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I hate linkwheel FLOWERS

A few established SEO practitioners run this software that maps out a site’s backlink structure.  These maps look very interesting, to say the least.  Some look like a Carlos Castaneda flashback while others are so damn predictable it’s scary–specially for the clients of such SEO “expertise”.  Predictablity, in SEO, is the home of FAIL. Google routinely destroys the PR and link marketability of people who sell or buy links.  That’s why SEO “flowers” are so dangerous…

What are SEO “Flowers”?

Quick background:  Linkwheels are Web 2.0 pages/blogs that are built specifically to pump up the Page rank of and pump link juice to a target site.  Think of it as an amplifier for SEO.  There’s many “Get 10000000000 hits per day” huckster ebooks and sales pages pushing this concept.  However, it’s very easy to do and anyone with some time on their hands for page building, content copywriting, and mapping can build these.  The typical structure is SITE A links to SITE B and Target site, SITE B links to SITE C and target site, etc.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see that this typical link map looks like a FLOWER.  Indeed, that’s how it looks on a link mapping application.  Something like this:

seo-flower
While flowers are great for enhancing the ambiance of most rooms or as gifts for the object of your affection, they are DEADLY in the SEO realm.  Easy to track (and easy to ban) link structures give the kiss of death to any SEO strategy.  Make sure you DIVERSIFY your linking structure.  There mustn’t be any readily discernible pattern in your link map or else your network and your target site might look like a daisy that got crushed under Google’s boot heel.  Not a pleasant sight.

Photo credits:  law_keven

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High Revenue Admin 12 October 2009 linkbuilding techniques , , 2 Comments

155 free link directories

If you’re looking for backlinks, you may want to look into submitting to these directories.  I’ve converted the list to .jpg to “nudge” people to load each site separately and give each site the time it deserves.

directories

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Click on the thumbnail to see the list

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High Revenue Admin 8 October 2009 linkbuilding techniques 1 Comment

How to get .gov and .edu backlinks

Google, at least judging from its last update, favors .gov and .edu backlinks.  They tend to be more liberal with PR and the % of link juice flow when these types of domains are involved.  How to get these backlinks?

Step 1:

Do a Google search using these parameters –

site:.edu inurl:blog “keyword”

site:.gov inurl:blog “keyword”

Step 2:

Filter, Filter, Filter.  This is probably the most important step since you can harvest all the links you want but if they are duds they will do you no good.  The key to good filtering is a strategic objective-based approach.

If you need INTELLIGENT grunt labor (seems like an oxymoron, I know, but that’s why SEO outsourcing exists) to do this cheaply but correctly, click here.

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High Revenue Admin 5 August 2009 linkbuilding techniques 4 Comments

Shoemoney hearsay

From another blog that receives Shoemoney’s premium newsletter: don’t buy text link ads links.  Apparently it’s straight from Google insiders themselves…  This is kinda obvious.  Really.  It would suck for Matt Cutts and crew to spider TLA and just unload that heavy 500 pound BAN hammer…  Stay clear of TLA.  Also, stay clear of dudes selling links on forums who mention their url in their responses or ads.

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High Revenue Admin 1 August 2009 linkbuilding techniques , , 3 Comments

Aikido Link building method

The bad news about link building is that more and more sites are using NO FOLLOW tags.  This means more work, time, and money spent on researching sites that 1) accepts public links 2) have Page Rank on their main page and, ideally, 3) are in the same niche as the site you’re tying to SEO.

The good news is that instead of doing it yourself, you can replicate what others have done and cherry pick the sites that are relevant to you.  That’s the faster and easier way to build quality backlinks using the 3 criteria above than doing it completely by yourself.

Where to start?  Study your competitors or other sites in similar niches.  This yielded more results than just doing searches on your own.

If you want an AFFORDABLE link building solution, contact Webmaster Labor today and ask them about their AIKIDO LINK BUILDING SERVICE.  They also offer guarantees!

