Blogging For Links What You Need To Be Successful Part 2

October 25, 2009

Now, that I have gotten my frustrations off my chest in the previous post, it’s time to get down to business. I will start off by claiming to actually know something about link building. First, I would like to direct you to my post on how well this site ranks for our targeted keyword phrases. As of October 1 we ranked for over 60 keyword phrases. I would especially like to point out that we rank anywhere from #1 to # 5  in Google for the keyword phrase Backlinks Building Services.

Let me make it clear that this was not accomplished by a large staff of link builders it was accomplished by one person. Many of the keyword phrases that I target include highly competitive phrases that include SEO or internet marketing in them. No, building links is not all that I do, but I spend more time on link building and branding than anything else. I also build links 7 days a week.

I should also point out that I no longer build links by using blog commenting on stand alone blogs. I gave it up for several reasons. The main reason was that because I include SEO in my keyword phrase in the name field where allowed. Spam filters were picking it up. I did a case study that only 43% of my blog comments got approved. However, this is not likely to happen to you if you provide useful relevant comments.

A successful blog commenting campaign is all about being prepared and setting goals. I recommend that you analyze your competition and find out who is linking to them. A really good resource is Backlink Watch. All that you need to do is enter your competitors url and hit enter. They will provide you with up to 1,000 backlinks that are going to your competitors. It also may indicate if the link is Do Follow or No Follow.

There are a few other good choices such as Yahoo’s Site Explorer. I just did a search of a professional link builder today that I am very familiar with. Yahoo’s Site Explorer produced 2843 going to her site and Backlink Watch produced around 2700 links. However, each site allows you to only access to the first 1,000. I don’t know yet, if they are both using the same database or different ones. The point is that I now have a huge database from where I can begin the process of link building. I am certain that their will be a lot of overlapping links, but that’s ok.

It is much better to start a link building program where you already know links may be obtained than just doing a Google search for Do Follow blogs. Those lists produced by doing a Google search are so very used and abused that they quickly become obsolete. I should know I have used them all. Blogs that end up on these lists often get sick of all the spammy posts that they switch back to a No Follow status. This problem is only getting worse.

Before you begin a link building program you should set some realistic goals. My personal goal is to acquire 100 links a day. I will not fulfill this goal today, as I have decided that my blog need some more attention. It isn’t important that you meet these goals every day. It is important that you have goals and that you try to fulfill them. It the old saying, if you don’t set goals you will surely not obtain them. The higher the goal, as long as it is realistic, means that you will be more successful than if you set easily achievable goals. The idea here is that 75% of 100 is much better than 75% of 50. I personally find achieving these daily goals very rewarding.

Even if your goal is only 5 links a day it will have a positive effect over time. Link building, to be most effective needs to become a regular part of your marketing plan. Blogs especially, fold on a regular basis or they get tired of all the spam associated with being Do Follow and they return to No Follow. Those links that you had last year may need replacing this year. I just lost a huge amount of links when Ning recently made profile links No Follow. That really hurt as I had way too many eggs in my Ning basket. I will have a hard time replacing them before I run my monthly ranking report on the first of November. It will be very interesting to see how much ground that we have lost.

Now, that you have a huge amount of resources available to you will want to record where you left comments hoping for a link. I would recommend using a password manager program like RoboForm. This is a good option if you had to register to leave a comment. A better choice is creating a spread sheet or a Word document where you list the exact post where and when you made a comment. Then you will want to return to these blogs a week or so later to verify if your comment was approved. If your comment was not approved then there is no reason to return to this blog.

You will also want to pay close attention to see if the blog has a comment policy. If it does, then do take the time to read it. I reject 85 to 90% of all comments left here because the commenters failed to pass our comment policy. I even get people commenting on the comment policy post and doing it wrong! If you want to have an effective link building program you absolutely must follow the comment policies. where you find one.

Finding a Comment Policy on this blog is easy as it appears along side the comment box. That often is not the case on most blogs. Many blogs never bother to write one so what should you do then? I simply observe the comments that are already appearing on the blog if those comments include keywords then it is a good bet that your comment will be approved if you do the same thing. If you only see names it is better to move on as a comment with keyword will not be approved.

It amazes me that all day long people leave comments here and never bother to read the comment policy. They also fail to notice that most comments approved do not include a link. I am a real big fan of doing things that will directly benefit this website. So leaving a comment that isn’t likely to get approved is a big waste of time for me. The difference between leaving a useful comment and a short comment is usually 30 seconds or less. Why not take the time to leave a useful comment?

Also if you take the Scratch My Back Marketing approach and view comments as an advertisement for your site you will find the benefits very rewarding. It really comes down to do unto others as you would have them do to you! This isn’t pie in the sky stuff here. But it does require a certain level of common sense.

After all  if you have gone through the paces to leave a comment why not take a little longer to do it right and be rewarded? I call that win/win marketing?

