The link you'll never get is the one you don't deserve

I see so many founders frustrated about link building. “We’ve sent 500 outreach emails and got 3 links.”

The math is off, but so is the framing.

The question isn’t “how do we get more links?” It’s “what have we created that deserves to be linked to?”

Most startup blogs are:
- Thinly researched opinion pieces
- Product announcements dressed as content
- Me-too articles on trending topics

None of these deserve links. Why would anyone link to them?

What deserves links:
- Original research (survey your customers!)
- Genuinely useful tools (even simple ones)
- Definitive guides that become reference material
- Counter-intuitive insights backed by evidence

Link building isn’t about tactics. It’s about creating things worth referencing.

The best links come from people you never contacted, referencing something you made because it was genuinely useful.

Earn, don’t extract.