An example of contextual link building.

Contextual links: Links built within relevant content.

Every webmaster should be focusing on contextual link building when it comes to their SEO strategy simply because these are the MOST POWERFUL kinds of links you can build.

Non-contexual, irrelevant links are quickly losing their power: general directory submissions, sitewide blogroll/footer links, participating in text-link ad schemes like TNX or any similar network that puts your links on totally unrelated sites, etc…

Here’s a tip…

Build relevant links first – any PR that’s on the page just consider gravy.

A lot of webmasters get too “hung up” on the PR of page on where their link is being placed. While PR is important, it shouldn’t be the only factor you search for when it comes to finding good links. Relevancy and the content surrounding the link is going to make for a stronger, more valuable link in the long run.

The 4 Easiest Ways to Tackle Contextual Link Building

1. Article Marketing – Oldie but Goodie

Article marketing – the “ol’ faithful” when it comes to building links. It still works, and works well.

Anytime I see some of my rankings drooping I will fire off some articles and notice a pick-up a week later.

Contextual links galore, make sure the general topic of your articles matches the anchor text of your links in your resource box.

Keep your article marketing natural and consider our Dripped Article Marketing Service.

2. Buying Blog Posts and Reviews on Established Blogs

This is something I used to do a lot but not so much anymore.

I was buying my blog posts from the buy/sell section on DigitalPoint but it really became a chore sorting through the offers. 75% of the messages I would get would be for unscrupulous webmasters trying to sell “high PR” blog posts off of dropped domains. They would even backward-schedule posts so it looked like they had a years worth of posts – luckily Archive.org tells no lies.

Search for established blogs that are relevant to the niche you’re in for the best result.

You can also find good deals on posts from blog networks, but its anyone’s guess as to how long these networks will keep their sites up after the sales stop. Make sure the blogs are spread across a healthy amount of C Class Ips.

3. Create Squidoos and Hubpages

Write some content and create your own Squidoos and Hubpages. Link back to your site twice within the article using your targeted keywords and voila, instant contextual links.

Hubpages will keep the link nofollow until you hit a score of 70. You’ll have to add pictures, unique content, and give it a few links to raise that score.

Getting contextual links from these domains will benefit your site(s) nicely.

We can build 60 contextual links on 30 domains for you – including Hubpages and Squidoo.

4. Hunting for Contexual Links on Do-Follow Blog Posts

This is a nice little way to build contextual links because the content is already on the page, all you have to do is exploit it (and hope your comment/link gets approved).

Using Fast Blog Finder you can find blog posts that contain your keyword somewhere on the page. When it comes to link relevancy, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Screenshot of my EPN earnings for the beginning of March, 2009.

The other day I had a record breaker day on my Ebay Partner Network account – $221.04!

I’ve been an affiliate for roughly a year and a half and so far this has been my best day yet. $100 days can be sometimes normal for me,  but never anything over $200

So to celebrate my success I wanted to make a post about everything I’ve learned along the way – what’s been most successful for me in really bringing in the money… Please read on..

1. Make your EPN site about a niche product.

Instead of making a general EPN site about “computers” niche it even more, maybe Dell Computers or Intel Motherboards, etc.. The better your niche then the easier its going to be for you to dominate those keywords.

Here’s a pretty good post on selecting a niche for EPN using Ebay Pulse to find out whats popular http://www.wpcontempo.com/how-to-choose-a-niche-for-your-ebay-partner-network-affiliate-site/

Some niches convert well, and some do not. Try to pinpoint the niches/products that have hungry buyers.

2. Before you register that domain!

Here’s a HUGE hint and something thats going to possibly save the destruction of your site (I lost 2 of my top earning sites to this newbie mistake): DONT PUT ANY TRADEMARKS IN THE DOMAIN.

Chances are good that the companies will come after you, and all your hard work will be flushed down the toilet. It’s happend to me twice, and losing a site earning $300-$500 per month is a pretty painful experience (to say the least).

