I generally do not do too much affiliate promotion on the blog here, but when there is an offer that I use that saves our readers money I am all over it. Why not share it? Just as I once promoted the Microsoft adCenter coupon (which has since went away) I am glad to have come across another sweet promotional code – this time for Business.com directory inclusions.

Google Approved Links

In 2009 there are few places where you can buy links without making a Google engineer frown. The Yahoo! Directory, BOTW, and Business.com are 3 of the most trusted web directories that have rigorous enough editorial policies which Google likes. They have been around a long time and Google trusts them.

For our community members I scored a Business.com coupon about a year ago, and surprisingly, Business.com just recently got on CJ offering public discount codes. I have not yet bought any of their PPC product, but I have been a BIG buyer of their directory listings…we literally have dozens of them! It is part of our SEO process for the sites we care about most and really invest in.

So if you have not yet submitted to Business.com, now might be a good time to submit your site while this coupon is still available publicly. This link is a great link, especially for new websites and websites that have not yet reached the top of the search results. And for larger businesses you can also submit key deep links as well.

$50 Directory Listing Coupon

To save $50 off Business.com directory listings click the following link.

$100 in Free PPC Clicks

Business.com also offers a $100 promo code for webmasters looking to buy traffic through their PPC program. You can click the following link for that promo

The following is a guest post by Ari Ozick, a member of our SEO Community who frequently shares great insights.

The above graph is based on an intensive questionnaire of over 2500 world class SEOs, including freelancers, in-house corporate types and SEO entrepreneurs. In the questionnaire, I asked one simple question – what is the most profitable activity in your business. The results are in, and as the graph clearly shows, Twittering away the day is by far the most profitable activity for most SEOs. Apparently there is more money to be made on twitter then there is in link building and out ranking the competition.

Obviously (I hope), I’m lying. I didn’t conduct any survey. I just made up the graph with Smart Draw. In fact, if I had to guess, I imagine the most profitable activities for companies would be conversion optimization, link building, and public relations.

Here’s the thing, though: I don’t have to guess about any of these answers for my business. I know. If you’re guessing or following other people’s advice on pretty charts (even if it’s backed up by third party expert opinions), then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Let me show you how, with a little change in thinking and how you approach business, you can make a lot more money out of what you do, everyday.

Most SEO Blogs have an Agenda

Aaron recently mentioned that there are over 5,000 SEO blogs out there today. A lot of people read the more popular SEO blogs as if they were the Gospel itself. What most of them don’t realize, or don’t want to realize, is that almost all of these blogs have one of a few agendas:

• To promote the business running the blog so they can get more clients
• To promote the blogger as an SEO expert so he can get more clients.
• To get lots of links, so that they can rank for [SEO] and, you got it, get more clients and sell advertising

Granted, there are a few exceptions. The bottom line is, however, that most of these blogs are fundamentally aimed at increasing their readership, their clients, and their reputation. That means that the information they offer is less aimed at being fundamentally useful, and more about furthering their goals. It very rarely is about providing concrete, useful tips that will lead to a direct increase in your ROI.

Don’t Believe Anything Anybody says

Often, someone will come to me and tell me that they’ve stopped writing content, or that they don’t want any reciprocal links, or that they don’t want to be listed on site X. Then I ask them why. Invariably, the answer I get is “I read it on a blog” or “It was on a forum”, or “I saw it on Twitter”. You need to make a business decision based on data, not on what something written somewhere on some forgotten piece of the internet.

Different sites will also have different focuses that provide higher ROI. E-Commerce stores may put more focus on optimizing for conversions from existing traffic, while sites like blogs and forums that sell advertising on a CPM or flat rate model will optimize for higher traffic – link baiting and public relations. Niche Adsense publishers and others operating on the longer tail of search will look to create volume quality content and build links in a more focused manner, sending link juice to the pages that need it most.

Data is King

The only way to make a decision is by looking at data gathered and seeing if the data provides you with enough information to make an informed decision. I think Diorex said it best:

I will share with you the same answer that my employees get.

