Creative Link Building Strategies That Cost $0

Building high-quality backlinks doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In this guide, Jabez Reuben shares free creative link building strategies—including image outreach, brand mentions, and testimonials—so you can earn powerful links without spending a dime.

Key Takeaways:

• You don’t need a big budget to build powerful backlinks – Creative link building strategies allow you to earn links for free.
• Image outreach is a scalable, free link-building method – Publish images on free platforms, track where they are used, and claim backlinks at no cost.
• Brand mentions are untapped, free link opportunities – Many websites mention your brand but don’t link—just ask them!
• Testimonials help you secure homepage links for free – Companies love featuring testimonials, making this an easy way to earn high-authority backlinks.
• The best free link-building strategy is a mix of these methods – Combining image outreach, brand mentions, and testimonials creates a sustainable, cost-free approach to earning links.

👉🏻Watch the full video on our YouTube channel

👉🏻Grab Jabez’s Image Outreach SOP

[OK]: Hello guys! Welcome to our new podcast episode at Collaborator.
Collaborator.pro is a PR distribution marketplace. We have trusted websites in 146 countries and 51 languages, and by the way, we have 8,000 websites that are verified by Google Analytics.

Today, my guest is Jabez Reuben, the founder of Link Validator, The Blueprints, and Link Building Mastery, which will take place in London on June 10th and 11th. So, thank you for joining us today, and thanks for having me.

Connect with Jabez on Linkedin
Visit Link Building Mastery

Today, we would like to discuss how we can build links in very easy steps and in a simple way—links that actually work and can improve your website's visibility and trust authority.

Just to start, I would like to ask you a few questions. The biggest challenge in building links is budget.

How you can find the right approach for your clients, for your projects. How did you start this?

[JR]: As you mentioned, the biggest challenge is budget, and then also quality. If clients have a limited budget—or sometimes even a large budget—but they are not focusing on quality, they often end up going after Fiverr links or very cheap links. That’s another issue.

We always have to educate the client: Yes, try to increase your budget, but at the same time, focus on quality. Cheap, low-quality link sites can get deindexed or penalized.

To tackle both budget constraints and link quality, we try to develop alternative link-building strategies for our clients. This allows them to acquire natural backlinks without spending a lot of money. That way, they don't have to invest in expensive digital PR, guest posts, or SaaS links.

Instead, we come up with different ideas to help them get links for free.

[OK]: So how can we do it from scratch?

[JR]: First, there are multiple methods, but one of the best ways to get links for free and continue acquiring them month after month is image outreach.

So, what is image outreach? In short, you create your own images. You have to do a bit of research—which we will show you how to do in a bit—then create your images accordingly.

Once your images are ready, publish them on various free image hosting websites like Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash. You can also research additional free image hosting sites and distribute your originally created images across all these platforms.

After publishing, let the images sit for five to six months, then start performing reverse image searches. You will begin to see your images being used across various websites. At this point, you start reaching out to those websites, politely asking if they like the image and if they would be willing to give credit with a link in return.

This process should be repeated month after month because, over time, more and more websites will start using your images. As a result, you can reach out to additional sites each month.

And that’s how you get free links using images.

The Secret to Choosing the Right Images for Maximum Links

[OK]: And what kind of images do you think work best? I mean, what kind of topics work best?

[JR]: We create very simple images. Our goal is to create images that will be picked up as header images for new articles when they are published.

You know, when an article is published, it typically has a header image on top. That’s why we create images on broad topics with simple text.

For example, if someone is writing about “Five Benefits of a Vegan Diet,” there are already many articles covering vegan diet benefits, pros and cons, proteins, etc. So, we create simple images with just the text “Vegan Diet”—very straightforward, with some props added to make them visually appealing.

These images get picked up easily by writers who just need a header image for their blog. That’s also why we publish images in landscape mode, not portrait mode—because landscape images are picked up more easily and fit perfectly in the header section of a blog.

[OK]: Okay, good to know! I didn’t know about that.

[JR]: Yeah, that’s why you have to think of topics in a broad range.

For example, if you're in the running space—let’s say you have a running shoe brand—you need to think of various topics related to running. Don't be too niche-focused or overly laser-targeted on specific topics.