And the shitty part is they don’t come after you when your site isn’t doing well (they can’t find you). They only come after you when you start ranking top positions in Google  (doh).

3. Get PHPBay!

I’ve tried BANS, all I can say is it pretty much sucks. I felt really trapped with BANS, and I’ve heard Google is really slapping BANS sites so I would advise against using them.

One reason I like PHPBay is there’s just so much flexibility. The programmer Wade has made a ton of improvements since he first released it. Now you can put in Ebay auction listings on your WordPress site and they won’t even look like auction listings.

4. Give it a “Store” look to increase conversion.

I was using the Cutline theme for my EPN blogs when I started out. I would have my “money pages” at the very top, but in retrospect this looked really amateur.

A few months back I decided to follow this PHPBay Tutorial from Eureka Diary (looks like they have since changed the domain on it) – the writer trigatch4 is also an avid poster on Wickedfire.

Anywho, I believe the WordPress template setup I learned to use from this tutorial has really helped in conversions. It probably improved my bounce rate as well, since my blogs have taken a brand new look/feel. I attached a static front page which mentioned some of the most popular products people were searching for, so they could easily find more EPN listings or info on them.

4. Time for some content.

My biggest EPN site has roughly 120 articles on it, all keyword targeted for different products. I’m front page in Google for a ton of terms – I receive over 1,000 visits per day with that site and my earnings average around $30 a day or so.

I HIGHLY recommend you dump a ton of quality content into your blogs if you want to attract any kind of visitors.

The best keywords warrant 1,000+ word articles covering every possible aspect of the keyword.

This will make it a lot easier for you to dominate Google with a quality article.

5. Linkbuild, linkbuild, linkbuild.

Keep track of your keywords and URLs so it makes it easy for you to build links to each of your posts. I do this in an .xls spreadsheet.

Always use keyword variations when building links. If your targeting “Eddie Bauer Coats” for example, switch up your anchor text when building links: “Coats by Eddie Bauer”, “An Eddie Bauer Coat”, “Eddie Bauer’s Coats”, etc… You get the idea. This makes the links you’re building look more natural, and Google likes anything natural.

Keep your linkbuilding campaign consistent. If you build a boatload of backlinks in one week, then none in the next, Google is going to raise a red flag. But if you build roughly the same amount of backlinks week in and week out, Google will pay no mind to you. Consistency is key.

Linkbuilding is an ultra important aspect you don’t want to leave out. I’ve noticed most webmasters either have high quality content but aren’t great when it comes to linkbuilding, or someone is great with linkbuilding but the content is atrocious. Don’t make this mistake, if you need help in one area or another don’t be afraid to outsource.

6. Other random stuff.

If you’re having trouble getting approved for EPN check this post.

I also know that EPN will cancel your account if they feel your traffic is low quality. I did in fact have this happen to me once but I was able to get my account reinstated thankfully. A couple of my sites had super low EPC, so I just disabled the auction listings on them to avoid getting my account canceled (that would be tragic). They weren’t making much money anyway, so I don’t mind.

Update: 3/20/2009

A reader sent me an email today. I thought I might as well share the added tips/info here:

“I have around 8 sites with EPN, 2 of the sites make up the majority of the earnings. I guess the 80/20 theory was true. I cut off EPN on my lower earning sites, I don’t want my EPN account canceled.

Start with 5 sites in 5 different niches. Focus them around products, you can check out Ebay Pulse for ideas. If you want a general idea of the profitability of a niche you can use the Google Adwords Traffic Cost Estimator and it will tell you the Cost Per Click advertisers are paying. The more they pay generally the more profitable the niche is.

I outsource pretty much everything I do now, from backlinks to content. I’ve now even hired someone to post content to my blogs and I’ve found I can build sites faster this way.

But when I first started I was writing and posting everything myself. I wasn’t big on link building then but once I started really linkbuilding I could see how much of an effect it had on my traffic and earnings.”

