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Links are the currency of the Internet. Are you rich or broke?
I'm sure you've read a ton of articles about netlinking strategies - Guest blogging, broken links, link recovery, unrelated mentions, blog comments, HARO awareness, link partnerships, etc.
These articles generally explain how to raise awareness, what tools to use, and what are the different tactics to start building relationships.
However, they are missing one key element.
Lever
Consider this.
Links are like currency. The more you have, the more likely you are to be ranked in search engines. And the higher your chances of ranking in search engines, the more money you can earn.
There is intrinsic value in getting a return link.
And remember that the value of the link is directly linked to thedomain evaluation (DR) of the site you are getting the link from.
The DR is a measure created by Ahrefs (similar to Moz's DA). This is a number from 0 to 100 based on your link profile and your ability to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).
- When you start a new blog, your DR sucks.
- Small blogs have DRs of 30 to 50.
- My current DR is 78.
- The main blogs have DRs in the 70s and 80s.
- Major SaaS companies had DRs in the 80s and 90s.
- Major websites like Google, YouTube, and Facebook have RDs of 99+.
So how does that translate into value?
Well, a link from a small niche blog with a DR of 25 is much less valuable than a high-quality link from the New York Times or Wikipedia with a DR of 90+.
The value of a link is transmitted from the link site to yours. In other words, the higher the DR of the site that links to you, the more valuable it is.
These new links are votes of confidence in Google's eyes. They show that your blog is trustworthy.
Backlinks remain one of Google's top ranking factors because they're hard to get. They don't magically appear, you have to work to get them.
And they are valuable.
Think about it.
I've seen digital marketing agencies charge between $500 and $3,000 for a single high-resolution link.
While getting a few high DR backlinks can help you get to the first page of Google and then make money from your article, these valuable links have a real impact on the market.
Why would a website give you this value for free without receiving anything in return?
It doesn't make sense.
You can write the most magnificent and newsworthy article, do a perfect job of raising awareness by asking for the ideal link placement - and you can always fail.
Why?
There is nothing valid for the other party.
In the end, you are asking someone to do work on your behalf (add a link to their website) that benefits you and gives them nothing in return.
So what do you do?
You're using leverage and providing value.
You are creating a genuine, mutually beneficial partnership.
It's what I like to call leverage-based link building and it's something I invented in 2020.
Using leverage-based netlinking in the first two years of my blog, I increased my Domain Rating Ahrefs from 0 to 78 and built links from 433 DR 70+ sites. Of these 433 sites, 44 had a DR greater than 90.
These sites are among the highest authority sites on the Internet: Forbes, Active Campaign, Hubspot, BigCommerce, etc.
By getting backlinks from all of these sites, Google took me seriously. They helped increase my traffic from 0 to 180,000 monthly readers.
I don't like to brag, but I consider myself to be one of the best link builders in the world.
How did I do it?
Link building based on leverage.
This is not a low-quality tactic or a netlinking Black Hat. It's about building links White Hat on steroids, and few brands or referrers know its potency.
In this guide, I'm going to explain what leveraged netlinking is so you can start implementing it on your own blog.
First, let's discuss some psychological reasons why links are tradable assets.
The world is an exchange of values.
According to historical records, barter began more than 8,000 years, when the Phoenicians began exchanging their goods for food, weapons, and spices.
And with the advent of agriculture (and the abandonment of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle), the goal became simple: to create a surplus and exchange it for scarcity.
This allowed farmers to feed not only their families but also entire communities. They could exchange their excess crops for spices, weapons, fabrics — anything they couldn't get for themselves.
Today, our capitalist system operates on exchanges of values and the same principles apply:
- You spend your time working for a company, you come home and you buy something on Amazon. You are exchanging your money (abundance) for a product that you cannot create yourself (rarity).
- You trade goods on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.
- You invest in the stock market to buy shares in a company, providing money today for potential future returns.
- You may even mow your parents' lawn or bring them dinner to earn points from your wife (are you really doing this out of the goodness of your heart?).
Bartering is almost ingrained in our DNA.
We prefer safety and abundance to danger and scarcity. We trade what we have in abundance to get what is rare.
It's selfish, but in many of the things we do, we often ask:
What do I gain from it?
This system of bartering and exchanging values is exactly the same when it comes to creating relationships and develop a successful blog.
Partnerships cannot be a one-sided exchange.
You need to find ways to provide value.
How to add value in netlinking?
Just like exchanging goods in the physical world, you can also exchange valuable items in the digital world. To do that, you first need to understand what's really valuable in the digital world.
So what is valuable?
Based on my experience working with e-commerce brands, agencies, SaaS companies, and bloggers, there's one thing everyone covets:
Links.
If you want to form an online partnership and get backlinks yourself, you need to be able to provide good links back.
It is as simple as that.
Again, this is an exchange of values - not a unilateral offer.
I can't tell you how many awareness emails I receive every week asking me to put a link in one of my articles to “improve the quality of my article, boost my SEO, or “help my readers.”
Or a blog will twinkle the carrot “add this link to your blog and I'll share your article on social media”, as if sharing an article with a few of their followers was equivalent to a valuable backlink from my blog.
