White Hat Link Building Tactics for Affiliate Websites [Easy & Effective]
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I'm happy to publish a guest post today by Tung Tran from CloudLiving.com. Tung has been a long time reader of Niche Pursuits and now does quite well with his own niche sites. In today's post he shares some excellent white hat link building tactics in GREAT depth. I really do think these strategies will help you rank your site higher if you follow these steps. Here's Tung…
Looking for white hat link building tactics (like niche edits) that’ll take your website to the next level?
If so, I got some good news and bad news for you.
Bad news: White hat SEO is a ton of work. And it takes a lot of time (don’t all good things?).
Good news: It works SUPER well.
So, if you can invest the time and exercise the right amount of patience, you’ll win.
Want The Short Cut?
The group over at Authority Hacker have the best methods for building links that I've ever seen. And they teach you how to build your own white hat links at scale in their course The Authority Site System.
(check Brady's review of The Authority Site System)
It's the course I use to train my employees and the course I recommend if you want to build white hat links at scale.Click here to learn how to build your affiliate site into an authority site with white hat link building.
Join The Authority Site System for white hat link building tacticsWhite Hat Link Building Tactics For Affiliate Sites
Let's talk about some white hat link building tactics for affiliate websites. Here are the 5 that I use the most:
1. Leverage Expert Opinions
Tapping into the power of top experts is one of the most efficient and effective tactics out there. And I’ve personally used this strategy countless times to get high quality links for my affiliate websites.
This tactic works for pretty much any niche. And it has the power of driving natural shares and traffic from social media, making it the perfect link building tactic for your new Amazon affiliate website.
So what exactly is top experts (and how can you use it to kick start your new website?)
Here’s the idea in a nutshell:
- Create a list post featuring the top influencers and bloggers in your niche
- Notify the people you featured and hopefully they link to your content
Simple, right?
Thought so 🙂
Now you may be thinking…
Writing a long and exhaustive post with a list of top influencers seems like a lot of work – does this tactic even work?
More good news: DEFINITELY!
It works super well.
Here’s why:
People love being appreciated and acknowledged for their hard work (something they rarely receive). And so, they’re a lot more inclined to link to your content, or to respond favorably to a guest post request in return.
So how exactly does this process work?
Is it really as simple as writing up a list post and sending it out to the top influencers in your niche – or is there more to it?
Well, we’ve broken things down into 5 simple steps:
Let’s take a deeper dive into the specifics and illustrate how you can execute this idea (and attract a lot of high quality links in the process).
1. Choose a topic or angle
It all starts with choosing an informative and valuable topic. Get this wrong and nothing else matters. Get this right and everything else becomes easier.
So how do you choose the best topic or angle for your list post?
Well it starts with research!
Spend some time digging around, figuring out the best topic or angle for your top experts post.
Here are two quick and easy topic generating formulas we use to come up with compelling angles:
- X websites to visit if you want to be a better [fill in the blank]
- Top X blogs that will help you [insert a promise here]
Keep in mind, when deciding on a topic or angle, it’s important to focus on good topics.
How can you decide?
Here’s how:
- Be specific but don’t choose topics that are too small or you won’t find enough sites to feature
- A good topic is one that you can find at least 50 sites to include because it’s a numbers game (The more sites you feature, the more links you could possibly get. Let’s assume your average success rate with this tactic if 10%, if you feature 50 sites, you can get 5 links, feature 100 sites you get 10 links, feature 200 sites you get 20 links)
- Example: 50 websites to visit if you want to be better at woodworking
2. Finding experts to include in your post
Once you’ve picked out a reasonably sized topic or angle, it’s time to put on your research cap and jump on Google.
Why?
Cause you need to make sure your list is actually a valuable list! There’s no faster way to devalue your post than featuring a bunch of blogs or influencers who have low traffic or aren’t worthy of receiving the recognition of a top influencer. To avoid this (horrible) fate, you got to do some digging and find the right experts to include.
Here are the keywords you can use to find the best influencers & bloggers to feature:
- Top [insert your keyword] blogs
- Top [insert your keyword] websites
- Top [insert your keyword] experts
- [Insert your keyword] blog
Once you’ve gone through Google and have started to collect a bunch of influencers you can promote on your post, it’s time to start organizing.
Once you’ve done the above, you should have a healthy list of top influencers and blogs in your niche and industry. Then you should load up an Excel spreadsheet and collect all the relevant information you’ll need.
Here are some things you’ll want to include:
- Website URL
- Contact information (use Hunter to find email addresses)
- Domain authority rank
- Amount of traffic
3. Create an awesome list post
After the research phase is over and done with, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and hammer out the writing.
Depending on your writing talents, you’ll either hate this part or love it.
Regardless, you want to make sure you (or the writer you hire) include the following things in your post:
- URL to the site you’re talking about
- A screenshot of their homepage
- Optional: Add a description of their site
4. Notify your experts
Before we continue, let’s recap the ground we’ve covered so far…
- We’ve found a great topic
- Created a list of top influencers
- Wrote our post
Now what?
Is the job over and done with?
Nope. Far from it.
In fact, if you stop here, you’ll miss out on the most crucial step needed to turn this tactic into a huge success.
What’s that step?
Reaching out and letting the influencers know they’ve been featured in your post!
Here’s the email template we recommend you follow:
Subject: Love Your Awesome Blog!
Hi {NAME},
Love what you’re doing on {SITE NAME}.
Just wanted to give you a heads up that you were featured in my new article on {INSERT TITLE HERE}.
Here’s the link – {LINK}
I really hope it delivers some new visitors to your site!
Cheers,
{YOUR NAME}
Be sure to change this template up for your own experts. If everyone uses the same template, it won't work as well 🙂
5. Follow up and get your links
Great!
Now it’s time to follow up with the influencers and collect your links.
How do you that? And what happens if you send an email, but they don’t respond?
Should you curse at the top of your lungs and label this tactic to be ineffective?
You could…
Or you can use this email template instead (and increase the odds of receiving links):
Hi {NAME},
Just checking in to see if you received the email I sent a few days ago.
You were featured in my new article on {INSERT TITLE HERE}.
