Best Practices for Flickr Link Building

Every once in a while I read an article or blog post related to link building, and it's so good I nearly wet my pants. Of course, I'm in my forties so it could be incontinence, but that's a story for another post.

There is a right way and a wrong way to go about link seeking and link building, and then there are ways that rise above everything else. A technique so sublime that as you read about it you are both mad (that you didn't think of it), but smiling at the sheer brilliance of it.

I'll get to the specific example in a moment, but first it's important to explain that when I say there is a right way and a wrong way to build links, what I should say is there are a hundred right ways and a thousand wrong ways. The approach and strategy you employ will ALWAYS depend on the venue you are pursuing links from, the content you are pursuing links for, your creativty, and your own internal ethical compass. The strategy I'm about to point you to will not work for everyone, nor should it. But the lesson to take from it is priceless.

I'm fond of throwing around the phrase "holistic link building". It makes me sound smarter than I am. The two core strategies behind holistic link building are that 1). your site is more than it's homepage, with multiple opportunities for content specific deep links, and 2). the web is filled with passionate experts who create a variety of content that you can leverage.

OK, enough introduction. This article from Lisa Barone and Rae Hoffman titled "Getting Links AND Content From Flickr" shows just how creative and clever link building can be. It does so not just by theorizing, it does so by sharing a real life case study and examples. But besides that, and perhaps most importantly (here's where I get all misty), this article shows how link building can (and should) be a very human process, not a task to be dreaded, or a chore to be completed. Please read it and see if it inspires you like it has me.


NOTE: To ask a link building related question, click the "comments" link below, or the "Post a Comment" link at the bottom of any individual post. You can also email your question to LBBPQ@ericward.com