B2B Affiliate World

Then your eyes glance down at the gas gauge and you see that you are pretty close to empty. So close that you know it is only a matter of time — a very short time — before the low fuel indicator comes on. You need to find a gas station. Quickly.

So you start looking for signs on the road. You start getting nervous because you don’t see any at first. But soon you see what you are looking for — a big sign that says “Gas”. You feel relieved at first, but then you realize the sign doesn’t give any indication where the gas is. Wait, though, there’s another sign ahead. You start to feel better…. until you read it. This sign says “Gas and Food”. Great. But where?!

You know what you want. You know it’s out there. You just don’t know where it is or how to get there.

Wouldn’t it be better if, instead, you saw signs that actually gave directions? “Gas – 2 miles ahead on right”. “Food and fuel – Exits 1A, 2B”.

One sign telling you where to go is great. Many signs telling you different ways to get to your destination is even better.

This is the idea behind backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. You’ve worked hard to build a good site. You want people to know about it so they come to your site and, hopefully, click on one of your affiliate links. So doesn’t it make sense to have as many ways to get to your site as possible? Of course it does!

Every backlink you have is one more way for someone to get to you, another path to your site.

Backlinks Then and Now
A quick bit of history. Initially, backlinks were the primary way people found your site. The goal was to have as many people as possible agree to put a link to your site on their website. Often, you would agree to a swap: your site complemented the other one, so you both agreed to link to each other’s sites. You then relied on the goodwill and trust the other person had created on their site with their users; you hoped that the users would see the link to your site, trust the webmaster that you were worth visiting, and click on the link to visit you.

Today, with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it’s not so much whether or not someone sees the link to your site and clicks on it; it’s more a matter of how many backlinks you have in total. The more backlinks you have, the more popular Google assumes your site to be, and the higher your site will be ranked in the search engine listings.

Building Backlinks To Your Site

Here are five ways you can build backlinks to your site:

1. Reciprocal Linking (Link Swaps)
   This is the old fashioned way. Essentially, you agree to put a link to another website on you site, if that person agrees to put a link to your website on their site. While you do increase the number of backlinks with this strategy, you need to know that search engines give a higher ranking to sites with one way inbound links. You can contact other websites on your own, one at a time. While this method helps you develop a personal relationship with the other webmaster, it can also be an excrutiatingly slow and tedious process. You can automate the process; there are many websites and software programs that will help you automatically swap links with others.
2. Submit articles to article directories.
   It is probably one of the most popular ways of getting inbound links to your site. A few of the article sites where you can submit to are PublishMyself and Submit Your Article. Articles are not the only things you can submit to other websites. Depending on what you want to promote or the theme of your website, you can also submit your own scripts, images, videos, jokes, 3d models, quotes or other type of works to different websites or directories.
3. Submit your site to directories
   If your website is directory-worthy, you may try to submit your site to directories. Try to visit http://www.best-web-directories.com/directory-list.htm to find directories that accept paid or free submission.
4. Post in forums
   Look for forums highly related to your website. You will have the opportunity to place your link in the signature line by participating in forums.
5. Comment in blogs
   Comments on blogs are another way to get backlinks for your site. Keep in mind that many blogs get a log of comments each day, many of which are spam or are not worth reading. Keep your comments relevant and add additional info for the reader to improve your chances of the comment being approved.