Submitting a PR Will Give You

• Increased traffic.
• Increased backlinks for SERP raises.
• Possibility of getting picked up by major authority websites and news outlets for even more exposure, traffic, and links.
• Extra crediblity and authority, especially if your press release is well-written and newsworthy.

A long-term PR campaign can really do wonders for the average website…

Google News and Why Your PR Needs to Be Indexed By It

One goal you should reach for when distributing your press release is to make sure it gets spidered on Google News. Around 11 million people visit Google News per month and it has SEO benefits for your site as well. Make sure your press release is well written and distributed to the right places so it ends up there. Google news spiders some press release sites, others it does not.

PR Sites I Know Google News Crawls

• Live-PR.com – Not only did my PRs from this free site get on Google News but I was also able to get a backlink in the body of the press release itself. Check out the press releases I submitted here and here.
• Prlog.Org – Another free site I have submitted my PR to and Google News picked it up.

3 Keys for Writing Effective Press Releases

1. Your press release should be indirect. Don’t make your PR look like a sales piece or an article, but write it like a piece of news. Add quotes, write your article from a news angle. If you sell acne treatments, for example, report about new developments in acne research or any other related news and then tie your product in at the end. Another example, if you sell blue widgets, report about how your made a donation of 50 blue widgets to your local school.
2. Who, what, when, where, and why? A newsworthy piece should cover all the bases for properly reporting news.
3. Your headline is everything. If the content of your press release is amazing but your headline is lacking, nobody is going to even take the time to read your press release. Spend a good amount of time brainstorming different headlines and pick the one that sounds the best. I recommend that you read it out loud to yourself so you hear what it sounds like when its read.

6 Topic Ideas for Your Newsworthy Press Release

Stuck for ideas on covering something that might be newsworthy? You might have any of these 7 going on for your website or business right now that you can report on.

1. New products or services.
2. Special contests or giveaways.
3. Customer survey results.
4. New employees and employee promotions.
5. Site upgrades or additions (a new feature or forum, for example).
6. Your companies opinions on industry news.
7. Fundraisers, charitable donations, any kind of philanthropy.

If you don’t have any of these that you can get a PR from, make something. It’s easy to run a giveaway contest, or create a simple survey on your website that your surfers will participate in.

30 More Free Press Release Sites You Can Submit To

1. www.24-7pressrelease.com
2. www.prcompass.com
3. www.pressbox.co.uk
4. www.free-press-release.com
5. www.1888pressrelease.com
6. www.free-press-release-center.info
7. www.prfree.com
8. www.speedypr.com
9. www.prcompass.com
10. www.free-press-release.com
11. www.transworldnews.com
12. www.clickpress.com
13. www.ukprwire.com
14. www.prwindow.com
15. www.epicpr.com
16. www.pr9.net
17. www.pr.com
18. www.exactrelease.com
19. www.24-7pressrelease.com
20. www.freepressindex.com
21. www.pressrelease001.com
22. www.freshnews.com
23. www.widespreadpr.com
24. www.pressbooth.org
25. www.nationalprwire.com
26. www.techprspider.com
27. www.pressbox.co.uk
28. www.openpr.com
29. www.pressreleasespider.com
30. www.pressexposure.com

Let’s delve into the top 5 quickest and most effective ways you can build links to your website immediately. I’ve also included the latest web 2.0 link building methods that you can easily utilize right now.

Let’s start off with one that’s been my personal favorite…

1. Article Marketing – An Oldie but Goodie

This is a traditional method of building links. It still works for getting instant traffic and building links.

Don’t blast your articles to hundreds of sites unless you’re at least submitting readable spun articles (remember, automatic spinning completely sucks – any program that does spinning automatically for you is going to churn out garbage articles). Instead, submit to the top 10 or top 20 article sites. These include:

Ezinearticles
GoArticles
Articledashboard
Amazines
Articlesalley

Time spent writing a 300 word article: 20 minutes.
Time spent submitting the article: 10 minutes.
Backlinks gained: 5-10.

