Link Building by Phone?

[eli.boda]

Is it worth going to the trouble to contact webmasters in person by phone rather than just using email? If so, what has been your approach to link building by phone?

[BenRWoodard]

This could be a very interesting thread.  Thanks for asking this Eliathah!  I've tried to reach you to webmasters before but without much success so I really can't speak to a solution or with experience.  Hopefully someone will share their experiences.

[emediaSEO]

I haven't actually done this myself but a colleague of mine does it pretty regularly with decent results.  I would only do it for sites that would provide really good links, the ones that give you link juice and also some referral traffic.

[eli.boda]

Thanks for the answer. That's a great suggestion as far as limiting it to great quality links because it's obviously very time consuming to compile phone contact info. Especially when a very high percentage of phone calls go unanswered. It's also good to know you have a colleague who is getting results using it. Thanks for sharing

[loopyal]

Eliathah, This is a good way to build links. Having a relationship with webmasters of other quality sites is worthwhile. Be careful though, because I tried to call an SEOMoz member and they freaked out. The telephone may be old technology but it is much more valuable than email and posting in forums You can also explain much more. Be sure to get a single, relevant link, not site wide.