How To Manage In-Bound Link Campaigns

Thinking of linking? The times they are a-changin…

Over the past year or so the climate regarding link swapping or granting in-bound links to sites has changed remarkably. While it is definately still possible to get high-quality in-bound links to your site at no cost, it is becoming harder, and the very task of managing an in-bound link-seeking campaign is far more complex than it once was.

First, the process of developing an in-bound linking program is much more administrative than you might think. Here’s why. Free links are rarer these days as folks realize that links are worth money, and services appearing that connect buyers and sellers of links (text based or otherwise).

Let’s say you have identified 50 sites that you would like to have a link on that points back to your site. Some are directories with no strings attached, some are topical site guides, some are more specific to certain regions, some are even at other sites in your industry that look promising. A nice mix, you think, and now you’d like to begin asking them for links.

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As you approach these sites, here’s what you have to keep up with: 1). The name of the site 2). The URL 3). The name of the person who runs the site 4). The Email address for them 5). The date you contact them 6). The date they respond 7). The resulting deal (some will say yes, some no, others will not reply at all, others will want a link back from you, some may want money for links, some will be out of town and take weeks to reply, etc.) 8). The status of the deal 9). Verification of link in place 10). Checking for link over time (yes some folks swap links and then pull yours for odd reasons)

So, as you can imagine, at any given point in your in-bound link seeking campaign you have many sites and deals to keep up with. (and remember that such campaigns really never end, you should constantly be pursuing them)

Here are my experienced-based opinions on how to do this well. First, I do not believe that you can out-source an in-bound link seeking campaign to a third party. There are simply too many areas for abuse and nobody will care as much about your site as you will. The main problem is judging performance. If you try and pay them only for the links they generate for you, then they will be more inclined to look for the sites that are most likely to grant a link, regardless of the quality. Heck, there are a million free-for-all-links-pages out there, but I wouldn’t want to be on them, and I’d never pay a cent to be on any of them, because their quality is so bad. So, if you opt to pay based on numbers of links generated, set some quality control standards right up front. And reserve the right of approval for any link deals.

The other challenge with having someone else do your in-bound link seeking campaign is that since each site they contact will have a different demand, your third party will have to be given the right to negotiate on your behalf. Are you willing to give them that authority over your site? Not me. If they contact someone who says they will give you a link in exchange for a link back to your site, do you want a third party telling them yes, basically giving them the control to add links to your site? And what if the site they contact says that they will give you a link for $10 a month? Do you want some third party spending your money this way?

One option is to reserve the right to say yes or no to any linking agreement someone negotiates for you, and this I encourage. However, if you do this, it slows the process so much that it makes it nearly impossible for anyone to make any money doing your link seeking. If it takes an entire day to negotiate a $25 a month link (emails back and forth, phone calls, call backs, etc.), and you are paying your link seeker $20 per accepted in-link, then your link seeker aint gonna be a very happy person.

These are just a couple of the sticking points in having a third party do an in-bound link seeking campaign for you. Others include the verification that the link is up and working right, reviewing their site from time to time to be sure they haven’t dropped the link (it happens), or put up a porno banner right above your link (this I’ve seen happen).

And all this before you even know if that link on their page will generate one single click and deliver someone to your page.

The truth is that an in-bound link seeking campaign is more of an administrative task that a strategic one. I can spend a few days and easily identify 50 perfect sites that I’d like a link on. It will then take weeks, even months to coordiante and negotiate the deals with each site I located. Without a traking tool or spreadheet (what I use), it’s impossible to do efficiently.

All this brings me back to the key point: You must take control of your in-bound linking efforts on your own. Do it in-house, yourself. Nobody cares about your site as much as you, the logistics of it are better, as will be the quality of the sites you are linked on and the deals you negotiate on your own behalf.

There is one aspect of the campaign you CAN pay a third party for. Site discovery. It can take a long time to locate top quality sites to seek a link on. My clients have me do that part for them, and I provide them with a list of 25, 50, or 100 sites that make the best strategic sense for them to be linked on. Then, they pursue the link seeking in-house, negotiating each one as they go along, using a tracking sheet as they do it. They save time and money, we each use our strengths to their best advantage, and there is no abuse of the system or cracks for things to fall through.

Ask yourself this question: Would you rather pay thousands of dollars to have someone negotiate blindly for you, or pay a few hundred for the best link-leads and negotiate them yourself?