Instead, think of broad topics like:
✔ Health benefits of running
✔ General fitness benefits
✔ CrossFit and running
✔ Running for seniors

By adding keywords and themes related to health and fitness, you increase the chances of your images being picked up by writers who are covering these topics in their articles.

We create images that align with broader keywords—like running, health, fitness benefits, CrossFit, senior fitness, etc.—because these are topics that many writers are actively covering.

This increases the likelihood that your images will be used.

I can also show you how we do keyword research for image creation—which is one of the most important parts of the process. A lot of people miss this step, but it's crucial.

[OK]: And what kind of tools do you use to create such images?

[JR]: Oh, we take actual photos with a camera.

That’s because a lot of websites, especially Unsplash—which has the highest number of downloads—only allow high-quality photographs to be uploaded. They don’t accept low-quality or AI-generated images.

That’s why we always create images manually, taking real photos to match the ideation process and keyword research.

For keyword research, we use Content Explorer.

For example, if I want to check the demand for "running shoes", I enter the term into Content Explorer.

What I’m interested in seeing is the trend over time—how many articles are being written about "running shoes" each year.

If the trend is declining, it means fewer writers are covering this topic, so I’ll avoid working on images for that keyword.

I only want to focus on keywords that writers are actively covering—topics that are either growing or at least stable in search demand.

For example, let's check "ai engineer" and see if there's demand in articles.

[OK]: Can we use Google Trends instead of Content Explorer?

[JR]: You can use Google Trends, but there are two key differences to consider.

We are not just focusing on search volume. Many times, there are keywords with high search volume—meaning a lot of people are searching for them—but not many writers are actually covering them in articles.

That’s why we want to focus on keywords that are actively being written about. We need to make sure the trend is either stable or increasing.

You can run those keywords through Content Explorer to check their historical trend and relevance over time. This helps us identify which keywords are worth focusing on for image creation.

[OK]: Okay. And then just use real photos, right?

[JR]: For better results, yes.

Some platforms, like Pixabay, allow you to upload designed images—whether through Photoshop or AI. However, these platforms have strict quality criteria.

You can’t just upload any random image or a low-quality design. They have an approval process, and in many cases, they reject images that don’t meet their standards.

So, even if you create images using software or AI, you need to ensure they are high quality—both in terms of design and resolution.

[OK]: When you publish an article with such a high-quality image and research, do you start any outreach campaigns to promote the article and get featured with your image?

[JR]: First of all, if the image we created can be added to one of our existing articles, we do that.

But even if we don’t have a matching article, it doesn’t matter—we can still do outreach without featuring the image in our own content.

As I mentioned, once the image is published on various platforms, we wait about five to six months and then conduct a reverse Google Image Search.

This allows us to see how many websites are using the image, and at that point, we start reaching out to them, asking if they would be willing to give us a link in return.

[JR]: Here are some images that we have used. One second, let me open them first.

Okay, so here’s a link. This is an example of an image we created—just plain text, a simple design, but with a high chance of being picked up as a header image for an article.

This particular image was picked up by a very large site with a Domain Rating (DR) of 92, and we secured a backlink for our client using it.

Here’s another one—this is a Spanish site, but yeah, this image also got picked up as the header image for an article.

[OK]: This one is also related to a product, right?

[JR]: Yes, exactly.

[JR]: Let me check another site. One second...

Yeah, here’s another image we created. This one wasn’t used as a header image, but it was included within the blog content, in the middle of the article.

This was also a pretty big site with a DR of 76 and over a million visitors per month.

[OK]: Can I ask you a question about these text block images?

[JR]: Yes, of course.

[OK]: Is this image a real photo, or did you create it digitally?

[JR]: It’s a real photo.

[OK]: Okay. What do you think about generating such images using AI?

Because today, we have tools like Midjourney, which can create cool prompts and high-quality examples. Can we use AI-generated images in these cases?

Where to Publish Your Images for Free Links

[JR]: On some platforms, you can use AI-generated images, but on others, you can't.

We prefer Unsplash because it has the highest number of downloads and traffic. However, Unsplash only accepts real photographs, meaning they must be actual photos taken with a camera, and they must be high quality.

