If youre like me and youve created your website but dont want to spend a fortune on PPC (pay per click) campaigns and buying inbound links, there are many things that you can do either for cheap, low cost or even FREE inbound links.



Linking to your website is a long and tedious affair. Often, you spend hours generating links in hope to improve your search engine rankings but seeing no or little effect at all.

Links to your website is one of the most important things that all webmasters should do. It helps your search ranking positions, advertises your website and most of all helps produce a solid well respected website. Without links (or votes) aimed at your website, you will not rank high with search engines. Simple.

So how do you create good quality inbound links to your website at a low cost and/or free? Below youll see 5 ideas that I have employed when generating inbound links for web pages. I strongly advise you to do all of them. There really is no better way of generating quality inbound links pointing to your website but do bear in mind, it will take time, but will pay off keeping your bank balance and credit card at a nice level.

1. Directories. The internet is abundant with directories, both paid and free directories. Simple search engine searches by typing in the words free directory or even submit lists hundreds of directories where you can place a link to your website. You will nee to list the title of your webpage, the url, description, keywords (in some cases) etc. Not a lot of information is needed. What I suggest rather than having to re-type constantly the same information on submission forms is to open a Word document or you note pad and write the details, then you can copy and paste them into each submission form. This saves loads of time. Before clicking the submit button on the submission form, please read the terms and conditions of the directory as some may not allow your genre of website to be added to their directory. Please make sure you do this first as bad image could lead to bad press.

Some directories require reciprocal links some dont. Ill cover reciprocal links in another message, but a mixture of reciprocal links and non-reciprocal links to your webpage is highly recommended. I have registered with over 350 directories for some websites which have resulted in 250-300 inbound links to the websites.

2. Write articles Writing articles about your website, what it has to offer, helps create backlinks if the articles are published online. Sometimes, articles are picked up by other websites who then publish the article online on their webpages. I once wrote an article about a favorite subject of mine and it was picked up by over 400 other websites, and providing you remember to include a link to your website in the article, it created over 400 links to that website. All it cost me was my time to create the article. Articles can be written and submitted for free or you can get someone to write and submit articles for you, however, I prefer to do in on my own as I am creating the links and I want to write what I know about. Remember always include the link to a webpage within the article or at the end with a bio of yourself. For example, John Smith, lawyer and creator of www.homeworkingscam.com . (A friends website). Also Article Submission programs can be found for help to submit articles to the internet. Some programs are free, some are paid. But please write articles about things you know and are expert about - it prevents you from looking stupid and giving your website a bad image.

3. Blogs It seems everyone is doing blogs now. You dont even need to own a website to write a blog. Basically, creating blogs where you can literally write whatever you want to write about will create links to the website that you put in the blog. Back to our example, the creator could write a blog about legal issues, what to suggest, where to go. You need to update the blog regularly for it to be of interest and eventually someone might be recommended to go to the blog to access information or advice. In fact, why not create more than 1 blog. Ive got three that I use every week updating with information about myself, what Im doing etc.

4. Public Sharing Websites and Forums. These are great. Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, Bebo all are avenues of generating marketing for your website, helping to have a blog and can help to provide inbound links to your website. A friend of mine who has a piano teaching website had videos and music of himself mentioned on public sharing websites. Also, register at forums and speak up advertising your website. For example, my friend might be a member of a musicians forum and everytime he goes into the forum and signs his name he can put a link to his website advertising it.

5. Guestbook signing. Finally, Guest book signing. Sounds obvious but if ever you go to a website where there is a guest book look at it. I guarantee that everyone on the guestbook (providing the terms and conditions of the host website allow it), has signed with a link to their webpage. Why not you? Say something about the webpage and mention your webpage in the guest book.

So in brief, creating inbound links cheaply and at minimal costs can be achieved through Directories, Articles, Blogs, Public Forums and Guestbooks. If you consider doing all, maybe just a couple from the above list, you can help generate good inbound links to your website for virtually nothing apart from your own time.