I see a lot of people talking about how link building is difficult and the truth is, it really is. It's time consuming, tedious, frustrating, and several other negative words. To make things worse it can also get very pricey, no matter whether you're outsourcing it or doing it in-house.

I've also seen several posts about free ways to get links and they're all great ideas, but some methods can be a little uncertain. For example infographics are great, but there's no guarantee you'll get backlinks from it, which can make it hard to dive into. This is especially the case for smaller companies, where the risk of potentially wasting a lot of man-hours isn't an option.

To help make things a little easier, I put together a list of 10 ways to get links for free that I've seen work and work well.

1) Directories

This may seem like an obvious method, but I feel like a lot of people that do directory listings, do them incorrectly. They either use some sort of automated method or target any directory they can find. It's really beneficial to target not just good directories, but relevant ones. Debra Mastaler recently wrote a great piece on finding relevant directories. Do searches for things like:

• Link Submission "keyword"
• URL Directory "keyword"
• Website List "keyword"

This will help you find loads of directories for your specific niche and nearly all of them are free or provide a free alternative.

2) Google Alerts

This is one I'm really surprised isn't used more often. Most people already have Google alerts set up to monitor their site and brand name. Why not use it to your advantage? Any time you see someone write about your site, try to reach out to them and ask them if they wouldn't mind turning a word or two into a link.

The positive response rate from this is generally pretty high, especially when it's a random blogger who wrote about you just because they already like your product in the first place.

3) Web Tools

Calculators, Character Counters, URL Shorteners, all these simple tools are used constantly. Figure out a tool that would be beneficial to the sites you're targeting. If you're a vacation site, use all those years of data you've gathered and make some sort of trip estimator. After that just make an embed code for it and stick a link in there. There are a ton of widget and tool directories out there that you can put your tool on.

You can also manually email people that would benefit from the tool and tell them you're doing a promotion for the tool and that they can have it for free. Even though it's already free, they think they're getting a deal and are more likely to put it up.

This is a great way to get links on sites that would normally turn their nose at the offer. For example sites that already generate revenue and don't want to put a link up at the risk of someone clicking away from their site.

• Dark Tip: I'm only saying this so you can protect yourself from it. I by no means recommend doing this and never have done this - People can easily contact bloggers and promote someone else's tool and stick their link in it instead of the creator.

4) Promotional Codes and Discounts

This is an easy way to trade for links. You already want links from relevant markets anyways; offer them something they could use. If you're a fancy lamp making company, offer home décor bloggers 10% off on your finest fancy lamps!

This works especially well with bloggers who are already talking about topics relevant to your market.

5) Guest Posts

This is another easy one and has been mentioned quite a lot lately, but nonetheless, it works great! Contact bloggers and tell them you'll write some free content for them. It saves them a load of time, and you can squeeze in a link without them minding.

Finding bloggers that are willing to do this is really no different than good old-fashioned link building. Some are already seeking guest posts and some are open to it if you just ask. Here are some searches that work pretty well:

• "Keyword" guest post
• "Keyword" blog
• "Keyword" blogger
• "Keyword" guest writer

There are also sites like My Blog Guest where you can find people looking for guest bloggers and vice versa. However I prefer to contact bloggers directly. They're usually cleaner blogs and more topical.

6) Wordpress Plugins

This is actually fairly similar to the web tools topic. It's basically the same principal except, you want to turn the tool into a Wordpress plugin. There are gobs and gobs of Wordpress sites out there and what's great about Wordpress is it takes very little knowledge of code (if any) to make a fully functioning website. Users lean towards the use of plugins or widgets to do most things on their site. The best part is Wordpress has a convenient plugin search function within the back end of their CMS, which makes finding plugins very simple for users.

All you have to do is create the widget into a Wordpress plugin, which requires very little extra coding, and then submit it to the Wordpress plugins directory. Their guidelines are very lax and it's easy to get your plugin submitted. After that it will be available to every Wordpress user out there. There are also several other Wordpress plugin directories that would also help to promote your plugin.

7) Spotting Site Errors

This is a good one to do, while performing another type of link building. You can't really use it on it's own, but it makes bloggers like you from the get go and way more open to the idea of whatever you are asking them. So if you're actively seeking a guest post and notice an error on the site, mention it! Your conversation should go something like this:

You: "I noticed you have a broken button in your sidebar navigation. It looks like you’re missing an ending carrot at the end of your href tag. Just wanted to give you a heads up!"

Buddy Guy: “Gee thanks! I never even noticed. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you!”

You: “Glad I could help. You know our site hyperlink.com offers ya da da, which I think could be beneficial to your readers. You think I could get a link on your site?”

Buddy Guy: “Why of course! Your site is amazing and I think every man woman and child should know about it via my blog!”

I've gotten several different kinds of free links using this method. You can't really just actively seek errors on blogs, which is why it's best to do this while performing another form of link building.

8) Social Profiles, Local Pages, and Blog Profiles

This is an easy one and helps with local rankings especially. Go to all the main sites that will let you make a profile, and do so! Yelp, Blogspot, Quora, Twitter etc. Here is a list of my top picks.

Social

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Quora
• Linked In

Local

• Yelp
• Google Places
• Foursquare
• Bing Local
• Yahoo Local
• City Search
• Insider Pages
• Merchant Circle

Blogs

• Blogspot
• Wordpress
• Squidoo
• Typepad
• Weebly 

9) Templates

This one can be a little time consuming, but it's completely worth it if done right. Creating basic website templates and submitting them to templates directories is a great way to get really authoritative links. You can get all different types of sites using your templates: Blogs, Businesses, Review Sites, anything. Every site should have a nice little link at the bottom saying your company or client created it.

Wordpress also has its own directory for this as well, which seems to work quite well, plus most website directories will have a Wordpress specific section.

• Dark Tip: Again I'm only saying this so you can protect yourself from it. I by no means recommend doing this and I never have done this. I will however, say that I have seen this work and work well. People can easy just use someone else's template and change the template images so that it "looks" different and promote their own site instead.

10) Promotional Leftovers

You just had an event, party, or whatever and have an absurd amount of leftover T-shirts, Mugs, CD's, whatever. Give it away! Create a Badge award, which is just some sort of "Your blog rocks!" button with your link under it.

Tell the blog owner they just got an award for being the coolest person in Buckhannon West Virginia and that not only do you have an incredibly stylish T-shirt for them, you also have an awesome badge they can put on their site that will make all the ladies swoon!

Conclusion:

So there ya have it! I hope that helps all you fellow link builders and site owners out there.

Also I just wanted to make a point to say that in the occasions I mention adding a link on your plugin, template, etc. that I don't recommend making the link an exact match for your keyword. Put your brand name in there as well or something so it stays looking natural.

Cheers!

-Peter