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High Revenue Admin 10 July 2009 linkbuilding techniques 5 Comments

List of Do Follow Forums with Page Rank

Want to build links through forum sigs or in post links?  Here’s a list of Do Follow forums with page rank and Alexa.  We’ve included the Alexa rank if you’re looking for direct traffic as well :)

Domain PageRank Alexa Rank
http://forums.amd.com 6    2,167
http://forums.cnet.com 7    69
http://forum.vbulletinsetup.com 4    27,293
http://irishwebmasterforum.com 3    35,218
http://forums.seo.com 4    25,047

http://webdigity.com 4    59,156

http://forums.gentoo.org 6    23,602
http://ubuntuforums.org 6    2,270
http://forum.textpattern.com 6    36,113
http://talk.iwebtool.com 3    6,460
http://capitaltheory.com 1    180,789
http://smsbucket.com 2    342,321
http://seoin.info 2    696,879
http://vidberry.com 2    206,695
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High Revenue Admin 1 July 2009 linkbuilding techniques , 3 Comments

You comment I follow

This blog is a DO FOLLOW comment blog.  Why?  Because we believe Google should ban spam not blogs linking to each other for legitimate reasons.  Also, commenters should be rewarded for good comments by pimping their sites a little bit.  Good for direct traffic and good for SEO.

Here’s the graphic of our official position:

http://i44.tinypic.com/se8wo5.gif

Of course, we don’t want our site to be infested by spamtastic links next to crappy comments  so we make sure to upgrade to the latest versions of WP, we have Akismet turned on, and we heavily moderate for quality comments.  What are the quality comments we are looking for?  Anything that engages conversation–questions, suggestions, offering tidbits.

The difference between Spam and Content

Spam, by itself, is too salty.  To make it taste better, Hawaiians wrap it in nori (dried seaweed wrapper), put in some rice dabbed with a swig of some rice vinegar, and some egg.  From SPAM to Hawaiian spam musubi.   From a salty piece of pork to a Polynesian delicacy.  Use that same philosophy when making backlinks.  Use real content.  Participate.

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High Revenue Admin 22 June 2009 linkbuilding techniques , , 1 Comment

Does it ever make sense to comment on NO FOLLOW blogs?

no follow comment valueMany webmasters consider NO FOLLOW a curse.  They think that it unnecessarily restricts their linkbuilding efforts.  Indeed, many webmasters think that Wordpress’ default NOFOLLOW tag on comments will not yield the intended result–cut down on comment spam.  Regardless, the reality is that the vast majority of Wordpress-based blogs are NO FOLLOW despite the laudable efforts of some webmasters to enable their blogs to follow comments.  Which brings up the question–does it ever make sense to comment on NO FOLLOW blogs?

Commenting for backlink volume versue commenting  for authority/conversation

There are two main reasons for commenting on blogs.  The most common reason is that people comment for backlinks.  The comment “name” is hyperlinked to a url.  Accordingly, many commenters use their keywords as names.  Some sites allow this, other blogs (such as ours) request that you put your real name and a – or | followed by your keyword.  This naming convention makes the comments seem less spamariffic. :)   If you’re just commenting for backlink volume, as mentioned in our earlier critique of traffic building techniques, commenting on NO FOLLOW blogs will be a waste of time.  Commenting for backlink volume involves posting once or twice on as many related do follow blogs you can find.  Volume and efficiency are the keys to this linkbuilding method.

The other reason people comment on blogs is to build a long-term relationship with the blog they are commenting on.  This creates familiarity and rapport between the blog publisher and the commenter.  This relationship is also augmented by the commenter posting longer and more detailed critiques/impressions of the blog and posting it on his/her own blog.  Where does this lead to?  Building a relationship with a high PR or high traffic/high value blog leads to credibility/legitimacy with that blog’s publisher.  This could lead to them posting about your site or sending you shoutouts.  These posts aren’t NO FOLLOWED and yield some nice link juice.  Even if the target blog has little backlink value (in the case of John Chow’s site due to his issues with Google), the direct traffic he can bring your way based on a recommendation or shoutout has tremendous value.  Moreover, it establishes credibility with the blog’s other readers which you can leverage in linkexchange solicitations with their sites.

The downside to blogging for conversations/authority is that it takes time and the payoff–getting an ‘in post’ mention is not guaranteed.  It also takes some valuable time from your other daily linkbuilding tasks.  Here’s some tips that might make your authority commenting more efficient:

  • Choose no follow blogs that either have high traffic, high page rank, or both
  • Choose blogs that you can participate in easily and add high value comments to
  • Choose blogs where the owner has made shoutouts or linkouts to commenters in the past.
  • Choose blogs that are highly ‘personality-driven’ and the blog owner seems highly accessible
  • Be prepared to run a marathon and not a sprint
  • Always “recycle” your comments by using them as “seeds” for longer and more detailed entries on your own blog

Commenting for authority is not a slam dunk but the payoffs can be very nice.  Keep on keeping on!  The surest way to lose in any venture is to give up.