That's not the case - these emails end up directly in the trash. Again, what do I gain from it?
So what is a link worth?
Probably more than you think.
There is no exact science to determine the value of links. It's a combination of factors including site domain evaluation, niche, traffic, brand value, and more.
If I had to make a totally and completely unscientific estimate across all niches, I would say that a dofollow backlink is worth:
- FROM 0-20:50
- FROM 21-40: $100
- FROM 40-60:200
- FROM 61-70:400
- FROM 71-80:500
- FROM 81-90:600
- FROM 90+: 1,000
Ahrefs also conducted a study on the value of a backlink and found that the average value of buying a link was $352.92.
With this framework, you can begin to understand the value of links so that you can exchange them more easily and get more value in return.
The myth of passive netlinking.
Many search engine optimization experts and content marketers say that the holy grail of netlinking is “passive netlinking,” that is, getting links to an article without doing anything because your article is so good.
This netlinking tactic can be achieved by creating original research, adding infographics, videos, case studies, and writing quality content.
While all of the above should be incorporated into some of your guest posts, passive netlinking is a myth in many ways.
“Build it and they will come” does not work today.
Obtaining quality links is a inertia wheel that rewards only the most visible sites.
For example, let's say you're creating an amazing article full of original research, infographics, and videos. It is far superior to anything on page 1 of Google.
However, when you create a brand new item, it won't be classified immediately. It may be on page 4, page 5, or even not in the top 100 results.
Who is going to find it?
Passive link building is based on visibility - sites that are already ranked get more links because they are easier to find.
Think about it.
A blog or news site searches for a resource, searches for it on Google, quickly finds the answer based on one of the top-ranked articles and links to it.
It rewards the sites at the top of the list.
While passive netlinking may work for popular and highly visible sites, it is nearly impossible for new bloggers.
The idea of passive netlinking is a myth that holds back many new bloggers.
So what do you do?
You need to take action and build your domain authority yourself, because no one else will do it for you.
Other factors that determine the value of the link.
Remember that not all links are created equal. There are a few tricky little details you need to know before you start creating links.
So we know that a backlink is a hypertext anchor text element that directs a reader to your website.
How does this “link juice” pass from one site to another?
There are a number of factors to consider, but here are the top seven.
1. Dofollow or Nofollow.
Links from other websites are either “dofollow” or “nofollow.”
Links are always dofollow unless otherwise specified. If a link is dofollow, Google search robots will “follow” the link to the external page and transmit to it the value of the SEO.
“Nofollow” links tell Google not to “follow” the link to the external page and not to transmit any SEO value. Backlinks can be manually marked “nofollow” and this HTML tag is used in a lot of different (and often wrong) ways.
In proper use, affiliate links and sponsored links that are promotional in nature should be marked nofollow. If you're quoting a statistic, an image, or a useful resource, they should generally be marked dofollow.
I often see blogs trying to “save” link fairness by marking too many external links as nofollow. The idea is that if they mark all external links as nofollow and all internal links to their own posts as dofollow, then their blog posts get all the link juice and more authority.
That is not entirely true.
There are a lot of gray areas when it comes to dofollow/nofollow links and how they convey value.
SEMrush actually led A case study where they saw some SEO value in nofollow backlinks.
Overall, it's important to know the difference between the two types of links. Try to get dofollow links in most cases, but be aware that nofollow links can also have SEO value.
It's important that you have a natural blend of both.
2. The evaluation of the domain of the link website.
A link from a high DR website is more valuable than a link from a low DR website.
This is true in almost all cases, except in some cases where there is a low DR site with very few external links overall. In this case, a link from a site with low DR may be slightly more valuable if your external link is one of the fewer external links.
3. The URL ranking of the link page.
Just like the Domain Rating (DR), which represents the authority of an entire website, Ahrefs offers another very important measure for netlinking.
URL evaluation is the same as DR, except that it is the authority of the individual web page, not the entire website.
When you publish a new blog post, the URL ranking is usually 10. This number increases as you link to this article.
While Domain Ratings of 70 and 80 are considered high, URL Ratings of 30 and 40 are considered high. URL ratings are generally always lower than domain ratings.
So, in this case, getting a link from a page with a URL rating of 20 is more valuable than a link from a page with a URL rating of 10.
4. The relevance of the link site and the article to your niche.
A backlink from a site that's relevant to your niche can often benefit you more than a backlink from a site that's completely unrelated.
For example, if you wrote a blog post like mine about email marketing software, a backlink from Mailchimp will be much more valuable than a link from a random marketing blog.
5. The number of external links on the link page.
Link authority is passed from one page to another. And the number of links on the page matters.
For example, if you get a backlink from a piece of content that has nine other links on the page (for a total of 10), you get about 10% of the link's equity.
If you are one of the five links on the page, you get about 20% of the link's equity.
6. The placement of the link in the link article.
External links that are higher up the page convey more link equity than links further down the page.
For example, if you get a link from an article in the first paragraph, that's usually more valuable than a link to the bottom.
This is also the reason why you should include your own links earlier in your invited articles, as a homepage hyperlink in your author bio does not have the same value.
