Backlinks are what some people would call the Holy Grail of getting traffic to a site, be it a blog or a simple static website. Some backlinks are easy to get: bloggers like to comment on other blogs, they like to link out, they are grouped in bigger or smaller communities based on their interests and topics they write about. However, not all backlinks are alike. The ones that matter most for your blog are not the ones anchored on your name. Why would people search for your name online? Well, if your name is Paris Hilton or Sarah Palin, there’s another story. But for the rest of us, with common names, such backlinks barely contribute to promoting our site in Google’s SERPs for those relevant keywords which define what our site is about.

How to Get Backlinks

Get backlinks in any way you can. Find other bloggers in your niche, write about their blogs and they’d return you the favor and write about yours. Submit your site to web directories. Write articles for ezines. Ask your mother to start a blog and teach her how to link to you. Buy links. Get social. However, you may find this difficult, especially if you write about topics in very narrow niches such as “how to pass the thread through the needle’s eye with your cat jumping on your back”. If you ever tried that, you already know how complicated this can be. Jim also knows it and blogs about it. But how can you meet Jim and others like him?

Where to Meet Bloggers Like You

Imagine that you are not the only one in your nice trying to find backlinks for your blog. All you need is somebody to connect you with your peers. This role is very well accomplished by private networks like ConnectContent, a network where webmasters with common interests congregate. Since Jane wants to link to my blog because she finds it related to what she writes about, why can’t I tell Jane what anchor I want her to use for that link? Conversely, since I appreciate the writings of John, why not ask him what anchors he desires for the links I’m going to give him anyway?

This is the role of ConnectContent: to bring webmasters closer together, while allowing them to express their linking needs. It’s like online dating for websites.

Once a member, you can have as many backlinks as you want, provided that you give back to the community the same link value.

Membership is only $12 per month, or $120 per year. However, you can easily make your money back, and even some more, by using the affiliate program which gives you a generous 50% share for each new member you refer.

If you are not yet convinced by the power of finding good backlinks, please check out the following chart: this is the statistic for a website which is built almost entirely of duplicate content, and which has stalled for almost one year. In September 2008 we started to get more active in that niche, we found linking partners, we got links anchored on the keywords we wanted, then in less than two months the effect was visible. Now, with the help of ConnectContent, finding partners will be easier.