Here’s the link – {LINK}
Cheers,
{YOUR NAME}
Cool?
Awesome.
So what happens if they do reply back? Then what…
Well then it’s time to transform the goodwill you’ve built into a possible guest post opportunity.
Here’s exactly what you should say:
Hi {NAME},
Glad you liked it 🙂 I’m a big fan of your blog.
By the way, I’m still new to this whole blogging world and would love to gain some exposure to my blog.
I was wondering if I could contribute a guest post for your blog.
Here are some ideas that I think your audience will really like:
- Idea 1
- Idea 2
- Idea 3
Let me know what you think and I’d be happy to get started right away.
Thanks,
{NAME}
If they say yes, pat yourself on the back and then write the post (more on that later).
If they say no, send this email:
No worry {NAME}.
I understand that {you’re not accepting guest posts at the moment/rephrase their reason for declining here}.
Thanks for your time.
Let’s keep in touch!
{YOUR NAME}
It’s important to note that you shouldn’t stop there, but rather continue to build the relationship. You never know what will become of a relationship.
Some of our best guest post opportunities came from people who initially said no to us.
So keep going! Don’t let it get you down.
This tactic is one of the best ways to build links, but it takes a little bit of work so stick with it. And you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.
2. Blog Commenting
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that blog commenting is one of the most common ways to build links. But the question remains…
Does it still work?
Yes!
So the better question is…
Are you leveraging this tactic to its full potential?
You should be!
Cause even though Google doesn’t strongly value links from blog comments, this tactic is still very much effective for the following reasons:
- Great tactic for building relationships and traffic – leaving thoughtful comments can actually build opportunities for guest posts
- To build a natural link profile – links from blog comments don’t help with rankings, but they help build a natural link profile (something that’s REALLY important)
- Brand recognition – if you’re constantly reaching out and leaving comments on high quality blogs within your niche, eventually you’ll start generating attention and receiving recognition. I like to call this building goodwill.
With that said, how can you leverage the power of blog commenting and build powerful links?
Here’s how:
- Find high quality blogs to comment on
- Create an action plan
- Focus on quality over quantity
Let’s discuss each step in greater detail below…
Find blogs to comment on
Finding quality blogs with a large enough readership doesn’t have to be difficult.
In fact, if you’ve been following the steps outlined in this article – majority of the work is already done.
Remember the top experts list you compiled?
Well that’s a GREAT place to start.
Simply go through it and identify the blogs you want to comment on.
Easy, right?
Thought so!
Aside from your top experts list, you can also find additional blogs to comment on by diving into Google and doing some more research (that’s always fun, isn’t it ;-).
Create an action plan
Once you have a healthy list of blogs, it’s time to get to work.
Now…
Commenting on blogs is something a lot of us know we should be doing, but do we actually?
If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t prioritize it as much as you should. In fact, it seems as if it’s one of those tactics that easily gets moved from one todolist to another without ever getting done.
Can you relate?
If so, that’s exactly why we advise you create an action plan.
Here’s the one we follow:
- Goal for each day: Leave high quality comments on 5 to 10 blogs
- Set aside 30 minutes first thing in the morning and make sure it gets done
Follow the above action plan and you’ll be amazed at how fast you start building traction for your new Amazon affiliate website.
But, keep in mind, that traction will only be possible if you follow the next step:
Focus on quality over quantity
Have you ever visited a blog, scrolled down to the comments section, and read comments that were clearly written with the purpose of generating links?
Of course you have.
They look something like this:
“I really liked this article. I also wrote about something similar, you can check it out here [inserts URL].”
These types of comments are completely worthless (and ineffective).
You, therefore, have to resist the temptation to leave generic comments that provide absolutely zero value. Instead, you should devote actual time to leaving thoughtful and valuable comments that are beneficial to the site’s audience.
Doing so will generate results you wouldn’t believe.
Just take a look at this…
Notice how quickly I was able to build traction for my blog Cloud Living by leaving high quality comments on NichePursuits. This isn’t a fluke! And that’s because this tactic works super well.
Here’s some additional tips you can use to skyrocket its effectiveness:
- Make sure the link you insert in your comments is at the end, contextually relevant and doesn’t look spammy
- Increase name recognition by signing up for a free account at Gravatar
- Never put keywords in the comment name field. Only use your name or brand name to leave comments.
Do the above consistently and after a few short months, you’ll notice yourself with an army of links.
Want other great tips to build white hat links?
Check out The Authority Site System to improve your white hat link building tactics
3. Guest Posting
I know. I know.
You’ve heard about guest posting a million times before and you’re sick and tired of reading about it on every link building article, but there’s a reason it keeps popping up…
It’s because it works.
In fact, guest posting is our favorite tactic for growing backlinks and organic traffic.
Yet a lot of newbies still struggle with this tactic.
Why?
Cause they’re constantly asking themselves the following (limiting) question:
“Who would accept my guest post?”
Look, I get it.
If you’ve never written a guest post before, it can seem flat out daunting. In fact, if you’re like the old me, you’re probably also questioning who in the world would even care about what you have to say on a given topic.
Sounds familiar? You’re not alone.
These are fears and doubts that we all had at one point or another. It’s perfectly normal.
But our fears aren’t rooted in reality.
Here’s why:
After spending a bunch of time online (and experiencing the highs and lows), I’ve discovered one thing to be true above all else…
If you can create awesome content that will help another site, then they want you to write for them. It’s as simple as that. Really.
So what is guest posting (and how can you use it to grow your site’s traffic?)
Guest posting is the process of submitting and publishing your content on other websites or blogs. In fact, guest posting is exactly what I’m doing right now!Instead of publishing this article on my own blog, I’m publishing it on NichePursuits.
Why?
For a couple reasons:
- To provide valuable, practical content to you – NichePursuits’ loyal readers
- Help NichePursuits rank for more targeted keywords
- Hopefully get you to check out my blog if you find this post helpful
See how it works?
It’s a win/win for everybody.
NichePursuits gets free awesome content. And I (hopefully) get high quality backlinks and referral traffic.
There’s really no better way to generate links for a newbie than through guest posting. I know a lot of people think it’s dead, but the truth of the matter is its powers are still running far and wide.
