Just so you don’t think I am misleading you, I should tell you this before hand:
I am not going to talk about the latest and greatest software tool that would help you mass submit (or rather say, "mass spam" thousands of sites).
With that said, I am going to tell you of a few methods you can use to find sites that allow backlinks. Note that to use this method you must be:
– Motivated
– Enterprising and willing to work hard
– Willing to move on in case you encounter bad sites. Remember, no matter how smart you are, you WILL encounter a few sites that are averse to backlinks, just about any kind of backlinks, regardless of whether you believe they are "bad" or "good" links. There is no point in arguing with the webmasters of such sites; I prefer to move on!
– Have a little knowledge in HTML, BBCode, etc. ;)
– Lastly, I would also like to add that if this method fails to work at anytime in future I won’t be responsible for it (but I would certainly appreciate it if you let me know of the same :D)
That said, I am sure if you follow my instructions you should be able to find enough sites where you can drop links. :)
There are numerous ways to find sites where you can drop backlinks. Let us discover them…. ;)
IMPORTANT: You MUST acquaint yourself with the Google search operators before proceeding with the rest of the article. These are the typical operators you would use to make a search query in Google. Call it math or science, but unless you understand these queries properly you won’t be able to make some of the "techy" search queries that are required to find good backlink sites. :D
For reference purposes:
HTML Code to use for Backlinks:
<a href="http://www.yourdomain.com">Keyword</a>
BBCode to use for Backlinks:
[url=http://www.yourdomain.com]Keyword[/url]
Textile markup to use for Backlinks:
"Keyword":http://www.yourdomain.com
This is the fifth part of the "Ultimate Secret to Getting Tons of Backlinks at NO Cost" series. If you have not already, you should also read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3, and Part 4. These tips, together with Paul’s backlinks, should effectively push you to the top of Google™, regardless of the size of your niche’s competition. :D
5. SMF forums:
a) Where to drop backlinks:
A SMF™ forum usually offers you 2 places to drop backlinks:
i) The profile page: You can access this page in the following ways:
OLDER SMF Forums: Log into your forum account and then click on: "Profile". Then click on "Forum Profile Information" link on the left. In the "Website title" box you can put your preferred keyword and in the "Website URL" box, you can put in your website URL in this format:
http://domain.com
OR
http://domain.com/aboutme.html
NEWER SMF Forums: Log into your forum account and then click on: "Profile=>Forum Profile ". In the "Website title" box you can put your preferred keyword and in the "Website URL" box, you can put in your website URL in this format:
http://domain.com
OR
http://domain.com/aboutme.html
ii) Signature: The second place to drop links is of course, your forum signature. You should format your link in BBCode format. You can access your signature section in the following ways:
OLDER SMF Forums: Log into your forum account and then click on: "Profile". Then click on "Forum Profile Information" link on the left. There you would find a box called "Signature".
NEWER SMF Forums: Log into your forum account and then click on: "Profile=>Forum Profile ". There you would find a box called "Signature".
I kept it for the last because I don’t recommend adding links to your forum signature unless you have no other option.
As you might know, most (if not all) non-Internet marketing forums don’t like signature links, and even the internet marketing forums which do allow signature links are very strict about its use (see Warriorforum’s rules for a refresher). So, use this option only as a last resort. Some cases where you may need to add links to your forum signature are:
a) If your forum profile is not visible to the public (in this case Google won’t be able to see your profile either)
b) If your forum profile is visible to the public but NOT your website (again in this case Google won’t be able to see your link so your profile’s visibility does not really matter)
Usually this happens with very few forums and where it happens, it usually means that the forum has been heavily spammed, prompting the admin to shut off all places where one could drop links! :)
If at all you have to use the signature, don’t put links in the signature right away! Instead, put your own name or some famous quote (depending on the topic of the forum, but NO LINKS should be there) in the signature box! Next, make an innocuous post and wait for the post to get buried. Afterwards you can go back into your forum account and add the links in your signature.
To view your public profile, you can click either on the "Profile Info=>Summery" link, or on your username on your forum posts. You will be able to see how the links on your profile page as well as those on your forum signature look like!
