Allright guys -

Im a traditional SEO and my company offers these services to many clients in various industries. I'd like to say Im gray hat...(gulp)....well whatever it feels better . Ive posted a bunch on these forums about getting backlinks - HOWEVER NOT for every method of backlinks, but the methods that have proven to move up rankings on G with TOUGH competitive keywords. Im not talking about small niches here, im talking about TOUGH keyword phrases that your customer demands to rank on come hell or high water and is willing to pay for it.

You have to try everything. But most importantly you have to stay organized when you do it, and you MUST track your results. For example if you are going to try buying high PR links on themed blogs, do about 10-15 max for one keyword phrase, for one website, and then wait 2-4 weeks to see the results. In the meanwhile DO NOT do anything else related to that keyword phrase otherwise you will not know what method caused the improved rankings. You should do this for 2-3 different sites at the same time, in different industries, so that you can be positively sure that a specific method is successful.

I know this sounds so simple its almost stupid. The problem is I dont see this logic being used in many posts here. For so many people open a page about backlinks and see a gagiliion methods to try but have no idea which are really worth your time, and which are not. Like me, many of us dont have the time and resources to sit for hours and hours - or pay people to do the same - to try anything and everything.

For example article marketing can be extremely time consuming if you do it for many clients. If it doesnt really help, you just wasted a ton of time, and time is money. Wasting time kills your profit margins.

In a short period of time I am quickly using the process of elimination to locate strategies that worked. I'll admit Im only a few months into this but here's a short list of things that as of TODAY still work well:

1. get some PR5+ links with your anchor text in forums (in your signature and profile). It doesnt matter if they are in your theme or not, they will give you a boost. It also doesnt matter if the page you post on is a PR0, as long as the site is a PR5.

2. get high PR links from blogs within your theme, with anchor text. Preferably the page should have a high PR. But if the blog IS YOUR THEME, the PR of the page doesnt matter at all, the PR of the site alone will give you the juice.

3. exchange links with other websites that also rank decently well for the keyword you are trying to rank on. Im not talking about your competitors here. Im talking about the many sites and pages up there where the people have no clue they are ranking on this term and will gladly accept a small stipend from you to list a link (or "buy an advertisement", or "sponsor their site" is the approach I take).

4. Get anchor text backlinks with the other keywords that sorround your main keyword. You dont need many. For example if you are trying to rank on "black hat", get some links to different pages on "red hat", "big hat", "small hat" etc etc eventually G concludes that your site is an authority on all of these. Once you add a bunch more backlinks for "black hat" you are much better off than the guy who has twice as many "black hat" backlinks but none of the others.

Here are some methods Ive written off (some are ok, but only if you outsource to India):

1. article marketing - used to work great a few years ago, now a waste of time.
2. blog commenting w/in theme - still testing but waste so far
3. typical link exchange where your link is being placed on a page with tons of other links and no content really - complete waste.

Here are some Im still evaluating:
1. .edu DO FOLLOW links
2. Disqus, Oggix, etc. commenting/footprints or whatever you call it.
3. very high PR blog commenting within theme

If anybody has any insight, comments, or whatever, add them here. Start the debate if you disagree, agree if you agree. Make a contribution. Maybe somebody has tried other methods that have made the things I have "written off" work.

If you have anything interesting to offer, send me a PM. Im always open to interesting offers. For example if you have a small DO FOLLOW list of .edu sites where comments can STILL be made, make me an offer and I'll buy the list. etc. etc. etc.

Regardless Guys and Gals - lets hone in here. This is not the thread to throw every "kitchen sink" method at. If you are new to SEO just button it up on this one and listen, ok? The goal here is to hone in on what really makes a difference. eliminate the rest from the discussion. let's make this an extremely high quality thread.

drop me a thanks too if you appreciate what I am trying to accomplish here, I havnt been thanked yet but im feeling like this might be the post...

Interesting points, but article marketing does still work to give you some nice link juice, especially if you use them with web2.0 properties/bookmarking and create a link pyramid

Agreed, article marketing in fact does work. AMR does wonders for my micro niche sites (though those don't have that much competition).

Good method.

I am not as patient as I could be. So instead of doing 1 SEO method and waiting 2 weeks I might do 4 thing and wait.

But I do keep track of the stuff that works.

SB is a waste of time in my honest opinion.

Xrumer works well with anchor keywords and High PR domain links.

Article marketing works.

Bookmarking works if you mix with other links.

Status update links works.

If you get tons of mixed links from all sorts of places you will get a nice big old boost, that is the method I have been doing for the past few months and so far so good.


Any ways, great thread.

I found that when I am too focused on what I am doing in SEO I never get good results. I learned to focus on just doing, and getting links from just anywhere I can while keeping a good amount of quality. So I create a balance. If it involves articles then it involves articles, I don't think too much about how much juice it will give, I know its a link.