So let’s take a look at the different steps involved in the process:
1. Finding guest post targets
First thing first, you have to get back in the trenches and create a list of sites that accept guest posts.
What’s the best way to do this?
We recommend you use this spreadsheet. Be sure to click File –> Make a copy.
Simply enter your keyword. And you’ll receive a list of search terms you can plug into Google.
Once you do, you’re going to want to jot down the sites you find here.
2. Filtering and separating into tiers
Now that you have a list of sites, it’s time to prioritize your list.
This is extremely important because no two sites are created equal. One site may bring about great returns, whereas another may not have enough traffic or domain authority to deliver any results (you may want to check out our guide to domain authority stacking strategies for extra advice).
With that said, you want to narrow your list to only high quality sites and separate them into tiers so you know which ones to focus on.
Note: Skip this step and you’ll end up wasting a bunch of time and money on low quality websites (that’s no fun) – so make sure you do this.
Here’s how we check sites for quality and separate them into tiers:
- Delete any sites with domain authority < 20
- Make sure the site is regularly updated with quality and engaging content
- Run the site through SEMRush to see if they’re ranking well on Google. If no organic traffic but high Domain Authority, then check social media followings
- Make sure they don’t nofollow external links for guest post
Based on the above assessment, you want to separate your sites into tiers. You can have your high quality sites, low quality sites, and everything in between.
3. Warming up your prospects
Now that you have a high quality list of websites that you’d love to publish a guest post on.
What’s next?
Well it’s time to increase the odds of them saying yes to you.
Here’s how you do it:
You butter them up. And start building a relationship.
Now…
It’s easy to skip over this step. But if you do, that’ll be a huge mistake.
And that’s because the results aren’t even close. Those who engage with site owners (and warm them up) perform FAR BETTER than those who simply bounce around, looking for guest post opportunities from one site to another (without ever taking the time to build any type of relationship).
Here’s how you can warm up your prospects:
- Follow them on social media
- Share some of their recent articles (make sure you tag them)
- Leave engaging and thought provoking comments on their posts
Do the above and you’ll notice that (eventually) they’ll start seeing your name and face everywhere (make sure you’re using the same avatar across all social media outlets) and you’ll enter their radar.
This will make things a lot easier for you when you go in for the kill (and pitch your guest post ideas).
4. Pitching guest post ideas
Now it’s time to send your pitch.Before we discuss best practices, you need to remember that not all of the sites will say yes.
In fact, most will probably say no. That’s ok.
Don’t take it personally and keep outreaching – it only takes a few guest post opportunities to strike it big.
Got it? 🙂
Cool.
Here is the email template you can use to pitch your guest posts:
Hey {NAME},
Love what you’re doing on {SITE NAME}.
You may have noticed my share and comment on your post on [POST TITLE] (awesome article by the way).
I was checking out your site today and found this guest post you published: {URL OF THE GUEST POST}
I’d love to be your next guest author.
I’ve been brainstorming some topics that I think your readers would get a ton of value from:
- Idea 1
- Idea 2
- Idea 3
To give you an idea of the quality I’ll bring to your site, here are some other posts that I’ve published:
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 3
Let me know what you think and I’d be happy to get started right away.
Thanks,
{YOUR NAME}
Notice how simple, valuable, and intriguing the above email is?
You bet.
It’s super effective because it actually shows that you care. And you took out enough time to check out their website, before pitching a guest post.
Use it.
Just one caution before you go and use this template. This post is exposed to thousands of NP readers so it’s very likely that they will be using the same templates too.
And that’d cause a big problem if you and a dozen people outreaching to the same sites are using the same email template.
So it’d be best if you personalize the template so that it’s unique and reflects your voice and personality.
5. Getting your guest post written
So you sent a guest post request and the site owner said yes?
Congratulations!
Now it’s time to roll up those sleeves and write a kick ass (and highly valuable) guest post.
How should you do that? And how can you decide how much to pay if you’re going to outsource the writing?
Good questions.
Remember the tier chart we created in step 3?
Well now it’s time to pull that chart back out and see how much effort (and money) you should devote to writing the post.
Based on how valuable the site you’ll be guest posting on is, you want to decide whether you should create epic, great or good content. The better the site, the more you’ll have to step your game up (just keep that in mind).
Here are some additional tips for writing your guest post:
- Format your article mirroring the ones already on the site
- Do a spell and grammar check before submitting your article. Double check if you hit the required word count
- Make the opening line count. Your first sentence should be able to hook your readers (see bucket brigades).
- As much as possible, bring new ideas to the table. Avoid writing generic tips.
- Be conversational and engaging. Ask questions frequently and be friendly in the post. Try to relate to reader situations and stories.
- Short, concise sentences are preferred. Convey your ideas as simply and clearly as possible. Avoid fluff/filler words for the sake of meeting the word count.
- Take a good look at the site's content. Know:
- Their target audience
- Writing tone
- How other guest posts wrote their content
6. Sending for publication
When you got your awesome post written and ready to go, it’s time to send it out for publication. This step is arguably the easiest. And that’s basically it only involves one action from your end:
Sending your post for review. And including an author bio with it.
How can you write a great author bio?
Here’s how:
- Make it short and interesting.
- You could insert 2-3 links to your website but don’t overdo this or it’ll look spammy. Ideally, you should have 1 link to your homepage and 1 link to an internal page that you want to rank high in Google.
- Don’t worry much about the anchor test. Just use whatever makes sense and looks natural.
Looking for an example to get your creative juices firing?
7. Post publication checklist
Once your guest post is published, your job isn’t done.
In fact, this is when the FUN begins.
Here’s some of the things you should do to give your guest post an instant boost:
- Be the 1st commenter on your own guest post – This is a little trick that could help you get a little bit more traffic and brand recognition as people often like to scroll down to the comment section. You could say thanks to the blogger and let visitors know that you’re available to answer any comments that they have.
- Share the post on your social media channels – This shows that you actually care about the post. Site owners would love this!
- Reach out to commenters who have blogs – You could get some more guest posts published this way. Just reach out to them and say you could contribute to their sites too.
- Repeat the process to get more links!