Unsplash also has a high rejection rate, so AI-generated images won’t be accepted.

You can use AI-generated images on some platforms, but not on others like Unsplash. There are also a few more platforms that don’t accept AI-generated images.

[OK]: Okay, so in such cases, just to be sure—the most important thing is to provide unique images, right?

[JR]: Yes, that’s one of the secrets to providing unique content.

[OK]: Makes sense. But what tips can you provide for convincing a client to approve this strategy?

Unfortunately, in most cases, clients are quite strict and skeptical.

They typically want a simple, predictable process—
✔ They understand they need links.
✔ They understand they have to pay for them.
✔ But they are unsure if images will actually work.

What’s your secret? How do you convince them?

[JR]: We simply show them examples of how we’ve successfully gotten links for other clients using images.

It’s as simple as that.

[OK]: Okay. But what if we don’t have an example, and we’d still like to try?

[JR]: In that case, you can:

1️⃣ Find someone else who has done a similar campaign.
2️⃣ Request permission to use their case study as an example.
3️⃣ Show your client: "Look, this person used this strategy, and it worked. We should try it too."

[OK]: Or... you could just send your boss a link to this video? 😆

[JR]: Absolutely!

They can share this video with their team or their clients.

And honestly, free images shouldn’t be a hard sell—because the investment required is minimal.

If you have an in-house photographer or designer, it won’t take much time to create the images.

This strategy requires very little investment, so you can get started at a very low cost.

[OK]: Okay. Good! Great strategy. Thank you for this.

What about brand mentions? Can we talk about that next?

[JR]: Yeah. Before we get into brand mentions, I want to highlight something important about image outreach.

After the image creation and research process, your outreach template needs to be carefully worded.

You cannot demand people for image credits. You cannot say:
👉 "Hey, you have to give me image credits. You have to give me a link."

If you do that and people complain to free image websites, your profile can get blocked.

Instead, you must be polite in your outreach. Here’s an example of what you should say:

🗨 "I'm so grateful you're using my image. I'm glad it was helpful. Would you be able to provide image credits? It would help me a lot in creating more images like this."

Your approach will determine whether you get a backlink or not.

👉 Alternative Strategy: If you don’t want to wait five to six months for your images to be used on different websites, you can:
1️⃣ Do a reverse image search for images already present on Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels.
2️⃣ Find images that are being used across multiple websites.
3️⃣ If the images match your niche or theme, reach out to the designers or photographers and ask if they would be willing to sell the rights to their image.
4️⃣ If they agree, you take ownership of that image and use it to build backlinks for your site.

[OK]: I have a very technical pro SEO tip.

Use IPTC metadata for images.

It’s a bit complicated and can be expensive for development teams, but it works.

For example, when you Google certain keywords in image search, you’ll often see a disclaimer near an image, saying:

🔹 "This is the property of [Website Name]."

IPTC metadata isn’t like schema markup—it’s a technical setting embedded inside the image file itself.

Every time someone downloads and reuses your image, the IPTC metadata stays intact.

This could be a great addition to the strategy you just mentioned.

[JR]: Right.

The only thing is—when you're uploading images to free image sites, they don’t allow any embedded metadata because:

✔ It falls under Creative Commons licensing.
✔ These platforms require images to be freely used—without any mandatory credits or attributions.

So, when you upload an image with IPTC metadata, these sites may:
❌ Reject your upload entirely.
❌ Strip the metadata before publishing.

That’s why this approach might not work for platforms like Unsplash, Pixabay, or Pexels.

👉 Alternative Strategy:
Instead, you can run Unsplash, Pixabay, or Pexels through Ahrefs to:
1️⃣ Find which images are getting a lot of backlinks.
2️⃣ Identify who owns those images.
3️⃣ Reach out and see if they are willing to sell their image rights to you.

This way, you can leverage existing backlinks and still get credit for high-performing images.

[OK]: As usual—travel tips! You probably did this because "travel tips" is a high-volume keyword, right?

I like it! I need to try this.

So, let's move on to the next chapter.

[OK]: The next chapter is about brand mentions. So, how do we deal with them?

