If you’ve been reading about SEO lately you’ve seen a million things about Author Rank with Google. I love Author Rank because it helps to build your brand since your picture is next to the SERP listing. It can also help you rank blog posts easier as well. Author Rank is also extremely easy to set up. The issue is that Author Rank could actually hurt you at the same time if you’re not aware certain considerations.

Link Farming: If you use Author Rank for all of your sites, especially within the same niche, you have now shown Google that you have a network of relevant sites. You have now shown them that you own these sites and could be using them to gain better rankings. If Google finds this, they can consider it a link farm or manipulative in nature and diminish the value from the links placed within those sites. This is something you definitely want to think about it with respect to Author Rank.

Circles Of Trust: Think about who’s in your circles and if you can trust them. One thing you also do by listing all of your sites in your Google+ account to set up your Author Rank is give them exposure to anyone in your circles. If they know you are successful or think you are, they now have access to all of your listed sites and some of them may try to scrape the content you have written or “scrutinize” your strategies. Not only can this hurt you, but you gave your sites away and may have influenced potential competitors to recognize a unique or profitable niche. Before you add your sites to Google+, think about who is in your circles and if you would be willing to risk your site being scraped, analyzed, etc.

Hurting Your Quality Sites: If you’re not worried about the two considerations listed above, the next thing you should think about is the quality of each of your sites and the content presented on the sites. If you write or post “spammy” articles or blog posts and mix those in with your quality sites, all of the sudden Author Rank may tell Google that although you are an expert in your field and write great content, you may also not be as good as they thought. This could potentially hurt you in the long run as you may not get to rank as well for your quality sites because of the lower quality sites you have in your account or have promoted in the past.

Author Rank is something that is tricky and you really have to consider when you are choosing what sites you want to list. It can definitely benefit you and help to build your brand, but it can also hurt you and your websites as it’s an “identity” platform that’s linked to you personally.

About The Author

Adam Riemer (http://www.adamriemer.me) is an online marketer with over 10 years experience. He’s an Affiliate and runs an Affiliate Management Company the helps companies with their marketing strategies.

Details:

• Duration of Internship: May 28^th (or ASAP) – August 31^st
• Payment: This is a paid internship. Compensation is based on experience.
• Hours: 9-5pm 5 days a week

Responsibilities:

Daily activities for this position will all be a subset of programming.

• Working directly with our development team to create and maintain innovative standalone tools as well as toolsets for multiple industries, occasionally working with an end-client’s website.
• Assist with mapping out projects from scratch, as well as adding features, bug fixes, and streamlining the project from development to production. With our organization there isn’t red tape when trying to get a bug fix out the door, or intentional delays on deployment of code. We think fast, act fast, and deploy even faster.
• Depending on the project, you’ll be working with ActiveRecord, Redis (specifically Resque for job management, but also Redis itself for other various uses), Git (specifically Github), Capistrano, Mechanize, and Typhoeus. Knowledge in each of these is not a requirement, but you must be willing to learn fast.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree preferred (or working toward one).
• A strong knowledge and comfort with Ruby on Rails.
• A general knowledge of PHP.
• A good grasp of MySQL, possibly also working with Redis or Mongo.
• An understanding of Linux servers. Predominantly Ubuntu-based NGINX/Passenger setups.
• Ability to thrive and excel in a fast paced environment.  Reacting under pressure is important.
• Attention to detail. Algorithmically, analytically, structurally, etc.
• The confidence to tackle larger datasets in various forms in terms of parsing & manipulation to produce an end-result.
• The ability to optimize his or her own workflows and routines to boost efficiency.
• Out-of-the-box thinking and creativity is a must.  We’re looking for the best and brightest!

Strong candidates should possess:

• A strong work ethic and a “whatever it takes” attitude.
• Self-motivation and ability to be a self-starter.
• An outgoing, friendly and enthusiastic personality.  Positivity is a must!
• The ability to break down pending tasks into a workflow & follow it with little direction.
• A passion for “all things Internet”.

