Let’s talk about links and why it’s beneficial to spread link love throughout the writing community.

For some reason, Google thinks links are the cat’s meow. When someone links to your blog, Google says “Hey, people like that blog over there!” And then whoosh — your Google Page Rank goes up while you purr and drool all over your keyboard.

Google is so smart it actually ups your rank even more if the links to your blog come from a website with a lot of clout. And by clout, I mean a site that already has high standing in Googledom. So a link from someone like Dooce is going to make you purr a lot louder than say, a link from me. For now anyway.




Hopefully I don’t have to explain why you want to be on Google’s good side. What I would like to point out is that everybody wants to be on Google’s good side (not just you). You can probably guess where this is going.

Making Dreams Come True

That’s right, everybody wants inbound links. So if you have a blog, then you have the power to fulfill wishes and make dreams come true.

One way to do this is to write a review of something another blogger wrote or mention blogs that have inspired your own posts. Another way is to create link lists. The point is, you find a way to link to the ones you love and it’s just like you’re blowing pretty little Google kisses their way.

So link lists are good but guess what’s better?

Use Your Writing Skills to Spread Link Love

Actual sentences and paragraphs are far more appealing than mere lists. This is where your writing skills come into play.

Yes, Google recognizes the difference between links in a list (they get a nod and perhaps a curt handshake) and links that are embedded in the body of a written post (these get a welcome-to-the-family hug). So, when you construct links in this manner, you’re not blowing kisses, you’re French kissing.

What I mean is, links in sentences and paragraphs are WAY better than links in lists.

Links, Trends, and Creative Writing

Recently, I’ve noticed a trend around some of the blogs I frequent, which involves the blogger writing a little story and plugging links (the French kiss kind) into the posts. This is a perfect writing exercise for people like us (that would be you and me) because we are writers and bloggers. It’s a lot like doing mad libs because you write a story and then fill in the blanks with blogs you want to make out with.

Here’s how it works:

Living in the Writing Community

My writing journey had been what you might call a sweet unrest until last September when I launched my freelance writing business because I was struck by one of life’s little inspirations. That would be to make a living doing what I love on my own terms.

Within about six weeks (link no longer active), I had launched my career and was happily writing the cyber highwayΒ (link no longer active). My blog helped me find great people within the writing community. And while freelancing paid the bills, it was not my life’s greatest ambition. For I had big dreams of writing a novel and having it published, but I harbored fears of the rejecter and publishers who would find flaws in my fiction.

I decided that in addition to peddling my writing as a service, I would embark on a mission to become a better fiction writer. How? Well I started by escaping reality. Later this year, I’ll participate in NaNoWriMo and write a novel in 30 days. Hopefully I’ll finish on time because as you know, punctuality rules.

Now my dreams are starting to manifest in the form of words and pictures. I pray that I succeed so that one day I might be able to buy a cottage of my own. I just hope I don’t end up on any of the Deep Friar’s rant lists.

You’re All Good Kissers

Now that I’ve made out with all you fine people, try writing a link love mad lib of your own.

It’s a great way to show your affection for other bloggers and a wonderful way to connect with the writing community.

In case you want to get all crazy with the Google juice, here are a few final tips for spreading the link love:

  • Don’t limit yourself to using anchor text that matches the blog’s title. Use whatever makes sense. [Anchor text is the text that contains the link. Usually it’s underlined. Often, it’s blue.]
  • Likewise, you can link to posts on other blogs, not just to the home page.
  • Sadly, you probably won’t fit every blog you love into your link love mad lib. I didn’t. (Sorry guys.)
  • You have to choose whether to let the links you want to include drive your post or whether you want it to be story driven. I’m a writer before I’m a blogger so I went with the story.
  • Be creative and have fun. Be a good writer-blogger and link lots to others in the writing community.

Now, let’s play spin the bottle! But don’t forget to keep on writing!

Pin It on Pinterest