Before we go any further, what is “link popularity”? In very simplistic terms, link popularity refers to the number and quality of the incoming links that are pointing to your site. However, one of the most difficult areas of SEO is building link popularity. Abuse them, and you’re treading in potentially dangerous waters. Which is similar to link building. So, always keep that statement in mind when you consider linking or any other strategies for your Web site.
Explain the advantages to them and to their visitors by providing a link to your content. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you. Pre-qualify the people you solicit for reciprocal links. This is also just like trial. These sites should be high on your list of link targets.
Inktomi’s link analysis program policy is that sites that link to its relevant topic category page on Yahoo receive improved hub factor rankings because of Yahoo’s popularity. Does it help? I don’t know. If you are a marketing firm, look for marketing directories/hubs/portals/vortals, do the same for business to business or b2b. Ask your upstream or downstream suppliers to link to you and you to them.
Regional directories can often supply plenty of incoming links. By building up a “working rapport” with other local Webmasters or affiliates, there are lots of ways that you can mutually benefit by trading links with several similarly themed sites, which are non-competing. It’s also the toughest to do. A very effective strategy to gain quality links as well as traffic is to license content from your site for free in exchange for a link back to you.
Offer yourself as an expert. Sometimes this can be similar to one way link building to many people. If you have good content on your site, people will want to link to you to provide their visitors useful information.