100 ideas for a linkbuilding strategy

Obviously investing in becoming a trusted brand is key to every online strategy.
But what if you're brand is trusted and loved already and basically all you need is getting that website some extra attention?

In that case you have to start some serious thinking on SEO and more particular linkbuilding.
I hand you 100 left field tips for effective linbuilding, some quite obvious, some not quite so obvious.

1. Join local chambers of commerce, they should link to you, and they are usually linked to by .gov sites and .edu sites. Write articles for the local chamber and they will link to you.

2. Rent a managed server and offer to host non profits for free or at a deep discount, and they will link to you, and they are usually linked to by .gov sites and .edu sites.

3. If your are a developer, offer your services for free or at a deep discount, to others, and they will link to you.

4. Provide a place for anyone to publish content for free or at a deep discount, and they will link to you.

5. Provide a quick reference to specific (niche) content sites, and they will link to you.

6. Publish your local sunrise, sunset times, daylight hours, and average temperatures etc, and they will link to you.

7. Create a flash of a street billboard as it changes over the year on a corner near you, and they will link to you.

8. Create a two page formatted page layout as a test, and explain the process of doing it, and they will link to you.

9. Be nice to people in forums, and they will link to you.

10. Join forums where there are profile pages, link back to yourself. If the profile doesn’t get indexed quickly enough, try linking to it yourself.

11. Be an active participant on forums and blogs that allow link-dropping in posts. Spamming will get you thrown out, but useful posts won’t.

12. Write in your own blogs. New blog post + blogroll = new link to sites in blogroll.

13. Write a blog post about something on one of your sites, and include the link naturally in the blog post. Works better if it’s not obvious that the blog and the site are both yours. And be nice, link to other sites as well, not just yours.

14. Social interaction of any type leads to links. Speak at a conference? Someone will likely blog about it.

15. Want to get thought leaders to promote your site? Create a community project or contest and ask them to participate.

16. Give out awards.

17. Lack the budget needed to go to conferences? Moderate forums, comment on related blogs.

18. Include a contriversial column in your website that enables you to write about spicy subjects.

19. Design Top 10 lists on any field related subject. Works only if done consistently and frequently.

20. Write about memorial moments in your life.

21. Create the one stunning video about a niche subject that resonates to your audience.

22. Interview stakeholders.

23. Subscribe to every possible sharing sytem available.

24. Update LinkedIn on a regular basis.

25. Search Google on related keywords and contact owners to exchange links.

26. Use Yahoo site explorer combined with Joost’s backlink tool, Link harvester or Linkdiagnosis.

27. Subscribe to Google Maps.

28. Create your own directory.

29, Create your own Wikipedia.

30. Ask customers for a review.

31. Ask dealers and providers to list you on their website or directory.

32. Being a creative: drop your creation on places where designers gather.

33. Sponsor an online or offline event and make sure you're listed on their ponsorpage.

34. Try to be a speaker on any field related event, seminar or workshop.

35. Donate to good causes.

36. Look for older related websites in your field an make an offer.

37. Find good content with high link popularity and ‘buy’ that pagee by having a textlink and pay for it.

38. Having a new service or product? Send some influencing bloggers or media a sample to write about it.

39. Organize an online game, the simpler the better.

40. Become listed or certified at sincere and trusted trade or consumer organisations.

41. Blog at other reknowened blogs.

42. Write a 'how to' guide.

43. Write a review yourself about a product or service you offer an inform the supplier.

44. Become an expert and influencers websites, university, newspaper etc, will link to your content.

45. Comment on blogs, but only if relevant and valuable. Even nofollow comments.

46. Apply RSS feeds to RSS directories.

47. Add articles to social media & news sites.

48. Use (intelligently) Squidoo, Google knol and the alikes.

49. Create some extra (basic) blogs through wordpress, blogger and other related places.

50. Join related forums and participate actively.

51. Use Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin for distribution.

52. Try Google News.

53. Use Google alerts to see where your articles end up and contact the webmasters.

54. Create pumper sites and publish unique content.

55. Create a useful tool, app, widget, Firefox extension, Wordpress plugin etc for your niche.

56. Make sure text navigation structures are properly designed, to enable searchbots.

57. Don't create to many layers in your website.

58. Apply dynamic linking and a good use of rel=”nofollow” if website is large enough.

59. Use full URL's at linking internally.

60. Make sure you are consistent in redirecting to pages.

61. Connect important and relevant pages.

62. Use Technorati or other social media monitor tools to see what's hot.

63. Be one of the first users of a given social network, and make sure to include your URL in either your username or your account profile.