7. The anchor text.
Anchor text, also known as hyperlinked words that refer to your site, is another factor in netlinking.
However, as Google's algorithm and PageRank become smarter and can read the context words around the anchor text, this becomes less important.
The important thing is that your inbound links look as natural as possible.
For example, if you get a link to your blog post about “how to make money online,” you don't want the anchor text to be “how to make money online.”
Instead, it should be a mixture of one of the five types of anchor text:
- Exact match - Anchor text that matches your keyword exactly (how to make money online). You don't want a lot of them, because they're not natural and wouldn't happen that often without your input.
- Partial correspondence - Anchor text that partially matches your target keyword (for example, how to make money). This is a type of anchor text to use because it is more natural than the exact match.
- Unrelated - Anchor text that has nothing to do with your keyword (for example, in this article). I like to use them quite often, as they are the most natural anchor texts.
- Marque - Anchor text that matches your brand. It's also good to use them, as they can naturally increase brand authority.
- Brand + keyword - Anchor text that includes both your brand and your target keyword. This type of anchor text is also good because it associates your brand with your target keyword.
In summary: All of the above factors determine the value of an individual backlink. They are listed in my personal order of priority and all need to be considered if you really want to understand how to build relationships.
So to summarize, the best possible link would be the following:
A dofollow link from a high-profile website linked to your niche on a page with a high URL rate, placed at the top of the article, with few other links on the page, with natural anchor text.
Confused? Don't worry too much about it. It's not an exact science, but just a few useful things to know before you start creating links and publishing articles.
Now that we've covered some of the basics, let's look at some strategies.
Leverage-based netlinking strategies.
Here are some new leveraged netlinking strategies that I've started using on my blog.
1. Guest Post Link Trading.
Guest blogging remains one of the main ways for bloggers to get backlinks. The point of guest blogging is not to get referral traffic, but to strengthen your Domain Rating so that your content can be ranked.
This process involves reaching out to other blogs in your niche, writing a guest post for their website, and linking to yours.
However, it's not enough to write guest posts to get links. If Google finds that all of the backlinks you're getting are from a guest post you've written, it might get alarmed.
They may think that you're the only one linking to your blog and that you're not getting enough “natural” mentions from other posts. You don't want to look like you're being spammed or forced when you're building your backlink profile.
So how do you take guest blogging to the next level?
You use your guest posts as a resource to get more backlinks.
Let's take an example from my blog.
In November 2020, I published 12 guest articles on other sites in my niche.
How did I optimize the links in these guest posts?
I added a few links to my site, some internal links for the blog I was writing for, and some useful statistics.
But why stop there? What if there was room for more links?
If a link is worth $352 on average, why wouldn't I add a few and use that leverage to get more links for my own blog?
That's where the exchange of links between guest posts comes in.
Here's how it works: You find other bloggers in your niche who also publish guest posts on high-authority sites and you exchange backlinks between your guest posts.
Since you already have room to add additional links, you add theirs in your guest posts and they add yours in their guest posts.
It's a win-win.
Instead of publishing 12 guest posts and getting backlinks from 12 websites, you can use your guest posts as commercial bait and get backlinks from guest posts from other authors through partnerships.
However, you shouldn't overdo it either: these should be high-quality links based on real relationships. If you read the Google Webmaster Guidelines, you'll find that there are a lot of things to avoid that can be considered a link system.
The good news? It's not too complicated to do once you start doing a lot of prospecting for guest positions. These partnerships are created naturally as you meet other bloggers in your niche.
Value exchange: You provide links to another blogger and receive links in return.
2. Pre-link in the guest posting broadcast.
If you want to work with a top blogger or influencer in your niche, you can provide a ton of value by linking to them in your guest posts before you even contact them.
In this way, in your email invitation to publish an article, you can present the valuable backlinks that you have already sent to them.
This is a higher-level strategy that is difficult to implement.
I would try to use it once you have a decent number of invited articles in progress and want to get opportunities on sites that don't normally respond to you.
Value exchange: You provide links in advance in order to get future high quality links in return.
Other netlinking strategies
I can't cover all of the leveraged netlinking tactics that I use to get traffic and earn over $70,000 per month with affiliate marketing.
In fact, it would be stupid of me to provide this information for free online. I just can't afford to share these tactics with my competitors.
However, I will cover all of them in depth in the online course that I will launch in early 2021.
Summary
Links are a value exchange based on leverage.
It's less about the individual netlinking technique and more about the value you can provide.
If you don't add value, even the best netlinking strategies can fail.
Instead of writing awareness emails to guest posts in order to get links, focus on showcasing and offering links.
Instead of worrying about the perfect tactic, like building broken links or recovering links, focus on building a real, mutually beneficial partnership.
Increasing your authority in netlinking creates a snowball effect:
- The more links you get, the better you rank.
- The higher you rank, the more traffic you get.
- The more traffic you get, the more passive links you get.
And you have to start somewhere.
If you're new to netlinking, you need to work hard, build relationships, get invited articles, create a surplus of links, and use that surplus to exchange value in the digital world.
