Link building is an essential part of the blogging process. In the early days you will have to scramble around as much as possible to generate links to your blog. You might even have to partake in one to two shady deals to get things moving.
One of the major downsides to researching link building online is that you will often read contradictory stories. People will talk about a successful strategy they used to generate links (and traffic), and someone else will discount it as humbug. This can leave you stuck at the crossroads wondering which road to take.
The video below features Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, one of the most respected SEOers around. In the video he talks about the value of sitewide, reciprocal and directory links.
A lot of people in the SEO world will tell you that these type of links offer little or no value. Rand takes a different view on that. He says there is value from naturally created sitewide, reciprocal and directory links, but if the linking process appears a bit spammy, then it could harm your blog in the long run.
