Alright, so now who’s the pervert? I can’t believe you even clicked over to read this article, or can I? Actually, I can believe you looked and the reason I can believe it is because the title was out of the ordinary and it targeted that “curious” part of your brain. Truth be told, there is little more to link building than creative thinking, even a simple title like the one I used here can be picked up and published by hundreds of websites if for nothing more than to add a little humor to an otherwise bland website.

So I have already managed to teach you a lesson in link bait, what next! Well, there is a bit more to creating a viral article than a snappy title, you’re going to need great content too. The secret is creating compelling content with a title that triggers emotion or reaction within the reader. Try to make a reader laugh, scream, cry or question their own actions and you are well on your way towards creating killer content.

Alright, enough about link bait, we hear it all of the time and the term itself is disturbingly over used. Besides, there are so many other great ways to build links and market a real estate website without spending every waking moment trying to create an article that sells itself to people from all walks of life, right. So quick, grab a pencil and pad of paper because here are some of my favorite methods of link deployment:

1) Writing Guest Articles: You know, this “guest blogging” method used to be so talked about and now, ummm, not so much. There is a big nasty four letter word that causes people to overlook this idea, that word of course being “work”. That’s right, I read in the newspaper just the other day that some people may have been bitten by the lazy bug, a nasty little creature from some Scandinavian rain forest, I think. Hey, that’s alright though, because it leaves more opportunities for those of us willing to work for our food.

Why a guest author you may be wondering. Well, back when Google first printed an algorithm on stone tablets (many years ago), part of that algorithm was to place a higher importance on links that come from within any given pages content. Which means that when you write for old Joe Johnson, your friendly neighborhood real estate agent, and include links within the article, you are in fact building highly relevant links of considerable quality. Whew! That was a lot of explaining…

2) Linking to Other Websites: Somewhere along the path between link building and righteousness, some bad SEO prankster told people in the real estate industry that linking to other websites was a bad thing to do? It’s actually quite the contrary, in fact, when I first launch a new website, I link to all of my competitors. Why? Well, for the same reason people tell you not to link to sites that are in “bad neighborhoods”. Simply because Google will associate you with those websites in which you link to, which if course means that it only makes sense to tell Google that you are associated with all of the websites in the top 10 for your search term, right?

Were that reason not enough, consider this. Many bloggers have been strategically linking to other blogs within their industry for years in an effort to receive links in return. Guess what? It works! The other blogs often do link back, in essence boosting the authority of both websites.

3) Capitalize on Keyword Real Estate: No, not real estate as a keyword, keyword real estate! Have I taught you nothing thus far? Check out this well articulated article for a complete definition of what keyword real estate is and how it can benefit your website. In the meantime, let me give you the rundown.

With keyword real estate, we try to grab up all of the available web properties that we can use to link back to our website. For instance, let’s suppose that your main keyword is real estate license (to use mine as an example), that one hit’s close enough to home for me. So what we are going to do is try and setup as many free blogs, profile pages and websites we can using those keywords and in turn linking back to your own website, like this:
Squidoo.com/realestatelicense
Hubpages.com/hub/realestatelicense
Realestatelicense.blogetery.com
Are you beginning to understand where I am going with this? Excellent!

4) Turn your Blog into a Podcast: We always have to look for new venues to build links if you plan to get or stay ahead of the competition. As a blogger, podcasting directories would not ordinarily be an option for us, but it can be. Several services such as Odiogo.com will automatically convert your blog posts into podcasts. Now all you need to do is market your podcast throughout the thousands of podcasting directories and aggregator’s, have fun!

This is nowhere near a definitive list of link building ideas, but it does give you some ground to cover when you venture out to market your real estate website. Link building is all about creativity, you have to master the answer to “How can I get that site to link to me?”. Just remember that every great link is like a magical ray of sunshine that reaches out and lifts up the curtain your website has been hiding behind.