[JR]: Brand mention is a link-building strategy where you reach out to websites that have mentioned your brand—whether it's your company name or personal name—but haven't linked to you.

You simply reach out to them and request a link.

For example, you could say:

🗨 "Hey, I noticed you recently mentioned me or my company in your article. Would you be willing to add a link to my brand name or personal name?"

[OK]: Should we be polite?

[JR]: Absolutely.

They don’t owe us anything, so we need to approach them politely.

Sometimes, people ask for a link in return or even request payment in exchange for adding the link.

👉 You can handle this on a case-by-case basis.

But your outreach has to be polite—if you demand a link or come off as aggressive, they might get annoyed and remove the mention entirely.

[OK]: I have a few questions about pitching.

Is it okay to propose affiliate links in the pitch?

For example, can we ask them to use an affiliate link to our brand?

[JR]: It depends.

If the website owner is getting additional value from adding your affiliate link, then yes, you can try.

However, if the webmaster doesn’t benefit, then in most cases, they won’t be interested.

I’ve tested this strategy before—even offering to pay them to place my affiliate link—but I’d say 80-90% of the time, it gets rejected.

Most website owners prefer to use their own affiliate links rather than someone else’s.

[OK]: Yeah, I mean, if your own company offers referrals or an affiliate program, and depending on the context, you can give it a try, right?

[JR]: Right.

Actually, that can be beneficial.

For example, if you want to do a collaborative outreach, and someone has already mentioned you, you can say:

🗨 "You can sign up on my platform and create your own affiliate link. Besides giving us this link, you’ll actually start earning if people click on it and make purchases."

This way, the website owner benefits, and you secure a link at the same time.

How to Find and Track Unlinked Brand Mentions

[OK]: And regarding brand mentions, what is the cheapest way to track and monitor them when just starting out?

[JR]: One free option is Google Alerts.

✔ You can enter as many keywords, brand names, or personal names as you want to track.
✔ You'll get notifications whenever your brand is mentioned online.

You can also use this strategy to track competitors.

👉 If you see a website mentioning your competitor, you can reach out to them and say:
🗨 "I noticed you recently mentioned [Competitor Name]. Our company can provide additional value for your article—would you consider mentioning us as well?"

This way, you can use brand mention tracking in two ways:
1️⃣ Track your own mentions and request links.
2️⃣ Track competitor mentions and pitch your brand as an alternative.

Other tracking tools include:
✔ Mention.com – A paid tool, but it's affordable and lets you track multiple keywords.
✔ Ahrefs Alerts – This is what we use the most. Ahrefs has a feature called Ahrefs Alerts, which allows you to track brand mentions in real-time.

[OK]: Okay. Now, my question is about the pitching process.

How do you find the right person to pitch to?

Because for me, brand mentions are one of the hardest backlink strategies.

1️⃣ Sometimes, I pitch to someone who doesn’t have permission to edit the article.
2️⃣ Some websites don’t provide the actual author’s contact information—even if it's a high-authority site, all you see is an admin email.

So, who should I contact in these cases?

And how can I craft a convincing pitch so they feel like they must mention me?

[JR]: From my experience:

👉 If it's a big media site (like Doctor Atlas or another large publication), there are two key people to reach out to:

✔ 1st Contact: The Writer or Editor – They usually have direct access to the page and can add a link easily.
✔ 2nd Contact: The Compliance Team – Many large companies have a compliance or legal department that manages content policies. If the writer doesn’t respond, reach out to compliance—they often handle these requests quickly.

👉 If it’s a smaller website:
✔ Reach out directly to the owner.
✔ Many small sites are run by a single person who hires different writers under their name.

👉 If it’s a medium-sized company (10-15 people):
✔ First, try the editor.
✔ If that doesn’t work, contact the owner directly—they usually want to avoid back-and-forth emails and may just approve the link quickly.

[OK]: What do you think about the quality perspective of this strategy?

I mean, would you prefer to get links from highly relevant websites but with low metrics—for example, a site with a low DR but super relevant content?

Let’s say the article ranks in the top 10 for a long-tail keyword, but the keyword has low search volume.

Is that a good or bad approach? What do you think?

