Crowdfunding Link Building: Earn Links from Creators & Media

One of the first principles of link building for SEO is helping others. When you can serve others at the highest level, you can pour out natural backlinks to your site – both from people you’ve helped and the people you see the great work you did.

It worked in the early days of search marketing and still works now, given that link givers (webmasters, publishers, journalists, and content creators) only reciprocate goodwill. 

A great example of helping others with links as by-products is crowdfunding link building.

Crowdfunding link building is a practice of earning backlinks by contributing something of value to crowdfunding campaigns—whether launching new products or projects, supporting them voluntarily (for charity reasons), or creating content assets that highlight what they do.

Why Crowdfunding Link Building Works? 

At their​​ core, crowdfunding link-building campaigns leverage the idea of an attention economy. Every crowdfunding campaign (whether from startups or established companies) has built-in stories, new launches (products or services), social causes, or any creative link building project.

We’re at this age of digital PR where journalists and publishers love covering stories (as early as they can) so they can get the benefits of early visibility, and of which, there are opportunities to have links both from their news coverage and their own sites. 

Built-in authority

Close to the idea of attention, crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe have been recognized as quality platforms, so the links that come from their pages are essential strong trust signals for your brand if you wish to start a crowdfunding project. 

Story-driven appeal

The new product launches, social initiatives, or creative ideas are what actually sell to earn links from journalists and bloggers, who are constantly looking for compelling stories to tell. So, having a crowdfunding project of your own can give you a fresh start to acquire links – especially for starting brands that don’t have an established online presence.

High outreach potential

The wider coverage in link earning through crowdfunding link building campaigns comes from the idea that it cuts across many industries – case for tech blogs that can feature innovative gadgets and lifestyle bloggers who can highlight wellness projects, or as simple as local media that can spotlight community-driven initiatives. All these make crowdfunding link acquisition worthwhile in putting more eyeballs (of potential target buyers) on your website. 

Links from campaign creators’ own websites:

Project owners, as they call for anyone who creates their crowdfunding campaign, often have their thank-you pages acknowledged as partners or like press kits that link to their supporters, media partners, or any collaborator. Links from these efforts are useful in driving more relevance and trust signals to your site – especially if those project owners’ sites are topically relevant (“niche relevance”) to your brand. 

How To Do Crowdfunding Link Building?  

There’s nothing magical here—the process is almost identical to other link-building campaigns. But what really makes crowdfunding interesting is the level of authority and the type of links you can potentially acquire for your site (as most, you can request homepage links).

1. Research & Strategy

See what crowdfunding projects exist that are relevant to your industry. Given there are so many campaigns – like tech gadgets, social causes, and a pretty general creative campaign – identifying where your brand can best fit helps you realize the campaign that can give you the most relevant and trusted links. 

A few actionable tips you may consider:

• Study what others have made and ongoing campaigns in your space. See which ones have been featured on A-list publications, resources, or even local news sites.
• Assess the angle from which they generated backlinks—e.g., unique stories, new product launches—and document the specific triggers that earned them backlinks.
• Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush to reverse engineer competitors or any authority brands with crowdfunding campaigns – spot any related links from campaign creators, crowdfunding platforms, and any third-party coverage.

2. Prospect Qualification

An effective link-building campaign has a stringent qualification process for potential link sources, as not all domains or websites are suitable for your brand.

Now, once you’ve mapped the crowdfunding landscape, have done enough resource which sites generated links for their campaigns, your next step is to filter and qualify the best link opportunities possible. 

Here are critical things we look for to separate high-value prospects from the noise:

• Websites of project creators—these are the exact crowdfunding campaign owners, with their own thank-you pages to acknowledge supporters and partners or partner/collaborator pages for straight sponsors and featured media.
• Journalists and niche blogs are publishers who consistently cover crowdfunding campaigns, such as tech journalists who publish articles on Kickstarter gadgets or local reporters who typically highlight community-driven fundraising initiatives. 
• Community hubs – subreddits like r/kickstarter or r/IndieDev that often discuss campaigns on anything about crowdfunding. 

Like any other link building campaign, you have to qualify prospects, consider these key link metrics: 

• Relevance – make sure the site fits well with your niche.
• Authority – assess using Ahrefs’ DR to see if it will pass any SEO value.
• Likelihood to link – do they link out to contributors? 

3. Value Asset Creation

After link prospecting and qualification, the next logical step is to create content assets to which these publishers would link back to your page. The main premise is simple: you don’t need to be a super authority to own your crowdfunding campaigns – you simply position yourself as a supporter, curator, or best – a storyteller so that these project creators would have a valid reason to acknowledge you, in the hope of backlinks to your site. 

To give you some ideas, here are types of value assets you can create:

• Reviews of trending crowdfunding projects  – you can write in-depth reviews of these solid campaigns by highlighting their purpose, features, and impact. 
• Curated lists (“top crowdfunding campaigns this month”) feature the best crowdfunding campaigns in your niche. 
• Case studies of successful campaigns—dissect and uncover insights into what makes campaigns successful. You can cover the reward structure or community engagement.

4. Outreach & Engagement

Content creation is just 50% of the battle. The next crucial step is to actively engage with the right people and communities, offering so much value and strengthening relationships so that brand mentions and backlinks will come naturally at the right place. 

 

I break down outreach strategies for each of the target prospects for crowdfunding link-building campaigns: 

How to engage project creators:

• Direct manual outreach – connect with campaign owners and let them know that you’ve covered their story or simply offer to collaborate further (i.e., interview, link or brand inclusion in your resource guide, etc..). 
• Support-first approach: Put your skin in the game by backing their campaigns at small levels (e.g., $5-$10). This will give you a legitimate reason to have a good conversation and stand among others who’ve cold-pitched them (sometimes, building goodwill is the fastest way to earn links).
  

How to engage journalists and bloggers:

• Personalized pitches – reach out to publishers who frequently cover crowdfunding projects in their content – offer insights, curated lists, and content assets mentioned above that will entice them to reference in their stories.
• Ongoing relationships – get into their radar first (follow their work, engage with them, and provide as much value before requesting coverage).

How to engage communities:

• Engage in niche-relevant forums and groups (subreddits, crowdfunding-focused FB groups, etc).
• Add value through contributions – frame your content assets as resources worth discovering (potentially earning links from other creators). 
• Build credibility over time by being consistent in adding as much value as possible by sharing content organically, increasing brand awareness, and recall in your target communities.

Putting It All Together

When you combine the first principles of helping others, leveraging relationships, and earning visibility, you create crowdfunding link-building campaigns that are scalable enough to improve brand visibility and earn natural links from creators and publishers in your industry. 

Learn more about our link-building services if​​ you’re looking for ways to increase your authority through natural link building campaigns, learn more about our link building services.