If you want to see who is considered an authority by Google for certain keywords, you don’t have to look very far. All you have to do is do a search for those keywords, and you’ll see them right there, on the front page.

If you manage to get links from those sites, they will probably give you a very healthy boost for those keywords. From some of them, getting links is easy. From others it would require either money or some clever work.

Types of sites and how you can get links from them

1. Forums

If they rank for that keyword with the front page, then probably creating a user and using the link in the signature and for the personal website link would be enough.

If they rank with a thread, then you need to post a reply there. The problem comes when the thread is old and there are no recent replies in it. Posting in an old thread might get you banned, but if you post something relevant and say that you got there with the help of the search engines and you want some clarifications, you might survive the post. A good idea might be not to use a signature right from the beginning. Instead, wait for the thread to slip back to the back pages, then put your link in the signature and ping the page where your reply shows up on pingomatic.com or pingoat.com. It’s a bit evil, so it’s up to you if you do it or not.

2. Blogs

This should be easy. You got a couple of options here, all normal link building techniques.

Guest Posting - If you can do a guest post, the link to your blog will be there. If they accept guest posts that is.

Buying text links - You can contact the blog owner and see if he’s willing to sell you a text link. If you can, try to get a bulk price, and pay in advance for 1 year or so.

Sending an email - Just a simple email, letting him know what your best articles are. If they’re interested, they might link to you, and again, you gain a link from a site that has authority for that keyword.

3. Mini Sites

If it’s a mini site (just a few pages), it depends on what kind.

If it’s a company -  you can try offering them a free logo or a redesign in exchange for a footer link.

For other sites:

  • you can try contacting the owner and buying a link
  • you can buy the mini site if the owner agrees to sell it. If you can buy it with $50 and it’s already on the 1st/2nd page in Google, then with a bit of work you can take it to the top. If it makes you $2-3/day then you got your money back in just one month. That, plus it’s a permanent authority link to your main site with your chosen keywords. Better then renting a link.
  • wait for them to expire if they’re not updated and try to grab the domain when it drops

4. Full Sites

These are a bit of a problem. If they’re selling sponsor links or banner ads, then you’re in luck. If not, or if the links are out of your price range, then it depends on the type of site. If they have a forum attached, then it’s easy getting a link. Maybe they have places where people can comment or leave a product review, though it would probably be with nofollow attached. Another option is leaving a testimonial for their product if they sell anything, and you might get lucky.

Again, you have the option of offering a free logo/site redesign in exchange for a footer link.

5. Massive sites: Wikipedia, About.com, etc

Tough. On About.com I think you can buy advertisement or text links. On Wikipedia I don’t know any way of getting a link without nofollow.

Final words

There is a difference between getting links from high PR pages to boost your PR and getting links to rank for a certain keyword. It’s not the same thing.

If you want to rank for a keyword then get relevant links, from sites or page that are already considered an authority (they’re in top 10/20 in the search engines for that keyword). You can also look for related terms and get links from sites that rank for those as well. Just don’t go buying PR 5 links from car blogs and expect you’ll rank better for "making money online".

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