Link Building | SEM | Internet Marketing

1.  
   1. Once you have your potential partner database, the first thing you need to do is build a “generic” email message.
   2. Next, tailor each mail and make it as personal as possible.
   3. Use names to address people you are writing to
   4. Write things in the mail that would convince them that you actually visited their site and are very keen in partnering with them
   5. Tell them about how your services are very relevant to theirs and how they can benefit from exchanging links.
   6. Always make sure that you have their link on your site before you write to them
   7. Always show then where their link is placed on your site, so they do not have to look for it. Make it very simple for them to find their link.
   8. Look for the best person to send your mail to. It could be the Webmaster, the owner of the site or sales and marketing person.
   9. If they link to you first, link right back. If they ask you to link first, do it right away and send them a mail.
   10. If someone asks for something extra like putting their link in the top 5, ask them for a similar action on their side. If the PR of that site is much better than yours, just get linked anyways.
   11. Always ask people if they have other sites they would like to exchange links with. If you’ve done a good job for them they’re much more likely to offer you any additional sites they may have.
   12. Consistency and persistence are important but with good judgment. Pursue people who showed some interest but disappeared due to some genuine reason. They’re not likely to re-initiate contact, so stay in touch with them. Send them another e-mail in a few days or the Monday of the next week. Remind them that they were interested in an exchange and that you’d love to go through with it. Sometimes it takes three or four e-mails to get them to finally link to you, but it’s worth it, especially if their site has high PR. As for people who never responded in the first place, it may help to resend the e-mail one more time a week or so later.
   13. Fridays and especially weekends are not a good time to send your first e-mail. Most people don’t work weekends and your e-mail is likely to get lost or buried. E-mailing Monday-Thursday is good because it gives you time to get your link that week or to follow up in a day or two if they haven’t linked back and still get your link that week.
   14. Don’t be pushy, demanding or rude. Never say “you need to link to us here”, or “we want this or that”… Don’t turn anyone away. Good links are hard to get. Be clear in your instructions so there’s no room for confusion or misunderstanding. Send them your linking info in each email to ensure they have it and will use it.
   15. Stay very organized and develop a good system that helps you keep on top of everything, timing can be crucial. Once you start accumulating hundreds of sites, it’s hard to keep track, so have a good system/spreadsheet and develop good daily habits of monitoring your progress and keeping on top of things.

Here are some canned mail templates. Replace the text between “<>” appropriately. Change the mails to suit the situation and based on the rapport you have established with the other party

                                          i.    First Time Request Mail:

1.    Subject: <abc.com> now links to you!

2.     Dear <name of the person / Webmaster>:

3.    Message Body: I was surfing the net and came across your website <url>. I noticed it was a quality site and decided to include a link in my <related sites / Other resources> list on my similarly related website <show his lik here>.  What I  liked most about your site was <write something specific here that will convince him that we are genuinely interested in his site and not just mass mailing>

I believe our websites compliment each other well and would appreciate it if you could link back to me. The way search engines value link popularity and thematic linking should help us both benefit from higher rankings on Google.

I look forward to your reply.

4.    <Your name>

5.    <Your email address>

6.    <Your phone number>

7.    <Your website URL>

                                         ii.    Reminder Mail (If no one responds to your first time mail, send this mail in the next week, after 7 days)

1.    Subject: Just wanted to follow up on my link exchange mail of last week.

2.    Dear <name of the person/Webmaster>

3.     Message Body: I had sent you a mail last week about exchanging links to with our site. I am attaching the same mail for you reference.

I feel we could both mutually gain on Google page rank if we exchange links. I already have your link on my site and you can find it here <specify where the link is>.

Please let me know if you would be interested in exchanging links within the next 3 days.

Awaiting your reply.

4.    <Your name>

5.    <Your email address>

6.    <Your phone number>

7.    <Your website URL>

                                        iii.    Respond to queries Mail: (If people come back to you asking questions about your site or your mail, then use the following template)

1.    Subject: <Reply to the mail you recd>

2.    Dear <name of the person/Webmaster>

3.     Message Body: Thank you for your mail. Here are the answers to your questions ( OR ) Here are the clarifications you were seeking:

<Now answer to the point and “point by point”>

4.     Message ending: I hope this has addressed all the points in your mail. Please do let me know if you need any further information.

5.    <You name>

6.    <Your email address>

7.    <Your phone number>

8.    <Your website URL>

                                       iv.    Thank you Mail: (Once people have linked to you, send them this mail)

1.    Subject: Thank you for linking back to us

2.    Dear <name of the person/Webmaster>

3.     Message Body: Thank you for linking back to us. I am sure this will help us both in attracting more targeted traffic to our sites.

Now that we have our contact details and are link partners, let us stay in touch with each other on a regular basis.

4.    Message ending: Thank you once again.

5.    <You name>

6.    <Your email address>

7.    <Your phone number>

8.    <Your website URL>

                                        v.    Keep in touch Mail/References: (This is a general “Hi there, how are things with you” mail. Try to find out what your partner has learnt new, share what you have discovered  – exchange useful information and build a good rapport)

1.     Subject: Catching up… There is this new tool you may like…

2.    Dear <name of the person/Webmaster>

3.    Message Body:

I came across this really good tool that <explain how it is good and useful to him>. I thought it might be useful to you.

Our website traffic has increased over the last few weeks. We have added more link partners and will refer them to you if the sites have a theme such as yours.

How is business on your “site”?

Have you added new link partners that could be of use to my site?  Would appreciate if you can refer some of those to me.

Thank you for your time.

4.    <Your name>

5.    <Your email address>

6.    <Your phone number>

7.    <Your website URL>

                                       vi.    Removing their link from our site Mail: (If you find that your link has been removed from their site, then send this email)

1.    Subject: Have you removed our link?

2.    Dear <name of the person/Webmaster>

3.     Message Body:

I was just browsing and running some routine checks on the status of our links on our partner sites, when I noticed that our link does not show up on your site.

Your link is still maintained on our site and you can see it here. <show the url>

Has there been some mistake or has the link been removed? If you have removed the link, may I know the reason? If there anything we can do to get our link back on your site, I would be more than glad to do that.

Please do let me know, so we can work out a solution.

Awaiting your reply.

4.    <Your name>

5.    <Your email address>

6.    <Your phone number>

7.    <Your website URL>

The advertising of the future is going online–and going local. This hot trend is growing rapidly and shows no signs of letting up. There is no drought that advertising is going online and local also. There’s no question that consumers are using the internet to navigate their way to local brick-and-mortar retailers.

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Hi All,Welcome to the world of SEO/SEM. This is the first time I am writing something.  My name is Mithil and from last 3 years I am working in this internet business(read search engine optimisation/marketing) .I was always fascinated by the world of computer and internet. However in my earlier days I didn’t get approtunity to work in this field. May be because of my qualification as I am just a diploma holder in mechanical Engg.  After working in some good ‘manufacturing industries’ I got chance to enter in this web world. Since that, no look back for me. I became a net savey.Intially, I was working as a Link Builder. There was a huge pressure and we use to work for 12/12 hours. Those were crazy days. Alone I was handling 40 sites for reciprocal link campaigns and use to send about 500 request mails daily. Actually Our company was in its growing phase. That time we were only 5 link managers. In just 1 year we brought our new office and doubled our capacity. Being a senior and good track record holder, I was given a team of young and fresh guns to expand our business.  I took it as a challenge and started training them. After some 2/3 months, they all became perfect in link building and started performing.

Since then, I am working hard to learn more in this field and know more new things. This blog is also for that purpose only.