Shortcut for the impatient: Just jump to the end of this post to find a list of sites that you can use to write up your own backlinks. For more in-depth reading, carry on 
Just after content, back links, i.e. links to the said content, are the next most important point to make a blog/ web site successful. Outside or external links are one of the measures Google uses to determine where to place your content in its search results (SERP), and that is what brings you the visitors . In a nutshell, the more links point towards your content, the more important Google deems your content to be. Now, you could just submit your blog or web site to a lot of directories and be done with back link building, right? Wrong! Google also values factors like:
Bad Neighborhood
Don’t, really, really, don’t submit your blog or web site to every directory known to mankind. Google will slap you faster over your fingers than you can say ‘ooops’. It is fine to submit to, lets say the top 2-3 directories in your niche, but avoid at all costs to submit to so-called link farms. Less is really more when it comes to building back links with directories.
Related Content
Google values links more that are coming from related sources. For example if I link an article about dog grooming to a travel blog than google will value that link less as when it comes from another dog related site.
Deep Linking
Deep linking is linking to a specific page or blog post not to the domain as such. So for example a link saying Hospitalera’s Blog is less valuable than a link to Hospitalera Hubpage Challenge or Today.com closed my blog Google likes many links to different locations on the same domain, not just to the frontpage.
Rank and Authority of the linking site
The higher the Page Rank and the rank of the keyword(s) in the search results is, the better. That is called the authority of a site. Example: Somebody whose site ranks extremely well for the key words ‘blogging resources’ links to my blog. That would be a very valuable link for me because it acknowledges in Google’s eyes my authority regarding ‘blogging resources’ and will help my own ranking regarding this and other related key words.
All this you can control when you write up your own back links. All places mentioned below are free to join and you keep full control over your submitted content:
Hubpages
Your links will become do-follow as your author score rises. As long as you submit non-spammy content with not more than two links pointing to the same domain in one hub/ article, this shouldn’t be a problem to achieve in a short time. Additionally you can earn money via their revenue share program.
Squidoo
Links are do-follow from the beginning and Squidoo doesn’t restrict the amount of links you are allowed to post. Use this freedom wisely, as Google will still punish you for bad linking behavior. Also Squidoo rewards you by sharing the money earned with you.
Posterous
Posterous is a new site that is aimed at people that want to post content fast and convenient to many different destinations. For internet marketing and SEO it is interesting because all links are do-follow. I have started recently a little SEO project to explore this further. I started to write up little articles about sites, including a back link to each that is keyword optimized. I am in contact with the owner/ CEO of posterous and as long as such posts are not spammy in nature they are fine with the idea. The other interesting point is that they also allow several people blogging/ posting to the same posterous. This could be, if done right, a very nice viral tool to get the word out about a wide range of sites, blogs, hubs or lenses. If anybody is interested to join, please leave a comment
Forum signatures
Forum signatures are one of the most underestimated seo tools imho. They are especially good if you have one main site you want to promote. Google crawls forums regularly and especially if the link appears in a forum that is related to your topic will take it in consideration. So, please, don’t go out now and join a bunch of forums just to promote your own internet enterprise. Instead join a few that are relevant to your main topic/ niche and become a helpful member of this community. For bloggers I recommend obviously our new blogger forum, hosted by me
Free blogs
There are a lot of free blog platforms around, but for writing your own backlinks I highly recommend WordPress Google absolutely loves it, no ads, unless you put some banners on it. Only drawback, you can’t put adsense on it, but you still can place some banners. As a support blog it is a real hidden gem! Funny enough, as a seo support tool, Google’s own blogspot platform has always been less successful for me. But it allows for great niche blogs!
Comment on do-follow blogs
Some blogs, like this one, have added two plugins that make links in comments do-follow plus link relevant keywords, chosen by the commenter, to a site. I saw a real rise in spammers because of this but I still think it is a good way to thank my faithful readers and commenters with some linky-love. If you come across such a blog, try to leave a meaningful comment, use the key word feature and don’t abuse it.
Guest Blogging
Many blogs are looking for guest bloggers, normally you are required to write a post and rewarded with back links to your own site. If you would like to write a guest post for this blog, feel free to contact me! Many bloggers don’t advertise this possibility on their blogs, but you can always ask if you find a blog that you like and that is relevant to your own site / blog.
