What are the best backlinks for an Amazon affiliate website?

There are many steps to building an Amazon affiliate website. Keyword research, content creation, website design and backlink building. While most of the elements of Amazon affiliate website creation are a simple process of put X in get Y out. Backlink building can be a tricky one.

Lets take a look at your options for building backlinks to your Amazon affiliate website. We'll cover both your black hat and white hat seo options. Let's start from the whitest of white hat and work our way down to the blackest of black hat.

Content Marketing
Content marketing also known as search engine marketing is the process of outreach to other websites that may want to link to your content. It's a simple process. Build an email list of people/businesses in your niche (but not competitors) and reach out to them with fresh content you've published and ask if they would like to share it with their users. If your content is great and genuinely offers something of value to their users then they just might share it with them in the form of a mention on their blog/website which normally results in a backlink to your Amazon affiliate website.

How effective is content marketing?
Content marketing can be very effective if you have stellar amazing content. You can get big high quality links from website in the same niches. Google loves this type of backlink. This method can get you some of the highest quality white hat backlinks possible.

How expensive is content marketing?
Content marking can give you amazing links but its also probably one of the most expensive forms of content building. Initially you might wonder why. Really amazing content costs a lot of money to buy or a lot of time to make, which is basically the same thing. Time is money. You will also have to invest a lot of time reaching out to people with a really targetted personalised pitch to get your content both noticed and shared.

How safe is content marketing?
Content marketing is about as white hat and as safe as you can get. As long as you are not offering to pay for the backlink its a totally legit and widely used backlink building method.

Real Guest Posting
Real guest posting where you reach out to other websites in your niche and offer to write them amazing content and no money is exchanged is a great way to build backlinks to your Amazon affiliate niche website. In this content you create for them they typically allow you to place a do follow backlink to your website.

How effective is real guest posting?
Real guest posting is how some bloggers have gone from nothing to thousands of visitors a day. It not only allows you to earn strong quality backlinks from niche related websites, it also generates high converting referral traffic to your website.

How expensive is real guest posting?
Real legit guest posting (I say it like that because a lot of "guest posts" are just people buying links on public blog networks) is always free.

How safe is real guest posting?
Real guest posting is very safe. It's actually one of the safest methods of backlink building. However Google has said recently if you are low quality guest posting with the sole intent of building backlinks you need to be careful as they class this as off page SEO manipulation. However if you are writing great content on your own website and great content for other websites when you are guest posting and your backlink anchors look perfectly natural then you should be fine.

Scholarship Program Link Building / Incentive Link Building
Scholarship program link building is where a website starts a scholarship (offering partial funding to students) program with the aim of obtaining strong backlinks from universities and colleges who share a link to the scholarship program of their website. These websites are packed with link juice and massively trusted by Google. So if they link to you, you'll get movement in your Google rankings.

How effective are scholarship programs?
Scholarship programs are an extremely effective form of link building. These powerful links from the worlds most trusted websites will cause big movement in the SERPs.

How expensive is scholarship program backlink building?
Scholarship program link building can be as cheap or expensive as you want. If you offer a cheap scholarship then you'll get less backlinks. If you offer an expensive high paying scholarship then more universities and colleges will want to share this on their website for their students which will result in more backlinks to your website. You'll also need to dedicate some time to outreach and pitch of your scholarship so more universities and colleges are aware of what you can offer their students.

How safe is scholarship program backlink building?
Scholarship program backlink building has been flagged by Google as a method of obtaining backlinks that goes against their Google webmaster guidelines. So while you might get away with it for a while, I wouldn't recommend it as your sole method of obtaining backlinks. Although as part of a balanced backlink profile you should be ok.

Blog Comment Backlink Building
Blog comment backlink building if when you comment on blogs/websites where they allow you to place a backlink from their website to your own website. This method was very popular 10 years ago when Google wasn't that smart.

How effective is blog comment backlink building?
Blog comment backlink building is considered a rather weak form of backlink building. However it can still move low competition keywords on Google and high quality blog comments are great if you need to add some diversity to your backlink profile.

How expensive is blog comment backlink building?
Blog comment backlink building is a pretty cheap form of backlink building. Niche blog comments from are from websites in the same niche as your Amazon affiliate website will work best. You may even get some natural referral traffic through them if your blog comments are of significant value to the websites users.

How safe is scholarship program backlink building?
Blog commenting for the purpose of increasing your rankings on Google is against the Google webmaster guidelines so is considered black hat seo, so it's not very safe at all. If you buy 5,000 blog comments from fiverr then Google will probably noticed this and deindex your website after a manual review of it.

Tiered Link Building
Tiered link building is a method of link building where you have multiple tiers of backlinks pointing to your website. The most common example of tiered link building is web 2.0 creation (which we will cover shortly) and then firing thousands of cheap spammy backlinks at them. These web 2.0s will have a link from them to your website. So they act as a buffer. If you were to fire thousands of backlinks at your website you'd probably get it deindexed however these web 2.0s act as a protective buffer allowing the link juice to flow through from the spammy cheap links but lowering the risk of a Google penalty.

