I have read a lot of lists of ways to build links. Most of the ways have not worked well for me or just did not apply to my websites. However, I have tried a lot of different methods, and I will tell you some methods that have worked well for me.

Article Marketing – Basically, article marketing means you write articles and submit them to article directories. With the articles, you include an “about the author” section with a link or two back to your website. This can also be a good way to get traffic directly, especially if your articles get picked up and republished on a popular website or ezine. The disadvantage is that search engines will not value the links that much if the content is not unique. In other words, it does not help much to publish the same article to multiple directories.

Forum Posting – Most forums will allow you to have a signature, in which you can put a link to your website. Most of the forums do not add nofollow to the link, but some do, so you may want to check that. The trick to forum posting is to make high quality posts. Be helpful and informative. If people like your posts, then they will be much more likely to check your signature link.

Blog Commenting – Almost all blogs put nofollow in their comment links, so the links do not have much direct SEO value. However, if you subscribe to relevant blogs, you can read there posts and regularly post helpful comments. By doing that, you can build relationships with the bloggers, and the bloggers may post about your website or add a link to it in their blogroll.

Great Content – The number one way to get links is to have great content on your website. If you have great content, people will decide to link to you on their own. If you have bad content, then you will find it very difficult to build links. If you have a video site, you need to post great videos. If you have a website with jokes, then you need to have lots of great, very funny jokes. If you have a website providing information about a certain topic, then you need to provide lots of helpful information about it. Basically, if you have great content, your website will promote itself.

Those are just some ways that have worked for me. Feel free to experiment with other link building methods too.

Link Building Tips from My Experience

No more! After four years, indices merged, and now once again, Google calls upon its entire database to match queries with pertinent listings. Sounds good, yet after initially rejoicing, you may wonder how will the merging of the two indices affect your pages SERP (Search Engine Results Page) now that the competition has risen from the ashes, adding billions more pages? Perhaps Google doesn’t love us, after all. Probably so!

First and foremost, Google loves its’ users. Users comprise of businesses, students, shoppers, and families. They connect to the Internet via devices, and it is probably safe to say that 5.6k modems are becoming more of a novelty. Today, most users connect via high speed cable, satellite, and using mobile devices. They drive powerful machines (desktops, laptops) with plenty of RAM (Random Access Memory) and storage, measured in gigabytes. They interact with peers in real time and add their own content to the web with video, blogs, posts, music, and photos. They individually and collectively contribute to a moldable active web rather than staring at a static one.

Reason enough to challenge Google’s ever evolving new services, gadgets, and open source projects etc. Yes, even Google needs to expand and fine tune its services all the time. That’s why I am not surprised that Google terminated the superfluous index in favor to its entire database, enabling to collect and compare a world of information rather than just a sliver of it.

Now let’s get to the question of how Google’s powerful new search capability affects web pages. I say, aside from eliminating the stigma of the supplemental index, not much has changed. Proportions have changed, that’s all – more pages more results. The good news is, RSS feeds don’t get indexed any longer, reducing duplicate content automatically for your websites or blogs. Yet as before, good pages will make it to the top of the Google index; others may end up on the SERP #365,000 or so. In summary, the problems that sunk pages into the supplemental index or hell, so to speak, still remain. Although, those low ranking pages are once again in the system, making it much easier for the webmaster to get them back on track to Google’s first page.

Oh well, wouldn’t you rather deal with the competition than trying to rescue pages out of a sand box never knowing all the little secrets on why they have gotten there in the first place? I would! What do you think?

For good Google SERPs do the following:

• Keyword/keyword phrase research
• Include keyword/phrase in title

Avoid duplicate content:

• Publish original content

• Redirect http://site.com – to http://www.site.com (* see WP plugIn)

• Edit robots.txt file to pages you don’t want spidered and indexed (admin or about pages)

Google Webmaster Central Blog

Duplicate Content Url Issue

Redirect WP plugIn

All In One SEO pack

Google Supplemental Index Re-visited

Using that image, let’s ask some questions: How acceptable is social marketing within online communities? Are these grounds solely the turf of the Big Players, competing for ad space on such high volume traffic sites? In which capacity can we, the work-from-home marketers, feel comfortable among the folks to whom we address ourselves, services, or products?

The answers to all of these questions are for you, the aspiring social marketer, to judge as you read on…

Let’s start by briefly looking to the past, not only to see how this style of marketing came about, but also for some inspiration.

First, a marketer would not be a marketer if it could not be done. It has always been part of our job- nay, our blood- to take risks! We started by knocking on doors. Bravely going from home to home, undauntingly facing rejection, happily making connections, all on a person to person, one by one basis. Back then no one ever heard of Seth Godin’s “Permission Marketing,” yet it was already well practiced, with doors being opened or slammed shut – whether the vacuum cleaner was or was not needed. Later, we armed ourselves with discounts and incentives, thus giving us more tools, besides a cleanly shaven face and charm, with which to pry and keep doors open.

The advent of the internet created a whole new means of reaching people. It was a wide open world for grabs, a whole new neighborhood, and nothing to have to knock on?!?! Then, many marketers brazenly used email and forums to bully themselves through open doors until people finally fought back the “spammers.” Fortunately, permission marketing now is legal standard on the World Wide Web.

Over time, linear discussion groups evolved into large social communities thanks to XML, a website authoring language that interprets data shared in profiles, pictures, music, videos, and blogs, connecting into an intricate interactive world of thought, concern, and interest we love the internet for. Now it’s up to the marketer to craft a message that not only fits seamlessly into the new social networking scene but also rewards their readers as well.

Envision how this happens. I share my images of a gorgeous Jamaican sunset and rave about mouth watering cuisine. Let’s say my post is rich in descriptive content that draws people in, preferably those ready to pack their suit cases. And like in real community life, we meet critics who deem the cuisine poisonous, and hence turn this post into a debate. Now it gets exciting, because as my post touches more and more readers and continually draws commentary, it starts having a life of its own. Some may even add me to their friends list and point still other friends to my Jamaican sunsets, making my post viral exposing it to more and more readers. Most likely, some of those readers will also welcome the affiliate links to the Jamaican Travel Tour Guide, Airplane Tickets and Accommodations, although I’d refrained from hard-selling any of the items. Instead, those links are now appreciated by fellow social networking members as easy-to-access resources.

In my opinion, social marketing is a natural part of the social community’s network entirety. When done in a manner that embraces and honors its readers, rather than trying to fool them, both the marketer and the reader benefit. A free flow of information is what powers social marketing, not good ad copy. In this way, a marketer’s expertise can indeed be of service to others. So it is in this spirit, I say, thumbs up to social marketing! And yes, we have the right to be here.

Now it’s up to you, oh brave door to door minstrel. Are you ready to sing your song in this great big fair? Happy travels, and just remember: The successful social marketer sings their song in harmony with the ebb and flow of the surrounding audience.

Author: Dee Wilson
Web Content Developer
David Bullocks List Building Techniques

Guest Article – Thumbs Down On Social Marketing?