Photo credits: Lumaxart

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High Revenue Admin 7 May 2009 linkbuilding techniques, social network marketing , , No Comments

Third Party Free Site Link Building

backlink building techniquesOne of the older and still effective methods used in building backlinks to a central site is to build a network of sites hosted off free sites and free blog networks.  The effectiveness of this method revolves around the following:

  • Keyword/subkeyword structure / keyword choice
  • Quality original content that is actually useful
  • Semi-targeted link building
  • Quality focus on actual readers not just Googlebot/SE Spiders

Creating Network link building support sites/pages

Step #1:  Find your support keywords and Set up the sites

Get a raw dump of your target niche keywords
Segregate your target keywords from your “support” keywords
Manually create a site from each of the free blog/free page sites below
Customize each site (as much as allowed by the sites/networks).  Each site must look different from the others in your network
Each site must target a separate “support” keyword
The site must not have an SEO “spammy” name of KEYWORD | KEYWORD or just “KEYWORD”.  It should be a real name like KEYWORD journal or “My KEYWORD Journal”

Step #2:  Create Quality Original Content for your backlink site network

List out your sites and the subkeywords that each site focuses on.  This listing can roughly look like this:
Site URL – Site Name (with keyword) – subkeyword 1 / subkeyword 2 / subkeyword 3  / etc.  Brainstorm and write actual useful and informative blog entries based on your keywords.  If you’re running out of ideas, try entering your keywords here and get pages upon pages of questions.  Take out duplicate questions.  Create outlines for each question.  The article should then “write itself.”  If you’re still stumped or don’t have the time to create useful, high quality, original content, try using bulk content copywriting services at mere pennies per word.

Avoid “spam” saturation.  For every entry that has the keyword in the title, mix things up with related articles that don’t have keywords in the title.  The blogs/pages must have a “natural” mix of content.

Our most important tip: Write these sites like you would for a visitor of your main site.  This content must be REAL.  They must be actually useful/entertaining to human readers.  They can’t just be rethreaded/rehashed/software-spun garbage.  If you stuff these sites with garbage, search engines will probably treat them the same way.

Fatal mistake: Do NOT put links to your target site or adsense/affiliate links just yet.  There will be plenty of time for that later.  Don’t get greedy at this stage and screw up your chances with the next step.

Step #3:  Create backlinks by networking with other free site/free blog network members

Categorize your support site/blog and find members of the free site/free blog network member you’re on and ask them for blogroll link exchanges.  Find people that are in the same category as you.  If you used original and useful content, your chances of establishing solid relationships increases.  Make sure your sites are “clean”–no ads, no spam content.  The more credible your content is, the higher the likelihood you’ll get backlinks from other blogs in your network.

No straight link exchange:  If A is your site and B is another person’s site, do not arrange an A < > B link exchange.  What this means is that site A links to B and B links to A.  Search engines won’t give this link exchange much weight (unless you do one crucial thing but we’ll discuss that in a future post).

Use 3 way link exchanges instead.  Since you have quite a few pages/blogs set up on many free blog/site networks, arrange linking among these properties.  So instead of A < > B, the structure should be: A > B > C.  You own A and C.  The partner owns B.  You link to B from A and he/she links to C.  Map out your link relationships.  Make sure to avoid any < >.

Step #4:  Age your network a bit before linking to your central site

Age your network.  After you build them in a ‘natural’ manner–ie., staggered creation dates, random pattern of creation, and link building/networking frequency.  After a few months, slowly–repeat–slowly start linking them using subkeywords to your main site.

Here’s the list of sites frequently used by webmasters for third party free site link building.  We have filtered them by PAGE RANK and DO FOLLOW.  Note:  We couldn’t do follow test them a couple.

