You’re online and you know you need to build links to rank your pages in any search engine that matters.

But before you think about hiring a link building company, re-think your link building campaign.

Would you rather pay money to have links built for you – or would you rather build links that put money in your pocket?

It’s a silly question and we can assume the answer is you want to put more money in your pocket rather than spend it, right?

To do that with a website requires captivating content and building one way links to attract the audience with your incredibly high ranking in Google.

For now, that means making backlinks to your web pages. Why not profit while doing it?

The Problem With Most Link Building Strategies

Although link building helps our websites float like cream to the top in Google, there is one problem.

Most human beings think backlinks are a chore, something like sweeping or cleaning the shaving scum and toothpaste off the bathroom sink (or other nether regions of the bathroom – but let’s keep it clean).

The problem with building links is that it can be mindless, so many outsource the campaign.

Another Solution Is To Use A Link Building Company

Because building links IS a chore, many just skip this all-important step altogether or simply hire a link building company as part of a link building campaign.

This solution presents its own set of problems, though:

1) Expense. Have you trumped Donald Trump’s bottom line yet? Probably not – so though you can hire a company to do this chore for you, you want to be profitable in your business, and keep expenses down.

Some companies will remove your links if you do not maintain the monthly expense of using their service (smart for them, expensive for you).

2) Penalties. JC Penney was not exempt from this: hiring an “SEO” company that used black hat methods in Google’s eyes…Whoops!

So the dilemma is: linking can be boring (I can’t help you there, it is what it is), or costly. Hiring a company to help you out can end up in penalties and loss of rankings.

Back to square one – the solution I propose:

Take control of your own link building campaign.

That way, you won’t cross swords with Matt Cutts (unless you don’t like Google traffic, this is an obvious poor choice).

Better yet – aim for links that will pay you. How convenient!

Taking Charge of Your Link Building Campaign: Step One

Before you build another link, there is one thing to do if you haven’t by now: set up your accounts. Set up the following:

These are the four main places to start, and each offers a free account set up.

Why these four?

They’re the most popular advertisers online insofar as making an extra passive income from link building.

If you wanted more variety, you can add the eBay Partner Network and Infolinks, for example.

Start with these since these are the four that have the most available free web 2.0 places to post, and they are the easiest to get accepted into.

Now that you have your accounts set up (the process will take a week or so to verify and get final approval), the next step is to begin publishing your links.

But where?

Where To Begin Your Link Building Campaign

There are so many places online to publish a link that you run the risk of getting distracted in searching them all out.

Just keep it simple to start the process.

Listed below are sites that are chosen not only for their traffic, but their ease of use and the way they integrate with some or all of the advertiser networks you’ve just signed up for…

…did I mention they’re free, too?

Why spend money when you don’t need to? Well…unless you see an incredible SALE then you’re only saving money – and that doesn’t count. 🙂

And contrary to what you might believe about link building – they’re pretty fun to use overall (despite the recent Farmers/Panda update). Each has their own community perks and personality – why be bored when you have a choice?

Here are just a dozen places to consider:

  • Hubpages
  • Squidoo
  • Blogger
  • Xanga
  • Typepad
  • Ning
  • LiveJournal
  • MySpace
  • Google Sites
  • Webs.com
  • Xomba
  • SheToldMe

There are dozens more – but the last thing I want to do is get you distracted from creating that amazing content on your own website. These should do.

What now?

Write Until You Break a Nail

Or something like that – when you write a post that you want to backlink, write some backlinks to your posts using these free platforms and make sure you use any modules or links to your other money making programs.

For example, in HubPages, you would need to add an Amazon module if that made sense on your HubPage, or you would at least fill in your Kontera, Chitika and AdSense publisher ID’s when you set up your HubPage account.

How do you decide the subjects to write?

Write Backwards

No, I don’t mean become dyslexic (some of us already are), what I mean is to start at your post on your site and then write for your linking properties like Blogger, Squidoo, etc. by asking a question.

What question?

Exactly! If you were writing a post on building links for better rankings, your HubPage (etc.) would ask, “How Do You Get Better Rankings in Google for Free?” or something similar.

Keep it simple and direct – because your goal for a link building campaign is to get your readers on all of your other properties to click through to your website.

Don’t just write for the backlink – write for your audience. Always, always write for your human audience: these links may be around for years to come.

Will people want to click through to your website? Are you asking and answering the right questions?

Those are questions that a cheap link building company will likely not ask, by the way (not that I’m coming down on outsourcing all of a sudden, but it is something to consider).

This is just one way to go about it, and it’s basic article marketing at its best: write your blog posts on your site to answer a question, then use these web 2.0 properties to re-ask the question.

Thank me later, when you see the traffic come in (but you will get the most traffic if you rank well in Google, so keep building links).

Marketing Takeaway

When you’re running your blog like a business, and you should be – why not make every part of your business profitable? Why wait to make money when you can make money at every turn?

Your link building campaign doesn’t have to be expensive. Build backlinks that pay you. Build links that get traffic.

And why not do it all at once and save time, while making money?

Multi-tasking isn’t as impossible as you’ve been told – the internet is ripe with low-hanging fruit like this if you look for it.

After a year of building links this way, you’ll kick yourself for not trying it sooner. But don’t do that…just build more links! 🙂