The document details the manual link-building strategies employed by Link Fish Media, highlighting the successful construction of nearly 20k links since 2011. Key improvements in their approach included targeting ranked content, focusing on social signals, and enhancing client selection. It emphasizes the importance of hard work, targeted outreach, and creating quality content in securing valuable backlinks.

1. How We’ve Built Almost
20k Links
By Hand
Julie Joyce
Owner and Director of Operations
Link Fish Media
@@JuJulileieJJooyyccee

2. Ave
HomePg
PageRank:
3.29
Ave
Linking
Pg
PageRank:
1:45
(Skewed
from
new
content)
Finance
Healthcare
Legal
Printing
Branding
9758 Links Built Since 2011
DIY
Beauty Security
Realty
Ecommerce!
Insurance!
Gaming

3. The First 10k? Not so great.
The Second 10k?
Much, much better.

4. What Changed?
Stopped working with unranked old content.
Stopped dealing with site owners with multiple sites.
Started focusing more on social signals.
Started being choosier about which clients to accept and keep.

5. What Didn’t Change?
Our methods of finding and
securing links with no
automation, using humans,
not machines.

6. Surprise!
There Are No
Secrets And
There Are No
Tricks. It’s
Simply Hard
Work.

7. A Few Current Numbers
135
Ave monthly links built:
Ave new articles written:
15
Ave links built per link builder per
month:
34
Ave hours it takes to get one link:
4.14

8. Paid Links
Yes, We Do Buy Links
Yes, big brands buy links. So do small
brands.
Some are followed, some are
nofollowed.

9. The Reality Of Link Buying And Penalties
You Know How Many Sites
We’ve Had Penalized?
3, out of 100+ clients. 2 were no
longer clients when they were
penalized and 1 had previously
used a link network.

10. A Quick Word About Metrics Before
We Dive In
Google’s Toolbar PageRank
(TBPR) is quickly becoming less
reliable for quality indicators and
may not ever be updated again.
Plenty of alternatives out there,
so pick one.
http://searchengineland.com/google-toolbar-pagerank-finally-officially-dead-205277

11. Create Guidelines
• IN-HOUSE
• Page much be indexed in
Google.
• If it’s old content, page
must have PR 1 or higher.
• If it’s new content,
homepage PR must be 4+.
• Ideally there are good social
signals.
• CLIENTS
• PR 2 and up.
• Content newer than 3
months.
• Last cache update no older
than 1 month.
• Domain Authority must be
30.
• Alexa 1 million.

12. Discovery
How do you find great linking partners?

13. Where Do I Look?
• Google
• Bing
• Dogpile
• MillionShort
• FAQ Fox
• Reddit
• Quora
• Duck Duck Go
• Seznam
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon
My
favorite

14. Discovery in Seznam
• Supports advanced operators (http://napoveda.seznam.cz/cz/pokrocile-hledani.
html)
• Use “inurl:blog” to narrow search to blogs as they tend to be more
receptive to outreach requests.
• Just looking at the home page every day can give you great ideas for
content and discovery.

15. Narrow It Down Yourself When You Can
Nice
and
broad.
Makes
use
of
human
narrowing,
not
algorithmic.
Might
be
too
specific.
Leaves
out
some
good
potentials.

16. Discovery
Eats Up
Most Of
Our Time

17. Pro Tip!
Start
further
back
in
the
Google
SERPs.
You’ll
find
some
seriously
good
sites
there.

19. Free
content
ideas
delivered
daily
plus
it’s
great
for
monitoring
your
online
reputation.

20. Content Gems Lets You Be Passive
Awesome
daily
email
2
free
interests
then
you
need
a
pro
plan
Useful
for
finding
new
sites
and
asking
for
a
link
OR
content
ideas.

21. Best
Discovery
Assistance:
Link
Risk’s
Peek

22. SEOChat’s Suggest Tool
(http://tools.seochat.com/tools/suggest-tool/)
3 part process that can give you search volume and CPC
data.
Useful just with the first step for discovery ideas.

23. How Much Goes Into One Link?
Some go live in as few as 3 emails.
Most take 6-10 emails. Some take
15+. My longest took 27.

24. Always Remember This
Your Outreach Will Fail If
Your Content Is Not Link-
Worthy.

25. The Importance Of Targeting
Minimizes the amount of irritated webmasters.
More time spent targeting means less time
spent weeding out replies from sites you don’t
want.