Our Arizona Services:

Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson – Phoenix

Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Local Internet – Website Marketing Services Tucson

Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services

Scottsdale SEO – Glendale internet Website Marketing Services

Marana – Sierra Vista – Green & Oro Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Nationally we offer the following services:

Detailed Website Review – Audit

Holistic SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Niche SEO – Internet – Website Marketing Services

Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson Phoenix

Geo-Targeted Geo-targeted SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services

Affordable Quality Ethical Links – BackLinks Building Services Training

If your business is located in the US, Tucson, Phoenix, Glendale, Flagstaff, Yuma, Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, or Internet Marketing services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!

Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.

Blogging For Links What You Need To Be Successful

October 24, 2009

I am writing this post from life experience. I work at link building 7 days a week. Yes, that does mean that I am a workaholic and I have a great need to succeed. I do not recommend that you attempt to emulate my work ethic but I have some pearls of wisdom to share today.

My link building methods have been honed over three years. In the beginning I left my share of “nice post” comments. I was being truthful, as I had read the blog post and I agreed that it was a good post. I was looking at this from only my perspective. I needed links and the quicker that I could work the better. In most cases I added to the conversation but not always.

I am not a very good writer and if you have read my blog for a while you already know this. Grammar and spelling are difficult for those who are dyslexic which I am. I had to spell check dyslexic while writing this post. Thus it is very easy for me to make a mistake when leaving a blog post comment, especially if the comment was made when I am tired. Sometimes I come upon my old comments and cringe.

Then in May of 2008 I became a blog owner. I quickly learned what blog commenting behaviors that I liked and that I didn’t. The blog was No Follow for the first 10 months so I approved just about everything. I figured that it didn’t matter because the link was mostly useless. Think about it; when the last time you visit a website of someone who left a “nice post” comment?

Having my own blog taught me that there are good ways to leave comments and there were also not so good ways to leave comments. I now was making a concerted effort to leave a useful comment everywhere I went.

Then the blog became Do Follow in early 2009. This would eventually lead to the link building and marketing program that I call Scratch My Back Marketing.

Since the blog was now providing useful links I began to ask that commenters leave a 20 word comment at the end of each post. I started calling this requirement Scratch My Back Marketing. I expanded on this to make it our way of building links. The basic idea was to create a link building program that focused on link building as a branding and advertising opportunity. I knew from experience that a great relevant comment can lead to business. I also like to multitask so the idea of doing multiple things while link building was a no brainer for me.

That comment length requirement that I asked for was almost 100 % completely ignored. I got frustrated with my commenters after all; I was providing an anchor text Do Follow backlink and was using Comment Luv. I figured this kind of link was worth leaving a good comment. It’s what I would do, but I was wrong. People were only coming to the to comment for a link and they were not willing to work for it. They seldom bothered to even read the post.

That didn’t make me very happy. I even considered going back to No Follow, but I decided to create an anti spam plugin instead that I called Scratch My Back Marketing. It allows the blog owner to set a character threshold on comments before they are allowed a link. On this blog it currently requires a comment of 150 characters in length or the comment is automatically rejected.

The current problem that I am currently addressing is the use of only keywords only in the comment field. I have had comments that were several hundred words in length that were rejected. The blog uses Keyword Luv and it requires that a name be used along with your keywords. Yet, every day the blog receives a dozen or more comments that only use keywords. If the comment is useful and relevant I will use it without providing a link. I have been recording the daily results in the post, It Is Hard To Find A Useful Comment.

So then how do you successfully blog comment for links? That I will get to in Part 2 of this post! I needed to whine before I got to the serious post. This post will appear tomorrow.

Are You ready to be a successful link builder?

Our Arizona Services:

Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson – Phoenix

Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Local Internet – Website Marketing Services Tucson

Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services

Scottsdale SEO – Glendale internet Website Marketing Services

Marana – Sierra Vista – Green & Oro Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Nationally we offer the following services:

Detailed Website Review – Audit

Holistic SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Niche SEO – Internet – Website Marketing Services

Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson Phoenix

Geo-Targeted Geo-targeted SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services

Affordable Quality Ethical Links – BackLinks Building Services Training

If your business is located in the US, Tucson, Phoenix, Glendale, Flagstaff, Yuma, Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, or Internet Marketing services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!

Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.

Ten Reasons Not Too Blog

August 17, 2008

Ten Reasons Not Too Blog

1. Time.
2. No Time.
3. Not Enough Time.
4. Finding The “Write Time.”
5. Takes Way Too Much Time.
6. Developing A Story Demands Your Time.
7. Return On Investment Very Uncertain Over Time.
8. Comment Responding Demands Detailed Attention And More Time.
9. Reading, Writing, And Research Require Copious Amounts Of Time.
10. Trusted And Steady Readers Can Only Be Obtained Over Time.

Do you have the Time?

Our Arizona Services:

Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson – Phoenix

Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Local Internet – Website Marketing Services Tucson

Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services

Scottsdale SEO – Glendale internet Website Marketing Services

Marana – Sierra Vista – Green & Oro Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Nationally we offer the following services:

Detailed Website Review – Audit

Holistic SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Niche SEO – Internet – Website Marketing Services

Local SEO Internet Marketing Services Tucson Phoenix

Geo-Targeted Geo-targeted SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services

Affordable Quality Ethical Links – BackLinks Building Services Training

If your business is located in the US, Tucson, Phoenix, Glendale, Flagstaff, Yuma, Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, or Internet Marketing services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!

Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.

Blogging For Links, Profit, And For Continuing Education

August 14, 2008

It is the opinion of Tucson SEO Solutions that the blog is the single most important marketing tool available. This business was built on the expertise gleaned from scouring the SEO/SEM blogging community.

I often tell the tale of cleaning houses during the day as a one person cleaning service. Then studying SEO and SEM and for 8 to 10 hours a day every day for four straight months. I visited thousands of websites along the way. Back then (18 months ago) when we started website marketing blogging for links was easy, time consuming, but easy. That was before “No Follow’ ruined the legitimate white hat practice of blogging for links.

By the time our house cleaning website launched in January 2007 we had already gathered 1400 industry specific links. We combined the power of these links with our new knowledge of Page Titles, Page Descriptions, Geo-targeted SEO and fresh content into a winning combination.

That website landed on the first page of Google several times over within three days of launching! It has been there ever since. Its eco friendly house cleaning tips blog has been first page ranked for nearly as long.

The blog is essential for providing fresh content for the static website that the search engines crave. A blog, when used frequently can help your website obtain and maintain high search rankings.

When you blog you can:

* Still acquire links
* Learn a whole lot
* Share with others
* Profit in many different ways
* Obtain and maintain high search ranking
* And maybe even have some fun!

We simply would not be here today, if it where not for blogs. It still blows me away when I visit a website marketing business’ website that doesn’t have a blog. We believe so much in blogs that they are standard issue on every website that we build. We also include training to use the software as an effective marketing tool. We believe a blog is useless if the website owner doesn’t know how to use it effectively.

We simply will not build a website that doesn’t include a blog. We feel that strongly about the subject. It is too powerful a tool to be missing, especially if you have a static website. The blog also provides a vehicle for your customers to interact beyond normal business channels. (We no longer build websites)

Many of website visitors to a service website will be doing research for a future purchase. The blog allows you to educate this group, share your expertise, and experiences. When done properly the blog can communicate a certain level of trust.

Trust is critical when the businesses service requires coming to or entering someone’s home. Dependability, reliability, and safety are paramount to this group. Again, the blogs can easily allow you to address different segments of your customer base.

We, often refer to blogs as stages, or sounding boards. If you love what you do your blog readers will easily see this; and the bonds of trust can begin to be established.

The blog also is a great tool when used to create inbound links. That is why we are working on our own “Do Follow Blog Lists.” These lists have turned out to be a great link building tool for us. When we visit SEO/SEM sites to verify their linking status, we leave a comment, pick up a link, and let the owners know that they are on our list.

It still blows me away when I visit SEO sites that haven’t implemented a blog on the own site. But then we clearly understand, that we are here today because others blogged, we read, learned, and applied what we had learned. The rest they say is history.

The only real drawback is that blogs do require a lot of time and attention to be successful.

Here’s some valuable resources:

Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.

Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.

Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.

Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.

Too learn more about our services please check out these links:

Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services

Affordable Quality  BackLinks Building Services Local Internet -  Website Marketing Services

If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!

Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.

Use A Blog As A Newsletter Discussions Forum

June 26, 2008

Today we are going to take a look at using a blog on a business website. A blog is simply an online conversation. It is another channel that can be used to communicate with customers or potential customers.

First we want to suggest that if you are going to create a business blog that it be hosted on your website and not somewhere else. You never want to direct traffic away from your website to a blog hosted elsewhere. There is almost no advantage to a blog that is not on your businesses website.

Many websites include a sign-up form for their newsletter, as part of the design process, which they periodically send out in an email form. This is a very common practice used by coaches, trainers and consultants. The newsletter gets sent out and then the responses begin to trickle in one email at a time. If the newsletter is especially good, interesting or provocative it can generate a fair amount of emails.

The end result is that a collection of separate conversations begins to occur on the same topic but they are not connected to each other. The newsletter owner can end up answering the same or similar questions over and over again.

Our advice is to post your newsletter on your blog and then send it out and include a link or links to your blog. Then ask that the conversation be moved to the blog. One of the advantages of having a blog in combination with a newsletter is that it allows you to address the questions generated by the newsletter quickly. It eliminates answering the same question over and over. It can also stimulate an ongoing discussion between those who have read the newsletter. It can create its own little community interacting on your blog.

This format allows you to expand on your original newsletter concept in more detail. Most newsletters cover multiple topics and each can be given its own blog post and conversation. This process can breathe new life into your newsletter and create a much more powerful marketing tool.

Are you ready to transform your newsletter into a powerful marketing tool?

Here’s some valuable resources:

Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.

Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.

Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.

Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.

Too learn more about our services please check out these links:

Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services

Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services

Affordable Quality  BackLinks Building Services Local Internet -  Website Marketing Services

If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-505-6024, 520-777-6479 or 843-882-7661 Now!

Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.