We’ve set the bar high, can you reach it?  If you are passionate about development, solving complex problems, scaling code beyond what is normally considered the limit and enjoy being part of an energetic team where your contributions are valued and recognized, let’s talk!

If you are interested in learning more about this full-time internship opportunity, please send your resume and cover letter to Melissa Rubin at hr [at] thelinkbuilders[dot]com and we’ll be in touch soon.

The recent changes made by Google’s Panda update over the past year have changed the way many people strategize their SEO campaigns. What people have failed to realize, as pointed out by April’s Baltimore Affiliate Summit speaker Rob Adler, is that many of the changes that must be made to keep Panda away from your site (and destroying rankings!) are on-page related.

The more recent Penguin updates, are another matter – for now we’ll stick to Panda, which was the topic of Baltimore’s April Affiliate Meetup.

The April meetup marked the one-year anniversary of Affiliate Summit Meetups in Baltimore, which included faces who have been to all 12 meetings as well as marketers from Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Canada! These meetups take place on the last Tuesday of every month at the Buy.at offices in Locust Point, Baltimore. They are open to anyone with an interest in affiliate marketing and online marketing in general. The topics change every month and we’re always looking for passionate individuals to join our conversations or volunteer to present.

Rob Adler, President of The Link Builders, discussed with the group the history of the Google Panda updates, how it has evolved, its purpose, and how individuals can prevent their websites from being caught in algorithm crossfires on Google.

Highlights from the presentation included:

1: Panda updates have been modified more than 10 times since it was released publicly in February 2011.

2: Panda (originally named the “Farmer Update”) was thought to be created for the purpose of taking article directory websites such as WikiHow, eHow, etc. off the front pages of SERPs. Google was attempting to make front page results more user-friendly with less in-content ads and a clearer representation of an answer to the search query.

3: Article “farm” sites like eHow did not lose the anticipated SERP positioning, whereas websites such as Ezine Articles lost the majority of of their front page rankings.

As Rob pointed out, Ezine Articles and other sites that were affected by the Panda Update lacked valuable contextual content “above the fold”. The websites that had huge banner ads, multiple ads and little to no content above the fold were penalized by Panda and deemed as lander or “bounce” pages.

These types of pages usually do not answer the users question and simply push the user to another page via an advertisement which may or may not benefit the user.

To prevent your website from falling victim to continued rounds of Panda on-page scrutiny, Rob proposed the following solutions:

- Take down advertisements scrolling across multiple areas of your homepage that are above the fold.

- Change sizes of ad blocks so they are not the typical sizes of banner space dimensions.

- Place valuable contextual content above the fold as well as below that’s relevant to the topic promoted.

- Remove any huge banners/scrollers/widgets, etc. that take up the majority of above the fold real estate.

Thank you to everyone who attended this month’s Meetup, and a big thank you to Rob Adler for his informative rundown of the Panda updates as of April 24th, 2012.

The Serendipity blogging CMS offers a lot more than what meets the eye. A blog interface with no “pages” (by default) might seem basic to some, but in reality Serendipity offers both the casual blogger as well as seasoned veterans an interface that can be optimized aesthetically as well as for search engines.

Let’s start with the basics; going through the major components that any blogger would want customized and demonstrate how Serendipity allows users the ability to update the look and feel of their blog.

Themes

Every blogger (or business!) wants a unique theme for their website to make it apart from other sites. Serendipity publicly offers over 80 templates, over 20 of which appear by default on the “Manage Styles” screen within the interface. Other templates can be found at the Serendipity Templates Download Center and can be searched by tags to find the style and colore theme that you’re looking for.

For the more advanced user, Serendipity offers “Smarty Templates”; templates that offer custom fields, specific plugins and modifiers, and offer options to allow for modification of PHP code. Serendipity is known for its simple and clean PHP code, which makes things easy for beginners but also allows coders and programmers the ability to make complex changes without much difficulty.

Plugins

Serendipity offers users a plugin/repository manager called “Spartacus”. Once downloaded, Spartacus allows users to simply search and manage all external plugins on Serendipity without having to put changes into effect using an FTP. The Spartacus platform was changed and updated in December of 2011.