blogates.com
PageRank: 6/10
(NOT DO FOLLOW TESTED)

bravenet.com
PageRank: 8/10
(NOT DO FOLLOW TESTED)

spaces.live.com
PageRank: 7/10

110mb.com
PageRank: 6/10

aeonity.com
PageRank: 5/10

blog.com
PageRank: 6/10

blogdrive.com
PageRank: 6/10

blogger.com
PageRank: 8/10

bloghi.com
PageRank: 4/10

blogr.com
PageRank: 4/10

blogskinny.com
PageRank: 5/10

blogsome.com
PageRank: 7/10

blogspirit.com
PageRank: 6/10

blogster.com
PageRank: 3/10

blogtext.org
PageRank: 4/10

blogvis.com
PageRank: 4/10

clearblogs.com
PageRank: 5/10

eblogus.com
PageRank: 4/10

flixya.com
PageRank: 5/10

homeschoolblogger.com
PageRank: 5/10

livejournal.com
PageRank: 8/10

myblogsite.com
PageRank: 4/10

Thoughts.com
PageRank: 5/10
(NOT DO FOLLOW TESTED)

vox.com
PageRank: 7/10

weebly.com
PageRank: 7/10

wordpress.com
PageRank: 9/10

blogomonster.com
PageRank: 4/10

tumblr.com
PageRank: 7/10

Parting Words

Focus on handbuilt sites win over automated sites
Quality over quantity
Focus on quality content
Leverage your network relationships to create long lasting mutual value

Photo Credits:  LumaxArt.Com

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High Revenue Admin 6 May 2009 linkbuilding techniques , , , 1 Comment

Building backlinks through responsible blog comments

effective link buildingThere’s tons of “explode your traffic” or “become an SEO god” craptastic tools and craptacular “services” out there.  Don’t believe the hype.  Spamming the same garbage text will get you to the top alright–the top of Akismet’s ban list.  LOLz.  The fact is Google loves content.  Real content.  Not crap.  And definitely not spam.  Here’s some responsible blog comment strategies to employ:

Find relevant blogs to comment on.  Find blogs that are specific to your niche/category.  There’s a big difference between a sports blog that mentions an immigration topic ONCE and an immigration attorney’s blog that is focused on all aspects of immigration.  If the site you wish to promote is about immigration, find blogs that fit in the latter example.

Use your real name then your keyword. If the blog allows it, use your real name and the key phrase you are trying to optimize for since “names” like “I sale Cheap Viagra” probably will head straight to the Akismet spam kill file.  Use something like this (no quotation marks, of course):  “John Smith – KEYPHRASE”   You’d be surprised how many blogs are cool with that as long as you post quality comments.

Post REAL comments. Real comments impart REAL information and concern.  They aren’t one smiley posts or “You’re right” type of posts.  Here’s a surefire way to come up with a quality blog comment in the least amount of writing/thinking time:

READ the entry your are going to comment on.  I can’t emphasize this enough.  If you want backlink goodies, be smart and kind enough to “give back” by taking the time to effectively read the entry you want a backlink from.  Quote parts of the entry you are commenting on.  Comment after each quote.  Summarize your comments into a short sentence.  Comments must refer to the part being commented and ask a question or offer an interpretation.

This style of commenting is REAL because it engages the blogger and shows an appreciation for his/her work.  Move the discussion forward.  Inspire the blogger to follow up on his/her post by referencing your comment.  Try it.  Conversations work the best in blog-based link building.

Most importantly, posting REAL comments are your best way to circumvent the #1 hurdle to building backlinks through blog comments:  the dreaded NO FOLLOW tag.  Even if the blog you are commenting on is NO FOLLOW, if the blogger engages you in a conversation and is inspired to BLOG ABOUT YOUR COMMENTS and INSIGHTS, you get the holy grail of blog-based link building–in comment backlinks.  So keep at it.  Of course, this takes time so choose your battles carefully.

Choose your battles carefully–find DO FOLLOW blogs to comment on.  Notwithstanding the discussion above, there’s only so many hours per day and there’s only so many hours you want to spend building backlinks.  Use DO FOLLOW blog directories that list out do follow blogs.  Try using do follow blog directories that list the blogs based on categories.  Here’s a few of them:

Choose your battles carefully–comment only on blogs that have PR.  Comment only on blogs that have Page Rank on their main page.  Writing a Quality comment takes some brain power and time.  Don’t waste it by posting on a category related, do follow blog that has no page rank.  Again, notwithstanding the discussion regarding ‘crebility based’ link building, choose only blogs with PR so you can maximize your time.  Use this page rank checking tool or install the page rank autodetector plugin if you have Firefox installed.

The bottomline is that building backlinks through quality and responsible commenting yields SEO gold.  But remember to pan for search engine gold wisely and responsibly.

Photo credit:  ArtemFinland

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High Revenue Admin 4 May 2009 linkbuilding techniques , 8 Comments
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