Video: How to create a link wheel

People often ask us how to create a link wheel.

Because of this, we have decided to create a video series on how to create a link wheel.

The first part shows how to create the Hub of the wheel.

The second part (A-E) covers creating the first layer of spokes and the final part covers creating the outer layer of spokes.

Part 1: The Hub

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RlDm0wp47k

Part 2: The Inner Spokes

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4DInF1V6Do

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tToUkh6NAOk

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU-phCKOvMw

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJkJ1–r-4

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdlGCP8PFGg

Part 3: The Outer Spokes

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTP84XT47Q0

Update

Few folks have asked that we type out the detailed steps on how to create a link wheel, so we’ve reproduced them below.

Decide on the keyword

Using tools, such as Google’s Keyword Tool pick the keyword/phrase that will form the backbone of your hub page.

For the sake of illustration, we’re going to pick “cheap cat food.”

Creating the hub

Use your content management system to create a post. Make sure that the url is set to include the key phrase. In this case, it would be “http://gunnertech.com/cheap-cat-food/”

Also, the title of article should contain the exact key phrase.

Populate the article with content (text, photos, videos) and make sure that the content is at least 450 words long and contains your key phrase at least eight times. For bonus points, use subheadings around your key phrase and bold it throughout the article.

Any videos or images that you embed in the article should also be named to contain the key phrase as well. For example, “http://gunnertech.com/images/cheap-cat-food.jpg.”

Once that is done, go ahead and publish the article.

At this point, you should submit the article to several directories and networks.

Almost every article should be submitted to:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Delicious
• Stumbleupon

Reddit is another good one, but, it’s more niche, so make sure it’s on topic.

Also, you should have a list of other niche message boards, forums and blogs that you can go comment or post on and include a link to this page.

When you post the link, make sure your post adds value to the conversation and is not only the link, or you’re likely to get banned. Also, make sure the link text is your key phrase

“I found some great places to buy cheap cat food, including Walmart, Target and Joe’s.”

Finally, if all of your posts and comments are self-promotional and contain links back to stuff you own, you’ll probably get banned. This means that if your Twitter, Facebook, Delicious and Stumbleupon history contains only your stuff, it’s not good.

To avoid this, try to actively participate and submit links to other people’s stuff.

Before moving on to the spokes, now is a good time to ask your network of contacts to go ReTweet, Share, Like, Rate and comment on the submissions you just did.

Creating the spokes

When you create spokes, you’ll be doing so on the following networks.

• Squidoo
• Weebly
• WordPress
• Blogger
• Hubpages
• Quizilla

But don’t rush off and start publishing your content just yet.

There are a few things you need to know.

1. You’re going to need to create six different versions (one for each spoke) of your content. Each version should be at least 15% different from the original.
2. You need to create a new account for each network. Each one will ask you for an email address. You’ll need to use a real email address because you’ll need to be able to verify it. We use a convention like <keyword(replace spaces with ‘-’>@domain.com. You’ll also need to provide a username for most of the networks, again, we use the convention <keyword(replace spaces with ‘-’>. If the username is taken or doesn’t fit, pick one that is a close as you can get to the key phrase.
3. Also, many of the networks will ask you to provide a domain name. Yes the convention above or as close to possible as you can get.
4. Each article must contain two links for each key phrase you’re targeting. One that links to the hub and another that links to the next spoke in the wheel. In our example, this would mean we’d have cheap cat food and cheap cat food. Note that both of these are not real links.
5. For each of the spokes, you’re going to want to submit each of the spokes to the directories and networks (Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, etc)
6. Finally, get your network of contacts to Like, Share, ReTweet, etc.

And watch the videos for more information!