Dennis Edell commented on one of my posts to let me know he was curious about my linkbuilding strategies and I promised to write a post about it, so here it is.
Before I start sharing, there are a few things I really need to confess:
- First of all, I am a pretty lazy person and prefer to do as little work as possible.
- Second, I have a big sense of perfectionism in my personality, so I tend to overthink things.
- Third, I have a very short span of concentration, too many ideas I want to put to work and lose interest rather quickly.
Now, in order to become more successful in my online business, I completely realize that these three character flaws desperately need to be corrected and I have spent way too much time trying to find solutions for these flaws, reading all sorts of advice, even self help programs are no strangers to me.
Having cleared that up, I found that the only way to actually be able to set up a linkbuilding and promotion strategy is to go step-by-step… teeny tiny steps that is.
If I would go “big and huge”, spending hours and hours at a time along a set strategy of many many links a day, the task at hand would seem way too big and I’d probably don’t even start.
So, something that is really important to me is build on consistency, make things a daily habit and breaking patterns instead of shying away from big efforts, becoming overwhelmed and thinking that it won’t work in the first place and all other excuses I make to myself in order to avoid taking action.
So here is what I am doing at the moment:
I have made a list of all the websites that need promotion and highlighted different things I want to do for each of them, whether it be article marketing, directory submission, social book marking, commenting strategies etc.
I made a pretty little worksheet so I can hold myself accountable each day and put a timer on my desk so I can work in short spurts, making it easier for me to focus. After all, I tell myself that I only need, say 15 minutes of submitting to directories on one site, 15 minutes of social bookmarking on another and after completion I tick off on the list.
As you can see, it is really about taking baby steps at this point in time, crossing off every little task per site per day,
However, I have noticed that this seems to work for me at this point in time because of a few things:
1. Each task completed is one step in the right direction
2. I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore
3. I am noticing productivity level going up
I have set a list of minimum daily link building goals per site, very attainable goals which really only take around 2 hours to complete, again for building up daily consistency and try doing that first thing in the morning, breaking it down that would lead to about 50 new links per site per week, roughly, through directory submission, social bookmarking, commenting etc.
Apart from that I write a lot of articles daily, and submit part of them to article directories. 2-5 articles weekly per site, through article marketer, depending on whether a site is new or has been around for a longer time, which gives me another 50-100 links per article submitted.
Hope that gives you a basic idea of my linkbuilding strategies,
care to share yours?
Any comments are of course more than welcome
and *cough cough* needed!
Doh! Of course it was this post
Thanks for the link!
I’ll have to come back and comment more after I have a minute to read it thoroughly
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Your post made me realize something. I’ve always said I’m a procrastinator, but actually it’s just a big word for laziness. Yes, that’s what I suffer from too.
And I also have read oodles of self improvement books. Reading is great but no good unless you take action on what you have learned. “Mea Culpa” I’m guilty.
So, I’m going to do exactly what you’re doing…unless you took out a patent on your method. Your post has really opened my eyes. Thank you!
Joyce
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LOL
take your time, it is nothing really spectacular, no secrets given away there, no recipe to success
:P
But like you mentioned somewhere in one of your comments on one of your posts (saying that many times the comments are more informative than the actual post
:P) somebody will probably comment with some great advice and maybe if we are lucky, “give away their secret” 
Hi Joyce
I actually looked up the word procrastination in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination because I always thought it was just another word for laziness, some excuse for not having to admit to being lazy, after all “procrastinator” kind of doesn´t sound as bad as “lazy”.
In my mind it really doesn´t matter though how you call “not completing the task you need to do”, whether it be laziness or procrastination, the end result is the same:
You don´t reach your full potential and the only way to be successful is to take action.
Once I got to that realization, I figured that taking any step, no matter how little (like only 15 minutes on 1 task), was always better than no step at all, but it would make a huge change to start with.
My past is what brought me to where I am today, but today is the only moment I can make changes to my future and am responsable/accountable for just that, so I rather think in terms of “wheeehaaaa another little task completed” than putting myself down by thinking of the huuuuge amount of tasks ahead of me and freezing up for whatever reason.
