32 Nifty ways to build links and drive traffic

Link building is an essential necessity for all bloggers, unless you don’t want to be indexed by google and drive a ton of traffic to your blog, then by all means - skip right past this blog post.

Here is a definitive - simple list of things you can do to get incoming links.

1. Give away Freebies
2. Contribute to popular forums, using your link in your signature.
3. Write a pillar or link bait article, and get it plastered on digg, reddit, and other viral sites.
4. Create video link bait that goes viral on youtube.
5. Post your link as the source on Question and Answer sites like Yahoo Answers.
6. Write a Wordpress Theme, or Plugin. Themes are great because you can link back to your site in the copyright area.
7. Do something unusual that gets you noticed on a popular news site.
8. Share the link love, link to others who may link back.
9. Insult an authority in your niche, might get you flamed but it may get you some good backlinks.
10. Become top commenter on do-follow blogs.
11. Produce killer content that people quote, and link to.
12. Use Ping.fm to post your blog posts across multiple social networks so people see it, and link to it.
13. Cross link from your other websites.
14. Provide a great service, or design a web app.
15. Make an ebook. Give it away for a great way to get new email subscribers for your blog.
16. Starting an affiliate program, is a great way to get a ton of incoming links, and authority.
17. Write guest posts for other blogs in your niche, make sure to add your link in the bio box.
18. Submit articles to article sites, linking back to your site in the bio.
19. Purchase Reviews, or ask people to Review it.
20. Become DoFollow and Submit your blog to dofollow directories.
21. Write reviews, if you give a good review the site may link to you, if you give a bad review then other sites might link to your review.
22. Submit to free and paid directories.
23. Write list posts, people love lists(you’re reading this post aren’t you?), and lists get lots of links!
24. Make a poll or survey that people are interested in.
25. Create a wikipedia page about your blog, that links back to it.
26. Sponsor other sites, get them to review you.
27. Start a charity or non-profit.
28. Hold contests. Then post that contest at Blog Contest Site.
29. Release a firefox extension or plugin that is a must have.
30. Interview someone famous, or at least semi-famous. Even a popular blogger will work, your mom, though in most cases won’t work.
31. Writing meaningful, non-spammy, comments on do-follow blogs.
32. Ask for people to retweet, digg, or stumble your best articles.

Source: There's a blog in my soup

Best Practices: Developing Sources to Break Stories

One of the questions reporters and multimedia journalists ask the most is “How can I find story ideas to break stories so I don’t have to take the ‘crumbs’ from the assignment desk?” You can do it by developing sources. Here are best practices:

Active Listening

Hear What People Are Really Saying Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others. We listen to obtain information. We listen to understand. We listen for enjoyment. We listen to learn. Given all this listening we do, you would think we’d be good at it! In fact we’re not. Depending on the study being quoted, we remember a dismal 25-50% of what we hear. That means that when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers or spouse for 10 minutes, they only really hear 2½-5 minutes of the conversation. Turn it around and it reveals that when you are receiving directions or being presented with information, you aren’t hearing the whole message either. You hope the important parts are captured in your

Click to read more ...

Kutiman, Big Media, and the Future of Creative Entrepreneurship

Unsolicited tip for media company c-levels: if your reaction to this crate of magic is “Hm. I wonder how we’d go about suing someone who ‘did this’ with our IP?” instead of, “Holy crap, clearly, this is the freaking future of entertainment,” it’s probably time to put some ramen on your Visa and start making stuff up for your LinkedIn page.

Click to read more ...

Creating Widespread Empathy

Dev Patnaik "This manifesto is dedicated to what ought be a mind-scorchingly obvious idea. An idea that every successful company ought to know and understand in their bones. An idea that the vast majority of companies nonetheless fail to get.

That idea? That empathy equals growth."

Download PDF

Source: Change This