How effective is tiered link building?
Tiered link building is still in use for low competition keywords however Google has adjusted their algorithm in recent years to combat this type of link building so it can no longer be used for competitive keywords.

How expensive is tiered link building?
You'll need some tools like GSA Search Engine Ranker, proxies, email addresses and a VPS. Also the learning curve is quite steep but once you understand this method its relatively cheap.

How safe is tiered link building?
If your content on the web properties (web 2.0s or articles on article websites) that links to your website is good then this method is relatively safe.

Fresh Web 2.0 Link Building
Fresh web 2.0 link building is pretty straight forward. You simply create a website on one of the many web 2.0 providers such as Tumblr, WordPress or OverBlog. Then add some decent content (not spun) and insert links into this content to your website. Around five pages of content on these web 2.0s is considered good enough.

How effective is fresh web 2.0 link building?
These days you don't see many tumblrs or funnycat.wordpress.com sites in Google's results and they certainly don't seem to be as powerful as they once where. However they still work well for easy low competition keywords. They are also great for diversity. If you have a backlink profile that is very risky such as hundreds of low quality PBN links then adding some fresh web 2.0s can help lower the risk of a Google penalty.

How expensive is fresh web 2.0 link building?
It costs literally nothing. Totally free. These web 2.0s are free to register and free to insert content and links into.

How safe is fresh web 2.0 link building?
As long as you use good content on these web 2.0s and sensible anchor text rations then this method is pretty safe.

Expired Web 2.0
Expired web 2.0 link building is the same as fresh web 2.0 link building with one critical difference. Instead of registering fresh web 2.0s to point at your Amazon affiliate website you are going to look for web 2.0s other people have registered but no longer use. After a certain amount of time the web 2.0s providers like Tumblr allow users to re-register these expired web 2.0s. The advantage of this method over fresh web 2.0s is that once you own the previously registered web 2.0 you also get all the backlinks that were pointing at it. This results in you owning a web 2.0 with backlinks pointing at it so you can funnel this link juice to your own website with backlinks.

How effective is expired web 2.0 link building?
Expired web 2.0 link building can work wonders. The trick is finding these expired web 2.0s and registering them before other people do! These are many tools on the market that can do this though.

How expensive is expired web 2.0 link building?
Once you have the tools to find the expired web 2.0s then this is a relatively cheap way to build backlinks.

How safe is expired web 2.0 link building?
Expired web 2.0 link building is safe as long as you make everything look natural. It does go against the Google webmaster guidelines like most forms of backlink building do but if done right it can be safe. The trick is using good content on these expired 2.0s, making sure your anchor text in your outbound links doesn't look too spammy and not registering expired web 2.0s that look very out of place such as adult niche web 2.0s.

Automated Tools (GSA SER and RankerX)
There are many automated tools such as RankerX and GSA SER that will crawl the web and look for places where they can insert a backlink from a website to your website. They can automatically make web 2.0s for you and fill them with content. They can also create blog comments. They can submit articles to article websites. It might sound very tempting but lets take a better look.

How effective is automated link building?
Automated link building is no longer that effective. It will move low volume low competition keywords but for most keywords Google will know these types of links have been artificially built so will devalue them.

How expensive is automated link building?
Tools like GSA SER and RankerX are relatively cheap and can often be a one off purchase. If you look at the cost per link then these tools will provide you with the cheapest type of link building per link.

How safe is automated link building?
Unless you are using very high quality tier 1 web 2.0s or other web properties as a buffer then this type of link building is extremely black hat and really not safe. People typically point these tools and blast their websites with thousands of backlinks if they are making a churn and burn only website. Churn and burn means they know it will be knocked out of Google but they don't care because they'll just make another one quickly.

Buying Links (Guest Posts)
We've already covered real legit guest posting above. I tend to split guest posting into real guest posting and purchased guest posts. With legit real guest posting you'll reach out to other people in your niche with a guest posting pitch and form a relationship with them and create solid content for them. With paid guest posts you generally just pay an SEO agency / service provider to write (low quality / average) content for you and they'll then place it on one of their own websites or pay other niche related websites to publish it.

How effective are paid guest posts?
Paid guest posts can be very effective if they are on large established niche related domains. This is one of the most popular methods of increasing rankings for Amazon affiliate websites.

How expensive are paid guest posts?
Paid guest posts can be as expensive or cheap as you want them to be. If you are wanting to see big movements on Google then you'll need to pay good money for a guest post backlink from an established website in your niche or a large news publisher. Cheap guest posts on low MOZ domain authority blogs can cost as little as 5$ but don't expect too much from them. Guest posts on big well known websites can cost up to $3000. Always remember you get what you pay for with guest posts. You can try to reduce costs by cutting out the middleman by contacting websites directly and offering to pay for a guest post instead of going through an SEO services provider who sells guest posts.

How safe are paid guest posts?
Paid guest posts are somewhere in the middle of black hat and white hat, we call it grey hat. You can use paid guest posts relatively safely as part of a balanced backlink profile. So mix in some other types of backlinks to your Amazon website as you should be fine. Always remember though any form of creating backlinks that don't occur naturally is against the Google webmaster guidelines. It's also important when buying guest posts to check if you are actually buying backlinks from a public blog network domain. This is a domain that has expired and been re-registered and used for selling backlinks to other websites.