Follow the steps outlined above. And you’ll greatly increase the number of backlinks your efforts generate. Try it once and you’ll be hooked, forever.
Yep…
Guest posts are really that powerful!
4. Epic Content
Have you ever read a comprehensive blog post that made you say wow (and dropped your jaw to the floor?).
If so, that’s an example of epic content.
You know it’s epic because it provides 100% coverage on a topic, making it the best resource out.
As a result, it’s one of the fastest ways to build links.
Here’s what epic content looks like:
How to Create Amazing Articles Even If You Suck at Writing
If you’re going through the above and thinking to yourself…
Jeez…this looks like A LOT of work to create.
You’re absolutely right.
Epic content takes work to produce. No getting around that. But the efforts are well worth it. Here’s why:
- Epic content ranks better
- It gets more social shares and backlinks (promotion becomes MUCH EASIER when you have a great quality post to promote)
- It builds your authority
- One piece of epic content will do wonders for your site. And turn you into a real believer and user of this tactic. Trust me.
Ready to see for yourself?
Sweet.
Let’s dive into the details now…
Ultimately, you have to follow 3 steps to produce epic content:
- Choose a proven content idea
- class=””>Create your epic content
- Promote it
To help you successfully navigate through each stage, we’ve prepared a step by step guide for you below.
Step 1: Choose a proven content idea
Choosing a proven content idea is something a lot of beginners struggle with.
But it doesn’t have to be difficult.
In fact, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel much at all.
That’s because I’m going to share with you how to find content that has already generated a ton of links, making your life WAY easier because then you simply have to improve it (or update it) – instead of having to start from scratch.
Here is the quick and easy process I follow to choose proven content ideas:
Start with ahrefs.com (and check out Brady's Ahrefs review)
If you’ve been in the online marketing industry for awhile now, you’ve without a doubt heard about Ahrefs. For those who haven’t, Ahrefs originally started as a backlink checker tool, but it’s transformed into much more in the last few years.
Today it’s one of the best SEO and online marketing tools available, making it a must have tool for any marketer. If you don’t have it yet, I highly recommend you pick it up. The lowest plan starts at $99 per month. And in my opinion, it’s well worth the investment.
But if you’re just starting out and you don’t have the budget for it – worry not! Ahrefs offers an inexpensive trial so try to conduct all your research during the first week!
Here’s how to do that:
- Pick a couple websites in your niche. You want to pick bigger websites because they usually have more links to their content. For example, if you were in the natural health and beauty niche, you should pick Wellnessmama.com because it’s a huge website in the beauty space and a great place to start.
- Once you’ve picked out your sites, simply enter the URL in the search bar. Sticking with our example of Wellnessmama, we can see that it’s getting over 23,000 referring domains, or backlinks from different domains. It’s also ranking for 677,000 keywords and receiving 791,000 organic visits from Google each month
Looking good, right?
Definitely.
Now you want to use Ahrefs to analyze Wellnessmama’s content.
Here’s how:
1. Select pages on the left menu bar and click ‘Best by links’. Once you do, you’ll see a list of all the content pages on the website with columns on the right with varying metrics such as ‘UR (URL rating’) and ‘RD (Referring domains’) for the specific pages.
You want to focus on the referring domains column.
2. Click on the word ‘RD’ and sort the results from highest to lowest.
Why?
Cause this allows you to see the content topics that are already generating a lot of backlinks for the website, so it’s a good guess that creating something similar, but better is likely to help with your backlinks as well.
3. Choose a few topic ideas from the list with at least 25 referring domains.
4. After you have picked out a few, open up an Excel spreadsheet and enter the URL and RD number.
5. You’ll also want to jot down the main keyword. To do so:
- Click on the arrow below the page title on the Ahrefs page
- Select Organic keywords, where you’ll see all the keywords that the page is ranking for.
- Look at the keyword with the highest volume to find the main keyword.
- Once you find it, you can paste it into your Excel spreadsheet
After you have done the above, you should be able to look at your spreadsheet and see the potential traffic you stand to receive if you ranked for the main keyword. This should give you a pretty strong indication for what type of content you should create.But your job isn’t done yet.
You still need to repeat the process with other pages until you have a healthy list of proven content ideas.
Sounds good?
I agree.
But is there another way to leverage the power of Ahrefs?
You bet.
Another strategy I recommend is searching for highly competitive keywords in your niche by using Google. For example, if you were in the weight loss niche then you would search for ‘how to lose weight’.
Once you do, simply go back to Ahrefs, select Keywords explorer and search the keyword to see how much traffic it’s getting.
Then look at the top ten results and check how many backlinks those pages received. If the pages are ranking for highly competitive keywords, then it is likely that they’re getting lots of backlinks as well.
Keep in mind, when it comes to an epic content campaign, you shouldn’t hesitate to select competitive keywords.
The more competition there is, the more likely you can get links from your campaign. Epic content tends to be quite results intensive, so you’ll want to make a worthwhile investment.
Cool?
Awesome.
Now it’s time to check the backlinks for the top search results.
So open a few sites, copy the URL and paste it in Ahrefs’ Site explorer section.
When we checked the number one search result on Google for ‘how to lose weight’ it had already generated over 300 referring domains, so you can tell it’s a good one.
You can continue to do this with several of the top Google search results. You will know that the content idea is proven to get backlinks after doing this a few times.
Note: Even though an example such as ‘how to lose weight’ is quite a competitive keyword, if you can create something even better than what is already in the top ten results then it will be very easy for you to get backlinks later on.
Repeat this process a few times and try to come up with a minimum of five ideas that you’d like to do. Then select the best one and you’re ready for step two.
Step 2: Create your epic content
Not much needs to be said about creating epic content, besides…
IT SHOULD BE EPIC.
Like really epic.
Here’s some quick tips to make sure your content is awesome:
- Do intensive research (step one) and improve upon what you’ve found
- Create something better by being more thorough, using better design, and being more up to date
- Leverage the power of stats
- Be specific
- The more practical strategies you outline, the better
- Make sure it’s easily digestible
Here’s some baseline criteria to include in your epic post:
- A compelling title (use this to come up with awesome headlines)
- Incredibility comprehensive content
- The most up to date and accurate information
- Good formatting
- Links
Once you’re finished writing your epic post, it’s time for the next step.
