If you’ve been blogging for a while now, you’re probably wondering about what backlinks are, and how they can help you make money blogging more effectively.  Backlinks, which are also called “incoming links”, are links to your blog or blog pages that are put up on another blog or website.  If a fellow blogger puts up a link that directs his readers to your site, that in itself counts as a backlink.

This might all seem like an easy matter, but the truth is that backlinks pack a bigger punch than you would expect them to, especially when it comes to increasing your search engine ranking.  The more backlinks your blogger has, the higher its rank on search results will be.  Likewise, your blog will rank higher than another blog in search results for the same keyword if your site has more backlinks coursing to it.

Backlinks must contain the keyword your blog post is targeting to have any impact on your rankings for that keyword. This is called “anchor text” and the rest of this article will talk about getting backlinks containing your anchor text back to your specific blog post.

1.  Comment on other blogs:
The best way to introduce yourself to other bloggers is by posting comments on their entries.  Of course, you shouldn’t just post any comment for the sake of putting up one.  Instead, leave a thoughtful comment that’s relevant to the post in question, and don’t forget to include your URL at the bottom of your comment.  If you want to take things a step further, use your targeted keyword as your username, which will also be linked back to your own blog.

2.  Hop onto forum boards:
Are you part of any forum board that deals with the primary topic of your blog?  You can get an instant backlink there by editing your signature to include a link (with the right keyword) to your blog.  Once you’ve done this, aim to become an active participant in the forum.  Make intelligent contributions to discussions to show your expertise in the subject.  By creating a good reputation on forum boards, your backlinks stand a bigger chance of fetching you a larger load of traffic.

3.  Link baiting:
Link baiting is the practice of writing about hot news or controversial topics about the niche that your blog is focused on.  If you can pounce on breaking news about your niche and write a really good entry about that topic, you’re bound to get some people linking back to you.  This method’s a little trickier (because you’ll have to work at making your post unique and special), but it’s very good at making a lasting impression on your blog readers and visitors. Just make sure your title of your post contains the keyword that you’re targeting as it’ll be easy for webmasters to copy that as the anchor text for their backlinks to your blog post.

As you can see, getting more backlinks isn’t the hardest thing to do.  Just don’t neglect the part about dishing out good content that will impress readers and keep them coming back to your site.  In the end, there’s still no better way to promote yourself – and getting backlinks – than by writing great posts that your visitors will remember you for.

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