This post is sourced from my presentation at Pubcon on the Linkfluence: How to Buy Links with Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk panel. Since it received such positive feedback and a lot of requests for sharing, I thought I'd do so in a more reference-able way here on the blog. If you'd like to download the slide deck, you can find it here in Powerpoint format.

8 Ways to Buy Links Without "Buying Links"

Matt Cutts' webspam team, a segment of Google's broader Search Quality division, has made their position on buying and selling links for the purposes of boosting search engine rankings reasonably clear over the past 3 years. The practice is anathema - viewed as unacceptable because it infringes on the engine's ability to use links as an editorial signal of importance for search rankings. Both manual penalties and algorithmic filtering are applied as solutions, damaging the rankings of sites that buy as well as the ability for sites who sell to pass on link equity.

Naturally, this has led many individuals, sites and businesses seeking higher rankings to employee tactics that are plausibly removed from the direct exchange of capital for links, and while link brokers and link sales still thrive, they do so in an ever-increasingly paranoid & underground realm so as not to risk discovery and devaluation. In this post, I'll walk through examples of some of the more valuable and directly applicable methods to leverage finances for link growth while dodging Google's webspam edicts.

#1 - Event Sponsorhips

Principle - Sponsor an event, online or in-person, and receive a link from the event's website, and possibly those bloggers/site owners in attendance.

Process - Locate events with geographic proximity or topical relevance (search engines are useful, but events calendars like those on Upcoming.org & Craigslist.org are valuable, too). Get in touch directly and offer sponsorship. Depending on your level of aggressiveness, you can directly ask for a link or simply cross your fingers that some will appear. In my experience, if the audience/attendees are relatively web savvy, links are very likely. Even if you don't get a link, or it's devalued, the side benefits of networking, goodwill and branding are valuable on their own.

Example - SEOmoz sponsored a local Startup Weekend event here in Seattle this year, and received a link from the "thanks to our sponsors" post, as well as several related blog posts.

#2 - Charitable Donations

Principle - Donate to a charitable or non-profit organization and receive a link on their website.

Process - Find nonprofits/charities online - Charity Navigator and the BBB's Accredited Charity Directory can help, though greater specificity through topical relevance and geography is wise. Locate the charity's list of donors and see if they offer links. In general, it's better to get in touch directly, rather than using any online forms if you're seeking a link in return. As an added benefit, you're doing a good thing by helping organizations make positive impacts, and the donations are typically a tax write-off as well.

Example - Google themselves donated money to the FreeBSD foundation and earned a link from their donors list page.

#3 - Website Purchases

Principle - Acquire other websites and you're free to make them link or redirect to the URL(s) of your choice.

Process - Find relevant websites to buy and negotiate ownership. This is a complex process which requires far more detail than this post will cover, but good resources on the subject are here and here. Once the website is in your control, decide whether you want to use a 301-redirect to move the site's content (and link equity) over to a domain you control or simply maintain the domain and point links out to areas in need.

Example - Conde Nast publications purchased Reddit.com, which now links to both Wired.com and Howto.Wired.com on every page.

#4 - Content Acquisition

Principle - Find content that ranks well or has earned considerable link popularity on a topic, purchase it from the owner and move the content to your own site.

Process - The easier, but more expensive path is to find content that's already earned significant link equity, make an offer, and have the owner 301-redirect the page(s) over to your domain. This is, in essence, like buying a small part of a site. A more time intensive but cheaper method is to find content you expect would earn high amounts of links and rankings if given the proper SEO & marketing effort, purchase it and promote.

Example - BuddyTV.com acquired the content on OnlyWentWorth.org and re-points it to their page on the actor.

#5 - Advertising to Viral Traffic

Principle - Buy advertising that gets "Linkerati" in front of your viral-worthy content in an effort to attract more natural links.

Process - Create viral and link-worthy content on your site. Leverage the audiences at "Linkerati" heavy portals like Digg, Techcrunch, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Techmeme, Memeorandum, Facebook and others with advertising. Once attracted, use strategies like badges, embeddable widgets, tools, interactive content and emotional hooks (humor, conflict, etc.) to encourage sharing.

Example - Farecast.com (prior to its acquisition by Microsoft) used StumbleUpon's advertising program to help attract bloggers, forum posters and journalists likely to write about the service and link to it.

#6 - Blogger Product Reviews

Principle - Put your product/service in front of bloggers in a direct, personal manner to encourage them to take interest, review and link to your site.

Process - It helps to first establish relationships with bloggers. Meeting in person at conferences is a terrific way to build trust, but even a casual email exchange or phone conversation can help pave the way. Once you've created rapport, request a review (if you're aggressive about link acquisition) or simply provide a free product or access to your service and request their feedback. In the latter scenario, it's been my experience that a high percentage will still make mention (and link) on their blogs.

Example - The authors of Web Design for ROI sent a copy to SEOmoz, where Rebecca reviewed it and posted several blog entries with links.

#7 - Content Partnerships

Principle - Forge content and link sharing relationships, ostensibly with high audience relevance.

Process - Identify sources that could use your site's content. Pitch them on the concept that they can earn more traffic, clicks and page views with your content. If you're running into a wall, you can even offer to pay them to feature your work. Make sure to earn links back to the originals (unless you're willing to risk losing the SEO traffic to those articles/posts).

Example - The NYTimes.com licenses and links to content, including the homepages, of both VenturBeat.com and ReadWriteWeb.com on their Technology homepage.

#8 - Blog Incubation

Principle - Grow your own blogs by seeding writers, hosts, platforms and material.

Process - Put out ads for bloggers and have your development team custom-build or assist them in building blogs they can own and operate. Give the bloggers marketing plans and training so they know how to broaden beyond an insular ecosphere and earn link juice and rankings of their own. Create an agenda for blog posts, links and messaging and launch the sites.

Example - According to a Columbia Journalism Review article, 2008 presidential candidate John McCain's campaign used this strategy to seed a number of bloggers who could help to create buzz around certain topics and build stories that the mainstream press would then cover. These bloggers would write about and link to stories to help spread the campaign's message (and grow their search rankings).

These tactics have proven valuable for others but should be done relatively discretely. Virtually any strategy where SEO, and specifically link equity growth, is disclosed as the primary motivation for the transaction/relationship carries some (typically minor) inherent risk.

If you have other methods to share on how to acquire links with money indirectly, please do share!

p.s. Jane's comprehensive review of Pubcon should be out tomorrow for those anticipating release.