The Spartacus plugin is still considered an “experimental” plugin, so users might find some difficulties using it, such as slow or unresponsive searches, and directory privilege changes that still might need to be modified manually.

The thing that makes Serendipity blogs so convenient is that many sidebar plugins are automatically downloaded into the admin interface. If you don’t want the pre-downloaded plugins, it’s a simple command of dragging them off the sidebar in the admin “Configure Plugins” view screen.

Content

The content features for Serendipity are as follows:

• The blog post editing interface offers a WYSIWYG editor as well as a HTML editor.
• Browsable image/media manager and a easy to use image uploading tool.
• Automated comment moderation based on the content contained within blog comments.
• Dynamically managed caching, advanced URL rewriting rules, and customizable permalink structures.
• Serendipity supports XHTML 1.1, CSS 2.0, RSS 0.93, 1.0, and 2.0, Atom 0.3 and 1.0.

The Serendipity website claims no hacks or problems during upgrades and boasts about their central plugin repository. They note these claims as reasons to choose Serendipity over the popular and widely used blog content management system, WordPress.

Serendipity offers bloggers everything they could want from a content management system. While the user interface is simple and plain, it gets the job done. What do you think?

In fact, WordPress.com hosts around 72,223,889 sites and as of August 2011, it’s estimated to host over 22% of all new websites! Other content management systems like b2evolution are simply pushed aside.

WordPress and b2ev have a lot of similar qualities; both offer numerous amounts of themes and plugins, are free for users, and are generally user friendly (although it can be argued that WordPress has an interface easier to manipulate and use).

After spending time on both systems we thought it would be beneficial to list the differences and the pros/cons of both platforms, and ask our readers: Which CMS do you prefer?

WordPress offers pretty basic designs for their themes and many custom themes can be accessed simply by entering search terms while logged-in. The WordPress theme library has one of the worst search functions we’ve ever seen, but if you know the author, theme name, amount of columns, color scheme, etc. you’ll have a good chance at being able to find the theme you want.

5. Multiple Blogs – This was actually an annoyance for us when setting up a b2evolution install (see #3) but in theory it’s a useful function. b2evolution has the capability to set up multiple blogs on different topics and aggregate a selection of the posts on those blogs. For example: if you have blogs A, B, C and D with C being your main blog it can aggregate the posts of A and B onto blog C or restrict content such as photos to remain on certain blogs.

6. Plugins – Both WordPress and b2evolution offer multiple plugins that support all the functionality you can dream of. Both content management systems offer flexibility in this area where integration is as simple as uploading the files through the interface.

The flexibility of b2evolution (by default) and their attention to on-page SEO elements, URL structuring, etc. is light years ahead of WordPress. The cartoon avatars and custom SEO settings are a really nice touch.

There really isn’t a definitive answer as to which CMS is “better” as it’s really determined by the needs of the user or business in terms of functionality, ease of use, and intended purpose. Many users feel that WordPress is more user-friendly, but b2evolution should be considered if having more control of on-page SEO features (by default) is desired.

The Tumblr Truth

As with any micro-blogging site, there are pros and cons of using Tumblr as a promotional tactic. Tumblr offers users flexibility when it comes to design and styling options. From selecting a layout to uploading high-resolution images, the creative side of Tumblr is one not many other micro-blogging sites offer.

URL structures (at times) can be considered “questionable” with respect to optimization, although keyword elements are strong and clean for categorization, as is tag usage. Tumblr also lets users enjoy posting in specific time zones and adding links, text, photos, video, audio, and chat features.

Is Tumblr useful for SEO campaigns?

If your SEO strategy involves link building (as it should) then this should be a no-brainier. What Tumblr lacks in regards to integration with other micro-blogging platforms it makes up for with ease of user communication.

