As you know from reading anything here, building backlinks is one of the most fruitful things you can do.

Backlinks:

• Build ranking in the Search Engines
• Drive direct traffic, too (don't discount this one)

Put don't put all your backlinking eggs in one basket. Many IM guys try one tactic and that tactic may work – for now. But what if the Big G catches on?

For example, linkwheels were pretty popular. The idea behind a linkwheel is to get backlinks to a “money page” by writing articles and submitting them to popular article directories as well as Web 2.0 properties like Blogger.com.

One popular linkwheel method goes something like this:

• Write article. Put in two links – one to your “money page” (the page you ultimately want visitors to see and act on) and one to a Web 2.0 property.
• Write a second article or post with 2 links again, this time one to your money page, the other to the first article (prior bullet).
• Repeat, always linking to your money page with one link and with the other link pointing to the last article you posted.

This is all fine and good. What you're doing is building the rank and PR of the articles and posts to Web 2.0 properties (by backlinking to them) as well as getting a ton of backlinks to your money page.

Linkwheels Are Dead

However, linkwheels are pretty easy to spot. Especially if you do your linking with the same properties and in the same sequence every single time (so, don't do this).

What if Google decided that it would discount – or worse, disregard – or worst of all, penalize – any backlinks from linkwheels? Not that they would or have plans to, but what if they did and this was your only (or primary) backlinking method?

You would be screwed, plain and simple. And, thanks to updates the past few years, most linkwheel strategies are dead.

So what I do and wholeheartedly recommend is to diversify your link building methods.

5 x 5 A System for Building Backlinks

I have a very simple system that I follow every day until I'm comfortable with my website's position in the SERPs. I call it a “5×5” system, very similar to a very popular strength-training system in the bodybuilding field.

Here's what I do (every day), put very simply:

1. I make 5 comments on other blogs. I don't necessarily care about PR or whether they are “do follow.” I just make 5 value-added comments. One tool I use for this purpose is Comment Kahuna. I also use this.
2. I make 5 forum posts in relevant forums. The purpose here is two-fold: One, I get the backlink, and Two, I build credibility in my industry. Include Facebook groups here, in addition to forums.
3. I use “Angela's Backlinks,” a very popular service that gives you roughly 30 high PR sites you can visit to get a backlink each month. (I know, 30 sites is only good for 6 days of backlinking here, but I have been a customer for quite some time and each month I can go through old packets to fill in 5 a day for a month). I highly recommend this service! Especially for a brand-new site. There really is nothing better than getting 30 very high PR backlinks when you first fire up a website. I no longer use this. I don't even know if it still exists. This one just became too successful and everybody started using it, so the sites began shutting down registrations. Too bad.I now use this. It's easier, but it does cost some money.
4. I submit my site to 5 directories a day. There are a host of sites that have nifty indexes of literally thousands of web directories. Just find the appropriate category and then find the “submit URL” button. I used to use Directory Submitter by Brad Callen, but it seems to have been taken down and I lost my original copy. But everything you need is on the web – you just have to find it.
5. I make 5 submissions to social media sites like Instagram, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the like. A good “meta” social bookmarking site is Social Marker.

However, the best strategy for getting quality, relevant, and diverse backlinks is through guest posting, despite what this guy says. This requires a separate post, but you can read about guest posting here, here, and here. It's not something you can do at scale, but you can get a lot from a little.

This is the bare minimum that I do with a new website. This will give you a really good start on building backlinks to a brand-new blog.

If you do the math, you'll have 750 backlinks by the end of your first month. Not bad. In fact, good enough to rank very high in the SERPs for well-chosen long-tail keywords.

If you want to learn more about any of this, just leave a comment.