I’ll be doing a show with Cindy Turrietta and the e-marketing talkshow group tomorrow evening if you’d like to check it out. We’ll be talking about “SEO from all sides” - as a vendor, consultant, consumer, and DIY’er. I’ll post links to the podcast if I don’t suck. I talked about links with Todd Sarouhan a while back. The podcasts are now live for download.
I’ve been playing with digg quite a bit lately, and one of the big problems is duplicate story submissions - or power users walking over smaller users by resubmitting the same stories from different sources. In my opinion, it’s only right to give a digg to the person who originally submitted the story - assuming it is the same topic and a reasonable story (I didn’t digg the article that had “AMAZING STORY!!!” in the title today despite it having been submitted an hour earlier than the one I DID digg). So do digg a favor - if you submit a story and SEE those duplicates, don’t say “screw those guys” and submit anyhow. Give a good karmic digg, and keep hunting for another good story. Consider the time as well as the better title - if there’s 5 minutes difference, and the late guy has the better title - I vote that the better title wins. A good title (as all SEO’s know) goes a long ways, but time should generally be the main consideration.
A few digg related links:
Digg Etiquette - DigitalSoap
Social bookmarking etiquette
Digg at Encoclopedia Dramatica
I’m in need of a few copywriters at varying levels of expertise, and figured it would be worth trying a blog post to see who replied. If you or maybe a friend writes content - please drop me a line with examples of your work. Just like everyone, I would like A grade work with discount prices;) - but we can negotiate. If you enjoy copywriting, please drop me a line, and we’ll see if it would be a good fit.
I’m sure I’m not doing all the things on the list, but I’m sure you’re not either. Learn to Launch your blog successfully. There are some fine points in this post. If I have to point them out, you’re not looking hard enough.
21 tips in 6 parts:
The First Impression
RSS & Subscriptions
Social Bookmarking (aka Going Viral)
Getting networked
Link Building
Finishing touches
Nice list of to do’s for new bloggers or those starting new blogs.
Better. Stronger. Faster. It’s important to constantly redefine link training techniques. Understand the full value of links. Simplify the link value technique. After you have the fundamental understanding of placing a value on a link (which you should constantly revisit) - here’s some information to simplify it even further. I knew someday I’d have the opportunity to reference Edward Deming’s quality management ideas from my business school days.
The Quality Management Link Building Cycle
1. Build a list of potential link request sites
I’m making the assumption you know about “link building starting points” - you’ve figured out how to identify potential places to buy, borrow, beg, or barter for links (comptetitor backlinks, google directory, hubfinder, linkharvester etc. etc.) Build a list of potential candidates to audit with the rest of the cycle.
2. Pick a site from the list.
Pick your first site, and start the cycle by clicking on the site.
3. Is it a scraper site?
Yes, it is slathered with ads, and offers no real value - Return to step 2
No - Move to step 3
4. Check their backlinks - Are they legit?
**A lot of additional training time should be spent on this evaluation
1. Yahoo site explorer - handy extension
Yes, their backlinks are mainly on-topic, and there are more than a dozen decent sites linking to them. See step 4.
No, the site is brand new, has no links, or is a part of a ring of mortgage, real estate, or poker sites despite being about baby clothes. Return to step 2.
5. Outbound link evaluation.
Tool - Outbound link bookmarklet -
Installation - drag this to your browser toolbar.
Are there more than 150ish links?
Yes - Back to step 2 buddy
No - Next question
Are the outbound links on-topic?
Yes - Proceed to step 5
No - They’re all payday loans, viagra, and bankruptcy collectors - Back to step 2 chief.
6. Determine the value of the request - How much time is it worth for your e-mail?
Very strong link - take your time these are few and far between, and quite valuable. Do whatever you can to increase the likelyhood of a response, and/or successful link. Offer cash.
Strong link - Spend a little time on the site and personalize the message. Offer a donation.
Good link - Spend time on the site and personalize the message.
‘Meh’ link - You got this far, break out your link request draft and customize it for a quick send.
Send mail -
Back to step 2 buck-o.
Don’t Beat Your Employees
Now - if you’re an employer, please don’t expect your employees can keep up the 3 minute cycle for longer than an hour without jumping out of a 13th story window after a week. Teach them the process and reward smart people who pick it up with flex time - if you don’t, your young grasshopper will be jumping along quite shortly. There’s no shortage of jobs for good link builder/ SEO types at this point.
Let your employees spend A LOT of time reading about links and how to understand them better. The process is mundane, but the success rates improve if they understand the intracacies. Each of the six steps in the process can be studied with a level of detail that Deming would truly appreciate to improve the results of the process.
More recent link advice goodness:
Jim’s link commandments
Rand has a post on the Google algo that’s beautiful in it’s brevity. Don’t miss this one. In fact, print it out and memorize it, and cater all your decisions around it, and you will understand SEO as more than just a process. Rand has simplified his incredible search engine ranking factors paper (which I refer people to probably a dozen times per week). The Google algo IS complex, but there are some parts that are much more important than others. Create a strategy considering these google ranking criteria, and you’ll be well on your way to good rankings. There’s been some other nice discussions on the google algo in the past when part of it DID leak.
My apologies - and thanks to everyone who has written - I’ve managed to kill my comments again with my sub-par developer skills. It’s on the list of to-do’s. I’ll be sure to post when they are back.