Step 3: Promote it to the right people
Now that you have your epic content, it’s time to promote it so you can generate high quality backlinks and referral traffic from other websites.
I know promotion is often a big problem for newbies.
And that’s why I’ve made this step super easy and digestible.
Below you’ll find 2 different templates you can use to promote your content. Each of these templates offers varying ways to find prospects, which we’ll discuss in more detail now.
Template 1. People that you linked to in your epic article
If you actually created an epic (and valuable) post, it should have linked out to a bunch of relevant websites and blogs within your niche.
Now that you have done that, you need to leverage this fact by doing the following:
- Go through your article and compile a list of all the sites you linked out to
- Find the appropriate email address for those people
- Use the template below to create your email
- Send your email and (hopefully) get social shares & links
Hey {NAME},
I gave you some love on my latest blog: [INSERT LINK]
Feel free to share it or shout it from the rooftops 🙂
Thanks,
{Your Name}
Template 2. People who linked to your competitors
Another way to promote your epic post is by reaching out to people who are currently linking out to your competitors.
How do you do that?
Well if you’ve been paying careful attention, you’ll remember that earlier we compiled a list of articles with high referring domains. This list is pure gold because since these articles have already linked to content that is similar to yours, there’s a good chances they’ll link to your article as well if it’s bigger and better.
Here’s how to make this happen:
- Put the links you gathered from earlier into Ahref’s Site Explorer for analysis
- Click on Backlinks, followed by One link per domain to download their backlinks to your computer
- Now you’ll have a .csv file that gives you all the links.
- Go through the links one by one and jot down the ones you want to contact
- Find their email address
- Use the template below and simply fill in the blanks
- Send your email and sit back and prosper 😉
Hey {Name},
I was checking out some of your articles at {Site Name} today and came across this page: [URL]
I noticed that you linked to one of my favorite articles ever: {Title}
But I thought it could be better so I set out to write a more thorough and up-to-date version: [Your URL]
I’m doing my best to get this in front of people who could really benefit from it, so if you even decide to add a link to my article from your page, I would be more than happy to share it to my thousands of social followers to help you gain some visibility in exchange.
Either way, keep up the awesome work!
Cheers,
{Your Name}
There’s actually another template that no one else has talked about before, but it’s too valuable and effective that I have to reserve it only for students of AMZ Affiliate Bootcamp. But you can get awesome results with the above 2 tactics.
5. Guestographics
Want to quickly drive an insane number of powerful editorial backlinks to your website?
Create a highly shareable infographic.
Here’s why they’re so darn effective:
People love visual content
- Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain
- 40% of people will respond better
Infographics are highly shareable
- KissMetrics published 47 infographics that generated 2.5 million visitors and 41,000 backlinks – impressive, right? You bet.
So are you ready to leverage the power of infographics?
If so, here’s the process you should follow:
1. Choose a winning idea
Coming up with a winning idea is 90% of the battle. Find a topic that your audience will want to share and you pretty much have it made.
Here’s how to find winning ideas:
- Go to visual.ly/view
- Browse categories or search for your keywords.
- Sort by most viewed (pay careful attention to # of views, likes and comments)
- Use the top infographics as a guide for what kinds of infographic you should produce
After you have done the above, you should also repeat the same exact steps but conduct your research on Pinterest instead. Do this and you’ll have a great indication for what ideas are likely to succeed (and which ones will most likely fail).
2. Create a great infographic
Once you have finalized your infographic idea, it’s time to create it.
Ideally, you want your infographic to:
- Tell a story
- Provide exceptional information
To achieve this you ultimately need great design and solid pieces of information.
Here’s how to find solid data:
- Go back to visual.ly
- Search for your keywords
- Browse through the various infographics
- Jot down data/information you can use for your own infographic
Another strategy you can use is to Google your keyword and browse through the first 50 or so results, pulling out pieces of data that’ll help you create a compelling infographic.
Once you’ve done the above, you should have exceptional information.
Now it’s time to design the infographic.
If you don’t have the design abilities, hop on over to UpWork or Fiverr and get it done for you. Doing so will ensure you come away with an eye catching infographic that has the potential to generate a lot of backlinks and social shares.
3. Promote it
Last, but not least, you’re going to want to promote your newly created infographic.
Here’s how to promote it:
Use Visually
- Go to visual.ly/view
- Submit your infographic to their directory (this is really important to do because this is where editors come to find infographics for their posts and publications)
- Sit back and count your social shares
Use Pinterest
- Search for “[insert your keyword here] board”
- Click on boards
- Follow the ones you like
- Reach out to the admins of the boards and request access
- Once approved, post your infographic inside the board
Use Google
- Search for your keywords
- Look at the top 50 results that pop up
- Reach out to these individuals by using the templates I’ve put together for you here
Reverse engineer other successful infographics
- Right click on the successful infographic of your choice and click ‘search Google by image’
- You’ll see all the places where the infographic has been published
- Use these templates to reach out to these sites (chances are if they linked to a similar infographic, they’ll link to your infographic as well)
Got it?
Sweet.
Follow the above strategy and you’ll have high producing infographics very quickly.
Now that we have covered the five white hat link building tactics for Amazon affiliate websites, you might be scratching your head, wondering…
This is great and all. But how do I put everything into practice?
Well, good question.
To help you, I’ve prepared the following 5-month link building plan.
The 5-Month Link Building Plan for a New Amazon Affiliate Website
It’s important to note that before you put this plan into action, you need to first make sure you have a site that meets the following criteria (this will maximize success rate):
- Make sure you have posted at least 20 high quality articles.
- Make sure that your website is well-designed with one of the best WordPress themes and a nice logo. Good branding is important to increase people's perception of your website which leads to higher outreach success rate.
- Create a persona to represent your site if you don't want to show your real name. You'll use this persona to outreach to people so think carefully.
- Set up social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
- Create a custom email with Google Apps so your email could look like this [email protected]
Once your site fulfills the above criteria, it’s time you embark on the 5-month link building plan.
Here’s the goal for the 5-months:
Your goal: 50 links in 5 months
Why did we pick this goal?