Like mentioned in “The Secret”, I can´t recall by whom,
“Imagine you are on the road from A to B and need to drive a 100 miles in the dark. The lightbeam of your car will only light up a few feet in front of you, but if you keep driving you will see the road becoming visual along the way. ”
Thank you for your encouraging words!
ps. I do occasionally use “hornbeam” (bach flower remedy)” which helps with “procrastination, tiredness at the thought of doing something”, in fact, I should keep using it, anything for the bigger picture!
Cool little strategy. Small enough so its simple to complete, and every completion gives you the good feeling to keep going…I like that.
Ok I could be wrong, but I’m assuming, ” somebody will probably comment with some great advice and maybe if we are lucky, “give away their secret” ” was meant for me
I’ll say this…I have been devising a strategy for myself for quite sometime, but since I am about to release a project I’ve been working on which will essentially quadruple my blogging…I will have to rework things.
I’ll tell it I promise, as soon as i have it under control
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LOL you are assuming correctly, but it was also a reference to your post on how you hate it when a blogger doesn´t reply to the comments, were you said some comments are sometimes better than the post itself
I believe strategies are just a tool to keep you on track, but should always be adapted to new projects, and be build up slowly, well the last bit (building up slowly) is more personal, it seems to work better for me and it is easier to do than start with something huge, which tends to make me feel overwhelmed.
Looking forward to hear what you have under control, once you are there!
When I started my internet career, I did everything in bulk. If I started submissions then I was doing that for several hours so missed other tasks. After a few months, I realized that I was loosing everything. I have a very good working schedule now, I give specific or limited time to each task a day and have divided all tasks in small chunks. Amazingly that is the best approach to do internet businesses.
Good points. I’m a firm believer though that “building up slowly” really shouldnt be so personal…if more people took to that, we’d have far fewer forum posts that start with…
Please god help!!!!!!! I’m so overwhelmed!!!!!!!
LOL
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John – I did the same sorta thing. The first thing I was introduced to marketing wise was forums, oh man did I get addicted to the point of nothing else
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Blog Comment Tip: Respond to Comments or Risk Losing Subscribers
Hi John, I can completely relate to your reply
:D
Once I found out about internet marketing, I wanted to know everything and anything about it, downloading I don´t know how many ebooks, signing up for all sorts of programs. Needless to say, that wasn´t very productive. It was good to learn a bit about what the possibilities are, but as long as you stay at the stage of gathering information, there is no room for actually taking action.
I started building all different kind of sites, learning a lot that way and started making some money but nowhere near the point I could call my efforts a success.
The point I was missing was the promotion side, getting traffic.
When I started this blog though, the pieces started all falling together, eventhough I have to admit I spent way too much time in the first few months, communicating with other bloggers, especially through reading blogs and commenting and participating.
However, that has changed now too, I try to stay clear from the social part of internet marketing, atleast until I have finished my set tasks for the day.
Deviding task in different smaller bits is great, it keeps you motivated and stay focussed on things that really matter
LOL Dennis, I got addicted to the blogosphere, reading and commenting on other blogs ….
At the moment I’m working BANS sites and basically I get 3 articles written per site for submission to Article Marketer. I do some Bookmarking Demon runs and leave the site to sit there for a couple of months. My plan is to then have someone submit the sites to the web directories and then I’ll throw a couple of links from other sites I own and that should be enough. I know I should be doing more but with so many sites to develop I feel I can’t do everything all at once.
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hi April
thanks for sharing your strategies, I completely understand where you are coming from LOL I guess you are doing a lot more than the average joe so kudos to you!
FYI had to catch your comment out of the spambox…
Reading blogs is such an addiction which ruined me a lot and am speechless. I always am short of my daily tasks and always need some extra time to sacrifice my sleep and personal life. May be it is not a right thing and I should follow my tasks first but it will take some time.
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It is hard enough to write a few posts a week I can’t image also submitting so many articles. But I guess that is what it takes to be successful.
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