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It would be great to just ask for backlinks and receive them without delay, but the online world doesn’t work that way. You have to continually come up with new and innovative ways to get new backlinks so that your website is continually being ranked as interesting and worth visiting.

Every day we see new strategies for generating backlinks, and in fact sometimes you will get a backlink and have no idea how you got it! The key is to find unique ways to reach out to other people so that you have the greatest chance of gaining a backlink for your efforts.

Social networking sites, RSS feeds, press releases, directories, and even joining the Better Business Bureau can generate valuable backlinks if you know the right way to use them.

And believe me, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.

You might be thinking “it’s just too complicated for me”, or “I could never make it work” but in both cases you would be wrong. You CAN create tons of valuable backlinks and here is just one way a lot of people don’t even consider.

What could be better than selling something for cash and also getting a backlink from it? Make a little moolah now and a little moolah later too. This is something you can do with your own affiliate marketing program.

Mimic the big players like Amazon.com by creating your own affiliate program and having people backlink to your site for a commission. Setting up the program may cost you some time and money, but once it is in place you don’t have to pay unless you make a sale. If you don’t make a sale, the backlink is essentially free (not counting startup costs).

Sold on the idea, yet? Well, there is quite a bit to an affiliate program. You have to have a product or service that you can sell and then you have to have the capability to collect payment and track affiliates who are selling your products on other websites.

If you thought developing a backlink marketing strategy was time-consuming, an affiliate program needs to be micromanaged to produce not only income, but to reward your high-performing affiliates. Getting backlinks is just the side benefit that comes from your marketing activity. After all, if you don’t have an affiliate program that attracts affiliates, then you have no sales and no backlinks either.

The best way to get quality backlinks using an affiliate program is to offer something of quality on your site and to help your affiliates make money, thus keeping them happy. To do that you will concentrate on the affiliate program and not the associated backlinks. There are still some technical issues you will need to ascertain to have this work in your favor with backlinks coming from your affiliate program, but a long-lasting program focuses on sales first (for you and your affiliates) and backlinks second.

Still, getting paid to have other people sell your products and provide backlinks to your site is a win win for you.