A little rant today.
One of the comments left after my link building interview on SearchEnginePeople (thank you Ruud) made me raise an eyebrow. It said:
Good advice but they are completely basic and well known . i always think whether their are some hidden secrets which make the link building very easy
Bold is mine . The comment was made in response to a list of link building tactics I supplied in the interview.
Whenever I speak at a conference or workshop, people pull me aside after my spiel and ask if I’d share the “real insider tips” on link building. Never mind the fact I had just spent the last 45 minutes on stage sharing how we use the media, customer surveys, website elements, RSS, directories, content development and offline sources to build quality links.
Nope, they still think I’m holding out. So they sidle up to me and start asking questions. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Person: Good talk Debra, got a few nuggets but can you share a couple “easy” ”secret” tips with me?
Me: Thank you for saying that. Sure I’d be happy to share my favorite insider tip with you, it’s super super ”easy”, effective and can be summed up in one word!
Person: (laughs and breathlessly scrambles for a pen) One word – oh boy this must be a great tip!
Me: Yep, and best of all, it’s very inexpensive to implement.
Person: Really? WOW! What is it?
Me: Postcards.
Person: (blinks rapidly) Wait, what did you say?
Me: Postcards.
Person: (sounding a little confused) Do you mean postcards.com? Is that some incredibly high PageRank site with free dofollow links? (gets breathless again) How do you get them?
Me: Nope, I mean postcards as in those little paper things you send in the snail mail. We use them as part of our link building campaign to increase email open rates. That’s the ”secret” “easy” link building tip I have that works every time.
Now… some people press me for details and I’ll explain how we use the postcard to increase our email open rates, build trust and brand. It’s a “secret” communication weapon I’ve used for years and works everytime. They get it, smile and leave happy.
But others don’t smile and don’t get it. They’re convinced there’s a cache of “easy” ”secret” tactics known only to link builders and using postcards simply couldn’t be one of them. I get asked about redirects, widgets, comment dropping and paid links because people think these are link building “secrets”. I’m not sure why but believe it has to do with the fact they’re not talked about as much and people equate them with some degree of difficulty since they’re more technically related.
As a result, some people assume these technical tactics are more effective than the tactics in my presentation. I kinda get that, I used to be under the same impression until I actively worked with these techniques. Redirects are awesome and can point a lot of link juice in a short period but you still have to have the pages in place to redirect from. Widgets work too provided you target the right demographic and have the money to get them launched.
I guess you could consider the technical tactics ”easy” since they’re (mostly) automated, dependent on scripts and require little if any marketing strategy. They’re certainly faster than the tactics I recommend but fast doesn’t always equate to long-term and in marketing, you want long-term.
So… my two cents about this comment:
i always think whether their are some hidden secrets which make the link building very easy
No, there really aren’t any ”secret” link building tactics, what you hear is pretty much what’s out there. But there is some secrecy around website sources and where to find them so the answer to the question is yes and no. Focus on finding partner sites that have been:
online for a couple years
have been indexed
will allow links in content areas
use clean links
are host to your demographic
are in the major directories
And so on. It’s going to be hard to meet all the criteria I listed so go for as many as you can. If you do, you’ll find it “easy” to rank well no matter what tactic you use. That’s the big “secret”. 
Element Directories. I saw you speak on this at SES SJ this year. Do you have any examples of element directories you could share with us? Thanks!
So many secrets so many methods. All want to now what they are, just start by working on all the methods (white hat) little at a time. Online and offline. Some of the little weird things I do offline are that my routers name is the name of my site. And the BlueTooth on my phone has it to.
Shaun
What happens to all those Wavers that think [a]Getting Links = SEO[/a] when that majority of the Google algo is devalued in many ways? Wavers built their fortunes on “links=seo”. When that goes away, the Wavers have zero to hold on to.
great post-link building is one of the hardest and most boring part of internet marketing to me-your post was very helpful-Thank you
[...] behind link building secrets. Link development expert Debra Mastaler wrote a revealing post called The Only Link Building Secrets Out There Are The Ones You Don’t Listen To. Rather than looking for a magically easy solution to the challenge of link building, devote the [...]
This is one of the first posts about SEO that I can say I 100% agree with from any website. Everyone once in awhile I read what other SEOs are writing about and it is quite interesting how much they contradict each other with their secrets. I think it all goes back to two things: 1) Become the number one resource in your category which brings me to the second point 2) Earn your results-stop trying to take shortcuts.
Ok Debra so the secret here is
Content=work=traffic
If only people would really understand this from the beginning. Life would be much simpler.
Thanks for the rant…. I feel better now.
Sorry I haven’t jumped in here sooner to respond.
@Kevin – Really – there are NO secret methods. The tactics are all out there you just have to figure out ways to apply them to your site and find the right sites to get the links on.
People in the SEO community are extremely generous almost to the point of stupidity sometimes, no one is holding back on ‘how’ to do things.
@VincentH
We use the cards and other tools to help open lines of communication with potential partner sites. A lot of email ends up in spam bins when it’s sent cold so the mail contact helps with this.
Overcoming objections is key in selling, find out why people don’t want something and overcome the obstacle.
Gotta run but thanks for all the comments
Debra, I have often thought about writing a similar post as I get asked the same question all the time. And I must confess I usually say what Ryan says: “it’s work”. Everyone wants the easy way to build high quality links, but it really just takes thought & persistence.
I thought you were going to say that “work” is the one word “secret” to getting links. Removing distractions would be another. How many times I’ve sat down to do some work at the computer that by the time I’ve finished – or my battery charge ran out – I haven’t done anything to propel my business forward.