Buying Links (Niche Edits)
Buying backlinks in the form of niche edits is a popular and age old method of acquiring niche related contextual backlinks for your website. Niche edit backlinks are backlinks inserted into aged content. The content will of already been there and the website owner simply inserts your backlink with your chosen anchor text into this content.

How effective are niche edits?
Niche edits generally speaking have about the same power as paid guest posts and the same "you get what you pay for" principle applies. If you pay for a link on a high DA website it will cost you but you'll get more of an increase in your rankings.

How expensive are niche edits?
While niche edits tend to be as powerful as paid guest posts they are typically cheaper as no content has to be created. The backlinks are inserted into content that has already been created by the website owners.

How safe are niche edits?
Niche edits can be safe but it all comes down to how natural they look. Its unnatural backlink building so like most backlink building methods it goes against the Google webmaster guidelines. However if you pay for niche edits on strong legit websites with great content and you keep your backlink profile and anchor text natural looking you will typically get away with it.

Building A Private Blog Network
A private blog network is a network of domains that have expired and then been re-registered with the purpose of linking out to other domains (your websites) to increase their Google rankings. Building a high quality private blog network is one of the most effective ways to rank a website as these expired domains can have hundreds of backlinks pointing to them and very few outbound backlinks. They will obviously only have the outbound backlinks of your choosing so all the link juice pointing to these previously expired domains with hundreds of backlinks can be passed through exclusively to your website.

How effective are private blog network?
A high quality private blog network with strong expired domains and great content is pretty much unbeatable in terms of ranking power. There is no better way of getting huge amounts of link juice to your website.

How expensive is building a private blog network?
Building a private blog network can take large amounts of time and money. You'll have to find the expired domains, either at auctions like GoDaddy, from scraping with expired domain tools or buying them from an expired domains supplier who does all this form you then adds his cut. You'll also have to create content for them either yourself or by buying it and then finally you've got the web hosting costs of the websites in your private blog network.

How safe are private blog networks?
Many many websites have been deindexed by Google for building backlinks with private blog networks however they are typically low quality spammy looking setups. For example they'll use spun low quality content on their domains and their outbound links will have very unnatural anchor texts such as "best fishing rods" again and again. If you create high quality websites with a high quality non-spammy looking private blog network you'll normally be ok. Your aim should be to pass a manual review by a Google search employee. Think custom logos for PBN domains, real looking addresses and contact numbers.

Buying Public Blog Network Backlinks
Public blog networks are the same as private blog networks with the exception that they are selling backlink to anyone who wants to buy them, hence the public rather than private part in the name.

How effective are public blog networks?
Public blog networks can be effective but they will never pass as much link juice as your own strong private blog network simply due to the fact the domains probably won't be as strong and the link juice will be split between backlinks other buyers have paid to have placed on the domains.

How expensive are public blog network backlinks?
Public blog network links are normally very cheap. They range from $1 to $15 typically. $1 public blog network backlinks are nearly always on low strength domains with low quality content.

How safe are public blog network backlinks?
Public blog network backlinks are very unsafe. If you have a load of spammy looking low quality backlinks pointing to your website its a great way to get a Google penalty and get your Amazon affiliate website deindexed. We don't advise you use them unless its part of a tiered link building strategy.

Forum Backlinks
Forum backlinks are quite a simple old school method of backlink building. You simply register on forums that allow do follow backlinks to external websites then either add your backlink in your signature and comment around niche related forums or create non-spammy looking posts and insert a backlink in the post that points to your website. These also have the advantage of generating some nice natural referral traffic to your website too.

How effective are forum backlinks?
While these can move your low competition keywords most people use them for backlink profile diversity. If you have loads of low quality backlinks from cheap public blog networks then making some high quality forum backlinks might help you avoid a algorithmic Google penalty.

How expensive are forum backlinks?
You can make these yourself for free, or you can outsource the process to a virtual assistant or you can buy them from an SEO services provider for a relatively low price.

How safe are forum backlinks?
While I've never heard of anyone getting a penalty for forum backlink building it is still against the Google webmaster guidelines as its off page SEO. So like all backlink building methods please do it in moderation and as part of a balanced backlink profile.

Profile Link Backlink Building
Profile link backlink building is similar to forum backlink building in some ways. With profile link building you simply register on websites that allow you to insert your websites address into your members profile page.

How effective is profile link backlink building?
Again these backlinks can move easy keywords on Google but they'll never help hard keywords. Most people simply use them as backlink profile diversity. Some people still get gains from buying profile backlinks from universities and other very powerful websites but results are often mixed.

How expensive is profile link backlink building?
Profile link backlink building is about the same cost as forum backlink building. Its free to do yourself or you can buy the links or you can outsource it.

How safe are forum backlinks?
Again profile link backlink building can be safe in moderation but can also look very spammy in a manual review if its done in excess. If you have nothing but 1,000 profile links pointing to your Amazon affiliate website you might be in trouble when a manual Google review comes around.