“Do you have any data?” The answer is usually “No”, or they would not have asked the question.

To which I respond “Well why don’t you run a test and get some data.” Once a test has been run, they no longer ask my opinion because they now have an answer (good or bad, testing will give an answer)

I have said it before and will probably say it again, buying data in the form of testing is the best investment you can make in your business. It is not cheap, which is what scares most would be internet marketers away.

Getting the Data

So Data is what helps make informed decisions. How do you get the data? If you’re doing anything PPC/CPM based, you just need to start running a test campaign and use that data to scale, or alternatively shut down the project before you lose too much money.

SEO is a bit different – no two web sites have the same link profile, and minor differences can lead to very different results in terms of how certain types of links and on page changes will effect changes in search results. That being said, it’s best to have a secondary group of sites so you can measure the effectiveness of different link building methods, without endangering your profitable, money making sites.

Ideally you also need to have a good idea of the link graph in the verticals you work in, and an idea of what competitors are trying to accomplish. To that end, I highly recommend Majestic SEO and SEM Rush (I’m a happy customer, nothing more). There’s nothing like having fairly accurate data without being at the complete mercy of a search engine. It’s a liberating feeling.

What Data Has Taught Me

Data has taught me that what works for one site doesn’t necessarily work for another site. Strong sites with aged links have consistently performed better when they receive low quality links, while newer sites have languished until they received some better links.

In one test, we sent low quality links to an aged authority site in a competitive niche. These are links that are probably not your top priority on your link building list, and certainly not given the time of day on most SEO blogs, yet we saw a definite increase in rankings on competitive terms. In the vertical we had a newer, less linked to site – there was absolutely no movement in either direction for that site. Our testing on authority sites has shown us that you can send almost any type of link and get some benefit, either in rankings boost on a specific keyword or a larger net for long tail keywords. Yet if you tried to rank a new site using the same tactics that clearly work on an old, trusted crusty site, there’s a very good chance the new site would at the very least be filtered, and at the top end of the spectrum be penalized. Of course, defining what is an authority site is another issue – I suggest you go out and test what exactly is an authority site, and reach your own conclusions.

The Bottom Line

You need to be actively running tests and making efforts to build your business and your sites. The only data that you should trust is your own. While it’s good to have an idea of what’s going on in the larger SEO community, what really matters is your rankings. Everything else is, and should remain, secondary.

Ari Ozick is CEO of Wired Rhino and occasionally blogs at AriOzick.com. He would love any constructive feedback or questions you have, either in the comments or direct via email: first name @ wiredrhino.com

Last week Jake wrote an awesome post about leveraging relationships for link building and it got me thinking.  Seeing that I am a hermit who lives in front of the computer, how the heck do I build links without those daily “real-life” relationships?  Well, believe it or not, I do actively build links with relationships without meeting people in the flesh and wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for doing this across my social media networks.

The main thing to remember is that if you are helpful and can provide value to someone else, it is basically a virtual handshake and a way to fire up your virtual relationship.  Simple things like a vote, comment, retweet or even just praise can strengthen your relationship.  Here are a few things to do to meet people in Social Media, and turn them into friends (who can help you build links).

Make it Easy for People to Contact You

Put your instant messaging name up on all of your social profiles so that you can connect.  Internal messaging on many social sites is lackluster, and getting someone’s IM name can allow you to get in touch when you need to.  A few tips for messaging would be to create a separate account for your “public IM name” so you won’t overload your personal account with voting/favor requests.  Also, create an account on all of the main messaging platforms.  Many people prefer using Gmail over AIM, or Yahoo! over Gmail, so set it all up and use a service like digsby or pidgin to neatly manage it.

Many times you can instantly help your friends by giving votes which will go a long way when you need a favor.  People who are asking for votes/re-tweets/comments probably have a website that they are promoting – and guess what?  If you have a good relationship, you now have a friend on IM that you can use if you are looking for a link!

