Six powerful backlinks that will boost your search engine ranking...

Hey, everyone.
I’d like to share a step-by-step method for building 6 high quality backlinks for your websites in about 45 minutes. When finished, each of the 6 backlinks will, themselves, have their own backlinks propping them up. And on top of that, the content from the 6 backlinks will be very relevant to your webpage. Your webpage will move up in the search engines because of the backlinks, and you’ll also drive actual traffic from the 6 backlinks to your website.

[January 10th Update] The webpage I used to demonstrate this technique (shown below) is now ranked #2 in Google, and I only used 6 backlinks.

[January 15th Update] I've gotten a few comments from readers who are a little intimidated by the level of detail in the plan below. Yes, it's a bit complicated at first glance, but if you follow the plan, step-by-step, you can't go wrong. And you'll be done in about 45 minutes.

[January 16th Update] This thread is developing with some really good information and tips. Be sure to read the whole thing.

[January 24th Update] We got some more great feedback today. This, from jtpada:
[March 15th Update] I've had a number of requests lately via PM from website owners asking if I can be hired to employ this strategy for them, but I've got my hands full at the moment with new product launches. I'm also busy creating new affiliate resources for my affiliates... So if you feel you have the skills to employ this method for others, then feel free to leave a reply in the thread offering your services. Let everyone know to PM you if you're available to be hired to work this strategy. You'll probably get quite a few requests. You may also want to advertise your services in the Warriors for Hire Forum - just reference this post, and tell people you'll build 6 Powerful Backlinks for people exactly as described.

[April 6th Update] The webpage I used to demonstrate this technique (shown below) is still ranked on the first page of Google.

[August 28th Update] The webpage I used to demonstrate this technique (shown below) has now fallen to the second page of Google.

[December 30th Update] One year later - The webpage I used to demonstrate this technique is now on the third page of Google. So - bottom line - I was able to rank on Google's first page for 8 months using this technique. Then it dropped to the 2nd page of Google. And a year later, the page still has some value in the SERPs as evidenced by it's location on Google's 3rd page. Not bad for 45 minutes of work!

[End Updates]


So, how is this done? You’re essentially going to build a link wheel. But this is no ordinary link wheel. It has a powerful twist. I learned the basics for this technique from one of Vita Vee's amazing videos, but I've modified the idea in order to incorporate the power of article marketing.

Setting up link wheels with high quality article directories can be challenging because you don't know the URL of the published articles until they're published. This plan eliminates the need to go back into your published articles multiple times to manually edit the links to point to other articles. It also eliminates the need to resubmit the articles after editing the links... and it eliminates the waiting (for the resubmitted articles to be approved a second time).

The results have been impressive (you can see them at the end of this post).

Here's the plan: You'll submit 6 original articles to 6 separate article directories. Each article will have a resource box with 2 links. One link will point to the website you’re promoting. The other link will point to one of the other 6 articles in their respective article directories. The linking structure will be such that none of the links are reciprocal and there are no "link-loops" (which many believe weakens the links). Additionally, this method will automatically create 5-30 automatic backlinks to each article (this will happen when you select 5-30 tags and categories when you submit each article for publication). Some of these backlinks may even have high PR with link juice that will pass through the two links in your article resource box to your website and to one of the other 6 articles.


The linking structure will look like this:

- The first link in the Article 1 resource box will point to your website, and the second link will point to Article 4.

- The first link in the Article 2 resource box will point to your website, and the second link will point to Article 1.

- The first link in the Article 3 resource box will point to your website, and the second link will point to Article 4.

- The first link in the Article 4 resource box will point to your website, and the second link… we will not use a second link for this article.

- The first link in the Article 5 resource box will point to your website, and the second link will point to Article 3.

- The first link in the Article 6 resource box will point to your website, and the second link will point to Article 1.

Plus, as I said a moment ago, you’ll assign up to 30 tags to each article as well as 1 or 2 categories. Each tag and category will create a backlink to its article from the tag or category page within the article directory. For example, if you assign the category “business” to an article in Ezinearticles, this will create a backlink to your article at the following link: Business EzineArticles

By the way, that url has a PR of 5, so some of this link juice will pass through your article to your webpage. Your link won’t stay on this page forever. It'll eventually get bumped to a no PR page, but it's nice while it lasts, and you'll still keep the link.

Note: Most tag and category pages don't have any PR, but you can find a few that do.