26. 25%
Vs.
5%
15%
vs.
2%

27. Quick Tips For Email Outreach
Good
Bad
Use a name. List their site. State your intentions.

28. Targeted Outreach Success
Hi
Amy!
(note:
Amy
has
an
organic
recipe
blog)
I
am
working
with
a
cool
new
client
who
sells
gardening
supplies
and
I'm
hoping
that
you
are
open
using
them
as
a
resource.
The
reason
I
am
contacting
you
specifically
is
that
you
have
a
really
fantastic
post
on
using
organic
basil
and
my
client
has
a
post
about
tips
for
growing
it
from
seed.
Since
basil
is
so
expensive
I
thought
it
might
be
a
good
resource
for
your
readers.
Thanks
and
I
hope
to
hear
back
from
you.
If
you
wish
to
be
added
to
Do
Not
Contact
database
then
just
let
me
know
please
and
I'll
make
sure
you're
added.
Sincerely,
Julie
Joyce
Netted
8
links
from
just
20
contacts.
Only
2
people
asked
to
be
put
on
the
DNC.

29. Think Less About Product, More About
Resources For Commercial Sites
For ecommerce sites, create linkworthy resources
and ask webmasters to link to those. Think DIY tutorials,
product guides, downloadable PDFs, videos, etc.
Example: Ecom client that has a great community section:
Months where we focus on products? 15 links on ave.
Months where we focus on resources? 30+ links on ave.

30. Example Of Keeping The Links To Your
Site, Not Anyone Else’s
Returns over 13 million
results.
They rank number one.
Insanely popular search
term and they own it
organically.

31. A
Targeting
Example:
Rubber
Boots
Who
Links
To
A
Site
Selling
Rubber
Boots?

32. People
Who
Like
To
Get
Dirty

33. Outdoor
Types

34. Festival
Attendees

35. People
Who
Own
Chickens

36. People
Who
Live
In
Rainy
Climates

37. Who Else? I’d Contact These Guys!
Using this info, find and contact the
artist and ask if we could donate
some rubber boots for him to make
more dogs or other animals to set up
at a local elementary school. We’d
then write up a post about it and ask
him to link to it from his own site and
socialize it.
PR 3 internal on a PR 4 site, good
social signals, advertises!
We get a link.
Ask if they could add a paragraph instructing everyone on
how to do something similar using their old rubber boots
and get a link to your rubber boots site.
We create
content.
Ask
if
you
wrote
a
post
about
using
rubber
boots
to
make
cats,
would
they
link
to
it.
http://www.1designperday.com/2013/06/12/dogs-­‐made-­‐from-­‐old-­‐rubber-­‐boots/

38. But I’d Skip Over These Guys
Unranked
page
on
HP
PR
2,
last
tweet
4
months
ago,
no
comments
Also
avoid:
Reviews
of
other
boots
Someone
else’s
guest
post
Affiliate
sites
that
sell
boots
Remember:
Just
because
someone
will
give
you
a
link
doesn’t
mean
you
want
a
link
there.

39. Who Won’t Link? Your Competitors.
And people who will never ever
wear rubber boots.

40. What About Anchor Text?
Keep
It
Natural.
Longtail It.
Vary It.
Avoid
exact
matches.
Working on rubber boots? Use
these anchors instead:
How long do rubber boots last?
Are dark green rubber boots in
style?
Caring for your rubber boots
Cleaning rubber boots after a
music festival
Gardening boots that can
withstand mud
Non-leather boots for kids
Best Idea? Let Webmasters Decide How To Link.

41. Don’t
Ignore
Images
• Very underused.
• Webmasters more willing to do these than text links.
47 image links to festival site.

42. More About Images
• If you have great images, you up your chances of naturally attracting links
by having more engaging content.
• Can be fantastic for branding.
• Use TinEye.com to see if anyone is stealing them and if so, contact them
and ask for a link.

43. How Do You
Build Great
Content?
What would YOUR audience
respond to?
What questions do they have?
Look at what your competitors
are creating.
Do it better or differently.
Identify what is missing from
the content landscape and
create that.