[JR]: I think if the site is clean, and even if the stats are low, but it’s highly relevant to our niche, then I would definitely go after those links.

But if it looks like a link farm—
🚨 No real traffic
🚨 Filled with all sorts of random articles
🚨 Poor content quality

Then I would definitely avoid it.

[OK]: Thank you!

I think we’ve covered everything about brand mentions—or maybe you have a few examples to share?

[JR]: Yes! I can quickly share two tips for finding brand mentions.

Let me present my screen.

🔹 Tip #1: How to start tracking mentions right away

If your brand has been around for a while, chances are that many websites have already mentioned it.

You can find these mentions using Google, or a faster way is to use Content Explorer.

For example, let’s take a famous SEO expert—let’s say Brian Dean—and check how many articles have featured his name.

[JR]: Actually, he has been featured in over 300,000 articles! So, the same method applies to any other brand.

You can use this as a starting point:
✅ Find websites that have mentioned your brand.
✅ Start reaching out to them.

Another way is to enter your domain name in Ahrefs.

This will filter out sites that are already linking to you, so you don’t waste time reaching out to them again.

So yeah, just use Ahrefs—enter your brand name—and start finding mentions.

[OK]: I think this strategy can be combined with finding outdated competitor backlinks.

For example, if a competitor created a white paper that no longer exists, you can:
✔ Find broken links pointing to that outdated resource.
✔ Check Web Archive to see what the content looked like.
✔ Recreate that content and reach out to websites asking them to replace the broken link with yours.

It’s not exactly a brand mention strategy, but it’s closely related—it expands the scope of link-building opportunities.

[JR]: You can also test another strategy that we tried once.

We didn’t put a lot of resources into it, but we saw some results.

Here's what we did:
1️⃣ We searched for common keywords that appear frequently in articles.
2️⃣ We checked if an Exact Match Domain (EMD) was available for that keyword.
3️⃣ We purchased the EMD and used it for outreach.

For example, if an article mentioned "coffee recipes", we would buy CoffeeRecipes.com and reach out to them saying:
🗨 "Hey, in your article, you mention coffee recipes. We represent a brand called Coffee Recipes. Would you mind linking to our site?"

[OK]:That sounds very cool and effective!

[JR]: Right.

It’s a bit time-consuming and requires some risk-taking, but if:
✔ The keyword has search volume, and
✔ The EMD isn’t too expensive,

Then it’s worth trying.

[OK]: Let’s summarize and focus on brand mentions.

To maximize success:
✔ Always be polite in your pitches—this applies to any strategy, not just brand mentions.
✔ Use Mention.com—it’s a paid tool, but manageable.
✔ Use Ahrefs Alerts to track mentions.
✔ Use Google Alerts—an old-school, free method that still works.

I still use Google Alerts daily to monitor:
📌 SEO webinars
📌 Conferences & events
📌 Our brand mentions

And it works!

Biggest advantage of brand mentions?
👉 You don’t need to create fresh content.
👉 You just need to claim your existing brand mentions.

Absolutely—this strategy helps you save your budget.

[OK]: So, the main question is:

How long does it take from collecting brand mentions to getting actual results? For example, how much time does it take to claim a few backlinks?

[JR]: You'll start seeing some results right away—often within the first week.

Then, over the next couple of weeks, you’ll likely see more results.

But the timeline depends on volume—
✔ How many articles mention your brand?
✔ How many websites already know about you?

Some smaller sites will be quick to respond—
✅ They already know your brand.
✅ They appreciate your work.
✅ They will happily add a link right away.

But bigger websites might take longer—
❌ They have multiple decision-makers.
❌ The process to approve a backlink can take months.

Key to success? Follow-ups.

📌 You might need to follow up 2–4 times.
📌 If one contact doesn’t respond, reach out to someone else from the company.

And don’t forget to keep tracking new brand mentions.

This is just like email outreach—
It's an ongoing process that you have to repeat month after month.

[OK]: In case of emergency, how can we package this as a separate service?

I mean, how do we properly build this process with a client?

For example, if you get a new client, how can you upsell brand mentions as an additional service?

