A while back I wrote a post for 9 Evil Ways to Build Links. I wanted to do a follow up piece about 9 angelic ways to build links, but I decided that wouldn’t be nearly as fun :) So, here are 9 more evil ways to build links.
As I stated in my last post, I would never recommend using any of these strategies. This post is intended to help you think outside the box and just for a bit of fun.
Lie
1.) Contact bloggers and claim you own the copyright to an image of theirs. Tell them they can keep the image up as long as they link to you as credit.
2.) This one isn’t building, but rather a removal in your favor. Find good solid links pointing to your competitor and reach out to the site owner. Warn them that their linking technique is against the Google penguin update and they should remove the link; or claim to be your competitor and request the link to be removed.
3.) Claim you have an employee with cancer or other severe illness. Contact cancer support blogs and request permission for your employee to write on their blog.
Cheat
1.) Build a microsite related to a credible company’s promotional efforts. For example, Red Bull’s Stratos campaign. Contact bloggers while posing as Red Bull employee and request a link to the site. Redirect the site when you’re done.
2.) Build cheap low quality links to a site owner. Contact them and offer to remove the back links in exchange for an external link.
3.) Contact bloggers who run free WordPress or Blogspot blogs with a personalized domain. Offer them free hosting. You’ll have FTP access, so you can place links wherever you want.
Steal
1.) Help a businesses owner hire link building services and manage it for them. Get a portion of those links pointing to your own site at their expense.
2.) Redirect a page of your website to a new and popular infographic. Promote the infographic including the redirect link as credit. Remove the redirect when you’re done.
3.) Download a popular WordPress tool and add or change the linking element in the tool. Keep the same name or rename it to something similar. You’ll get accidental downloads for people looking for the legit tool and all installs will link to you.
Don’t hate me!
I know some of these ideas are pretty ruthless, but please don’t hate me. As I stated above, I would never practice or recommend these ideas. They’re just ideas.
If anyone wants to share some evil methods, I’d love to hear them!
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Lie #3 is so wrong it is funny. I’m not being insincere to those suffering from cancer, neither is Pete. It is just one of those things that is so horribly bad that it becomes humorous. Even after reading it before anyone else did I still laughed.
Nice work with this Peter.
Appreciate it Michael! I think as long as these aren’t taken too seriously, humor can be found in them :)
These are actually pretty funny. I’ve thought about several of these tactics before too – does that make me potentially evil?
I’m afraid so Troy. Looks like you’ll have to cope with the enjoyment of other peoples suffering for the rest of your life :)
Ideas huh? You know that someone is going to copy and paste this into a PDF and go sell it on WarriorForum as a “Nine Killer Links for Panda and Penguins” WSO…
I’m not entirely sure what you’re getting at, but it’s pretty obvious that most of these methods would be illegal. If you spot someone dumb/ballsy enough to use them, please fill me in on the outcome :)
Love it, who said “white” hat SEO can’t be creative ? :D
Hahaha! I’ve done white hat link building posts as well :) The dark stuff is just way more fun, because you have to think very differently. It’s also given me some great ideas for white hat tactics as well.
haha! Cheat two is funny! its give me the idea of blackmail link building… like email the website owner ask him to give you the link or you will bomb cheap links to his website :)
##Again this is just an idea and I will never try or recommend anyone to do that…
I’ve actually seen something similar where a person who owns several crappy sites will link to a site and then ask for money to remove his own links :)
Contact bloggers who run free WordPress or Blogspot blogs with a personalized domain. Offer them free hosting. You’ll have FTP access, so you can place links wherever you want.
I LOVE THIS! I mean, it’s not even evil :D I’m helping you, so you help me (even if you don’t know!)
Nice one Pete, I love this series!
Cheers Alessio! A lot of these can be spun in a fairly white hat manner, for example the one you mentioned. You can just ask for one small link. However, you could also just link to all of your clients without them knowing :)
Yeah! more like what Godaddy did in the past!
Excellent link building ideas. Number 1 is excellent, I think I might use this.. in fact I’m sure your evil link builder image is copyright by my site :)
There’s a stamp in the bottom right of the image ;) I’m usually pretty good about giving credit when I know the source, but that just goes to show how easy it would be to pull off.
WOW! Why Evil ways are always easier than truth? Those are some funny ways to build links & I’m sure *one* will definitely use it.
Are you coming up with these yourself? Beautifully filthy.
For the most part. There were a couple that derived from other methods I’d heard about or spun into a black hat technique from a white hat technique.
Glad you liked them :)
These are terrible, but very well thought out! I will add one that someone tried on me the other day, which was genius and almost had me. He was someone in the same industry as me and said “Hey I just added you to my friends and affiliates page, mind linking back to me” and initially I though hell why not. Well what I didn’t initially notice at first was that the link he gave me was a no-follow. He had about 30 websites he reached out to that got him backlinks, while he had a no-follow on all of theirs.
Hey Steven,
That’s something I saw a lot of a few years back. However, most people were smart enough just to no-index the page. It’s a little harder to spot.
You could even just give them a do-follow link and then just remove the entire page after you’re done ;)
Cheers,
-Peter
Even though I’m a converted white-hat, part of me loves to think of evil ways to build links. Your suggestions are pretty evil, I wonder what Matt Cutts would think :)
Some ideas I can add as well:
- Do “free” contests to bloggers.
But pick the winner yourself. Get someone else you know to write an entry, and choose that entry as the winner.
- Give “free” products to review to blogger
Tell bloggers you’re coming up with a product in a few months, and you want to know if they’d be interested in reviewing it when it comes up. Ask them to write about your site in the meantime.
Unbelieveble, hahahaha.. what kind of tactics, but this is intelligence too.
Thanks Peter, haha
“Build cheap low quality links to a site owner. Contact them and offer to remove the back links in exchange for an external link.”
The above tactic may not work. As soon as the low quality links are removed, the site owner is likely to remove the external they provided from their site.
“Building cheap quality links and offer to remove them in exchange for an external link”. Negative SEO and taking someone on ransome. Pertty evil indeed. I hope people don’t opt to go this route. It will kill the industry or few start ups for sure.
Giving blogger free hosting and custom domain and then putting links are not worth of money we spend in domain and hosting, because obviously they will be low quality blogs.
Definitely evil stuff and I bet all of these have actually been attempted by someone at some point. I had a good laugh, lol.
LOL! Creative and evil! The one about claiming copyright is pretty funny (and most likely very powerful). I’ll like to add this tip to the shady link building: https://plus.google.com/117137339754881094552/posts/aSDUv4tUU3q – It’s not pretty, but it’s something :)
That’s a pretty good one. I had to share it :) I remember you could do that back in the day with Geocities pages to take over their website.
Yup, exactly :) – Thanks for sharing!