This is the third in the Link Building Tips series. First two articles here - Tip 1 – Rank lists , Tip 2 – Interviews.

link-building-ideas-tips  Okay, today let’s take a look at yet another link building strategy that is guaranteed to work, provided you do it right.

Remember, there is no BS here as you might often see elsewhere with “do this,you might get this” kind of general lame talk. This is a tested, proven strategy, that if you do the right way can work wonders for ya. Believe me, it works !

Before jumping in, let’s ask ourselves this question. What is the one reason that makes us link to another article/blog ? Whether it is a bandwagon, or a meme, or a simple admiration to the author, there’s one thing in common. While linking to another story, you pass value to your readers.

Ex:- When you are linking to a Wikipedia article, you are actually passing value to the reader.

So basically, if you were to tempt someone to link to you, you must be able to convince them that there is value in your content, that the readers would enjoy. (You’ve heard that a million times from the gurus eh?)

Okay, let’s get straight to the point. You are going to create “something” that’s going to tempt others to link to you.

And this goes out to all the strugglers out there so clearly we are not talking about writing an exclusive interview with Guy Kawasaki or a brand new product release or the new iPhone design that’s releasing in mid 2009. That’s the big guys cup of tea. Let’s make ours own.

We are going to create pages on our blogs, that will ask questions to the readers, rate their answers and give them a grade. (Sounds very simple, eh?)

Let’s put it this way. Assume that you are an authority in “AJAX coding”. You know the world but unfortunately, the world does not. Now, you need that one major break to let the world know of your expertise in it.

1 – Create a quiz page on your blog, that will ask 100 questions to readers. All of them are tough, above average questions that AJAX learners have never seen anywhere.

2 – Create a grading system from the answers they give. And give them badges according to their marks.
Ex:- If they score a 10/100, they get a “I’m a newbie” badge, probably with their graphic or something.

3 – Provide them a HTML code with the links to the graphic, that they can paste in their website.

Now, who ever manages to get a badge showing off their “ranks”, will be proud to show them off on their websites. And each badge means a link back to you. ;)

The problems

You have to decide how tough your questions are going to be. If they are too tough, people might find it boring. And if it’s too easy, people would simply skip it off and wouldn’t even bother to show off the badges, even if they got a 100/100.

The codes to frame the quiz.

If you are on Wordpress, these plugins will help you build quizzes of various types.

Quiz plugin 1, Quiz plugin 2, Quiz plugin 3,  

If you are on other platforms, you have to create separate quiz pages with Javascript. Here are some scripts that might help.

Quiz script 1, Quiz script 2, Quiz script 3,

So, what are you waiting for, go make your own quizzes and show it off to the world.

Please don’t forget to create badges, which are the the “hooks” that will compel others to link to you. If you cannot manage badges, make the quizzes as interesting as possible, also select a topic that you are best in or is related best with your blog.That itself would be the factor to compel for a link back.

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  1. Thanks for the link!

    About the 3 quiz plugins you linked to - the first one is not a quiz plugin - its a spam blocker plugin.

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    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Thx Binny, Link corrected.

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  2. Dear Mani what u said is innovative but i believe the strategies you mentioned above will only work for well established blogs.I think these strategies will not work for new blogs with with very few back links or no links.

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  3. I agree with you niielo…

    people show off such ranks only if it’s assigned by an established authority.. (established blogs)

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    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    Right Amit, I agree that it’s easy to pull it off if it’s on an established blog. But as I said, this is not a formula that will work for everyone if you just follow it. If you are clever enough to cook up something refreshingly different and attractive, just by the quality of the4 concept itself, then we have an opportunity.

    It’d have been lot easier if things worked as easy as on a “set up, publish,forget” mode. Unfortunately, it’s not. And ideas like these are worth trying - probably only the ones who can pull it off and present it well only might succeed. But hey, that’s how all strategies are right ?

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  4. Hi Mani,

    I co-developed http://www.QuizMarketing.com which is now in open beta.

    It enables you to create personality quizzes and embed them directly onto your site. At the end of the quiz each taker can copy and paste their results badge onto their blog or anywhere else.

    Here it is in action:
    http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2008/08/15/quiz-are-you-a-cheapskate-woodworker

    Here is where a blogger posted a badge from this quiz:
    http://stusshed.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/cheapskate-woodworker-quiz/

    Again, http://www.QuizMarketing.com is in OPEN BETA right now so anyone can use it to add quizzes to their WP blogs.

    Thanks,
    Garrett French
    http://www.QuizMarketing.com

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  5. @ niielo and Amit, I don’t think you always need to have a lot of viewers for this to work. It just depends on how you’re using it.

    For example, you can offer some sort of silly quiz that tells people how much of a wimp they are based on various daily tasks, such as

    “how often to you take the stairs?” or
    “do you use a forklift or stapler more often”

    Then they can get a badge that they can place on their various social media profiles that says something funny on it.

    All you have to do is promote your quiz and get people in to use it. Even a couple of links are better than none.

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  6. Hi Mani, It seems an excellent idea! However, Like Niielo I also think that it won’t work for new bloggers. But, I would say atleast we can opt this technique to grab attention of readers.

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    Mani KarthikNo Gravatar Replied:

    I agree Alice. For young bloggers who might have reputation as a problem, this may not work as planned.

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