12 Different Types of Links and How To Get Them

6. Edu and .Gov links
How to obtain them: Be nice to future interns. Offer some career assistance and/or advice.
What to look for: .edus and .gov TLD extensions – Da ‘hoo recently changed some things to use siteexplorer, so most the good tools broke (sorry, I’m not a developer), but you can still used advanced search to restrict searches to these TLD types.
Examples: real estate law resources
Other Notes: There are plenty of ways to encourage .edu and .gov folks to link to you (mainly good content or resources). It should be noted that there is most likely NOT special weight on these TLD’s, but they generally have much more trust score associated with them because they are generally of higher quality.

7. Radio station, television, magazine, or newspaper links
How to obtain them: Buy ‘em, or find a journalist
What to look for: Local news or someone looking to write a story.
Examples: real estate law news
Other Notes: Do some traditional media advertising, and negotiate for some extra special link love.

8. Press release links
How to obtain them: Find sites that offer press release submission services and submit your NEWS (*note – this does not mean any crap you just want to link stuff)
What to look for: People in your niche who want news as content.
Examples: PR.com, PRWeb.com, and many more
Other Notes:Press releases are generally NOT a great way to get links, but you can pick up some that may be of value. Every little bit helps, and remember (again) this is only a small part of your overall link profile.

9. Article bio links
How to obtain them: Write a few articles, or have some written for you. Rinse, repeat.
What to look for: Industry authority sites that accept submissions from guest writers
Examples: “real estate law” + “submit articles”
Other Notes:
This can be a GREAT way to get some good authority links from high profile sites. They’ll appreciate (or demand) great content in return for the exposure and link pop you’ll receive. The better the site is, the higher quality content they will require. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

10. RSS/ Blog aggregated links
How to obtain them: Pretty easy – start your blog and aggregate – also known as scraper links.
What to look for: Blog and RSS directories to submit to, and tagging sites.
Examples:
Other Notes: Not worth a whole lot, but you’ll pick up a whole bunch of links this way. They’re “power” is minimal at best and highly debated. There are, however, plenty of legitimate sites that aggregate content where you may pick up some decent links.

11. Comment and Profile Links
How to obtain them: Contribute to others websites – yes, REAL contributions.
Examples: Look for sites that don’t use the nofollow tag and show up in other folks backlinks.
How to obtain them: Contribute something worthwhile to a community or blog. Stick around awhile – don’t be a jerk and jus’ spam sites, you’ll probably get turned off or blocked anyhow.
What to look for: Sites without nofollow tags or redirects.
Examples: Sorry, you’re on your own, this is not hard.
Other notes: Not much to add, people have been using forum links, comment links, and profile links for a long time. Again, these links’ value is marginal, and only a very small piece of the puzzle.

12. Presell Page Links
How to obtain them: Obtaining presell pages takes link negotiations to a whole new level. Good luck outsourcing this. There are opportunities to purchase presell pages.
What to look for: Sites open to advertising that aren’t going crazy with it. Look for the happy medium.
Examples: You’ll have to write a page of good content. Create a whole webpage based around the target sites template. Make it as little work as possible for the person you’re requesting a presell page from (they’re already doing you a big favor).
Other Notes:Welcome to link builder zen. Get as many as you can possibly get. They offer direct traffic and rankings as well as highly targeted link pop.

Balance is the key term in a link profile. If you tip the scales too far on near any type of link you are going to setoff alarm bells to the algos. Don’t be dumb. Use all the tools at your disposal to achieve balance in your link equation. My guess is that link juice for rankings these days is pretty close to the pareto principle 80% of your “power” is going to come from the top 20% of your links.

**Added – Courtesy of Cameron, I found Neil’s real nice 5 piece series on getting links.

This post has even been translated into German!