checking a couple of things about links in and out

[Cloughie]

Hi,

My sites are:

www.wannabebig.com
www.wannabebigforums.com
www.atlargenutrition.com

I really don't focus on SEO much, just try to focus on doing things that make sense and building a nice site. So far thats worked well, however it seems a waste not to focus on building links and page rank.

So, I am going to pay my brothers girlfriend to build links for me. Its too time consukming for me and she needs the money and is really good at admin and being organised so could do it very well. She is really good with the internet in general also.

I was considering getting a template for her to send to other websites, encouraging them to link to my sites. I figure, you don;t ask, you don't get.

Now, the question is, should i have a links page on www.wannabebig.com so I can offer a link back?

If so thats the most beneficial way to set it up and link to it from pages on my site?

Should I have one big page of links or should I have several pages categorised?

Should I link to this links page from my home page?

Should I not bother at all?

Thanks in advance!

[Chris]

Google has been working on detecting link exchanges, and while its not exactly clear what they do when they find one, you can assume that they wouldn't be looking for them unless they had a reason.

I would instead aim at getting one way links. Anyone can do a link exchange, but a one way link is what you really want.

If you did do link exchanges having a links page linked to from your homepage and nowhere else on your site is generally going to be best.

You should make sure she doesn't spam or do anything spammy when building links for you. Ask her to work on niche directory submissions as well.

[Cloughie]

Yep, I will ensure she doesn't do anything too spammy... She is pretty intelligent and should do a good job.

I can think of 3 ways to get one way links...

1. Have great content so people WANT to link to you without you having to ask

2. Ask people

3. Allow people to reproduce your content and they have to link back with a credit.

[Cloughie]

Oh another question if I may :)

I have been publishing a higher quality level of content for about 5 months now. So have a solid 20 article behind me that are HIGH qualty. I have about 200 older pieces of content.

perhaps I should just allow sites to re-publish the older stuff with a link back to me? I could create a page on wannabebig which is for websmasters looking for content with clear instructions on what they can publish and exactly what credits they need to give.

Your thoughts?

[Cloughie]

one more problem.

The older content I tended to get for free... Would there becopy write issues. People always wrote for me on a very informal basis and I doubt anyone would care that their article is published elsewhere in fact would probably be proud.

Should I contact every author (don't even have contact details for most) or should I just do it and if I ever get a complaint, take it from the republishing list. Its not like I am selling it to anyone, just allowing others to publish it.

[MelodyAnn]

I don't know the legalities, but I would be very cautious about offering free content that isn't yours to offer!

Someone may have submitted something to you because they liked your site, but it doesn't necessarily mean they want it used on other sites. Once you offer it up to other sites, if they do contact you and say they don't want that - what will you do if other sites have already republished it? I understand you would remove the link from YOUR site offering it, but what if it's already been republished in several other places?

I know it's tough when you don't have contact info, but to be safe I'd contact the people I could to see how they feel, and don't offer anything you don't get specific permission for. Things are getting stickier and stickier in that area - if it's not yours, don't pass it around!