But I think this strategy is hard to predict, because sometimes a client might have:
❌ A fresh domain with no history
❌ Limited brand awareness
❌ No existing mentions

So, any tips for agency owners who want to upsell brand mentions as a service?

[JR]: That’s exactly why I recommend doing research first.

📌 Use Content Explorer (Ahrefs) or just Google search the brand name.

Only pitch this service if you see a lot of websites mentioning the brand without linking to it.

If it’s a fresh domain or a new brand, there’s no point in pitching this right away.
❌ It’s better to wait a year or two until the brand gains visibility.
❌ Then, once the brand is established, you can introduce this strategy.

However, if you combine brand mentions with image outreach, you can speed up the process.

For example, I have notifications enabled on:
✔ Mention.com
✔ Ahrefs Alerts
✔ Google Alerts

This helps me instantly track when an image I created (or a client’s image) is used.

🚨 Sometimes, I get notified within 24 hours of a fresh article using my image—
✔ The site credits my client’s name
✔ But doesn’t include a link

Because my mention alerts were turned on, I could reach out immediately and request a backlink.

Using both strategies together (brand mentions + image outreach) can speed up the results significantly.

[OK]: Yeah, that’s cool!

I definitely need to check our images to find mentions.

Okay, now let’s go back to testimonials—why do you like this strategy in a nutshell?

[JR]:

✅ First of all, it’s a free way to get backlinks.
✅ Second, sometimes you can get links from the homepage—which is extremely powerful.

I’ll drop some examples here.

I’m not going to disclose my client’s name, but maybe you can open this and share your screen.

Here are two examples:
📌 One is in the review section.
📌 The other is directly from the homepage.

[OK]: So, what do we have here?

Really, this is one of my favorite strategies!

Take Steve Toth, for example—I really like how he shares useful GPT spreadsheets and cool automation hacks.

So, what we have here are testimonials, right?

[JR]: So, we did a bunch of testimonials here.

One of them was for a client, and we managed to secure a backlink for them in this section.

[OK]: We got links—cool!

But I must admit, it’s not super easy to get these kinds of links unless you personally know the company.

Typically, you need to be a client of the company or website to get a testimonial link.

[JR]: Exactly.

You either:
✔ Are a client of the company, or
✔ Are an established industry expert, or
✔ Have a website with decent traffic and authority in your niche.

But here’s the trick—companies love testimonials, especially video testimonials.

So, if you’re not yet established and your brand isn’t well-known, you can:
📌 Offer video testimonials to companies.
📌 Many businesses love featuring these on their websites.
📌 In return, simply ask for a backlink to your site.

This is a win-win strategy because companies get valuable testimonials, and you get a high-quality backlink.

[OK]: Yeah, that’s totally true—I completely agree.

It works really well because SEO specialists and link builders dream of homepage backlinks.

There are plenty of tactics and methods to secure homepage links.

But let’s be honest—not all of them are white hat.

And I think this testimonial strategy is one of the most white-hat tactics available.

[JR]: Here’s how you can build a list of potential testimonial targets.

1️⃣ Identify relevant tools and platforms in your niche.
✔ If you’re in SEO, make a list of all the SaaS tools, SEO tracking tools, AI tools, etc.
✔ Include tools you already use and even alternative tools in your industry.

2️⃣ Even if you’re not currently using a tool, you can start.
✔ Some companies require you to be an active user to qualify for a testimonial.
✔ If that’s the case, you can try using their free trial before offering a testimonial.

3️⃣ Make the outreach process more effective.
✔ Don’t reach out as yourself—make it seem like someone from your team is contacting them.
✔ This helps position you as a bigger authority.
✔ Instead of using your personal email, try:
🔹 Using a colleague’s name.
🔹 Using a VA’s email.
🔹 Creating a dummy email persona to handle outreach.

[OK]: I need to create a virtual VA in Gmail and try doing outreach as my assistant.

It’s a great tactic.

[JR]: But it has to be a company email—it can’t be a Gmail address.

✔ Use a company domain email
✔ Then reach out saying:

🗨 "Hey, I’m reaching out on behalf of [Your Name]. He/She has been using your tool, really loves it, and would love to contribute a testimonial. Would you be interested in this?"

