Out Of The Box Link Building Strategies

It’s no secret that building quality backlinks is one of the best ways to boost your search engine rankings.

The great news is, there are many link building strategies.

But the common strategies like guest posting and blog commenting are often overused. Since they’re used by almost everyone, these backlinks are extremely competitive and hard to gain.

So what are some uncommon yet highly successful link building strategies?

Below, are three unique and uncommon ways to build backlinks:

• Crowdfunding
• Event Link Building
• Web Directories

These strategies are a little more unusual and therefore, are low hanging fruit ripe for the taking. I’ll show you what they are and give you step-by-step instructions so you can get started right away.

Let’s go!

Crowdfunding

Did you know you can earn backlinks by simply supporting other people’s projects?

A lot of projects that are raising money online via crowdfunding, will place a link back to every person that contributed. The contribution can be a donation that ranges from $1 to a few thousand dollars. You can find these projects across a large variety of different niches.

That’s what makes crowdfunding a great opportunity to build backlinks!

All you need to do is:

• Find a project that provides backlinks
• Donate to the project

But before we start, let me show you the two different ways you can gain backlinks with donor links and package links.

Projects that provide donor links will publish the information of all their donors, which often include a link back to the donor’s site.

Here’s an example of a crowdfunding campaign that will link back to your site.

Best of all, this site happens to have a Domain Rating of 64.

Here’s how to begin:

1. Find Crowdfunding Sites For Link Building

There are many different crowdfunding sites available (e.g Kickstarter, GoFundMe, Patreon, etc.) but we’re going to use Indiegogo as an example.

Instead of manually going through crowdfunding sites that offer backlinks, you can do a quick Google search with these key terms:

• site:[indiegogo.com] inurl:projects +“link to your”
• site:[indiegogo.com] inurl:projects +”donor page”

You’ll need to sift through the results. However, this approach significantly narrows down your list of projects that provide backlinks in exchange for a donation.

2. Donate to the Project

Once you’ve found the project(s) you’d like to gain backlinks from. simply make a donation and you’ll receive back links shortly.

Event Link Building

Another highly unusual way to build backlinks is to sponsor or host local, national or international events.

1. Hosting: Create your own event and have third-party event-focused sites link back

2. Sponsoring: Provide a donation, resources, or help out in a certain way to gain a link as a sponsor.

You can gain backlinking opportunities with hosting or sponsoring, but sponsoring an event is a lot faster and easier.

Below, I’ll show you how you can begin sponsoring events.

1. Find the type of events you want to sponsor

First, you need to find out which events are relevant and the types of events you want to sponsor.

These include

• Concerts
• Meetups
• Conferences
• Workshops
• Seminars
• Academic Events

...and many more.

After you’ve narrowed down your niche, make a list of where these events are hosted. You can find national and international events on:

• Eventful
• MeetUp
• Events.Org

2. Find relevant events online

To find these events, you can use these Google searches:

• site:[website URL] inurl:events +“sponsors”
• site:[website URL] inurl:events +“link to your”
• site:[website URL] inurl:registration +“sponsors”
• site:[website URL] +“sponsors”
• site:[website URL] + “donation”
• site:[website URL] + “become a sponsor”
• site:[website URL] -inurl:support -inurl:blog +“link to your website”

If you want more specific results, add a specific keyword at the end of your search.

To find more events, simply repeat the process using each search term. Add these events to a spreadsheet and the contact information of the person you’re going to reach out to.

3. Reach out and make a donation

Send the decision maker an email to discuss the sponsorship. If you’re happy with the terms and deal, you can send a sponsorship donation. 

...And that’s it!

When the event is live, the hosts will place your link on their site. You’ll also get some exposure in front of your target audience.

Web Directories

Although many people are ignorant of directory links, you can actually build backlinks that are:

• Relevant
• Contextual
• From powerful sites

...with high quality web directories.

So how does it work?

To build links with high quality web directories, is to add your site’s link to an online database.

It’s one of the oldest link building techniques and was once a heavily spammed tactic for many years. However, you can still gain relevant backlinks from strong quality domains with web directories.

You just need to make sure the directories you’re using are:

• Active
• Relevant to your industry
• Well moderated

Here’s how to start:

1. Identify a High-Quality Directory

To find a quality director, see if the website’s internal pages are indexed into Google’s databases. You can find out by doing a search for the directory websites home URL. Then, see the results that appear.

Only high-quality directories would show up well.

You can also have a look at the website’s guidelines when it comes to being featured. For example, Family Friendly Sites have a detailed and in-depth policy.

Alternatively, you can also use SEO tools like Ahrefs to look at how authoritative the domain is.

Once you’ve found all the high-quality directories relevant to your niche, add them onto a spreadsheet.

2. Create a Good Directory Submission

When you’re submitting your site to a directory, make sure each submission is:

• Descriptive
• Unique
• URL or brand name focused

This way, you can avoid key issues like manipulative link building, over optimizing and even duplicate content.

For example: If I wanted to submit my site to multiple directories, I would convey the same message but phrase each submission differently:

• Matthew Woodward provides no-nonsense SEO and Affiliate marketing advice for new and established online business owners and internet marketers.
• Matthew Woodward is a seven figure blogger that provides affiliate marketing and SEO advice for bloggers and online businesses keen to boost traffic and grow their business.

3. Directories You Can Submit To

Here are examples of 10 directories that have high domain authority you can gain backlinks from today:

• Google My Business
• Bing Places
• Yelp
• Four Square
• Family Friendly Sites
• Incrawler
• Links2go
• Gimpsy
• Rakcha
• JoeAnt

Rounding Up

If you want to begin implementing unique and out of the box link building strategies:

• Crowdfunding
• Event link building
• Web directories

...are great strategies to start!

These strategies are non-competitive and provide low hanging fruit. That’s why they're fantastic ways to improve your site’s backlink profile quickly and easily.

Remember, building a strong backlinking profile is not an easy task.

It requires persistence and consistent efforts throughout a period of time. However, it’s one of the best investments you can make for your business.

Try these uncommon and unique link building strategies today!