I’ve been actively building links to a bunch of my websites for a few months now and have seen some pretty amazing results. I’ve been using Linkvana (14 day trial for $5 affiliate link / 50 free outsourcing credits affiliate link), Build My Rank and Niche Tracker and I’m happy with each of them. At least the interface of each is easy to use and the outsourcing is straightforward. Of course, it’d be much easier to decide how effective each of them are if I kept better track of things… but that’s where this post comes in.
So far, results have been great. My living in New York site has rocketed from nowhere to the first page of Google for a couple of my major keywords. I have two sites that are basically made-for-Adsense experiments and they’re creeping up the rankings as well in what I think is a somewhat competitive area. I know the per click payouts are high so driving traffic to the sites will be key in making them work and, while things are moving slowly, the sites are getting there. I’ve also snagged the number one spot for some affiliate program related keywords that are pretty lucrative. I was surprised that one was so easy.
So now I’m going to target what I know is a very competitive term in an effort to test out and keep track of this whole links building thing and also bring my ebook sales back from the dead. I’m going to target ‘international volunteering’ for my international volunteering ebook sales page. Ya I know the domain should really have my keywords in it but as I have so many incoming links from other bloggers, it’s a bit too late to change it. But I’m going to have a crack at it anyways and where I can get to. There are some terms (like ‘volunteer overseas’) that get more searches per month, but I’ll start with one term and then branch out if I see any success.
This time around I’m going to use one link building service after another, instead of all at once. I’m hoping this will help me gauge the effectiveness of each. I’ll start with Linkvana and go from there. I’m also going to do a better job of keeping track of where my site starts in the rankings and where it ends up. At the moment I’m on page seven of Google (which is actually higher than I’d expected) so lets see if I can muscle my way on up the listings, beating out some pretty heavy hitting sites along the way. This niche is dominated by pay-to-volunteer websites and I expect they’ve probably put some money into their SEO efforts. To say getting to the first page of Google will be a challenge is a huge understatement! But what the hell, right?
So here goes the experiment. I’ll give Linkvana 30 days and see where my site is at the end of it. Stay tuned! Have many of you gone on big link building missions and actually managed to keep track of your results?
Hi,
I have been following your affiliate progress for a while and cheer you on every update! I thought I would let you know I signed up for Linkvana through your link today! I am starting with the $5 trial to see how it works. I’ve never used a link building service before. I was bummed to hear I couldn’t use it for my poker affiliate sites but I will use it for my real estate business to ensure I stay at #1 for all my KW’s. Keep up the great posts as I love to learn something new regarding SEO.
I experimented with Linkvana ONLY for about 6 months, this was maybe 2 years ago, and it gave a temporary boost but seemed to trail off.
Links made with Nichetracker have tripled my site income so far. I think that is the highest quality source of links, compared to the other “networks.”
Just my 2 cents! I have not tried BMR yet, so cannot comment on that….
Sounds like a very interesting test Kirsty. You will likely have the best effects from multiple services combined as you are currently doing. When you use one link building service over and over, it is common to see the effects decrease over time. This is because you are often getting more links from sites that you already have links from.
I have never paid for links and would be pretty nervous about using them to be honest as Matt Cutts from Google is on the war path for sites that use paid links.
I think they are useful for competitive areas for short term sites but I’d never use them on established sites that I wanted to last long term.
I love experiments this should be a blast, in the true spirit of an experiment though you should only use:
one service per ( Single keyword and Single Site)
Reason been if you do as you said service 3 is going to get credited with the residual effects of services 1 and 2
You should easily be able to find another 3 comparable keywords for 3 different sites then use each service for each single one this will give you some very accurate results.
I agree with Phuket to Bangkok about being able to track the programs.
Perhaps the way to do it would be to create three different links that REDIRECT to your webpage or even a new webpage. That way you can continue to track the traffic that comes in now from the other blogs, and compare it to the three links to see which program has the best net effect over time. That way a year from now you could see which one really produced.
If you did it that way, you wouldn’t have to wait 30 days for the next one. You could set up all three right now, pointing to three different links that redirect to your ebooks page.
Just my two cents.
Looking forward to seeing how this experiment goes.
Good luck
@sarnia Thanks for following along, and also for using the affiliate link. It seems like a lot to pay per month but I think I’ve had some great results so far. It’s much easier to spend money on stuff like this when you’re already making some online.
@patrick I’ve heard some great things about Nichetracker as well.
@laptop We’ll see how it goes. I’m pretty new to this and so far so good but it almost seems too good to be true, so it might not continue to work so well… who knows.
@port I’ve never paid much attention to the scary Google threats over the years and I’ve had no problems (I’m knowing on wood right now…). So I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and hope for the best!
@phuket Ya it’s not exactly an air-tight experiment but I can’t be bothered to be too scientific.
Maybe at some point I’ll do something more along the lines of what you’re suggesting. For now, it’s just the international volunteering page I want to concentrate on.