Tips: When you are new to a forum, it is usually much better to reply to an existing post (the one with lots of replies) than start off a new thread, and making a substantial, intelligent post is better than a "me-too" post (it is another matter if you don’t consider yourself "intelligent" enough, in which case your only resort would be the "me-too" post; I would acknowledge myself guilty enough of it. ;) ).
Usually, the good sections to post are the "General discussion", "Off-topic", "Chat", or "Introduce Yourself" sections of a forum, as they are not as strictly moderated as the main sections of the forum
Also, there are some forums which may not automatically approve your post; but even with such forums, as long as you don’t add the signature links right away, your post will usually get approved. :)
b) How to find SMF forums: SMF may offer you only 2 places to drop backlinks, but the number of queries you can use to find SMF forums are certainly more than 2! :D Let us just explore some of them (because I am not sure if I know all the queries, hee hee ;) )
Queries you can use to find such sites (note that for each query, you can customize your options by clicking on "Show options" on the left to show you only forums, and "Advanced search" on the right of the search results page to show you only English sites; I have done it all for the sample queries):
Query#1:
"Powered by SMF" (sample query)
Query yielded: 270,000,000 results
Query#2 (Use this only IF query#1 fails for some reason):
Powered by SMF (sample query)
Query yielded: 16,300,000 results
Query#3 (Use this only IF query#1 and 2 fail for some reason):
Websites containing the word "http://www.simplemachines.org/" within the site’s text (sample query)
Query yielded: 30,700 results
Query#4 (Use this only IF query#1, 2 and 3 fail for some reason):
SMF Backlinks (sample query)
Query yielded: 102,903,861 results (you might get more backlink sites with this query but chances of false positives are equally high)
I deliberately chose Yahoo™ site explorer here as Google™ is not too honest about showing all external backlinks of a website to anyone other than the website owner. After all, their motto is "Do no evil" (and spying on another person’s website is probably as much "evil" in Google’s eyes as are "artificial link building" and "pagerank selling".) ;)
Query#5 (Use this only IF query#1, 2, 3 and 4 fail for some reason):
Sites related to http://www.simplemachines.org/community/ (sample query)
Query yielded: 192 results (you may get a lot of false positives with this query)
Verdict: Query#1 is best! ;)
For Finding Niche forums ONLY (that is, forums related to a particular niche or topic): I have found that the following search queries are working decently:
"Powered by SMF"+"intitle:weight loss" (replace "weight loss" with your niche; check sample query)
OR
Powered by SMF+acne (replace "acne" with your niche; check sample query)
FYI: Either query should work fine for any niche; however, I got more results with the first query than the second one. :)
Now go and spam all the SMF forums you can find while I write the next part of the article. :D ;) (only kidding)
I cannot give an ETA on when the next part of this article would be available, as I am busier than usual this month (and of course, a lot depends on the number of nice comments I receive for this article ;) )
If you like this article, please click here to post a nice comment, thanks. :D
Hi Arindam,
This is a great series and has been extremely useful for me. Understanding backlinks was the most difficult concept for me when I first started affiliate marketing and you’ve really fine-tuned the processes we need to follow. THANK YOU!
Hi Arindam,
As usual, I was bored to tears. Great series – I’ve learned a lot.
Out of curiosity I thought I’d see if you practice what you preach.
Backlinkchecker says 643 links.
Backlinkwatch says 289.
Market Samurai says 818 to the home page and 3751 to the domain. Impressive!
It would be nice if they were remotely in the same ballpark.
Which do you think is closest to the truth?
Another great installment to the series. I’ve been following since the first one was posted.
I’ve got all of the series safely saved in my computer and can say that I’ve found a few gems where I can regularly drop backlinks when I need them. I try not to spam them as they have become very valuable to me.
Very well done, again. Qwerstion on this though. Do you create a new account for each forum for each niche or keyword? If so, how do you go about keeping track of them? Do you use a spread sheet if so do you have one you can show how you lay it out?
Am I asking too many qwerstions or acting like I am lazy? Just have a hard time thinking outside the box sometimes.
Valuable stuff. Are we there yet?
Actually I create a new account with a new username for each new project. Now this project may contain one URL or 2 URLs of two different niches. As for your organization question, I use Roboform:
http://flexiblewriter.com/must-have-tool-for-backlinks-of-angela-and-paul