64. Embed popular media with your brand in hilariously irresistible ways.

65. Every time you send out a new customer email, send a snippet of code they can paste into the 'partner' section of their website that will display your logo and a link back to your site (this works particularly well for B2B companies who like to show off their 'partnerships'.

66. Create a wallpaper and screensaver with your company's brand and submit it to all the free wallpaper/screensaver galleries.

67. Create a critics enquiry on a much discussed field related issue.

68. Design the ultimate list with biggest failures in your field.

69. Public library sites are a little known, but very powerful way to obtain high quality linkage.

70. Approach the librarian and demonstrate the unique and quality content which your site possesses.

71. Never refuse an interview for any reason. Make sure that they will have a short bio of you and that within that bio there is a link back to your site.

72. Seek out the awards-granting organizations in your particular field and make sure that they are aware of your efforts. Some of them will actually require you to apply for consideration for their next round of award selection. By all means do so. If you do win an award, then not only will that inspire confidence and trust in the visitors to your own site, but a link from a major award organization can be worth many times the value of any award in quality linkage.

73. Sponsor your local rugby club or bowling league raise your profile within the local community, but it will also gain you a treasured spot on the website of the particular community organization you're sponsoring. Some of these sites are tied into their national organization's websites and that can result in some very high value linkage. Charities are also known to prominently feature their benefactors, and you may find that a relatively small contribution can get you a very valuable link.

74. A no-brainer is to ensure that you have a link in the signature line of your own email. It's surprising how many people will spend many hours on conventional link building and then disregard this very critical factor.

75. In case you are operating a membership web site, consider pitching this to some of the top quality sites that you are targeting: they would receive a free membership in return for linkage.

76. Everyone has friends, well almost everyone. It's a good idea to email some of your friends with some news that is at least somewhat relevant to them and ask for them to comment on it.

77. Affiliate programs are very valuable additions to almost any website. Keep in mind that the amount of time and effort required to maintain a vibrant affiliate program can be overwhelming, so look carefully into the details of such an enterprise before you take the plunge into one.

78. Create extensive resource lists for a specific topic (see Mr Ploppy for inspiration).

79. Create a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.

80. Create a list of gurus/experts. If you impress the people listed well enough, that works.

81. Make your content easy to understand so many people can understand and spread your message.

82. Put some effort in to minimize grammatical or spelling errors.

83. Have an easily accessible privacy policy and about section so your site seems more trustworthy.

84. Syndicate an article at EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, etc. The great thing about good article sites is that their article pages actually rank highly and send highly qualified traffic.

85. Track who picks up your articles or press releases. Offer them exclusive news or content.

86. Trade articles with other webmasters.

87. Write about, and link to, companies with 'in the news' pages. They link back to stories and blog posts which cover their developments. This is obviously easiest if you have a news section or blog. Do a Google search for [your industry + 'in the news'].

88. Perform surveys and studies about relevant people.

89. Submit your site to DMOZ and other directories that allow free submissions.

90. Submit your site to paid directories. Another oldie. Just remember that quality matters.

91. Create your own topical directory about your field of interest. Obviously link to your own site, deeplinking to important content where possible. Of course, if you make it into a truly useful resource, it will attract links on its own.

92. Look at meme trackers to see what ideas are spreading. If you write about popular spreading ideas with plenty of original content (and link to some of the original resources), your site may get listed as a source on the meme tracker site.

93. Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources. (Easier in some countries than in others.)

94. Develop business relationships with non-competing businesses in the same field. Leverage these relationships online and off, by recommending each other via links and distributing each other's business cards.

95. Depending on your country, category and offer, you will find Craigslist to be a cheap or free classified service.

96. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and provide links to relevant resources.

97. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources.

98. Review relevant books about your interest.

99. Join Meetup and gather with minlikes. It will create unique and relevant content to link to.

100. Hire a consultant.