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Share on FacebookRecent craigslist update cracks down on spammers
As part of Craigslist’s evolving efforts to crack down on fake ads and “e-whoring”, Craigslist is now using GEO-IP detection for its ads. It used to allow people from outside a particular city to post ads for that city. Eg. someone who lives in Seattle could post ads in Washington DC. That’s all changed now. Your IP must reflect the location you are posting to.
I am not sure how effective this would be in the long run. Craigslist is so lucrative for blackhat marketers that they have successfully bypassed previous antispam efforts. Even Craigslist’s lawsuit against one of the biggest CL ad posting software companies don’t deter other apps from popping up to take its place. Here’s a quick history based on a historical observation of craigslist’s ad volume/section activity (NOTE: we don’t condone any of the behaviors discussed in this entry. This is purely for news commentary purposes only.)
Antispam measure: community flagging of ’suspect’ ads Workaround: post tons of ads to compensate for the kill rate.
Antispam measure: autoghosting of ads Workaround: posts tons of ads to compensate for the ghost rate.
Antispam measure: Phone verified accounts Workaround: Spammers would place free ads on other sites that trick people inito phone verifying accounts. They then turnaround and sell these in bulk to other CL posters.
It is an evolutionary arms race. Similar to how predator and prey evolve in the natural world. The prey would evolve a defense, the predator evolves to defeat that defense. Never-ending.
Share on FacebookHow to get free traffic from Google Reader
Google Reader recently added a “social networking” capability to Google’s feed Reader online app.
Here’s a screeen shot
The great thing about this is when you click the “X people liked this post” you’ll see a list of names. The names lead to profiles. The profiles lead to links. Why is this important: OpenID users are “filtering” themselves based on content they like. Talk about a targeted marketer’s dream come true…
Whenever a webpage lets users post live links that link out to sites outside, it’s a marketing opportunity. I’ll let you fill in the blanks on how to turn this into $$$.
Remember, folks: Don’t be evil. Use this awesome opportunity for good–use it to network and build relationships. Those are the kinds of traffic deals that pay off for the long haul.
Share on FacebookLearning free traffic methods from online Pranks
4Chan is one of the Internet’s leaders in spreading memes. It’s also a great source of free traffic methods such as its rumored gaming of Google Trends for the search term “hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”
Well, 4Chan prankster are at it again with a massive porn prank raid on Youtube set for June 12. Click the thumbnail below.
What’s the lesson to learn from this? If you have a massive base, media can be manipulated through crowdsourced options. Another lesson, learn to piggyback on crowdsourced efforts. As always, make sure your own attempts at milking free traffic from high traffic sites comport with the letter and spirit of their TOS. DO NOT copy the 4chan prank described above–it obviously violates tagging/labeling and content rules. While observing how these pranks work is educational, make sure your own traffic generation efforts comply with all relevant laws. Usually, if you provide content (which you rightfully own) in exchange for traffic, a win win situation is created.
Share on FacebookGetting first mover advantage with Google Trends
Despite its fairly obvious vulnerabilities to nefarious online buzz gaming schemes, Google Trends has a lot to offer webmasters. In particular, it gives first mover advantage for webmasters looking for new domain niches to buy and new keyword clusters to capitalize on.
Trend domaining
Domaining is probably one of the few recession-resistant (notice I used the word “resistant” as opposed to “proof”) online money making opportunities available. Stock portfolios may drop, commodities options may slump, but domains (at least type in domains) keep chugging along. Unfortunately, many inexperienced observers would probably say that “all the good ones” have long been taken? O really? I argue that domains are essentially memes–they convey a set of ideas. Of course, some ideas are more ‘durable’ than others–just like regular words, they are susceptible to fashion and fads. That said, you can easily figure out what new ideas have buzz using tools like technorati and twitter. However, the crown jewel of this trend hunting troika is Google Trends.
Google Trends is a great tool for checking the spread of an idea. People are searching for the term. Validate its latency and persistence using Twitter’s search functionality. Study the niche it falls under–what is the aggregate commercial value of this niche, among a host of other fine tuned analytical steps. Study the commercial depth of the term to see how quickly it can be monetized. If it all checks out, plunk down that $8.95 (or lower) and buy and store. Trend domains can quickly blow up in value if the niche is hot enough. Don’t have the time, tools, or methodologies to do all this? Outsource it for dirt cheap.
Trend Blogging
When a new trend starts getting real hot, it always pays to be in on the ground floor. First mover advantage is key. No wonder many blogs “pounce” on the latest trends spit out by Google trends. These blogs range in sophistication from The Inquistr to many MFA (Made for Adsense) blogspot.com blogs. One thing I’ve noticed though–the more sophisticated blogs don’t focus on “definition terms” like “bilious” but on more commercial or newsworthy terms. I guess this reflects a tradeoff between high bounce rate and temporary “trend” traffic and ROI. I would think that same calculation should be at play for any serious online businessperson–always shoot for the highest ROI and return on effort you can find. Not all “hot trend” topics are the same.
