Must Poker Link Building Be Selfish?

[Randy]

I get constant emails from people involved in poker link building. They offer me money for poker links. They offer me 3-way link exchanges for poker links. They offer me content for poker links.

What most of these "poker link building" experts never seem to do is email me to let me know that they have some excellent content that my readers would enjoy or find useful, and that they'd appreciate it if I helped them spread the word. Without offering me anything in return.

Even people in this industry who I've known for years use a poker link building strategy that assumes I'm selfish, that assumes I'll only link to their site if I get something in return.

I'd link to content that was really good and helpful asking nothing in return if someone just asked. I even posted a request for good content to link to here about a year ago. Less than 10 people responded. And I offered to link to these sites and pages asking nothing in return.

I'm a poker SEO consultant, but I sometimes give poker SEO advice to people I like without charging them full price, just because they ask, or because I like their website, or because I'm in a good mood. My income hasn't suffered for it.

I've linked to sites without asking for anything in return. I've linked to a lot of sites without even telling people I linked to them. My traffic hasn't suffered for it.

Providing a link to poker content that helps my readers costs me nothing.

And if you don't think a site that links out freely can make money, do some research on the Drudge Report. I don't agree with most of Matt Drudge's political biases, but I admire the amount of money he's made by linking, linking, and then linking some more.

[fatbill]

People are accustomed to others requiring a link in return for a link given ... it's just the way things have gone....

but this:

Providing a link to poker content that helps my readers costs me nothing.

is golden! ;-)

[SunPoker.com]

Great post Randy. In the grand scheme of things, you want to satisfy your readers. If you have a great article on Omaha but another site has a more detailed analysis of Omaha odds, it makes sense for you to let your visitors know that another site has a great article on Omaha odds that will help your Omaha game. In the end, that helps your reader.

Mark