find that the bloggers content is good, I provide a link to the front page.
Mid range traffic blogs are also good for link outs
Blogs that get average levels of traffic and hits can be emerging big time blogs. Try to offer links to these blogs along with high traffic blogs so that you can jump on the bandwagon early in the game. The reason why this is so important is that in some cases, mid-range blogs carries users who are not necessarily attracted to the large blogs as they like the one on one touch of smaller blogs. Relationships are usually easier to develop in mid-range blogs as the blog owners have a smaller number of users than very popular blogs. Seeking to link with them is therefore a bit easier as they have less link exchange requests.
Share your ideas
If you want links to your blog, then ensure that you offer bloggers article ideas that coincides with the article you want them to link to. Bloggers are more receptive to idea sharing, as this may help to drive traffic to their blog. When asking for a link, ensure that you give a brief description of your article and give the blogger article ideas.
Provide original links
Ensure that your articles are original and have not been covered by the blogger you want to link to your post to.
Do not be a nuisance
I covered this briefly earlier, but it is worth mentioning again, "DO NOT SPAM OTHER BLOGGERS". Nothing annoys me more than bloggers who wants me to link to a post, I offer the link and then they see this as permission to send dozens of emails to me right afterward to add links to other articles. I almost always delete the first link I offer and most bloggers does the same.
Good customer service is key
You should approach bloggers you want to link to as your customers. We treat customers politely and very personally. Avoid generic emails to bloggers for link exchange. Give your request emails a personal touch.
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