Well for a new website, link building is all that matters. You can slow down on content production after having posted 20 articles if you don't have enough time and budget to do both at this stage.
Your goal is to build 50 links in 5 months which is only about 10 links a month.
Doesn't sound like a lot right?
You bet.
That’s because you don't need hundreds of links to rank if you did your keyword research right. Links acquired through manual outreach are extremely powerful. With that said, 50 are more than enough to give you good initial traction.
So here’s your 5 month link building plan:
Month 1
Your website is brand new and you have zero connection with people in your niche.
That's why you should always start with a Top Experts campaign which is basically a post featuring top bloggers and influencers in your niche. Write your top experts post. And you’ll notice that most people will be inclined to share your post with their blog audience/social followers because they're featured in it.
That's a quick and easy way to generate links and referral traffic.
Also, you should begin reaching out and commenting on other blogs during month 1 as well.
Note: The 50 links we're shooting for should be dofollow links from outreach only and don't include blog comment links.
Month 2 through 4
In month 2 through 4, you'll be focusing your effort on guest posting which is our favorite way to build foundational links to boost up your Domain Authority. Aim for around 30 guest posting links in this period.
You'll still need to continue doing blog commenting on a daily basis as it's a very effective way to network with other bloggers (5-10 comments a day).
Month 5
If you have done a good job with guest posting, by now your website would have gotten some initial organic traffic. And you're very likely to make your first dollars as well.It's time to make a decision.
- You can either continue guest posting for more links.
- Or you can switch it up a little bit and try a new tactic which is building links through Google stacking or content assets (if you choose to go down this route, buckle up and start pumping out EPIC POSTS)
That’s pretty much it.
Do the above and you’ll have 50 links in 5 months.
Not bad, right? 🙂
Time for you to get to it.
Conclusion
Building links for new Amazon affiliate websites seems difficult.
But as you can see from this post, it’s really not that hard.
Follow the above 5 methods and you’ll quickly build traction (and start making your first few dollars in a span of a few short months).
Want other great tips to build white hat links?
Check out The Authority Site System to improve your white hat link building tactics
Enjoyed this article?
Leave a comment below with your thoughts & questions – I’ll make sure to answer each and every one 🙂
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98 Comments
Conversation
Great post Tung 🙂
Can you share more information on managing this processes? How do you train VAs to execute this? How do you keep track of everything, etc.
That’s too much to cover in a single post like this 😀 I would of course do another post on this.
Thanks for the epic article Tung.
I’ve only skimmed the tactics so far (your post is huge!), but I love the networking with experts idea in tactic 1.
Thanks Fred!
Of course, I’m just mentioning so you have it in mind for future posts 🙂
I find hiring / interviewing / training / creating processes for niche website very challenging even though it sounds simple before you begin working on it
Great write-up Tung!
Really not much groundbreaking here but it’s a good place for beginners to get started with building links to their sites.
It also shows you need a blend of informative content versus straight money pages because it’s sooo much easier to do outreach and build links to super informative, in-depth pillar posts rather than “best xxx” posts.
Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of guest/infographics anymore. I don’t find there is a good enough ROI for that type of content and so many people are pushing infographics these days that I don’t think it’s worth it to spend the time/money on.
As for guest posting, you’re also going to want to check to see what kinds of links you’re able to get out of it. For just affiliate sites it might not be worth it for the editorial link but if you’re building an authority site/brand then it can definitely be worth it just to get your name out there.
Of course, the best way is to write epic skyscraper content and promote the heck out of it backlinko style (my opinion of course).
Anyways, great write up.
Also guys, the only difference between being able to build awesome links and not being able to is the amount of work you put in. If you actually hustle and spend your time link building then you’re obv gonna get links!
Hi Tung,
It took me half and hour just to read your post here. It’s a great one indeed!
I love the way you talk about guest post specifically the outreach script. I think it’ll help newbies like myself to go ahead contacting those experts in my niche.
I wonder though what more appealing to both experts and readers in terms of content. The featuring technique or expert round-ups? Maybe you have good insight on this?
Thanks a million! 😉
Both are good and can work well. IT differs from every campaign. So I’d recommend you to do both and compare the results yourself.
I Just got mail with this article. This information is magnificent ! I understand and respect your points. I’m impressed with your long tips. Thank you for writing this great content 🙂
Thanks 🙂
He probably outsourced the writing of this…
Great post – and very detailed.
I have done all of these and definitely focused on guests solely to begin with like you mention to do with a new site. I find it easier to do that then gain some traction and then work on the others.
Also although I have done plenty of top blog/expert round up posts – each and everytime I am ALWAYS amazed by the great response you get from them. Totally worth the effort of compiling them!
Guestographics is something I have dabbled in but need to give more time too so this is great info to be more serious about it.
Thanks for this amazing post Tung!
You’re welcome! 😀
1st month, I created 2 articles: 100 expert blogs for my niche and an infographic.
– For 100 expert blogs, I also reached out to bloggers 2 times but I got 9 links with 7 badge image links and 2 contextual links. My experience is that we should include more small personal bloggers. Almost big bloggers or magazine sites don’t reply to small site.
– For infographics, I posted on visualy.com and infogrphicportal.com, I tried to outreach but get no links. Maybe I choose wrongly topic or my designing is not attractive. I will make test with other infographic idea.
Thanks Tung Tran for your 5 tactics that I can try to use for my site. Keep your good works.
Jackie
Thanks Jackie!
Thanks Tung
Awesome Content and very information article yo got there. thanks for sharing with us. i learn much from your useful info thanks again. took me 1 hr to read the whole thing 😛
Haha thanks Sara. I set out to write a very detailed post but didn’t expect it to cross 7000+ words.
Most of the process of Tung Tran is not completely white hat. He is involved in Black Hat Seo also. Lots of sites sold by him are not exist today. This can prove his process. In face let the site grow automatically instead of building links.
Instead of that focus on the content which attract others to link it. Thats the pure process and genuine techniques to survive for a long term…………
Do you have proofs for your claims about myself? Personally I have only sold 2 sites publicly. And yes that was in the old days and they were indeed penalized because of bad link building technique a.k.a PBNs.