Sound complicated? It's not. Here’s where the magic happens. I use a placeholder URL in my resource box for the initial submission of each article. The link temporarily points to a preselected page on my website. Once the article is approved, I use a simple “301 redirect” to redirect the link to another of the 6 articles in a different article directory. This does not require any modifications to the submitted article. I simply go into my wordpress dashboard and redirect the link (using the Pretty Links Lite plugin) to the URL for one of the other 6 articles.

Still sound complicated? Don’t worry. I’ll take you step-by-step through the process.

Here’s the plan:

Step 1
Gather everything you need. For this to method to be effective, you’ll need 7 original articles. They need to be well written, and they need to be unique. If you don’t have 7 unique articles ready to go, you can download some free ones from my website (multiple niches available - all unique - 100% free - click on the free WSO in my signature block).

Step 2
Pick the URL you want to promote. This can be your domain name, or it can be a page on your domain. It doesn’t matter. For my example, I’ll use a webpage on one of my websites.
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes/

Step 3
Pick the keyword or keyword phrase you’re targeting. This is the keyword that you want your webpage to rank for in the search engines. For my example, I’ll target:
“time management quotes”

Step 4
Now, for tracking purposes, designate each of your 7 articles with one of the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

You'll end up with:
Article #1
Article #2
Article #3
Article #4
Article #5
Article #6
Article #7

Now, post article #7 on YOUR website. This will create a placeholder webpage. The URL should be similar to the URL you’re promoting, but it should be appended with the “-7”. Here’s my example:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-7/

Step 5
Add the plugin ‘Pretty Links Lite’ to your wordpress website. If you don’t use wordpress, that’s ok. You can do your 301 redirects manually.
For those who use wordpress, go to the new Pretty Links section of your wordpress backend and click ‘Add a pretty link’.

For ‘Target URL’ enter the URL to the article you posted on your website in step 4; This is Article #7. For my example, I entered:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-7/

Now, for the pretty link, the URL should be the same as the main URL you’re promoting, but it should be appended with the number 1.
For my example, I used:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-1/

Leave the ‘Title’ field blank.

Click link options and under ‘Redirection Type’ select ‘301 (Permanent)’

Do not change any other options.

Click ‘Save’

Now, create 5 more Pretty Links by simply adding a different digit. My Pretty Links are:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-1/
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-2/
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-3/
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-4/
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-5/
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-6/

For right now, each of these PrettyLinks should point to:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-7/

So, when your articles are approved, the first link in each resource box will still point to the page you are promoting, and the second link in each resource box will now redirect to article #7 on YOUR website. For my example, this is:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-7/

Note: The second link in each resource box is only temporarily pointing to Article #7 on your website, but after all your articles are approved, you will redirect the second link to one of the other articles in a different directory, and it will no longer point to Article #7 on your website.

Step 6
Open accounts at 6 different article directories. Or you can use existing accounts. I used these:
1. Ezinearticles(dot)com – provides DoFollow links
2. GoArticles(dot)com – provides DoFollow Links
3. AssociatedContent(dot)com – DoFollow in article body; NoFollow in “Resources” box
4. Articles.OnlineWebLibrary(dot)com – provides DoFollow Links
5. ArticlesBase(dot)com – provides NoFollow Links
6. Knol.Google(dot)com – provides DoFollow Links

Note: I’m one of the those who believe that Google values NoFollow to some extent. I think Google is suspicious of link profiles that are 100 percent DoFollow, so I sometimes use NoFollow links. If you disagree, that’s fine. Feel free to use only DoFollow directories.

Step 7
Create a resource box for each article (write the text you’ll use for each resource box), and include two links. Link should one point to the URL you’re trying to promote. For my example, I used:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes/

Link one is the same for all 6 resource boxes. Link two is different for each resource box. It corresponds with the pretty links you already set up. Here is how they look in my case:

My second link in the first article directory is:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com com/time-management/time-management-quotes-1/

My second link in the second directory is:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-2/

My second link in the third directory is:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-3/

My second link in the fourth directory is:
Don not use a second link for this article.

My second link in the fifth directory is:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-5/

My second link in the sixth directory is:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-6/

Note: The anchor text for Link one in each resource box is your targeted keyword phrase. The anchor text for Link two in each resource box should be different than the targeted phrase, but related.