If your business has a Tumblr account use these tips below to improve reach and visibility:

• Enable the “allow search engines to index your blog” and “promote me on Tumblr” buttons.
• Allow your Tumblr to repost to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• Include RSS to incorporate feeds from your other blogs.
• When adding a “link post” add a description that is keyword rich and contains a call to action.
• Themes are customizable, allowing you to optimize descriptions, alt tags, keywords etc.
• You can redirect your Tumblr URL to a domain of your choice at any time.
• Search for other Tumblr blogs with tags related to your blog and follow them.
• Be sure to include Twitter and Facebook profile links in the About section.
• Add links to your money site or company blog in the footer or sidebar.
• To better optimize your photos, upload them to text posts as opposed to photo posts.

Many of these tips can be made in the Advanced Settings area of your Tumblr blog. Tumblr might not be the greatest friend of Google, due to the lack of content depth in terms of post style, but it should still be considered a great link building and community building outlet to be used to enhance any well-rounded SEO campaign in addition to other social media platforms.

In addition to discussing Pinterest, everyone at the meeting entered their names to win a DVD of the Affiliate Summit West 2012 conference sessions. Nick Cuttonaro, Vice President of The Link Builders, won the DVD set, but promised to bring it back at next month’s meeting to share with others.

Pinterest is an image sharing and bookmarking site used by individuals all over the world. The big news lately has been on how affiliate markers, merchants, and SEO professionals can use their spike in popularity to develop ways to promote offers or monetize.

Amy Ely, ecommerce acquisition manager at Under Armour, put together a PowerPoint presentation on Pinterest and how different users can best use this new social media site.

Highlights from Pinterest Presentation

Social Elements: Pinterest is as simple to share as Facebook or Twitter. Once a log-in is created one can place the Pinterest icon on any blog next to other social sharing icons to reach broader audiences.

Why Consumers Use Pinterest?: Inspiration! Many people follow their friends, as well as strangers, to find inspiration for recipes, travel ideas, clothing combinations, a good quote, craft ideas, etc.

Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest: A lot of controversy has been surrounding the business relationship between Pinterest and Skimlinks. Amy and other participants of the Meetup discussed how some users pinned an item that has a pre-existing affiliate link and Pinterest used Skimlinks to swap out the original for its own.

In some cases, if an affiliate link was not present Pinterest would add one without the consent of the user. Pinterest is no longer working with Skimlinks as they are currently reassessing their monetization strategy.

Advertisers are also using Pinterest to gain followers by promoting pin competitions. Lands’ End challenged users to create a pin board of their favorite Lands’ End items. Winners received a $250.00 gift card.

Copyrights: What about copyrighted images? What about retail sites whose images are not pin-able? What about websites that simply do not want their images pinned on Pinterest? Amy discussed many ethical questions concerning Pinterest; Rob Adler and Adam Riemer discussed how images should not be direct-linked to an affiliate offer but could rather link to a landing page.

Rob also discussed the idea of watermarking images with copyrights much like stock photo websites do.

Helpful Pinterest Resources

:
Pinterest 101 Video: http://bit.ly/pinterestvideo
Pinterest Media Deck by Shauna Causey: http://www.slideshare.net/ShaunaCausey/pinterest-2012

Thanks to everyone who came to this month’s Meetup; we hope to see more in March! To see what’s happening in your local area, visit the Affiliate Summit Meetup page.

If there isn’t a group in your local area – start one today!

Google updated their algorithm for the purposes of filtering quality sites in the SERPs from sites that have thin content, duplicate content, or content that doesn’t answer the users question based on the query entered. The Panda update put a much higher emphasis on content quality, content uniqueness, and the amount of content used.

Many affiliates, agencies, and businesses that rely on the traffic generated from organic searches are worried about their sites dropping in rankings from the Panda update a year ago or have experienced drops in ranking detrimental to being able to remain competitive from a business perspective.

It’s important to properly adapt your content strategies if you’re still struggling to climb back to where you were in terms of rankings.

As stated in a previous blog post on content, critical factors of most SEO content initiatives are:

• Creating unique, relevant, and valuable content for users
• Content depth
• Frequency in which content is delivered

Fresh and interesting content is not only valuable to users, but also valuable to search engines for indexing and categorization purposes.