I have switched to white hat for about 3 years now and things have been doing great 🙂
Great Article Tung – I especially like the 5 month strategy, good to set expectations that this type of success doesn’t happen overnight. Cheers!
Thanks Jason!
Nice write-up Tung. However, I find that doing these would require lots of time on my part. Do you recommend engaging the services of popular linkbuilding companies like The Hoth and FatJoe? Do you use these services in one or some of your sites? I find that guest posting is already one of the top options that SEOs are using right now to rank for keywords, and most of these linkbuilding sites offer guest posting services. What’s your professional take on this?
No. I’d not recommend any of those services. They don’t have good quality. If they really want to outsource, then come to a good service like skyrocket.digital. They’re more expensive but they do real white hat link building.
This is really huge post, can’t read it in single go, but definitely worth to save it in pocket, its amazing that with blog post comments you were able to get more than 8K visitors.
Yeah blog commenting is highly underestimated.
I am not clear about link building plan. Please, I want to know details about it. thanks
The article goes into detail on every strategy mentioned. The only thing left is to actually do it.
What are you not clear about?
I’ve been following both NichePursuits and CloudLiving for quite a while now and got super excited when I saw that Tung was guest posting here! As always guys, excellent post. I was actually quite surprised you left Scholarship link building off your list. Is that something you feel is no longer working? Regardless, link building has always been a struggle for my colleagues and I – hopefully we can finally get some traction with this post. Bookmarked!
I don’t want to talk about scholarship anymore as I can see lots of people abuse it. And from my experience with it I dont think it’s working really well.
Great guest post Tung.
I had a small question though. When doing email outreach (for example Guestographics) should I go with quantity or quality?
I know quality is always the winner but owing to low success rate the quantity can’t be overlooked
Great article. I have tried all of these in one form or another and they have worked great. The only one I need to try and will be doing so soon is the infographc.
Great article,
Recently I started outreaching other blogs to write a guest post on their blog. Most of them have responded which is great. The only problem is they asked me to pay them 50$ – 200$ per guest post. I kindly refused. It’s lame, but I will still try to find some people who won’t charge me.
I do pay for guest posts if the site is really high quality. The links have to be “dofollow” though
I’ve waiting for this article Tung! The 5 month link building plan looks awsome, but 10 links in a month aren’t too much for a new site?
Considering most people are starting with a lower budget, 10 a month is something most can afford. You can always do more if you can.
Personally I’m starting a new site and my aim is to get 30 a month
Valuable tips there! Very basic tactics, but if followed carefully they always deliver
Really detailed and well written post. I knew about all these link building tactics before, but the way you have explained them and given the step by step instructions is really impressive. I will definitely give them a try, especially tip#1 (Top Experts).
Have to be honest, these backlink guides are awesome. what about web 2.0 backlinks? Does it still work?
No. I’m never a fan of web 2.0. They’re no value to me.
Now this is a sample of epic content. Tung, you definitely succeeded with one of the goals of your guest post, making me check out your site. Very in-depth, but extremely well structured and actionable tips.
I’m sure most readers here on Nice pursuits are already aware of some of the information in this post, but you made it seem a lot less daunting and, again, presented it in an actionable manner.
Well done, sir.
Thanks Ovidiu 🙂
It’s an Epic post for sure, who believe in long-term marketing success. But, we badly need a post about managing VA’s
Hi Tung, very nice article with this 5 strategies to build a white Hat Link Building, but does that it all your strategies 🙂 hahaha . thank you for this info and it’s difficult to share it for some people but for you no (y)
Yep it’s all I’m doing. There’s no magic secret. It’s just hard work to execute the tactics perfectly.
Great article Tung! Just wondering if I’m going to outsource the writing for guest post, how should I go about writing the author bio?
Well I’ve included some sample bios above. You can just write a quick one for yourself.
Great tips, I have just started my site and started producing content, after I finish putting up my plan quantity of contents, I will start my link building campaign and this will be of great help thanks for this
This is really epic content. Thank you for sharing.
Wow, thank Tung for this epic post.
Very helpful !
Thank you Tung for this detailed guide.
Right now I focus on blog commenting. I am yet to develop my site to a stage where I can start doing outreach. Tung, how many of these expert roundups do you think I should do for my Amazon niche site? I dont want a situation where these will hurt my site since I am planning to do one with possibly 200+ experts.
Anticipating your answers, cheers
As long as you can find enough prospects, do as many as you can
Thank you Tung, I appreciate this…
Thank you for this awesome post. I am currently taking advantage of blog commenting and I want to start the expert round up post. but I’m finding that I’m too lazy and not really moving ahead with it. Guess I need to do this if I want to see good growth.
hi,
its a wonderful article I am starting a new amazon site.
I want to know some thing.
I can do many niches on one website like wirecutter and 10beast.com
I am following 10beast and I have doing exactly how he posted and same thing.
So it is good or bad? can you let me know?
Thank you
J
Bad. I’m not a fan of those general sites.
Do you think it’s worth guest posting if you can only get link to the homepage in author bio?
If not, how do you approach webmasters? I’ve tried to insert internal links to owner’s blog + one link to my website but it gets removed most of the time.
Do you ask people to leave your link? Do you pay them? What works for you best in general
Yes absolutely. When the site is new I prefer to build more links to root domain to improve the overall strength of the site.
I pay for guest posts sometimes too if the sites are really high quality
I am a guest blogging expert, but by reading your article I have learned lots of things!
Thanks for your Awesome article.
My VA will be following your guide from now on forever!!! Epic, epic, epic!!!
Oh please..
Wow…that’s really an epic piece of content! These five pointers are something that most of us are already aware but the kind of detailing that you’ve gone into is really commendable.
Like most of know that blog commenting is important, yet a lot of us still don’t do it on a consistent basis..
Hello Ting.
This is an excexcellent link bubuilding techmiques for niche site builders. As a new Marketer your confused what techniques work or not. After read your article its verery clear you show some of youour students doing by follow the technique.
Thanks agaim for share this valuable idea for link building.