Allow People to Easily Find You

So now we see the power of people who are actively promoting social media content, and how targeted they can be for links.  To expand your networks, make it simple for people to find you across all social networks.  Place your Digg profile link in your StumbleUpon profile description, and include your Twitter account in your Digg profile.  The more places where people can find you, the more relationships you are going to build.  Also, having the ability to help people across multiple sites will just add to your cause when asking for a link.

Act Like You Would in Real Life

When a person finds your IM name from a social network, many times they “say hi” by sending you a link in which you should vote on.  This is one of the things that amazes me on a daily basis.  I rarely meet any people who try to get something from me without even saying hello.  When contacting people, you should try to really connect with them.  Say you met someone from StumbleUpon, subscribe to their favorites and let them know when you really liked a story that they found.  Find out where they live, what their name is, see what they like; basically, you should act like a human to them and you will work your way to a real relationship!  The more information you have on someone, the more you can help them, and in turn, the more you can ask from them.

All-in-all, while I might not have as many “real life” relationships as Jake, I have found ways to acquire links while using social media and building my networks.  To me, the biggest benefit of these virtual relationships is that the people you will meet will have a high probability of having a website where they could link to you,  and you can easily help them to start a positive relationship.  So even if you don’t have a wealth of personal connections offline, don’t fret!  These tips should hopefully help you reach your link building goals!

Digg made a change to their site today, adding the no-follow attribute to all external links until they felt sure the link was safe.
They also issued a statement about the change on their blog and even went as far as to speak directly to SEOs, saying they would indeed lose some of the authority they [...]



[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Link Buying – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• Learning and Laughing in SEO – Growth for Education and Humor Sites
• Unlocking Google’s Vince Update – Related Searches Now Driven by User Data
• Social Media Marketing Continues to Grow In Popularity – Increased Awareness of Social Media
• Words that Should Be the Cornerstone of Every Corporate Social Media Policy – Are Your Employees Freewheeling Around Social Sites?

Link development is tough. Not everyone can create amazing linkbait, as easy as the experts make it sound. It’s not an easy proposition to get people to link to your website if you’re a local realtor, mortgage broker, or holistic doctor for that matter. It is POSSIBLE though with the right approach to actually solicit and develop links that will help your search engine rankings. From LOTS of trial and error, here’s the process I’ve developed for training link developers to become true link ninjas that will hunt and pursue links that actually make a site rank high for targeted terms.

The updated "How to Train a Link Developer for 2009 Guide"

Teach them why links are important and the basic criteria for establishing their value

1. Overall value of the link theme (use cost per click as a rough metric)
2. Total links
3. Total unique linking domains (find with linkharvester)
4. Anchor text and surrounding text variables
5. Placement on page
6. Check Age (Archive.org)
7. More link value factors

Explain the contradiction of pagerank mattering

1. It is a quick indicator to dismiss low value websites
2. Toolbar pagerank is for entertainment purposes only, and can be spoofed
3. Finding high pagerank (or global link popularity) sites is a great starting point to finding authority links

Show them how to find good starting points
(and WHY this is important)

1. google directory (sorted by PR)
2. keyword combination tool
3. creative queries (soloseo link tool)
4. Competitor backlinks

Explain how to find contact information

1. Page search for name or webmaster
2. Whois.sc or other whois tool
3. Phone number search
4. People search

Explain how to search source code and within the browser to find things quickly on a page

1. Firefox – control+U to view source
2. Control+F to find text
3. Find text on the actual page
4. Open tabs with shift+click or other methods
5. Mouse gestures FF plugin

Explain the 12 different types of links

1. Order of importance
2. How to get each
3. How much time to spend on each type
4. Links is to SEO’s what Snow is to Eskimos.