Quality Over Quantity

We’re not saying spend a few months creating one piece of content! As stated above, the frequency of content delivery is also a critical factor. Websites should be updated on an “as needed” basis to maintain rankings or increase rankings. Always try to meet and exceed what your competition within the niche is delivering to their audience in terms of content frequency.

Nowadays, when content is created it is also tweeted, linked on Facebook pages as well as personal walls, and bookmarked. Think of it this way: if the quality of content is valuable to users, the more users will be inclined to link to it and share it with others through social channels.

Keep in mind that on-page SEO tactics will only go so far without building links. If content is king, then links are queen, and without them it is almost impossible for content to be distributed to your audience.

Address your Audience

The definition of content quality is subjective and undefined. If you want your sales copy to convert, or if you want your website to be shared with others, understand what your target audience finds to be “quality writing” and create content toward those requirements.

Whether you’re creating content or a social media campaign, knowing how to generate trust and reach multiple broad audiences is necessary. Keep in mind these basic types of readers when writing content for a broad audience.

Type of Learner

Your readers are one of two types of learners: visual or auditory. Copywriting skills are crucial for visual learners, as Melissa Fach wrote in her SEJ article, whereas auditory learners react better to videos. You need both types of content to appeal to both types of learners if you’re looking to get your message across to more people and with less resistance.

Level of Education

We don’t mean whether or not your audience went to college, but how educated they are on the topic you’re writing about. You need to write for those who are just learning about the topic as well as the expert.

Create this type of writing by making sure your headline and lead-in sentences show you know what you’re talking about (for the expert) by including facts, statistics, or undeniable statements. You also need to make the content clear for the novice and answer questions whenever possible. Answer questions anyone would have, from a novice to an expert, and make sure your details are clear, factual, and offer valid points that all audiences would find interesting enough to share with others.

This comes into play when optimists or pessimists read your content. Pessimists love to find mistakes and flaws, so don’t make any – period. They also love to argue so try to keep your personal opinions out of your content, especially if it is sales copy.

The optimist is usually happy to read your content and tends to trust easily, so pointing out potential pit falls and challenges the audience might encounter can help them provoke thought and stay happy.

Content can either make or break a website, given how it is created and how it is distributed. If you update your website with quality content (interesting, share-worthy, and well written) then you should be in a strong position to remain competitive in the SERPs after off-page SEO strategies are applied.

The purpose of Pinterest is to “pin” images – and the site has gained huge popularity. TechCrunch reports that it got exclusive stats from ComScore showing that Pinterest had 11.7 million unique monthly visitors in January 2012. That’s up from 7.5 million in December…and a scant 418,000 last May. These stats represent the fastest sustainable growth ever for a standalone site.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an image bookmarking site. The mission of the Pinterest team is to connect people through their common interests.

Here’s how it works:

1) When someone likes an image on a website they can pin it back to a board they’ve created on the Pinterest site. These boards can be named anything but fall under categories designated by the Pinterest team, like weddings/events, home décor, travel, etc.

2) Individuals can see pins by people whose boards they are following, or by searching through the most popular pins (most repinned), by category, by search term, or by price. If a user has typed in the price of the object in the comment area it will also appear on the top left corner of the image (this only happens when the dollar sign is typed into the comment area. No other money symbol – like € or £ – makes the price appear on the pin).

3) Every image has a comment area, link, and options to like or repin. Viewers can visit the site that housed the original image by clicking on the image or on the URL in the top right corner of the image.

Clearly, Pinterest’s ability to become a leader in referral traffic is already established. SEO professionals have also realized the potential this social site can provide for products or services.

How can I use Pinterest for SEO?

The real question is not how you can use Pinterest, but can you use Pinterest for promotional purposes? Pinterest is a visual, image-sharing site. Therefore, you have to ask yourself: Do I promote websites/services that have visuals that people around the world would be willing to share?

If the answer is no, then maybe Pinterest is not for you. If the answer is yes, then you might be able to get a healthy piece of the link building and referral traffic pie.

