There was a principle I studied in my economics classes in college…can’t remember what it was called now…but it went something like this:

If A = B, and B = C, then A = C.

In internet marketing terms:

Links = Search Engine Traffic, and Search Engine Traffic = Money, therefore Links = Money.

Whoever gets the most links makes the most money. That’s probably not news to most of you, but consider this:

When someone gives you links, they’re giving you money. Once you realize that, you start thinking much more gratefully about people who link to your content – especially when they do it with no expectation of getting something in return.

Thanks for the Links

Every morning when I log into the Wordpress admin section here on the site, I look at the incoming links section and I feel a little surge of gratitude for the people who are appreciating our content by linking to it.

This morning I decided to take a few minutes and try to give something back to the people I’ve noticed linking to us regularly – even giving us a blogroll link on their site (some even going so far as to include “make money” in the anchor text, which is especially beneficial to us).

I just wrote an article and submitted it for distribution through Unique Article Wizard – and I pointed all the links allowed in the resource boxes at a few of your sites. I did my best to use anchor text that I thought would get you closer to ranking for the keywords you’re targeting with your sites.

A few of you will see some new inbound links to your site from my article in the coming weeks. Consider those links a small token of our appreciation for linking to us.

Altruistic or Self-Serving? How About Both.

Now, the savvy cynics among you will already be having this thought: “Mark, why are you pretending to be so giving? All you did was strengthen the links that are pointing at your site. The whole activity was completely self-serving.”

The truth is, you’re partially right. This is an example of “giving to get.” By promoting the site that’s promoting me, at the end of the day I’m really just promoting myself.

I guess you could call this SEO Karma…you can simultaneously strengthen other sites as well as your own.

The old adage says that it’s better to give than to receive. When it comes to making money online, I say it’s better to give AND to receive.

Enjoy a relaxing weekend of link-building and money-making…

- Mark