Last but not least
Another site I just came across and might use in future is Infobarrel the first 10 articles have to be approved by a human editor, so be extra careful with overly promotional posts in the beginning. What I have discovered so far is that the site, and therefore the articles on it, get lightning fast indexed by Google and because of the spammer prevention, has a high authority with Google. An authority that will obviously also affect your backlinks They also run an adsense share program that potentially could increase your earnings with Big G. I am not sure about retaining your copyright and if you can delete an article once it is written, but I will update you when I know more.
Do you know of more, good, do-follow sites that allow you to write your own backlinks? If so, please leave a comment, which are do-follow and keyword optimized btw!
Quick Link List for the impatient:
If I was not in Real Estate I would probably be a webmaster as crazy as it sounds. For the last few years I have mastered SEO. Anyone who is in business can take so much away from just having a basic understanding of how SEO works. As you know the difference of being on the 1st page of Google is just incredible for ones business. Your blog is excellent. You have offered some really terrific tips for those who are looking to rank better online.
“How to write your own back links ”
honestly speaking i thought you were going to tell some way to crate back-links on the fly but now i see that there are many ways to get quality back-links which affect search engine ranking
thanks for the post
johnny@travel insurance over 75´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
Cool post & a very cool pointer to http://www.posterous.com what a great idea the 100 or so questions I have lying around can now be forwarded / published directly to the web,
Thanks
even better I can do it from my phone at any time
Goldfish Guy´s last blog ..My goldfish are losing their colour?
@Ashland MA Real Estate
Thanks for your kind words! Yes, always know when one of my sites / hubs / lenses etc hits the first page in Google — because of the income jump, don’t even have to check the ranking anymore, SY
@johnny
Lol, no, nothing “on the fly” here, just good, honest work. SY
@Goldfish Guy
You found a really cool way to use posterous, well done! SY
Your back link strategy is pretty good. I think blogs commenting is also another feature in creating back links.
@The Counselor
Just don’t spam! SY
I’ve been looking for good SEO tips and resources. The info you gave is a good start for me. Thanks for sharing.
Larry
This article of yours is really nice and very informative. Thanks for sharing and helping me to learn from you about blogging. I have really become a fan of this blog. What a lovely treat for my Grey matter. Thanks a ton.
@Larry & @John Hardy
You are both welcome! SY
I didn’t know that your links on hubpages will become dofollow when your author score rises. I should work on it.
@Alex
Yes, they do this to keep the spammers out, too many people just put up a few spammy hubs and think they have made a real SEO effort for their site. Good backlinks need a bit more of an effort, they are nothing what you can get with a fly-by comment on a dofollow blog if you get my hint! SY
This was so much informative. Thanks for sharing this. Do follow blogs are nice but you have to be very careful for spammers.
@Sally Brown
SY
I am, don’t worry
This is one of the nicest blog sites I have seen, and you’re 100% right regarding backlinks. But no matter what precautions you put in place spammers will find a way around it.
@Sports Handicapping
Really? SY
I can’t really say that a backlink from bad neighborhoods are harmful to you. What I mean is, you can’t control people who want to link to your site right? well just my opinion.
@Brian
Have a look at this post from Google’s official blog http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/11/hard-facts-about-comment-spam.html you might change your mind! SY
Nice article, just shows they are many ways to promote your site through link building. Id like to add another way which is article marketing there are many article sites that allow free submission one is ezinearticles.
@Mike T
Thanks for your input, yes, you are right, article submissions are another great way to build up organic and related backlinks, SY
You have told comprehensively how we can write our own do follow links. Although I was aware hubpages and squidoo, the information on posterous and infobarrel is new and quite useful. thanks for the good updates.
macbook pro´s last blog ..Apple Macbook 13? Screen Assembly Used In As New Cond.
You are welcome, glad I could help. SY
Very interesting post. Thanks for taking the time to post it.
I’ve had great success in submitting articles to the likes of ezine articles. I try to make them interesting and above all useful to the reader. Sure you get a few bits of traffic directly but more importantly the best articles get used by other sites. If these sites are high page rank then you’re on a winner.
Andy
Dofollow blog commenting is probably my main source of backlinks. However your idea here of using the hosted WordPress platform to build blogs purely for backlinks sounds interesting to me, if a lot of work!
Harry@Electronica Mixes´s last blog ..Claud Butler Banshee 24″ 2010
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