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Where to get great vacation rental links?

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Rob Dalton Posted: 02-05-2010 9:59 PM

I have been building links on my site, Waikoloa Vacation Rentals, for a few years now.  I know there are probably a million sites out there you can get links on, but I have just ran into a wall.  I was wondering if any of you recommended any good, authoritative sites to contact. 

Fodors seems to be a great site, but their content seems to not be great and the links not too relevant.  I tried to contact them, but had no luck on getting my site up.  Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

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Fodors works only with big budgets and I don't think purchasing a link from they will be worth it (they are good for branding purposes).  Unfortunately, there is not an easy way for link building.  Have you ever considered creating a widget?

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Rob Dalton:

I have been building links on my site, Waikoloa Vacation Rentals, for a few years now.  I know there are probably a million sites out there you can get links on, but I have just ran into a wall.  I was wondering if any of you recommended any good, authoritative sites to contact. 

Have you local or state organizations that promote tourism?  I'm sure everything in your market is an entirely different scope, however, we were able to with a minimal expense get our property description and link on the area's tourism site and the state site.  Even if they are "no follow" links this can put you in good company and add credibility to your business. 

I would also monitor Yahoo Answers and the Trip Advisor forum for the area.  Every once in a while you have the opportunity to work your link ethically in to  a response.

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John,

Yes, I thought about a widget, but I could not think if a good theme that would get people to use it.  I have a fair amount of links from local businesses so I can not try to cater to them.  Do you have any ideas?

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I have also seen where Fodors lists a property and a brief description and then has a link to a site that rents out those properties.  The problem I have seen is that I am not sure how they pick that property because at times it really is not a relevant company.

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Yes, I have submitted to the local sites and yes, those are great sites. 

I will try out yahoo answers.  I have never done that before.  I did try tripadvisor a couple of times, but we have "tripadvisor nazi's" in this area.  Anytime I post my site these couple of people have it taken off even if I am not "self promoting"

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Rob Dalton:

Yes, I have submitted to the local sites and yes, those are great sites. 

I will try out yahoo answers.  I have never done that before.  I did try tripadvisor a couple of times, but we have "tripadvisor nazi's" in this area.  Anytime I post my site these couple of people have it taken off even if I am not "self promoting"

Yes Rob, TripAdvisor is not real easy to include a link.   They have some strong-arm police on patrol.  Have you written any blogs about your area or any topic that might allow you to post a link to your site?   A couple years ago I started a blog listing various GPS coordinates in our recreational area.  I am amazed how much traffic it generates even though I really have not done a good job of making updates.

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Yeah, I have some great content on my site other than stuff that is just trying to sell what I have.  There was a post about construction at a certain property.  I am the only person with an updated map showing what construction is completed so I left a link to my Kolea information page rather than my Kolea home page, but that said to stop promoting my site.

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The local chamber of commerce will give you a nice .gov link if you become a member

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olgaangelo:

The local chamber of commerce will give you a nice .gov link if you become a member

Valid point, but don't most of the chambers have an .org url?   At least that's what I see in my area.  Not that it's a big deal.   It can be a good link to have, especially if it is a do follow link .

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Mine is a .com and I am there.

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A lot of the chamber links are .com, .org but have a pretty good page rank and are usually pretty relevant. Many towns have .gov sites and you might be able to score a nice link if you do a bit of investigating.

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Ours do not have do follows.  It is in iframe so I guess that is not a good link.

What about the BBB?  Is that link worth the money they ask?

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How much are they asking? At least if you pay them you can use their seal.

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It is around $220 and you get a dofollow link from them. 

You do get to use their seal, but it also links back to them.

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