So, the resource box for Article 1 will look something like this:
John Smith is a successful writer and businessman. He is devoted to helping people improve their productivity. You can read more at his <a href="http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes/">Time Management Quotes</a> webpage. He also has more Time Management Quotes here: <a href=“http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com/time-management/time-management-quotes-1/">More Time Management Quotes</a>.

Step 8
Now it’s time to post your articles. Post one article to each of the 6 directories. If you’re using high quality directories (recommended), then there may be a manual review of your article, which could take up to a week or longer.

Step 9
As each article is approved, you need to record the URL of the newly approved article for future reference. Here are the actual links to my 6 approved articles:

Article 1
http://ezinearticles(dot)com/?Time-Management-Techniques-That-Work&id=5531894

Article 2
http://goarticles(dot)com/article/3822551

Article 3
http://www.associatedcontent(dot)com/article/6104728/time_management_quotes.html?cat=5

Article 4
http://articles(dot)onlineweblibrary(dot)com/Art/83787/37/Effective-Time-Management-Strategies.html

Article 5
http://www.articlesbase(dot)com/time-management-articles/time-management-quotes-3824009.html

Article 6
http://knol.google(dot)com/k/anonymous/motivational-time-management-quotes/1s5zf42w5zg0z/1#

Step 10
Once all articles are approved, go back to the Pretty Links plugin. Open the first Pretty Link, which should be appended with a “-1”. In my example, it was:
http://www.askmymonkey(dot)com com/time-management/time-management-quotes-1/

Now replace the targeted URL (which is appended with “-7”) with the actual URL of the newly approved article #4. In my case the URL is:
http://articles(dot)onlineweblibrary(dot)com/Art/83787/37/Effective-Time-Management-Strategies.html

Save the new Pretty Link.

Now, the link in your resource box in Article #1 will permanently forward to the actual URL for article #4, which is published on onlineweblibrary(dot)com. So, my article in EzineArticles now points to the webpage I'm promoting and to my article in onlineweblibrary(dot)com.

Repeat this process for the rest of the Pretty Links...

For Pretty Link ending in “-2” you will change the targeted URL (which is appended with “-7”) with the actual URL of the newly approved article #1 (which is published on EzineArticles).

For Pretty Link ending in “-3” you will change the targeted URL (which is appended with “-7”) with the actual URL of the newly approved article #4 (which is published on OnlineWebLibrary).

For Pretty Link ending in “-4…” leave it unchanged.

For Pretty Link ending in “-5” you will change the targeted URL (which is appended with “-7”) with the actual URL of the newly approved article #3 (which is published on Associated Content).

For Pretty Link ending in “-6” you will change the targeted URL (which is appended with “-7”) with the actual URL of the newly approved article #1 (which is published on EzineArticles).

When you finish, the second link in each resource box of each article of each directory will permanently point to another article in another directory.

The result is a link structure that looks like this:
Article 1 points to your website and to Article 4
Article 2 points to your website and to Article 1
Article 3 points to your website and to Article 4
Article 4 points to your website only (I don’t use a second link for this article because it creates a “link-loop”)
Article 5 points to your website and to Article 3
Article 6 points to your website and to Article 1

By the way, feel free to vary your link structure. For example, you can use this alternate link structure:

Article 1 => website and Article 2 and Article 6
Article 2 => website and Article 3 and Article 5
Article 3 => website and Article 1 and Article 4
Article 4 => website and Article 1 and Article 5
Article 5 => website and Article 3 and Article 6
Article 6 => website and Article 2 and Article 4

Note: If you use this alternate link structure, you’ll need to use article directories that allow three backlinks in the article body or resource box.

Conclusion:
I’ve found this type of cross-linking to be much more effective than just submitting articles to directories. In fact, this method has been sufficient for me to rank on the first page of Google for many low and mid competition keywords.

High competition keywords are a different story of course. These will require multiple iterations of this method. And, for super-competitive keywords, I usually combine this method with traditional article marketing.

By the way, if you were wondering, the webpage I used for this exercise currently ranks #2 (though it is bouncing around a bit) in Google for the keyword phrase: “Time Management Quotes” (no, this is not a super-competitive keyword phrase, but it does have 2400 exact match searches per month). I’m monetizing this page with Adsense and a CPA offer. This webpage is not making me rich, but it is generating some nice passive income.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a link-building technique that’s been very successful for me.

Let me know what you think about this technique and if you plan to try it. Also, feel free to leave your own tips.

Thanks!
-Tim