2. Share Articles on Web 2.0 Hub Sites Like Squidoo, Hubpages, Zimbio, Xanga, and Others.

This is the latest trend in web 2.0 link building. Getting your article on powerful sites like Squidoo and Hubpages can do wonders for your linking. I think in the future these kinds of sites might just take over article directories. When you post an article feel free to include 3-5 in-content links within the body of the article – but not too many because it might seem spammy.

My favorites are:
Squidoo
Hubpages
Zimbio
Xanga
Wetpaint
Wikispaces
and Gather.

Time spent writing a 300 word article: 20 minutes.
Time spent submitting the article: 10 minutes.
Backlinks gained: 10-20.

3. Do-Follow Social Bookmarking.

This is a really easy way of building links that anyone can do. Social bookmarking is just like public bookmarking – submit your deep link URL, title, and a small description and the site displays your link for everyone (including the Google robot to see).

WARNING
Make sure you’re actually getting link juice from your social bookmarkings! Only submit to social bookmark sites that are dofollow and don’t use any kind of redirects to rob you of that beloved backlink.

The best do-follow social bookmarking sites include:

Mister-wong
Backflip
Spurl
Linkagogo
Mylinkvault
Spotback

Find the top 20 do-follow social bookmarking sites here.

Time spent submitting links: 30 minutes.
Backlinks gained: 10-20.

4. Deep link and niche directory directory submissions.

These days I don’t really like massively submitting my homepage link to general directories spread out all across the web. Most directories are completely worthless, and those that aren’t want you to pay for inclusion or at least give them a reciprocal link (which pretty much defeats the purpose of trying to get a one-way backlink in the first place).

Instead of general directories, opt for deep link directories or niche directories. Let’s look at the benefits of each one.

With deep link directories you can alternate URLs, titles, and descriptions. This is going to make your backlinks look more natural because you aren’t submitting the same URL with the same titles and descriptions to a bunch of directories across the web.

Get 10 deep link URLs you want to promote and come up with unique titles, descriptions, and keywords for each one. Pay someone or spend some time submitting these to a couple hundred deep link directories. This is really going to spread the link love across many pages within your site (which is more natural), instead of just the homepage like a traditional directory would.

I also like niche directories too because of the relevant link that they offer. Take for example two directories which have the same link power, but one is a health directory and another is a general directory. If I have a health site then getting a link from the health directory is going to benefit my site much mofe than the general directory, simply because of the relevance. Google loves relevant links.

Check out this list of deep link directories as well as this list of niche directories.

Time spent submitting links: 30 minutes.
Backlinks gained: 10-15.

5. Press release writing and submission.

Press releases are in high demand by webmasters who not only want to get free backlinks from press release sites, but who also want to try to create a media buzz with their sites. If you have something that you think might be newsworthy, take the time out to write and submit a press release. If you can’t do this yourself there are services out there that will do this at various costs – from affordable to enormously expensive.

The nice thing about press releases is that Google news will most likely pick up your press release if you syndicate it to enough places. What’s a link from Google News worth? I’m not sure, but I’m certain it can’t hurt!

Here you can find a list of free press release distrubution sites you can submit your press releases to.

Time spent writing a 300 word press release: 20 minutes.
Time spent submitting your press release: 10 minutes.
Backlinks gained: 5-10 + Google News syndication.

I also came across a site called Socialmediatrader. They did an analysis on what kind of content is most popular on sites like Digg, Propeller, and StumbleUpon. Propellers third most popular is Health, which is one of my major niches – so I will keep that in mind for future submissions.

I’m quickly noticing that the friend system on Digg is wildly different than that of Myspace. On Myspace is the quantity of friends you have that’s important, on Digg it’s the quality of your friends and their activity which carries the most weight.

I’ve decided to add the Top 100 Digg users to my friend list to see if I can make connections with these people, as they pull the most weight on Digg.