44. How Do I Know What To Write About?
Write what you know. Poll your audience.
Just make it unique!
http://moz.com/blog/75-content-starters-for-any-industry

45. Crowdsourcing and Interviews Can Make
It Easy

46. Promoting Great Content
Content that is socially promoted can naturally
attract fantastic links. Content without promotion
is a waste.

47. Placing New Content On Other Sites
Do
you
want
to
write
the
article
or
should
we?
What
would
work
best
for
your
audience?
What
do
you
think
I
should
write
about?
Work with the webmaster to create something
you’re both happy with. Approaching webmasters
with already written content can work but asking
for a cooperative relationship works even better.
Make sure the content has social buttons!
Would
you
like
to
publish
this
content?

48. Second Tier Links: Building Links To Sites
That Link To You
Which
then links
to this
page:
http://www.myczechrepublic.com/
prague/
Just don’t lower your standards.
Build
links
to
this
page:
http://www.myczechrepublic.com/prague/
http://en.freshfilmfest.net/206-for-visitors/
a1716-program-schedule/
a1293-prague-guide

49. 5 (Easy!) Steps To Sizing Up A Potential
Link Partner
1. Metrics
2. Relevancy
3. Benefit
4. Clickability
5. Conversion
.
Check
list

50. Step 1. Quick Metrics Check
Google
Toolbar
PageRank
Moz’s
Domain
Authority
Alexa

51. Step 2: Relevancy Check
Is the link relevant to the article?
Not
even
close.
Also
ask
yourself:
Is
the
article
relevant
to
the
site?
Make
a
judgment
call
here.

52. Step 3: Is The Link Beneficial For Both
Parties?
Link
benefits
both
parties.
Calc
site
gets
relevant
traffic.
Link
makes
sense
for
both
sites.

53. Step 4: Will Our Link Get Clicked On?
Not
if
they
routinely
hide
links.
Not
if
it’s
on
a
page
no
one
ever
sees.
Not
if
the
site
won’t
render
properly
on
mobile.
Not
if
it’s
buried
in
irrelevant
content.

54. Step 5. Will This Link Convert To A Sale?
Will people who click on the link actually buy
a product, sign up for a service, or convert
in some other way?

55. Dealing With Rejection
If someone says no, politely ask
why if (but only if) they’ve been
nice about it.
Is your outreach email not
strong enough?
Are you targeting the wrong
webmasters?

56. Turn A Negative Into Something
Positive
What could we create that you WOULD
link to?
You can get amazing links by asking that simple question.
Even if you don’t get a link, you’ll still be creating some useful content
that will hopefully generate links in the future.

57. Bad Signals
(Know When To Run!)

58. Site
Isn’t
Indexed
In
Google
Even
penalized
sites
can
still
rank
and
are
indexed.

59. Homepage Doesn’t Rank For The Brand…
Maybe.
Website Doesn’t
Rank Like It Should
For Major Keywords.
Maybe.
Generic
terms
tricky
to
rank
for.
Exceptions:
Ultracompetitive,
famous,
or
generic
terms
that
are
historically
very
difficult
to
rank
for.

60. Covered Up With Spam.
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/fighting-spam.
html for live spam sites that are removed from Google’s index

61. Too Many Outbound Links…Maybe
Why? It Dilutes Your Link Juice.
(It’s Also Just Not A Good Sign.)

62. Too Many Unrelated Links

63. Too
Many
Obvious
Connections
We
have
a
large
happy
client
base
and
our
sites
attract
thousands
of
visitors
on
monthly
basis.
I
am
very
much
interested
to
develop
a
partnership
with
you
to
cater
the
marketing
needs
of
your
clients.
we
offer
wide
variety
of
advertising
and
marketing
services.
We
provide
the
best
Ad
placements
and
make
sure
the
advertisers
get
maximum
exposure
at
affordable
prices.
Here
are
our
sister
sites
that
we
operate:

64. Covered Up With Guest Or Paid
Posts. Don’t Seem Picky.
If there are more posts from people who aren’t the webmaster or main author, avoid
the site.
If the post exists only to host a link, avoid the site

65. Webmaster’s A BIT Too Keen
If they’re pursuing you,
it’s because they are
desperate.
Add them to your do
not contact database.

