I’ve mentioned that I’ve been working on a lot of link building and social media marketing for Ecommerce sites, both clients websites and my own. We all do wholesale and I’m thinking about drop shipping my product because it’s quite unique and I don’t see anyone else doing so. Both options are great for a legit business and this is why I really like these link building methods.
Spammers with affiliate sites and MFA sites won’t be able to take this information and put it to mass use, so hurray there. If you’re a legit online/offline business who handles wholesale orders, or/and drop ships then you’re in for a handful of links and business opportunities. I’ve talked before about link building with your podcast, or if you have a mobile version of your website and what that can do for you. It gives your website the chance to diversify its link portfolio, it shows Google that you’re building a brand and makes your site look(become) more established.
So you say I can build links Mr. Linkbuildr? Absolutely! I won’t go overboard listing resources here, but I’ll go in depth enough so that you can figure out the rest for yourself. I’d recommend taking this to your boss if you’re a slave to the man and see what they think before acting on their behalf. So first things first, let’s start with forums you can market your product on as well get some links. These are forums you’re not going to want to hit and run, but rather sign up and take part because I’ve grown my wholesale business thanks to them.
Remember to follow proper link building practices such as minimal forum signature’s, filling out your link in the forum user profile(these get indexed sometimes) and post only in the appropriate sections. These forums all have a place to advertise your drop shipping or wholesale service, so be kind and don’t spam(or I’m telling your moms!).
Wholesale & Drop Shipping Forums:
TheWholesaleForums.co.uk – This is my stomping ground and I love the community here. Everyone is friendy, you can get good advice on marketing as well see what other people are doing. The forums are dofollow, so your wholesale threads and signatures. Don’t go there just for the links because nobody likes link spammers. I use this place to advertise what I’m selling wholesale and I’ve had other bloggers pick up the thread and write about my wholesale page, including nice and juicy links!
Wholesaleforum.net – Well this forum isn’t going on my recommendation list, but instead over to my watch for list. The forum seems like it was started just because the owner picked up the domain when it dropped. There are a lot of spammy posts on there and I wouldn’t want a link from it. Best to keep an eye on it though.
Dropshipforums.com – This is another forum that I wouldn’t recommend getting a link from, but use only for getting the word out. The forum has 1300+ members and a ton of spammy posts, but it isn’t without its advantages. You can advertise your drop shipping service for free which gets you a non SEO friendly link in the Dropship Magazine.
BW.net – This is one of the more active forums with a ton of great information regardin the business. They also have a host of other site features like classifieds and a business directory. The forum is dofollow, is decently indexed in Google and I wouldn’t discourage getting the link from your signature here.
eShopforums.com – I love this forum and you can find me on here from time to time. I started out in the Ecommerce world here. For a forum with only 1200+ members it is quite active and has a lot of great information. Signature and forum links are nofollow, but again the forums are a place to get new business mainly.
Salehoo.com/forum/ – Everyone in this business should have heard about Salehoo at one point or another. Their forum is full of smart wholesalers, it’s packed with great information and you can get links for your efforts. You can also promote your services here, and if you can establish trust with this community, you’re going to be a happy person.
Dropshipforum.co.uk – This is the most active forum I’ve found, and even though it’s focused around drop shipping, there is a wholesaler section. I’ve been on here for a few months helping people out with Ecommerce SEO and everyone is really friendly. Links are nofollow on this site as well, but you know me, I don’t mind that!
OnlineWholesaleForums.com – The forum is only good for the dofollow links and marketing your wholesale opportunities. The discussions that take place outside of the business areas are that of Digital Point Forums….full of the most annoying noobs.
Wholesale Directories:
I’m not usually a big fan of web directories except for the big 3 BOTW/Yahoo/Business.com, but wholesale directories should provide more substance. The fact that these are so niche makes me feel better because I know not every $5 1000 directory submission “SEO expert” will be raping them. Don’t take my word for it though. take this opportunity to measure for yourself if the wholesale directory is worth being listed in. If the site doesn’t pass a good quality score with the Link Voodoo tool then perhaps you shouldn’t bother.
I will be listing free and paid directories here because I’m trying to list the most authoritative ones. There are a lot more wholesale directories out there so use Google to find them.
Wholesale Distributors Net – This is the biggest and most known next to Alibaba and has millions of pageviews per year. They have both a free inclusion and a paid one which gets you in faster which is better in my books. The price to get listed express is only $48 USD a year and you get a anchor friendly dofollow link.
Wholesale Hub – This place does a lot of traffic, has dofollow links and you can write some pretty extensive company information. The prices are not too cheap, but affordable if you’re in the wholesel business. To view the pricing click here.
Alibaba.com – Yahoo bought this some time ago and it’s still the biggest b2b marketplace that I know of. It is also the worst designed b2b and you can spend hours on the site before you figure out what’s going on. You can sign up for free and get your own subdomain to sell your wholesale products on which is great, but I haven’t seen anywhere you can get a link. With the free account you can list up to 50 products, so for my this was all I needed. Your personalized website should have no problem ranking top 10 for the longtail wholesale keyword you’re after.
Top Wholesale Suppliers – Another standard wholesale directory that costs money for a review, but it supploes a dofollow link. A lifetime text link will run you only $40 USD, and for featured listings they can run upwards of $50-100 a month.
Other Link Building & Business Opportunities:
So all of the above is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to places you can build links and attract wholesale and dropshipping deals. You can apply the usual link building methods of course if you’re solely a wholesale business. Just to get some more brain juices flowing here are some other ideas you could use to market;
– Advertise on an industry podcast
– Linkedin has a few wholesaler/dropshipping groups
– Get a target domain ie wholesaleshoes.com/net/org or wholesaleWhateverImselling.com. This has worked great for me and I was able to snipe into the top 10 within a week. Since then I’ve been doing thousands in wholesale business a month.
If anyone has any other tips I’d love to hear them and you know what to do, drop them in my comments. I’d like to remind everyone that I am available to help with your companies link building, especially for Ecommerce websites. I’ve got a link building and social media marketing strategy that’s been developed over the last year via clients and my own sites.
