Ideas for building links to your website

Building links doesn't have to be complicated.

You might only have a few pages of your site built. Or maybe you have a good number of pages already.

However far your site has developed, here are some quick tips on how to get links into your site via virtual communities.

You don't need to follow all of these suggestions - just start with one, and see how you go. After all, building links is something that you will work on one step at a time, all through the life of your website.

Get involved with social bookmarking/networking sites

Why not use the Flock web browser to get yourself organized building links?

Social bookmarking sites

Yahoo! Bookmarks
Yahoo's bookmarking tool is in Beta, and currently all your bookmarks are kept private - so no links to your site from here yet. But it's a simple way to find out how bookmarking works if you're signed up with Yahoo! and want to practise a little! You can share your bookmarks with friends via email or Messenger, though.

Furl
With Furl, you can add a button to your browser toolbar. Anytime you see a site you want to bookmark, you can click on the button and "Furl it." Your bookmarked pages can be made public or private, and specify whether you want search engine spiders to visit your public archive. Part of Looksmart.

Del.icio.us
Similar to Furl, also with options for public or private bookmarks and a toolbar button option. Owned by... Yahoo!

As far as building links is concerned, the idea with Furl and Del.icio.us is for you to add a selection of sites that you truly find interesting - with a couple of mentions of pages from your site - your home page and another good page. Don't spam these sites, there's no point. Then make your selected sites public, and add "tags" for del.icio.us or topics and keywords for Furl to describe what each site is about.

You don't have to spend hours on each of these sites. Check them out, then choose one to use for the moment.

Let visitors to your site add your pages to their own social bookmarks!
Try building links by adding bookmarking buttons to your site - this allows visitors to add your page to their own social bookmarks.

Here's a useful free tool from Add This! - Try it out:

I've had success using this on the home page of my site. The great thing about Add This! is that they provide stats for the number of people who have bookmarked you and where your content was sent - to their favorites folder, Yahoo My Web, MSN Live and so on.

Building links from social networking sites

Forums
Find a forum that suits your site's theme, or where your target audience is active. Read the forum guidelines to familiarize yourself with what's allowed and what's not. Some forums won't allow you to blatantly advertise your site - in any case, it's better to be seen as a valid contributor if you want people to take you and your site seriously.

If appropriate, link to a page on your site that solves a problem someone's asking about, or include a description of your latest online efforts along with a link to your site. Keep it natural.

Groups
Yahoo! MSN and Google all have their groups - similar to forums, but with extra capabilities such as calendars, polls, photo uploading capabilities and email. In my experience, finding a good group and posting takes more time than I'd like.

Although not a group exactly, I've found Yahoo! Answers an easier experience. Find a question you can answer, and add a page from your site as a resource.

Blogs
Although most blogs offer a facility allowing you to add comments, very few actually have a good crop of lively comments added daily. If you can find a blog about your theme, you may be able to contribute and add a link to your site. Be aware that your comments may well be moderated before going live on the site, so again, keep up the quality.

Stay sane...