How Has The Recession Affected Your Part 2

December 11, 2009

How has the recession affected you? With that in mind I will get things started. I realized about this time (December 2008) that our biggest contract was expiring and that it would not likely be renewing. I had gotten caught up in the economic crises and the election. I was rarely blogging and was paralyzed by the lack of business inquiries. I knew the gravy train was ending and I had to do something to stir-up interest. This contract covered 70 % of our business. We were very grateful to have it, but now we were running on empty.

That’s when I decided to too do a link building promotion that I would call the 109 Link Building Explosion. For 109 days I would do short review a combination of 5 blogs, forums, or social media sites that provided Do Follow Links. This program caused traffic to soar more than 300%. This increase wasn’t paying the bills. However, visiting all of these sites did provide some much needed business.

A comment that I placed on a blog was read by someone who liked it and followed the link to my site. That lead and inquiry. That inquiry ends up leading to the biggest project (by pages) that I have ever completed. I had discovered that it really does pay to leave quality comments.

This became an epiphany for me. This inspired the link building program that I call Scratch My Back Marketing. It involves leaving quality comments or content on sites that allow you to acquire Do Follow links. You give them something of value and they return the favor. It also involves treating link building a if it where a branding, marketing, or advertising adventure.

This however, may be the biggest advantage of taking on this financial challenge that required me to drum up business in the bleakest economy that I have ever known. It keep me so busy doing the research and writing that I didn’t seem to have time to worry. I averaged about 4 hours of work on each post.

The research also allowed me to fine tune my link building efforts into a well oiled machine. I was really getting into exploring these sites most I which I was visiting for the very first time. I was discovering thousands of social media sites that were Do Follow and new to me.

I know that leaving quality comments or content would require more time to implement. So I began a process of refining my link building processes. I would compensate for the extra time that quality requires by working smarter. It was a series of small improvement that would end up having a huge impact. These new resources meant establishing dozens of new social media profiles daily.

After the link building program ended I found that I now had a lot of free time since the reviews didn’t require  my attention. It was then that my full attention was placed on becoming one the most skilled manual link builders around. I am not a known “guru” in my industry and I don’t speak at conventions. So I don’t get the flux of links that are associated with these speaking gigs. No, I have to earn links everyday.

The point here is that when backed into a business corner I was able to come up with a plan for promoting this business. In the process of executing this plan I became an expert, a guru of sorts on link building. I am not a master linkbaiter. In this department I’m batting 50/50. I tried 4 linkbait projects for this blog and only two have been successful.

I am not the worlds most organized guy but I have learned to overcome this weakness when it comes link building. I currently have seven different link building efforts open at this time. I will work one until I meet my goal for that day or till I get bored and then there are the client’s projects. I never lack for things to do.

I simply could not accomplish this without being organized and using the right tools for the job. My password manager RoboForm makes this all possible for me. It stores all of my logins and contact information. So the site registration process usually requires only that I properly execute the capthca’s. properly That is the part that really slows me down. I get these things wrong everyday.

I will usually will begin a project by opening 3 to 5 websites at once. Yes, I am talking link building on steroids. Social Media sites are generally graphic intensive and very busy. This causes the user to wait, and wait, and wait. I just end up moving rapidly from one task to another so I don’t have to wait. While one site is working on my logins I move to another site. I do this all day everyday. I call it maximizing my efforts or ROI. Because I can move seamlessly from one site to the next I generate large time savings. These minutes saved allow me to practice Scratch My Back Marketing. It also helps to have hundreds of blogs posts that can easily be rewritten and used.

My business crises forced me to hone my skills and to get organized. When the 109 Link Building Explosion ended the site was ranking on the first page of Google 31 times for our target keyword phrases. That number now exceeds 80. This transformation has occurred in less than 4 months. I guess that explains why Tucson SEO ranks # 1 for backlinks building services. People were not calling for SEO services but they are still interested in link building. That why I started the Do Follow Websites so I could generate some income. It hasn’t been the biggest success but every sale helps 9 bucks at a time.

Many of these keyword phrases are not very competitive and that’s ok with me. I have always preferred to be a big fish in a small pond. If this success can be sustained I believe we will be well positioned when the economy bounces back. I never intended to become a link building expert, but I was and am highly motivated. It just kinda happened. I believe part of my success is simply that the economic stresses have gotten to many of my competitors. When you are in a survival mode it is easy to forget what got you where you were.

I hope that if we can retain our # 1 ranking for Local SEO Services, Local Internet Marketing Services, and Backlinks Building Services then I believe we will be in a solid position to obtain new business. I like our prospects a whole lot better this year than at the end of 08.

In my world I have reason to hope because lately with the serious illness of my Geri… Hope is all we had…And I (we) are hoping for a better 2010. Everyday is a new adventure as Geri learns to live with an to adapt to a chronic illness. I have to do much more on the home front and I’m very much OK with that. I came way to close to losing her to give up now.

Sometimes hope and faith is all we have.

What about you? What’s your inspiring tale or two. I really would like to hear from my readers, those few great visitors who actually read this blog.

That’s my story… For now!

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.

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

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

Local SEO Services Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO -Search Engine Optimization Niche SEO Solutions

Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions Affordable Tucson Website Designs

Ethical BackLinks Building Services Local Internet Website Marketing Services Phoenix Niche SEO

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 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!

Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.