You showed solutions for every negative conditions. It is really great post. Thanks
By the way I want to print this post to read this post step by step. How can I print it correctly
Great Post Tung! I’m already doing Some of that tips, and the result is good. But There is still a problem for me to write email which can be rejected by influencer 🙂
Great post.
I liked that you focus on promotion. I like to use the 80/20 rule myself which is that; you spend 80% of your time promoting and 20% creating new content.
This will get you a heck of a lot further than if you flipped it and spent only 20% on promotions.
You get what you focus on, that’s for sure. Here’s a great thing to remember (the 1st letter of each words spells focus).
Follow
One
Course
Until
Successful
Thank you, Patrick
FYI, most of this information can be found across the internet. It is more evident to me that Tung needed a backlink from an authoritative blog and by rehashing a bunch of information he could get that link. It’s really sad to think internet marketing has had the waters muddied so much. This also just gives those from 3rd world countries hope that they can someday make a grip of money off the internet…good luck with that.
Thanks Tung and Spencer for these down-to-earth and actionable points.
If it is easy to do (like leaving two lines of comments here), then it’s probably not helping much in terms of link juice.
Things which are hard to do (or requiere time, effort, brain power), e.g. writing a 7,000 guest blog post like this one, will result in bigger rewards.
Great post Tung. It is quite informative and useful for a newbie like me who is looking at getting back links. I will definitely bookmark it for every day reference.
Keep it up!
Everything is perfect as pinpoint. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful, impressive information.
Wonderful Post Tung, I’m New In Blogging & SEO This Guide Post Help Me Lot.
Thanks for such important information.
Hi Tung, wow this post is EPIC! Seriously, this post could have been sold as an SEO link building course. Thank you for adding so much value and being transparent.
I just launched a new niche website so this is exactly what I was looking for. I’m definitely going to try your first suggestion by creating a Top Experts post. The email template is most helpful and I’ll obviously tweak it to my own voice. Looking forward to trying these tactics and sharing the results.
Also, thank you Spencer for creating such a great resource for building niche websites.
I know you mentioned it’s important to have natural link-building profile. My main concern is how aggressive can I be without being penalized? Is it safe to get 5-10 backlinks from several sources per day or do you suggest spreading it out more? Thanks again!
5 to 10 links per day is not too aggressive.
Great post! Very helpful!
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Tung,
Great post. I particularly liked your actionable steps to the guide and 5 month plan for success. I am for sure going to shoot for 5-10 blog comments a day and get moving on the guest posts. Thank you!
uff.., it took me 13 minutes to read and understand this epic (7500+ Words) blog post. Though I’ve enjoyed reading this but I think it would be much better if you could break this post into multiple parts. So it’d be easier to keep remembered the first paragraph and understand the points when I’me closed to the last paragraph of this reading.
Anyway, This post is epic and must read for beginners. I do appreciate for writing this useful blog post. It definitely worth the 13 minutes of reading.
Cheers
Abu Zafor
Hi! Obiouvsly an amzing post, as ever.
One question: when you are in a really small market-niche with a few topics to talk about, what’s the best strategy to find influencers or experts?
Thanks in advance!
I loved the way Tung has described step by step approach of building backlinks. I think if I am able to get 30 links through guest posting then I can definitely make substantial amount of money. Good job Tung.
At first Thanks to Tung Tran. It’s the best theoretical content for every Affiliate Marketer. I have collected tung tran’s video tutorial. That’s much be so helpful. Day by day I’m improving in Affiliate marketing and my earning is also increasing. I’m so happy. Again thanks tung tran for sharing your valuable content. Loved it! 🙂
‘Don’t worry much about the anchor test’
It’s just minor spell mistake but looks funny
Hi Tung
I love your great article. It is very useful for newbies like me but there are some things I’m not clear yet
1. Should we put our site into Top Experts List when we use this static?
2. Should we send mail to notify some experts who are low-ranking bloggers in our Top Experts List? Example I write the Top Experts List about Top 50 Affiliate Marketer, but I put cloudliving.com at rank 49. Then I mail to notify you (Tung Tran) about Top Experts List. Are you willing to reply me?
3. The link you insert at the end of my comments is homepage or inner page which is the page we want ro rank?
4. How much does Guestographics cost as low as possible?
5. Who will decorate and add images for guest post? Me or blog’s owner?
6. Do you recommend Sponsored Post static for link building?
Please, I want to know details about them.
Thanks!
Sorry I repair a little at 3rd issue
3. The link insert at the end of blog comments is homepage or inner page which is the page we want ro rank?
Great read and very well explained. I believe in professionals so this is a very useful article for everyone. Many thanks for your share.
Great tips, I have just started my site and started producing content,
This is very nice i like your post.
Great Post for Newbies… I Also, Newbies in the Amazon Affiliate Field. It’s Very Helpful for me… My all query has solved after the reading this post.
This post is just amazing! I was looking the way to get some links from bloggers in my niche and i never thought the idea of making a article about them and link ( it is so obvious and i did not see it jajaja)
Thanks a lot for the effort in this article. Keep doing EPIC POSTS like this!
Thanks For Sharing useful information with its really helps to improve the site ranking…Nice Blog
sir most of PR 8 backlink website, not approval link then what is your strategy for face this
Really appreciate you sharing this post. Really thanks! Want more. Awesome blog. Much thanks again. Need more. I enjoy you discussing this website article. Actually thank you! Really Great.
Thanks for sharing great article..
I want try use your tactic.
thanks
You showed solutions for every negative conditions. It is really great post. Thanks
By the way I want to print this post to read this post step by step. How can I print it correctly
Would the Top Experts List Post idea for generating potential links from them not be reciprocal links since you’re linking to them already in that post?
So I’m guessing reciprocal links would be better than no links here right?
Also, if you’re in a smallish niche where most of the top influencer sites would be your competitors, do you still add them in that list?
Great article! The thing is I’ve read these methods in other blogs too but nobody except you said how to implement it. Now I know how to do them and thanks a lot for that.
Great writing skills by the way.
Hi,Tung. I have done commenting a lot. It does send me some traffic. But when it comes to guest posting, I always feel difficult and afraid to try it. After reading your article, the steps make me feel that I really need to have a try. Thank you for providing such a great article.