Photo Credit: Trevor Manternach
Share on FacebookCraigslist scheduled to drop erotic services
Due to pressure from state attorney generals regarding the usage of Craigslist’s “erotic services” section, CL has decided to drop erotic services and replace it with a new “adult services” section. What is disturbing about the new section is that it will be manually filtered by CL employees. Is this a preview of ad censorship? Not like it’s very easy to post on CL nowadays: you need a PVA (phone verified account) and your ad has to make it through many, increasingly it seems, arbitrary barriers. As I’ve always maintained, Classified Ads sites owe most of their success to advertisers/posters and this new development (and its implications for future editorial control) would probably dampen posters’ appetities.
If anything, this is good news for CL competitors. For a great classified ads automated poster, click here
More information on this development here
Share on FacebookPlugging Youtube Video Traffic Leaks
As you probably know from our prior posts, YouTube can be a great source of free traffic to your website. However, for really viral videos, there’s a major traffic leak in this model:
You post your popular video
A blogger gets the video url and embeds it on a blog.
End result: People get to enjoy your content without seeing your link in the video description section or your clickable name (which goes to your channel. Your channel has your link outs).
Solution: Disable embedding. If people want to see your video, they have to click the Youtube link and see it on youtube (along with your links).
Share on FacebookCritique of “50 top ways to drive traffic to your site”
The unattributed list below has been circulating in forums and reprinted on many “make money online” blogs since 2008. We’re reprinting it here to comment on each method individually. This particular reprinted list is from the reprint at iBanter — we’re reprinting the list here for “Fair Use” purposes of commentary and analysis.
1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.
How it works: The directories have Page Rank and they pass some of it to the links in the “About the Author” sections of the articles they publish.
Pro: Most article sites are free. Fairly straightforward and simple to do. Good for backlinks and direct traffic. For best results, pick only high value/high PR/highly categorized sites and submit manually.
Con: You run the risk of duplicate content penalties if you submit the same article to too many sites. Also, it helps tremendously if the article is categorized correctly and the article site’s permalink structure is search engine friendly. Using automated submitters produce less results than manual and ‘cherry picked’ submissions. If you’re not a writer, writing the articles might be a challenge. Fortunately, leased website copywriters are available for as low as $175 per month.
2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.
How it works: The blog has Page Rank and it passes it through links in the body of commenters’ posts or in the hyperlinked names of the commenters.
Pro: Very effective way of getting backlinks from High Page rank sites.
Con: Wordpress comments are by default NO FOLLOW so link juice is not passed. Even if NO FOLLOW is deactivated (such as on this blog), the link builder cannot just use his/her keyword as a name. Many blogs require a real name only. Others require a name and allow for the keyword to follow. Example: “Jim – Funny Video Site”. For best results, the blog must be in the same category as the site you’re building links for. For Blogger/blogspot.com, comments are NO FOLLOW by default as well.
3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com .
How it works: Yahoo Answers lists commonly asked questions regarding a particular topic. You answer a question in your site’s niche/category and stuff the useful and informative answer with keywords. You put your link as a ‘Source’. Yahoo’s own user database has tons of people that would click your source link so you get direct traffic.
Pro: Free. Great way to tap into Yahoo’s user base. Good for targeted direct traffic. Keyword-driven search results yield targeted traffic.
Con: The links don’t use text titles so SEO value is limited to begin with. Yahoo has since made the links NO FOLLOW which destroyed these links Google SEO value. Works best for frequent users not drive by “contributors”.
4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.
How it works: Whatever Page Rank the forum has is sometimes (depending on a few factors) shared with the links users place in the body of their posts or, to a lesser extent, their signature text links.
Pro: Free. Very easy way to get backlinks. You set your signature and you forget it. The more you post, the greater your links proliferate. Good addition to a daily linkbuilding routine if you visit and post on forums habitually. Some direct traffic.
Con: Link value is diluted by the tons of other links posted by other users. Signature-based links carry less weight than ‘in content’ (in post) links. The value of your backlink is greatly affected by how closely the forum you’re posting on meets the content category of the site you’re linkbuilding for. Also, many forums are now using NO FOLLOW tags for links, in post links, or both.
5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com .
How it works: PRWeb has a Pagerank of 7 and it passes on some of its page rank to links embedded in the categorized press releases published on its site.
Pro: Fast and relatively easy way to get a backlink from a trusted site. Not only do you get a backlink, your press release might be picked up sites that monitor PRWeb for category-specific releases.
Con: PRWeb is NOT free. The cheapest available package is $80. $80 for a backlink located on a site that has tons of other backlinks to other sites. To get full media distribution, you have to pay $360. You can get many more backlinks at cheaper rates from SEO linkbuilding services. However, periodic backlink building using PRWeb is probably a good idea to give new sites a good backlink start.
6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com .
How it works: Craigslist has a nice Page Rank. Posting your ad (with anchor text) in the right category lets Craigslist passes some of Craigslist’s link juice to your site.
Pro: Free. Backlinks from a nicely categorized high value site. Good for backlinks and direct traffic.
Con: Due to excessive spamming of Craigslist, posting has become more difficult since posters need a Phone Verified Account in order to post. This is quite a hassle specially if you’re not based in the US. Beware of scammers selling fake PVAs. Also, Craigslist employs some anti-spam measures.
