How to separate Good Sites from the Bad?

[iCraft Admin]

This post was prompted by the question JaJeJems asked today during our Bootcamp discussion on Link Building. However, I think it's important to know the answer to this question for all Sellers, that's why I am posting it as a separate post.

Is there an easy way to identify spammy sites?  I tend to be suspicious of everyone-due to my age I guess!
Is it equally important to build links that attract people or search engines?  Should you do one before the other?
In the article it talks about finding sites that are relevant to your business but not directly competitive?  So would I be looking for sites that sell jewellery supplies or teach jewellery techniques as opposed to sites that sell jewellery.  Or could I look at sites that sell different types of jewellery from mine?

So here are the basic guidelines:

• Choose sites that are relevant and close to your craft thematically. So if you make Jewelry and someone has a blog talking about jewelry making or wearing different types of jewelry, that’s a good site to seek links from.
• Look for quality content. Good test is to determine if you’d read that content yourself. Does it sound like the authors knows know they are talking about? Are they consistent in their writing? Is it engaging, so people leave good comments on their pages and you feel like you’d like to join a conversation?
• If the site reads and looks spammy, that’s probably because its a spammy site. Trust your gut!
• Look for some personal information on the site. If there is a real person behind the site, there will be references to events, food choices or family members here and there. It’s sometimes hard for people to separate personal and professional life or hobbies from work and business.
• Don’t choose sites with too much advertising and too many links on a single page, especially in the footer and right or left column.
• Don’t pick directories, especially those that promise 5,000 links for $30.00.
• Better choose the sites that you know the owners of those sites personally. If you don’t - try to establish a connection with them. Learn who is behind the site.
• Check site owners social presence. If they have none or are not very active on any known to you social media sites, better to avoid them.

I’ll be adding more to this list if I’ll think of a few more points.
Hope this is enough to answer your question.

[Jewelry by Kat]

Here are some things I read what to do and I did them.      Post my website to craigslist.    Add a picture of myself to my website.  Comment on jewelry blogs and link mine.  Donate an item to a blogger with a large following to be reviewed as a prize.  I am designing and donating a blue bracelet to a cancer website and will blog about it maybe go to the news to see if it is a news worthy org.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Kat,

You are doing a lot of things right, I must say!  

Posting on craigslist or kijiji is good, but just so you know, that's considered advertising and those links quickly become "old, archived" links, so you'd have to keep posting new links there over and over again to get any referral traffic from those sites. But that's still all good.

Blogs are usually a better option, especially if your link is placed within a popular post which will get a lot of shares/tweets or on the Category page, which gives you a permanent placement. Those links considered better, if they stay forever. That's how Google knows that it's a real "vote" vs. advertising link, which is note considered as a vote by Google. Actually, according to Google, you are not suppose to buy links, or when you do you should let Google know about them, so they count them differently. Most big advertising platforms comply with that rule. So that's why you need to understand that not all links are equal.

However, it's important to have a mix of links from various types of websites pointing to your pages.
So keep doing what you are doing!  

Establishing relationships with bloggers and donating items for their review is probably one of the most effective ways of getting quality links from blogs that you hand-pick yourself.

[Red Rock Designs]

Welcome, SilverDawn!

Wow...I think I might need to regroup my approach to link building...and maybe focus more with jewelry makers? instead of an entire community of handmade products?

So far I've been able to spot the spammy sites because they have a lot of advertising all over their pages...but there are some sites that I'm not sure whether I should follow back....like the ones from teenagers or random people who are blogging about fashion accessories or crafting...not sure if they are actually creating any of their own work or if they're just blogging for the sake of blogging.      I know the virtual etiquette is to follow back, but is it bad etiquette if we don't follow back, especially for a business?   
 bibi

[SilverDawnJewelry]

Aise (thank you) Red Rock

[iCraft Admin]

Red Rock Designs,

You are probably right - closer connections with other jewelry makers will be beneficial to you in many ways.

However, I wouldn't completely discount other sites & bloggers talking about fashion accessories or crafting, if you yourself find their content interesting. Good test - you go visit their site and leave 2 hours later because you couldn't stop reading their articles or the comments that people submitted on them. That's the site you want to be associated with!