Repinning:

The Link Builders hosts a few Pinterest boards for our clients who sell home items, clothing, and fashion accessories. We would not create a Pinterest board for clients offering financial services (debt consolidation, credit repair, etc.) which have very little visual appeal.

When we pin an image from our client’s website onto a board, for example: the Home Décor category, it immediately shows on the Home Décor homepage of Pinterest and anyone can repin it. It also shows up on the homepage of any person’s pin board who is following the board we put the image in. This begins the spread of the image and the potential increase of clicks to the client’s website.

Don’t forget to use appropriate keywords and tags in your comment boxes of all pins so people can easily find your image and repin it!

If you go to the homepage of any Pinterest account you will notice links to Twitter and Facebook under the user’s image. These can be connected to a company Twitter account or Facebook page, so without even actively participating in Pinterest you are already taking advantage of the link building opportunities to other social media sites. In addition to adding a Twitter or Facebook icon you can also add a link to your website around the mix of icons as well.

When creating your Pinterest profile also make sure to:

• Make your profile open to search engines
• Fill your About section with relevant keywords
• Add your website URL in the About section
• Set your location to better attain geo-targeted traffic

Keep in mind that Google is not only indexing Pinterest profiles, but also individual boards. Using keywords throughout your Pinterest profile is a great way to increase SERP visibility.

If you navigate through Pinterest you will see there are opportunities for you to receive ‘do-follow’ backlinks through pinning images and including some form of anchor text on the pin text which is similar to images on Tumblr blogs. The comment area allows anything to be written there including URL’s which is great from an optimization perspective.

Product Search & Link Reclamation:

Instead of pinning your own images you can make sure your own products are being pinned and redirected correctly. Let’s use the previous example of a furniture website. I know the products promoted on my furniture website and I want to make sure any image of those products is referring back to my site.

1. Create lists of tags that correspond to your image based on the product name, brand, or function.
2. Search those terms. Most likely A LOT of random products will appear because people tag images without really thinking about it. However, you may actually discover your own products in the mix.
3. Note which images do not mention your company in the tag/comment area and not linking to your site.
4. To correct the challenges listed above you can make a request change to the user who pinned the image. Every user has a message area under the social media icons on their homepage. Simply ask the user if she can change the link of her image. If you do not receive a response try using a social media platform to contact them instead.

Remember, you’re talking to real people who don’t necessarily care where the image links to. They might have linked from a website that has info on where to purchase the item on sale or in conjunction with an incentive instead of your website. Appeal to their good nature and convince them why they should change the pin address to your website.

Note: Those who have repinned the image with the original URL will still link to that URL. You will have to ask everyone who has pinned the image to change the URL which is no different than the strategies than an SEO uses every day when it comes to building relationships and prospecting for link building opportunities.

There are multiple conferences available for Internet marketers that focus on different areas: social media, SEO, online advertising, technology, etc. In fact, some of the world’s top Internet marketing conferences will take place throughout the United States in 2012.

No matter if you’re a newbie trying to learn more, or a seasoned pro who’s presenting, the conferences listed below are beneficial for anyone in the online marketing industry to attend.

SMX (Search Marketing Expo)

1. When: June 5-6 in Seattle, (Advanced) Oct 2-4 in New York city, and December in Las Vegas
2. About: Search Marketing Expo, more commonly known as SMX, is the search engine marketing conference from Third Door Media, the company behind Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, and the Search Marketing Now webcast series. The Advanced conference is geared to seasoned search engine marketing professionals.  The sessions are faced-paced and tend to skip the basics.
3. For more information: http://searchmarketingexpo.com

Affiliate Summit

1. When: May 15-16^th in Austin, and August 12-14^th in New York City
2. About: This conference was founded by Missy Ward and Shawn Collins in 2003 for the purposes of providing educational sessions on the latest industry issues and to foster a productive networking environment for affiliate marketers. Attendees at Affiliate Summit events break out into five main categories: agencies, affiliates, merchants, networks, and vendors, with affiliates taking up about a third of the attendance. Affiliate Summit focuses primarily on speaking sessions and networking, and encourages all levels of professionals in terms of skill and experience to attend.
3. For more information: http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Ad:Tech

