How are you guys building backlinks for new POD sites?

Hey guys,

I recently launched a POD site [shopify] and I'm trying to start building backlinks.

I'm on a pretty small budget, so I'm mainly looking for free or very cheap ways to get quality backlinks.

What methods are actually working for you guys these days?

I use an AI influencer on insta gram. She’s related to my niche never sells anything directly but has my merch in the videos.

I use secondary accounts to promote or questions about the cup, Tshirt etc

MasonBookwright said:

I use an AI influencer on insta gram. She’s related to my niche never sells anything directly but has my merch in the videos.

I use secondary accounts to promote or questions about the cup, Tshirt etc

Click to expand...

But did you get any sells from insta?

Starting out on a tight budget is completely normal, and honestly paying for links for a new POD store usually isn't worth it anyway.

The easiest free method is reaching out to your fulfillment suppliers or Shopify app developers and asking if they feature stores on a showcase or partner page. Another solid approach is sending free merchandise to smaller niche bloggers or creators in exchange for an honest review and a link back to your site. You can also get active in relevant communities on Reddit or Discord by being genuinely helpful and just keeping your store link in your profile.

Just make sure your basic on page setup and internal linking are done well first, since that often matters more when you're just getting started. Good luck with the new site!

For a small POD site, I’d focus on things like niche communities and creating something genuinely useful/shareable rather than buying random links. Original content or small linkable assets can also work well because people have an actual reason to reference them.

one cheap thing that still works for POD is making “design roundups” in your niche and featuring other small stores/creators, then email them after. Some will share it, a few will link back from their blog/about page if they have one. Not huge links but way better than blasting web2.0s.

Also check if your designs fit any local angle... city, hobby clubs, pet breeds, sports memes etc. Small club sites and niche blogs are easier to get links from than SEO people think, they dont get pitched 200 times a day. Just don’t send the same lazy email to everyone, it gets ignored fast.

rockshuvo said:

But did you get any sells from insta?

Click to expand...

Yeah Insta accounts for about a third of the total monthly income (couple of thousand a month from insta) and the LTV is very good on insta customers.

It’s such a soft pitch that it feels like a friend recommendation rather than a buy my shit you normally get from insta influencers. The one thing i worked hard on was making the influencer a lifestyle influencer who essentially doesn’t whole load of product placement rather than direct sales.

The key is mixing things up and keep the influencer “real”. If every post is a pitch you loose your audience.

Try reaching out to bloggers who review POD products. A few good links are better than hundreds of random ones.

Build a few strong niche relevant niche first, then scale through outreach, collaborations, product reviews and useful content that actually attract mentions.

Don't worry about backlinks. You can't control those. What you can control is the amount of places you put your business, and the frequency, Thats your job now, marketing your site. Places like socials are popular and easy. Backlinks when and where will popup as a direct result.

For a small budget start with niche directories supplier links and relevant resource pages create a few useful blog pieces that other sites can actually reference and link to.
Then use competitor backlink research to find cheap opportunities worth chasing.