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 are pretty popular. The idea 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.

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 yet, disregard - 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 methods?

You would be screwed, plain and simple.

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.
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.
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.
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 digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. A good "meta" social bookmarking site is Social Marker.

This is the bare minimum that I do with a new website. I also write a TON of articles, set up dozens of Web 2.0 properties, etc. I'll write more on this later. 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.

I do have a few tricks up my sleeve for automating some of this, but I'll leave that for another post. If you want to learn more about any of this, just leave a comment.

This content is fully accessible by:

• Premium Members

• List Building 101 Product Owners

Writing guest posts on other people’s blogs or websites that are already established will showcase your own credibility. Browse around on Google for the top authority websites in your niche, and present an offer to the website owner to write an article for them.

Many blog owners would love the chance to take a break, and many readers enjoy reading guest posts. Make sure you provide high quality content, and you’ll get a lot more visitors to your own website with the link you’ll be allowed to put there. This will increase your exposure with people who are regular readers of the other website — your hope is that they want to bookmark your website as well and join your list.

Off-line Promotion

If you sell physical products or have a storefront, this section is definitely for you. Even if you consider your business to be strictly online, there are a few golden nuggets here that you’ll want to pay close attention to.

Off-line promotion is something that many online marketers forget about and neglect. The truth is that there are many people out there who would enjoy being on your list, and who will be very responsive to doing so. However, if you never take the time to reach them — you won’t!

This content is fully accessible by:

• Premium Members

• List Building 101 Product Owners

Press releases are a time-honored strategy of announcing new information to generate interest.

There’s nothing new about press releases and the internet. Here’s how it works.

1. Do something eventful or plan something interesting.
2. Write a press release about it.
3. Submit your release to the press release sites like PRWeb.com, including a link to your website.

There are some free and inexpensive press release distribution websites. Just search Google.com and you’ll find them.

What you might want to do is announce the opening of your blog or website, or your new product, or anything else that people would find interesting.

Have your press release link to your website where your opt-in list is featured. Remember, you’ll get more opt-ins if you have some sort of incentive there — especially during the period where your press release is active. If you make your press release interesting enough it might get picked up by news channels.

This content is fully accessible by:

• Premium Members

• List Building 101 Product Owners

Yahoo Answers is yet another way that you can get traffic to your website. People ask questions on this site on a variety of different topics – and you can provide answers. Yahoo Answers also tends to rank highly in search engines like Google, and people who need answers can search all the old topics as well as start new ones!

This is great for you when you leave an expert answer with a link to your website. Keep in mind that Yahoo Answers strives to keep the spam away, so make sure that the page you have linked to is actually helpful and relevant.

I ran across this video from Erica Douglass of Erica.biz. It's a neat little video tutorial on how to find profitable keywords to use for blog posts that get free Google search engine traffic to your site. It's pretty nifty.

How to Find Profitable Keywords

I like how she spells everything out. It's really all about finding longtail keywords that don't have a lot of competition but that do have a good number of searches per month. The key is finding those keyword phrases that people use when they're in a buying frame of mind. That is to say, this is a method on how to find profitable keywords that people use when they're searching for solutions to problems.

The video below explains it all.