Explain how to write contact emails (see pickup tips below for more)

1. Explain how to write converting titles to improve open rate
2. Explain how to write an link request

Write some descriptions and anchor text

1. Explain getting content for article links
2. Explain writing titles and description
3. Explain varying anchor text
4. Explain current keyword strategy
5. Co-citation techniques

Demonstrate how to negotiate

1. anchor text or alt text
2. type of link
3. rates
4. term
5. exclusivity

Explain how to tell if a webmaster is cheating or if a site sucks

1. Non-cached pages
2. Linkfarm pages
3. Sneaky redirects
4. Robots.txt
5. Nofollow
6. Buried links pages

Let them go out and get some links

1. Setup a paypal account with limited access
2. Setup a one time credit card with a limited amount
3. Have them verify purchases

Allow tool use for link development

1. Link Harvester
2. Linkscape
3. Hubfinder
4. Local Rank tool in SEObook community
5. Majestic SEO
6. Link Management tools (like Raven SEO Tools, or BuzzStream)
7. FF Quick Searches
8. Other tools?

Explain how to mine a competitors backlinks

1. Linkscape
2. Link Harvester
3. Yahoo Site Explorer
4. Quirk Search Status plugin for FF
5. Hubfinder (in SEObook community, and a few legacy versions)

Start a persona for your website

1. Real or psuedonym (real are much more credible)
2. Be consistent across websites (and interlink within reason)
3. Have picture and bios
4. Make sure you own your brand (in addition to generic personas)- Secure with KnowEm

Explain they are a brand advocate, and their actions represent the company

1. Similar to business development
2. Establish phone etiquette
3. Establish email and IM etiquette rules

How Link Building for SEO is Like Picking Up a Girl

Approach **

1. Learn to get a response (of any type) from a target
2. Use Twitter, IM, Email, Facebook, or any other communication method
3. Overcome approach anxiety and approach sites early and often

Transition

1. Discuss webmastering
2. Discuss content of a similar nature
3. Mention the website you are associated with

Attraction

1. Demonstrate value as a webmaster
2. Demonstrate value as a web user
3. Demonstrate value to the webmaster’s users

Qualification

1. Allow the opportunity to have a webmaster help you in return (ask intelligent questions)
2. Find attractive opportunities to work together (perhaps brainstorming ideas or content trading)

Comfort

1. Discussing opportunities to work together through trading links
2. Discussing advertising opportunities

Seduction

1. Discussing anchor text and surrounding text
2. Discussing ad placement and terms

Relationship

1. Discussing the duration of the contract
2. Discussing renewal terms of the contract
3. Discussing mutual arrangements of the contract
4. Make sure there are no lies (nofollow, robots.txt, javascript redirects)

**Numbered points are from the "Emotional Progression Model"

For more on information on SEO and link development training, check out MarketMotive, or let me know if you need something more custom.

Inspiration:

• Emotional Progression Model
• Original Link Development Training Post
• Link Popularity is like high school popularity

Additional Resources:

• @NinjaJen’s version of Art of getting a link and picking up women
• Advanced Linkbuilding in 2009 from Christoph
• Linkbuilding A-Z
• Big bunch of link dev ideas
• 11 Link Experts Speak Out
• Old Link Hunting tips

Anything I missed? Great Tips? Great Tools? Great Links about Links? Leave ‘em in the comments.

• Link Buying – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• Learning and Laughing in SEO – Growth for Education and Humor Sites
• Unlocking Google’s Vince Update – Related Searches Now Driven by User Data
• Social Media Marketing Continues to Grow In Popularity – Increased Awareness of Social Media
• Words that Should Be the Cornerstone of Every Corporate Social Media Policy – Are Your Employees Freewheeling Around Social Sites?

• The Reciprocity Link Building Method – 404 Link Building Technique in Reverse
• Can Google be a Social Search Engine? – A Look at Implicit Feedback and Beyond
• BBC pays Google to Improve Search Ranking – Financing Search Rankings with Marketing Funds
• Changing URLs – Does the Ownership of Redirected URLs Matter to Search Engines?
• 3 Ways to Search Without SERPs – Save Time, Work More