7 . Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.
How it works: Highly popular or established product pages will have Page Rank. By posting your domain on their site they pass some of this PR to you.
Pro: Free.
Con: To get full SEO benefits, the product/service must be somewhat related to the niche/category of the site you are building links for. Finding relevant high page rank product/service sites can be time consuming. You are filtering for a) category b) Page Rank and c) do follow. Thankfully, there’s some tools that can make this task easier.
8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.
How it works: Submission to any directory can result in some of those directory sites passing their PR on to your site.
Pro: Free. Third Party publishers that “leech” content off RSS feeds sometimes post your entries with your links intact.
Con: This opens you up to RSS hijackers which scrape your content and strip your links. You can protect yourself from this by setting up your blog to publish only summaries. This setting is in the “READING” section of WP setup. RSS feed hijacking can get so bad that the thieves sometimes rank higher than you for the keywords of your entry!
9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.
How it works: Submitting your site to search engines reduces their effort in finding you. Once you’re in their database, they can index your pages, and rank them.
Pro: Saves the search engines time. Not like they care 
Con: Based on personal experience and other webmasters experiences posted on forums, you get indexed faster if you submit to some key sites other than search engines. There’s even reports of submitted sites sitting for WEEKS without even one visit from Googlebot. Instead of submitting to the search engine, submit your site map using Google’s webmaster tools and submit to some major DO FOLLOW sites.
10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
How it works: Search engine spiders tend to be literal and, until recent developments, linear in their approach. You have to spoonfeed them as to where to go on your site and suggest what keywords to pick up. This makes for a more ‘directed’ system.
Pro: Free. Relatively straightforward.
Con: You need to expend some time and effort to find the right keywords for each section. Competitor analysis helps a lot but in order to beat your competition you have to find the right combination of keywords and subkeywords that have less competition from which you can build a backlink critical mass. This can lift your rankings for more competitive keywords.
Photo Credits: Nelson D.
Here are the remaining items on the list which will be analyzed in PARTS 2 through 5 of this 5 part series.
11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.
12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.
13. Use PPC search engine advertising.
14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.
15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.
17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.
18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.
19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
21. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.
22. Create a software program and give it away for free.
23. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.
24. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.
25. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
26. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
27. Start a page on social bookmarking sites such as www.wowzza.com .
28. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com
29. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.
30. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
31. Start your own newsletter or ezine.
32. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.
33. Purchase ads on other sites.
34. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.
35. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.
36. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.
37. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
38. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.
39. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
40. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.
41. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.
42. Buy and use a memorable domain name.
43. Do something controversial.
44. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products that you have read.
45. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com .
46. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).
47. Get referrals form similar but non-competing sites.
48. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to your site in it o others pass it around for you.
49. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.
50. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.
Share on FacebookThe most often overlooked source of traffic is …
Judging from all the other webmaster resource blogs out there, most of the traffic sources for your site are to be found by actively building links, finding where your target demographic congregates online and recruiting them from those places, and forging relationships/partnerships with other sites. It’s also true, however, that some of the most powerful sources of traffic for your site can be found in an often overlooked place–your stats counter. That’s right. That humble piece of javascript code you slap on your sidebar widget’s text box or straight to your site’s HTML code might contain traffic “secrets” that can blow your traffic volume up.
The best thing (the worst thing to some people) about public web pages is that someone somewhere somehow at sometime in the vast expanse of cyberspace can link to you. They can link to you directly, they can link to you using an infinite number of link titles, they can link to you via pictures, etc. The important thing to note is that they can and do link to you. Mine your stats counter to see who links to you, how they link to you, and why. See if there is a good fit between the referring site and your blog/site. See if you can “expedite” or assist their link.
Why would people want to link to your content? Forums and other places for online social interaction live on and can only survive based on CONTENT. Most of the time, people just paste content into forum posts. However, to avoid copyright issues, some of the more conscientious posters post links with commentaries, or just straight links. Blogs also require content and often sample (with link back) other sites’/blogs’ content along with the blog’s specific commentary. There’s tons of other variations on this. The bottom line is that someone, somewhere, somehow will link to you.
Lessons learned
If you notice new entries in your referral logs, INVESTIGATE. Despite some shortcomings, I suggest you use Google Analytics for your stats tracking. Its major drawback is that it doesn’t give you the direct url of the traffic source. It uses the format DOMAIN.COM/referral. Despite this drawback, it allows for dumping referrer sites in a CSV. Another good program to use to find referrers is Stats Counter. See how much total traffic unsolicited thirdparty links bring in. Paste the link onto a new browser window and see how you were linked. ACCELERATE the flow of traffic by opening an account in that forum and bumping the thread that contains your link. Alternatively, if the link came from a blog, post a followup comment on the blog entry that mentions your link. You can also copy and paste the URL of the blog onto Pingoat and ping the blog that’s linking to you. COLLABORATE with the link source through a formal link exchange–blogroll link exchange or placement of your link in their resources/links page.
Important sources of traffic might be ‘lurking’ right under your nose. Check out your stats report and see if you can dig any goodies.
Photo credit: Lumaxart
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