66. Site Is A Member Of A Massive Blog
Network

67. General Types Of Sites And Links To
Avoid
Directories without an editorial
process.
Sites that let you submit a link for free.
Forum link drops.
Comment link drops.
Gambling/payday loans/pharmacy
Sites where content doesn’t match the
URL

68. Keep A Close Eye On Your Own Links To
Identify And Correct Potential Problems
Link Risk’s Monitor
Link Research Tools’ Link Check Tool
Majestic SEO’s New Links
Google’s Webmaster Tools

69. Buying Links Like A (Smart)
Boss

70. Don’t
Ever
Lie
To
Clients
Or
Webm asters.
Not even the bad ones.

71. Be Respectful. Maintain a DNC DB.
71
Create a Do Not Contact DB.
Ours has 18,448 sites in it.
Offer People The Chance To Be In It.
ALWAYS Check Sites Against The List
Before Contacting Them.
Let us
know if
you never
want to
hear from
us again!

72. Don’t Immediately Out Your Client If You
Are Buying Links
Only name the client when it’s obvious that the
webmaster is interested. Otherwise you risk more
than you need to.
Very dangerous approach.

73. Don’t
Argue
When
You
Hear
A
Solid
“No”
“No
“We won't be able to link from our article to your client's
site. As a policy, we don't link to other people's sites,
except in special circumstances.”
thanks.
That’s
not
something
I’m
comfortable
doing.”
Even if they don’t ask to be
added to the DNC list, add
them anyway.

74. Check Their Advertising Policy

75. Always Eavesdrop On Your Brand With
Basic Must-Have Alerts
Your brand, URL, and your name
Specific products or trademarked services
Alternative spellings of all the above
Monitor the web AND
social. Icerocket is great for this.
If you’re mentioned without a link, ask
for a link. If anything negative is said,
quickly deal with it.
Especially important if you’re buying links!

76. The Ugly Truth
Google can’t accurately detect paid
links even with a hand review.

77. Rel=nofollow
Use a nofollow if you’re that worried.
A good nofollowed link can easily lead to a good followed
link.

78. What was fine today might not be fine tomorrow.
June
28th,
2013
September
25,
2014
Recently
added.

79. Google
has
changed.
Our
methods
have
not
because
they’re
based
on
real
human
activity.

80. Remember: This Human Approach
Has Built 20k Links.
In the end it’s all about common
sense, proper targeting, and great
content.

81. Thank you!
Julie Joyce
http://www.linkfishmedia.com
@JulieJoyce
Julie.Joyce@gmail.com

82. Image Credits
Hands http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/168/9/a/Concert_Hands__PS_Brush__by_pantaeba.jpg
David Copperfield http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/David_Copperfield_Magician_Television_Special_1977.JPG
Cash http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Money_Cash.jpg
Penguin http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/092/8/2/baby_emperor_penguin_by_laogephoto-d605edc.jpg
Eye http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Iris_-_left_eye_of_a_girl.jpg
Clock https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3071/2661425133_1328692483_z.jpg?zz=1
Whiteboard http://capl.washjeff.edu/2/l/3989.jpg
Magnifying glass https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3364/3323718703_8d5d4399b4_b.jpg
Dart board http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Darts_in_a_dartboard.jpg/1280px-Darts_in_a_dartboard.jpg
Crowd http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_moses_namkung_-_The_Crowd_For_DMB_1.jpg
Creativity 101 http://www.creativity101.com/
Rubber boots http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Sievi_Boots_(2).jpg
Dirt http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Spartan_Race_-_Muddy_Hit.jpg
Outdoor http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/15/91/1159175_3cea52e4.jpg
Festival http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Future_Music_Festival_2013_(8541725920).jpg
Rain http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Upper_Chorlton_Road_in_the_summer_rain.JPG
Failure https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8370/8491412740_c5889d8707_z.jpg
Intelligence http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/182/f/3/emergence_of_artificial_intelligence_0007_by_agsandrew-d6bkch3.jpg
Vaclav Havel http://planetconnections.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/havel.jpg
Elephant http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/elephant-in-the-room1.jpg
Milan Kundera http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2010/8/17/1282064079425/Milan-Kundera-006.jpg
Robot http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sK3MC-Pok7I/Uvew9Rkh-OI/AAAAAAAAKNI/LQUJtimLQ1c/s1600/human+shaking+robot+hand+-+machines+to
+replace+workers.jpg