A HUGE tip for you when BUILDING BACKLINKS - A lot of you are looking at it the wrong way.

Ok, so you want to build backlinks to your site, right?

Ok good, that's a good thing.

However, if you look at backlinks, as 'traffic' instead you'll be better off.

My mindset, is always a 'how can I get some more traffic to this site?'

You can drive traffic with...

• articles
• press releases
• blog commenting
• giving stuff away
• creating quality web 2.0 properties
• creating business listings
• participating in forum
• Just to name a few...

Articles - Articles are a great source of traffic, you should write quality articles all the time, instead of spun crap nobody wants to read.

Why? Because your mindset should always be about the traffic you can get from that article. You still get the backlink, but why not drive traffic too?

Press releases - Press releases are also a great source of traffic, and in many cases instant, high volumes of it. So when you write a press release, don't write one in 5 minutes that's just a bunch of 'newsy' words so you can submit it for backlinks. Write it well, so you build traffic.

You should look at press releases as a great traffic source, rather than a 'backlink syndication' system. It's great for backlinks anyways, why not build some traffic with it?

Quality Web 2.0 properties - Don't just spin your articles and submit them to a bunch of Web 2.0 sites. Create fun, intriguing, quality web 2.0 sites since they are an amazing source of free traffic, with your site in front of potentially millions of already active users.

You should look at building Web 2.0 properties like hubpages, squidoo, and LiveJournal as a way to attract the existing user base they have, you get the backlinks anyways.

Blog commenting - Why do people feel the need to spam blogs, and write irrelevant comments just for the backlink?

Newsflash guys, blog commenting is a great source of traffic, spamming blogs doesn't build traffic.

Why not find 'relevant' blogs, dofollow or not, read them and add value with a comment? You could be driving traffic with every blog comment you leave if you actually provide value, interest and a reason to visit your link.

You get the backlink anyways, why not take the extra time to find relevant blogs to build traffic with?

Forum marketing - Instead of finding mass forums to create profile backlinks, why not find relevant forums that you can participate in, and drive traffic with?

Spend some time helping people out, joining the conversation, making posts, and providing value?

More backlinks, and great traffic when you do it productively instead of spammishly.

So the reason I made this post, was so that maybe some of you will begin looking at link building, like 'traffic building' instead.

Just think, for all the hundreds of low quality links, and wasted time you could have grown to hundreds more visitors per month AND hundreds of relevant, helpful backlinks.

Don't rely on Google guys, crap happens, build yourself as many sources of external traffic as you can (since your new found traffic generating methods are building backlinks in the process anyways.)