I’ve been MIA for about a month now. It’s not that I haven’t had plenty to write about or don’t enjoy blogging, it’s just been a time management issue. Obviously this blog doesn’t generate any revenue for me, so it’s definitely at the bottom of the list when things are hectic.

A business associate of mine wanted some link building advice today and as I feverishly typed and sent my response, I realized that it would make a decent (but more importantly quick and easy) blog post.

Here’s his email to me:

Subject: PR of 7 – NICE!

How the hell do you do it!

I’m killing myself trying to figure out how to get past PR4 on my ____ website. Actually I don’t think PR4 is bad considering I started this in April.

I’m currently trying to:

• link with +4 PR sites
• written articles and posted them on article directories
• entered comments on other website with href links
• in BlogBurst (although they don’t give direct links back most times)
• submitted to A LOT of blog directories

Can you give me a couple tips? I submitted a link request to Wikpedia last night for ____ so hoping that will work.

Thanks!!

— END EMAIL —

He’s referring to one of my personal sites that’s now showing a TBPR of 7 after the latest export. My response to him:

Subject: RE: PR of 7 – NICE!

Thanks man, it really is getting much harder these days. 🙂

I just briefly went over your site again and noticed a few changes that I would make if I were you:

1. Too much advertising, try to get rid of some of the affiliate banners/links. Affiliate sites are NOT credible in the eyes of the search engines.
2. You’re not using permalinks, which makes your URLs ugly and hard for search engines to follow. In your WordPress admin panel, you can turn this option on. This also makes it easier for people to link to your pages.
3. I saw this page: (URL of link exchange page on the site). Link exchanges are no good anymore. You have to find better quality, more relevant links in places where others aren’t also setting up links.
4. Since this site is a blog, are you also marketing via social media and bookmarking tools? If not, get on it.

Obviously there’s WAY more to it, just trying to help with the few minutes of free time I have right now. Blog directories, article directories, and comments are where EVERYONE (including spammers) are focusing, so that’s why it doesn’t work. The trick is to think natural, like a search engine would. Find old, established, trusted sites within your niche that you can request links from or offer some money for an advertising deal.

One really important thing to mention as a final thought….don’t focus on PageRank, focus on quality traffic. Develop something unique on your site that makes people visit/link to you, and ensure that you’re converting as many of your visitors as possible. While you may eventually see results if you’re patient enough with the article submissions and other common tactics, I think you’d gain much more by changing your strategy.

P.S. The Wikipedia link you added won’t work, and if you visit that page you’ll probably see that it’s already gone. Wikipedia requires that you contribute content before adding links.

-Jason