If you don’t know already the secret to creating high quality content for web 2.0 is copy writing that will attract links, rather than the older method of writing content with a certain keyword density and then going around begging for links. Basically what I am trying to say is that copy-writing has changed over the past few years, and now it’ll be better for you and the popularity of your web site if you reflect this in your content. The best way to handle copywriting now is by using words that invoke feeling in your readers and possibly get them to do something after reading.
The popularity of the content on your site directly depends on the off-page reaction, and in order to prod this whole process along you should consider venturing outside your site and promote your content alittle. All the same copy-writing skills will come in to play that you have developed while writing the content for your site.
While creating great and compelling content will get your site moving along, you probably will not receive to many links back unless you give your readers some kind of incentive to do so. This means that you should find some way to benefit your readers in order to “reward” them for linking to your content. One of the biggest keys you should follow here would be to figure out who your audience is, then you will need to figure out what will catch their attention, and last but not least try to convince them to take action.
Social Media Sites: This may be the quickest way to get a piece of content in front of a lot of people, and garner the attention that often results in secondary links, the best method to do this however is buy making to the front page of one of the popular sites. Also remember that there are many of these sites out there, and that some of them may even be better suited for your niche. Plus there are also many more aggregator sites out there that will also drive traffic back to you based on your inclusion in the primary site.
Make sure that you create a magnetic headline that’s sure to draw people, but you need to understand that the audience of each social media site is a little different. So what works as a great headline on one will not work so well on another. Therefore you will need to tweak them accordingly, but you should try and retain your keywords in the title if possible, this is because most all of the resulting links will simply regurgitate that title.
A key element to focus on for success on Digg is the summary description, you will want to do this because many people will vote based solely on the headline and the brief copy that describes it. So you will want to make sure that this copy induces as much feeling as possible, this may mean creating a custom description specially for this purpose.
On most social media sites submitting your own content is usually frowned upon by the other users, so you should ask a friend to submit it for you. By asking someone to submit it for you, you will be able to control what the headline and the description will be. When you are targeting specific social sites, this is very important as it directly correlates to the amount of success your post will have on there.
Linking Out: This may sound a little crazy to you, but by linking out to other bloggers you are sure to attract some links back to your site. In order to do this correctly you should try engaging with some of the other bloggers that have relevant blogs in your niche, this is a great way to get yourself noticed. With tools like Technorati, bloggers can easily keep track of who is linking to them, and by linking to them first you’ll be putting your blog on their radar.
However just randomly linking out will not work very well, instead you should think about how you will link out and what you will say. Linking out is just like any other conversation, you should join in and what your thoughts on the subject, but you should have something of substance to say first, remember this will be a reflection of you. Once again just use your great copywriting skills, and join into the conversation if your dialogue was good you will likely also attract the attention of others in the niche.
Networking Emails: The days of emailing other webmasters and begging for links are pretty much behind us now, but you may still be able modify this method a little and use it with success. Remember I said above that you need to include some kind of benefit for the other webmaster (blogger).
These emails should be more then just link requests. You should focus on building a lasting relationship with others in your niche, this will benefit both of you in the long run. When selecting these people you should focus on the prominent bloggers in your niche, top social media users, and even influential web forum users.
When contacting these people you should write each of them a custom email, and once again use your copy-writing skills. You should make sure to grab their attention, then you will want to build or create their desire to help you, to do this you should do something that will benefit them first.
Guest Posting: This is another benefit of networking and creating lasting relationships with the other bloggers within your niche. By guest posting you will be able to contribute content that will not only allow you gain more attention with in your niche, but you will also be able to create links back to your own site. This can be directly attributed back to your great original content, you will find that if you can create this killer content it will open many doors for you.
Most of the time you will get a link from the about the author section of the post or article you wrote, however if you have a better relationship going with the blogger you may be able to add links back to your site in the content section of the post. When linking most people tend to only link to the homepage of there website, however you should focus more on helping that particular reader out. You can do this by linking to a particular page on your site that is most relevant to that post, as they may want to read on and find out more.
When creating the about the author section remember to make it catchy, and try to entice people to click on it and come back to visit your site. Also you should try to make sure that your link have some important keywords in there that relate to your site.
Article Directories: Not to long ago creating and submitting articles to sites like EZine, and linking back to your site with the right anchor text would get you some good rankings. Remember that the search engines discount duplicate content, so having many sites republish your article (with the links) no longer works.
This is not to say that you can’t receive some benefit from submitting your articles to sites like EZine, as they are still an excellent way to create exposure for your site. A great tactic would be to create an article that links back to a multi-part tutorial on your site. If other sites pick up your article and display the link back to your site it will certainly drive traffic back to your site, and it could also lead to your content being referenced in other posts that will pass on link juice.
This is a lot like the guest posting strategy, create original content and display it on other sites that link back to yours. You will want to make sure that you are only submitting the same article to one or two reputable sites. If you keep this method up for sometime you should start seeing the results of your hard work paying off.
It doesn’t matter how great the content that you write is, if it’s not getting read no one will know about it. So you should go out there start networking, and letting others know about the fantastic content you have created on your site. Also it’s important to remember that search engines will not notice your site until you gain some links from some authoritative sites that are in the same niche as yours.
