I absolutely suck at link building

I hate it. I can't manage to get my head around it properly. I hate approaching other sites, asking for a link. I'm not really in a field, where I can write a thought provoking or life changing article that they'd want to link to naturally.

I have no idea what the best route is anymore. I just know that I need to have more quality relevant sites linking back to me and I'm crap at achieving that.

I want to be earning $10,000 a day like my competitor, but I'm being held back by my link building skills or lack of.

I don't think I could bare sending those disgusting emails, telling the webmasters I've added their link to so and so a page and could they please add mine. It just seems wrong.

So, advice please. Shut up and get on with it?

if you are looking to do it yourself then directories are the way to go.. for now.. look at trying to get yourself listed in the ODP. yeah i know people say it is impossible but it really isn't. if you are intuitive and resourceful enough then you can do it in under a month... TRUST ME I HAVE DONE IT MANY TIMES INCLUDING FOR MY COMPANIES SITE... also look at all the other popular directories out there.

good luck with your link building efforts. I really wish you the best.

With that scope it is madding!

...and worse... 95% of reciprocal links are worthless due to supplemental results... any page held in supplemental results - their links pass no juice.

Most directories free or PPI have the same problem... and Google makes this increasingly much more difficult and as such costly.

Thanks for the response. The site I want to build links for, already has quite a few links. It has a PR6.

I just know I need to be actively link building and I'm not, which then just causes me worry and I waste time worrying rather than link building. Fun cycle.

As for DMOZ, I was listed in there from day 1, until one of my competitors become and editor and removed my link. Absolutely stinks and I have no way of getting it back, which bothers me. Partly out of principle but mostly because I know it's useful.

Hey Fathom, can I just borrow you for a few days, I'll feed you well . Anything you can add, to perhaps guide me in the right direction?

My advice is then to abandon your website and get a job a KFC... I bet your competator smiles when he reads your post..

The problem I think is you need to make a mental shift in your attitude to the challange. I used to teach sales in reatailing. The way I would tell my students to approach the job was to treat it as a game... The name of the game was "Get the money out of the customers pocket" ... If the customer left with the money in their pocket you lost. If you got there money you won.. The more money you could get of them the bigger the win... I would tell them to keep track of their wins and losses each day.. Try to do better the next day... This way a quite boring job could be turned into a challange. Every new customer a new hand being dealt...

I approach link building with the same attitude... Develop my stratergies, tactics and tools needed to play. Then play to win... This way when sending emails I am making a gamble/play, rolling the dice... The losses do not matter it is the wins that count. The thrill of getting a great link is more than enough to make up for the tedium of all the plays that give no return. It is scoring the goal that is the object of the game. Play well and the finacial rewards can be great. Keep in mind the desire not to be a loser is just as powerful a motivating force as the desire to be the winner. Always remeber that comming second simply means you are the first loser...

Your link bait is your players/cards. It can take a long time to create decent link bait. My last piece took me and my partner over 8 months to create. So far since going live it has attracted multiple great links. Including three from NASA.. During the making of it I never got dissalusioned... I just keep thinking of the goals it would help us score. It was tedious and time consuming to create.

If you can turn the challange of link building into a game and play to win you are on the path to the thousands you desire. Do not look as barriers as bad. They are good. The more obsticles there is the harder it is for your competators to catch you when you gain the lead. Picture the thrill you will have when you kick you competators butt from number one..

What is your industry/product maybee some members here can help give you some ideas for bait.

Best of luck

Come on, SEOmaverick,

with 71,686 backlinks in Yahoo SiteExplorer, 575,105 registered members in your forum, a 3rd position in Google for a request returning 2,460,000 results, you have already accomplished an impressive work.

Looks like you are suffering a burnout syndrome: it's maybe time to take a 4-5 weeks break, get rid of the stress and then come back with clearer ideas.

Just a remark: I had a look at the "text only" version of your home page in Google cache, and I think that your site is a little bit "over-optimized". That could explain why you don't rank so well on your other important keyword.

Another remark: you don't take enough advantage of your blog. It could easily become a good bait for backlinks.

Some great points. I like the Idea of the game Gazza. A mental shift is definitely what I need right now.

Keiros, you're right, part of this is a case of burnout. I've been reasonably successful at gaining links and very successful networking.

I'm going to focus on creating some great new content and then do the rounds.

Thanks guys

I think I have a good idea too but that doesn't really help that I don't like contacting webmasters to add my link :p

If that is your goal you may get discouraged and quit far before your realization of that goal. Instead you need to focus on goals of steadily and consistently increasing and holding positions in Google which will bring traffic and conversions. It may take you 1, 2,3 or maybe 5 years to realize your goal but if you actively spend every waking hour working on it you can make it.

Forgive my skepticism but I don't believe you...

No more promoting your services... when you get enough posts to have a signature you can do so there...

1. Outsource a load of articles around the theme of your website and submitting to the article directories.

2. Put content on the big web 2.0 sites like Squidoo and Hubpages.

3. Find blogs in your niche that dofollow and add useful comments so you get backlinks.

4. Mass submit your RSS feeds

5. Create some mini sites based around you current niches and build backlinks, plus link to your main site.

6. Any really good content you have you should Digg, Stumbleupon, etc

7. Sign up for a service like Jonathan Ledger's three way links or whatever it's called.

8. Outsource directory submissions, preferably drip feeding new links over a period of time

i think u choosed wrong path so that you bcame tired

there are number of ideas to get backlinks.

if you want more and more backlinks without doing more efforts you can write ezine article on your faorite various topics.

many peoples will publish that article on their websites and you will get backlinks easily.

now you need to do effort to write a good article which shud attract peoples

this is only one idea there are you can easily find minimun 1001 ideas like this.

How can i Promote my services, When Im not charging. I wanna help

I think you should take issue with the DMOZ removal. That is absolutely not meant to happen...there must be an uber-editor you can contact. How do you know it was your competitor?

Then give an example and put in the time for us to then believe you... If none of us can do the same thing that you are "offering" then we will pull our hats off to you.

Understand that alot of the big guys do indeed make that 10k a day because they know alot more about SEO.