Link Requests That Work

I’m delving into my own inbox to talk about link building again.  Maintaining a personal blog with its own modest following apart from the work I do at Cactus means that I get a literal ton of requests for links, promotion and publicity, and the majority of them are just like the one I called out last week.  Sometimes, though, the PR flacks use the Internet as a listening tool, which is when it works the best.

Last spring, I found the first issue of a small press comic book called Helen Killer.  I liked it so much that I gave it to some friends to read, and then powered up my laptop and blogged about it.  About two weeks after doing so, I got this email:

Hi Jeff,

I found your review for the first issue of Helen Killer your blog, and thought that you might be interested in checking out an advance of the second issue. I’ve attached – hope you enjoy the read!

Best,
Heather

It’s short, sweet and to the point.  The agency didn’t try to buy me or beg me for a link, but they (and this is where I’m showing the principles from that last post put into action) gave me something of value that I could share with my readers.

One of the reasons link building is so difficult is that SEOs aren’t defining value in the broadest, most valuable way.  I know that my link to the comic’s website is going to benefit their rankings, but the bigger picture takes in the qualified traffic my endorsement will send to them and the word of mouth power that might result in a few additional sales.

Long story short, the best way to get links is to simply believe in your product enough to let other people talk about it.