I don’t think you have to be worried about this being considered paid links at all. Google was more going after the people who were essentially selling Google PageRank via text links on high PR sites. They tend to avoid penalizing for anything a competitor could do to your site.
Phuket does have a point about the nature of this experiment. With link building the effects can take several weeks to be fully credited. Plus, a more varied link profile often gets a site ranking better. So take that into consideration with this test.
With SEO, when you find something that works for you, you want to milk it for what you can. So if anything, I would try to invest more money and time into this link building. Also you could try hiring an SEO freelancer for a few hundred dollars a month. With that route you would need some kind of agreement that he needs to improve rankings and/or traffic each month to continue.
I think it is really tough to hire a person for SEO based on results, the reason being is that it can be many months before results are seen in the serps, by which time you will have paid x amount already..
Paying a company based on results is probably a better way around this.
I’m happy with the work being done by my Elance SEO/link-building company in India. They take a slow-and-steady approach that has helped me to appear on the first page with Google for certain keywords. I’m hoping to move up slowly over time with others.
I’m anxious to see how Linkvana works for you.
i saw the linkvana website and its features..its look great..i want to try. what i want to do..guide me
I’ve used LV for a number of years and I found success. I signed up for BMR to try them out too as I’m hearing great things.
But as can be pointed out…you may want to try your experiments for longer periods of time. 1 month is nothing in Google terms…2-3 months is a better indicator.
Thanks kirsty for sharing these helpful tools. I will test both of them and see if they are really that good.
I have just signed up to LinkVana via your 14 day trial aff link. I had a bunch of articles written by the folks over at Text Brokers so I split each into two “posts” and fired them off via LinkVana. I own several sites and none of them have many links from blogs, mostly from social, article sites and directories. Getting blog links, even from lower quality ones shouldn’t look too unnatural so I am not too worried about Google and Mr Cutts. I like the interface of LV and setting a time delay for the content to go out is handy.
Outsourcing article creation and automating post submission is something I should have done a long time ago! Soooo easy.
Thanks for sharing all your tips Kirsty. I am not using any other link building schemes so Il let you know how I get on with LV.
“I know the domain should really have my keywords in it but as I have so many incoming links from other bloggers, it’s a bit too late to change it.”
FYI – this is possible if you buy a new domain and use a 301 redirect from the old url to the new one. This should transfer all the existing backlinks to your new domain and keep your search engine rankings.
It sounds like Linkvana is a great resource. I have been looking for exactly these kids of services. Build My Rank and Niche Tracker look worth giving a try as well. Thanks for sharing Kirsty.
- Robert
I’ve been thinking of using Scrapebox this week, but this post have changed my mind, LinkVana really looks promising. I may have to try the the 14-day trial as well to test how it works first.
I’m hoping this will help me gauge the effectiveness of each. I’ll start with Linkvana and go from there. I’m also going to do a better job of keeping track of where my site starts in the rankings and where it ends up.
Interesting tools you’ve got there. Have heard of Linkvana through Warriorforum, but never thought that it was as good as this, since I’ve been only eying high-end tools such as Ontolo, SEOmoz’s pro version and scrapebox. Perhaps I can add these 3 new tools you are suggesting to my to-do(try)- list.
I’ll have to look into Linkvana. Your first month is very inspiring with your niche projects. Can’t wait to follow your success with link building.
-Sam
Nice info. Thanks
Hey Kirsty been following ur results for a while this is my first time commenting on your blog. Really appreciate you posting this as I have been looking for the right combination of link building sites.
Would you care to share how many links you post a day? For example do you select the random option on linkvana or 2 on each site, etc?
I really need to get some of this stuff sorted out soon. I feel like such a damn tech-dummy. Thanks for the info.
Hi Kristy,
This is really nice information. I have been never go through Linkvana earlier. I got some interesting tools there and i think this would help in website optimization.
The best link building technique so far that I have seen is to do it manually.
@Uzi Nutt: while manual link building can be quite effective, many people do not have the time to effectively do that. Adding in some automated links makes things easier. You just have to make sure you are not over-relying on them.
Thanks for the information about Linkvana. I’ve been thinking about using IM Automator (by Caroline Middlebrook) but wasn’t sure. This post gives me another option to consider.
I’ve done big link building jobs for myself and have kept track of it, its time consuming and very intensive thats for sure. The results of the hard work did come though but its an ever changing game in the SEO world so… what worked in the past doesn’t always work now… Will take a closer look at these sites you mentioned, I am always skeptical of them but well see.
-Jean
Thanks for the Great Reference. It is really nice information. The best link building techniques so far.
i usually stay away from link building sites as i dont know from where they bring me links . so i better do it myself
It’s really good but you need some time at the beginning to get it right how it really works… so they offer 50 free credits right now or 5 days free trial
This is interesting… I will try this sometime and see how it works to me… It’s cool that they will give you a free trial..