[OK]: I think that’s kind of a psychological trick because it makes you seem more important when you have an assistant handling outreach.

Back when I did manual outreach by myself, I tested different email personas.

✔ I created a male account and a female account.
✔ Guess what? The female avatar worked better—of course!

Always! And I don’t even know why—both profile pictures were equally professional.

[JR]: Actually, I have a friend who does deep research on email open rates.

He runs a company that provides email setups for mass outreach.

From his research, he found that:
✔ Using real personas with actual images works best.
✔ If you use your own photo, the highest open rate comes from:

📌 A couple photo
📌 By the beach

[OK]: Right! I guess I’d get a really high open rate. The testimonial strategy works best when:
✔ You have an established brand history.
✔ Your company has real people behind it.

This works great for agencies and SaaS businesses, but what about gray-hat niches?

For example, companies that:
❌ Operate from offshore zones
❌ Don’t use personal branding
❌ Are faceless businesses

For people just starting their link-building journey, it’s important to note that this strategy is best for "face-branded" companies.

If you’re running an affiliate site with generic product reviews, just to make extra money, this probably won’t work as well.

[JR]: Very difficult.

For testimonial outreach, you either:
✔ Have a personal brand, or
✔ Your company is already well-known.

If your SaaS tool is gaining traction, you can leverage brand mentions.

But yes, testimonial outreach takes time and has its limits.

However, if you land a homepage link from a high-authority site, the SEO benefits are massive.

[OK]: Yeah, I think this strategy can also be combined with:
✔ Event sponsorships
✔ Conference participation
✔ Networking with industry leaders

That would work really well.

[OK]: Okay, so we’ve covered three main link-building strategies:

✔ Image Outreach – Free backlinks, but takes 5-6 months to see results.
✔ Brand Mentions – Can be done anytime and on an ongoing basis.
✔ Testimonials – Ongoing as well, but works best for established brands.

All three strategies together create a strong mix of link juice.

[OK]: Now, let me ask you a personal question.

What was the first link you ever got that made you think:
"Wow, I can scale this!"

[JR]: The first link-building strategy I learned was link exchange.

Basically, we:
✔ Requested a link from Site A
✔ Gave them a link from Site B

It worked okay, but it wasn’t very scalable.

[JR]: The problem was:
❌ It required approval from multiple decision-makers.
❌ It was slow compared to paid links or guest posts.
❌ You had limited control over the links you got.

With guest posts, it’s faster—you simply pay and get full control over the link placement.

With ABC link exchanges, it took a lot of back and forth before they approved the site and article.

[OK]: The biggest disadvantage of ABC link exchanges is:
📌 Too many decision-makers involved.
📌 It takes time.

For outreach campaigns, it’s sometimes easier to just build quality guest posts—free or paid.

Final Takeaways:

📌 Image Outreach → Takes 5-6 months, but provides free links.
📌 Brand Mentions → Easy, ongoing, and works long-term.
📌 Testimonials → Can be done continuously, but works best for established brands.

Together, they create a powerful mix of high-quality links.

[OK]: Yeah, I think this would have been super useful for me when I was just starting my career.

I really like your image strategy, and now I’m thinking—what can I do with images for SEO?

Because SEO isn’t like running shoes—it’s not physical.

I can’t just take a selfie with John Mueller and expect it to rank!

[JR]: If you’re in the SEO niche, here’s another approach you can try:

✔ Take the keywords you want to target.
✔ Run them through Unsplash, Pixabay, and other image sites.
✔ See what kind of images come up—this can give you ideas for what works.

[JR]: Yes—because they’re much easier to use as header images in articles.

[OK]: Yes, for sure!

Maybe I should run a test and see how it performs.

Honestly, this conversation has been super useful for me.

I feel excited, motivated, and inspired to try your image outreach strategy.

So, I hope this was just as useful for you as it was for me!

If you liked this video:
👍 Like
📩 Subscribe
💬 Drop a comment—are you as inspired as I am?

And don’t forget—subscribe to Jarvis and check out his event in London on…

[JR]: June 10th and 11th.

[OK]: Yep! Go to London and join the event!

Thank you, and see you next time!

[JR]: Thank you!