The link development industry is constantly growing with new players, interesting trends, and new people on the scene to watch. Recently, I’ve been able to chat with Wiep Knol. Wiep is the author of the popular Friday “This Week in Link Building” posts on Wiep.net and is considered an expert in the field of link development. Run through some of his posts like this one on link baiting and you’ll see why I try and keep up with him. Recently, I had the chance to ask him a few questions. And lo and behold, he answered them.
How did you get into link development? How long have you been active in the industry?
I got introduced to internet marketing (and link development) about 4, 5 years ago by accident. During my Economics study, I had to work for a company that was a leftover of the dotcom bubble, as part of an internship. The company was still struggling a bit and was trying all sorts of online things and they let me (and a fellow student) learn by doing. The only problem was that the company basically was a selection of around 1,000 low quality (and I mean LOW quality), AdSense driven websites that were all connected in some way. On the other hand, you could say that this was the perfect learning route for me; in around 3 months I learned all kinds of things not to do online. After this internship, I had a part time job as link developer for around a year and a half. In December of 2005, I joined Tribal Internet Marketing on a full time basis, where I was made responsible for the link marketing division.
What is your typical process when doing research for a client?
The process of a link marketing campaign starts with understanding. If you are able to truly understand what the client wants, understand what the client does and sells, and understand what both the client’s company and the industry look like, starting a link marketing campaign is actually pretty easy. You’ll get lots of ideas of where to look for potential link targets just by talking with your client. These link targets will usually point you into the direction of new link targets, and so on.
What are your favorite tools to use for research or tracking the progress on a project?
There are lots of tools out there, but SearchStatus, Link Diagnosis and Joost’s Link Analysis are indispensible to me, as is Google. I have yet to play around with Linkscape, that one looks pretty great as well.
Where do you see link development in one year? The same, different, or somewhere in between?
I think that the past and recent trends in link development will continue on. We’ve seen that the amount of ‘quick & easy ways’ to influencing search results have decreased. Quality links matter more, at the same time these links are harder to obtain, which results in a rising need (and demand) for high quality content. On the other hand, a large part of link development has always common sense, and that large part probably won’t be changing a lot in the future.
What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen in link development?
LOTS of mistakes are being made every day when it comes to link development. In most cases, it comes down to what I answered at your second question; understanding. If you don’t understand what your client does, you’ll probably contact the wrong websites. If you don’t understand what your link target is or does, you’ll probably end up contacting them at the wrong address, not naming them correctly or something like that.
Other major mistakes are focusing on the wrong (usually short term) tactics, or relying on just a single link building tactic.
What are your favorite blogs for SEO / Link Development and why?
Oh, that’s a difficult one, I follow lots of blogs and love most of them, but one of my favorite link building blogs is Debra Mastaler’s Link Spiel. I also love resources like Micheal Martinez’ Link Theory (although I do not always agree, but that’s a good thing), Jim Boykin’s blog and Sphinn’s link building section. Oh, and your blog, of course 
(Angela: Good answer).
How do you define success as a link development specialist?
When a client sends you an email that his contract with you ends in about a month, and that he really wants to extend it asap, I guess that would be a sign that you’re doing a good job.