1. When: April 3-4^th in San Francisco, and November 7-8^th in New York City
2. About: For more than ten years, ad:tech has provided media, marketing and technology professionals with the tools and techniques they need to succeed in a changing digital world. Topics at the conference usually surround: search, brand building, integrated marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, advergaming, TV 2.0, affiliate marketing, blogging, web analytics, viral marketing, media buying, podcasts, consumer generated content, behavioral target marketing and more.
3. For more information: http://www.ad-tech.com/

PubCon

1. When: Feb 13-15 in Hawaii, and October 15^th-19^th in Vegas
2. About: Pubcon is supported by the industry’s leading businesses, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors involved in social media, Internet marketing, search engines, and online advertising. Both the Honolulu and Vegas sessions will offer a look at the future of technology presented by many of the world’s top search and social media speakers.
3. For more information: http://www.pubcon.com/

LeadsCon

1. When:February 28-29 in Vegas
2. About:LeadsCon is a conference dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of those operating in the online lead generation industry. The LeadsCon audience consists of lead buyers, lead sellers, technology solution providers, and investment professionals. The LeadsCon participants span a variety of different verticals from B2C to B2B lead generation.
3. For more information: http://leadscon.com/

BlogWorld & New Media Expo

1. When:June 5-7^th in New York City
2. About:The BlogWorld & New Media expo is comprised of three days of cutting-edge conference sessions and eye-opening keynotes. This is the only industry-wide event bringing the global community of content creators and publishers together all under one roof. Bloggers, Podcasters, Web TV & Radio Broadcasters, Social Media Networkers and all types of content creators from every major genre attend BlogWorld.
3. For more information: http://www.blogworldexpo.com/2012-nyc/

SES (Search Engine Strategies)

1. When: March 19-23^rd in NYC, August 13-17^th in San Francisco, and Nov 12-16^th in Chicago
2. About:SES Conference & Expo is the leading global event series that educates professionals in search and social marketing, putting a special focus on tactics and best practices. Attendees include webmasters, digital agencies, online marketers and corporate decision makers. Most SES events cover introductory and intermediate level performance strategies.
3. For more information: http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/

Social Media Conference

1. When: June 21-22 Beverly Hills
2. About: The Social Media Conference examines new media, including Internet, mobile and other technologies for social media. The conference focuses on management for the social media industry.
3. For more information: http://www.socialmediaconference.com/

Instead of one primary speaker giving a presentation, this meetup was more relaxed and had a round-table feel. Almost everyone present had attended the Affiliate Summit West conference in Vegas earlier in January, so the topic mainly revolved around sharing everyone’s experiences from Affiliate Summit.

The results were varied, but everyone agreed there were many great things about Affiliate Summit and some things that could be done to make the conference even better.

Pros:

• Many of the individuals at this Meetup had been to Affiliate Summit’s held in the past and understand the value of their time. Head of Publishers at Buy.at Kim Salvino said planning meetings before Affiliate Summit allowed her productivity to increase as opposed to telling people to meet her at the booth which is always busy. Kim scheduled meetings in conference rooms and was better able to engage her associates during those meetings.
• Due to the more subdued nature of the West vs. East Affiliate Summits, most found it easier to spend quality time with associates in Vegas to form more personal business relationships.

• Rob Adler, a presenter at Affiliate Summit West, made note of the challenges he experienced during the Q&A period of his session. The format for responding to tweets appearing on the screen and disappearing as quickly as they appeared made it challenging for Rob and other presenters to answer the questions coming in from audience members.

After Affiliate Summit West had been discussed, the conversation turned to industry practices of affiliate marketing. The general consensus was that affiliate marketing in the United States (as opposed to European countries) sometimes has a negative reputation when compared to more traditional marketing methods. A question and response format ensued, ranging from ideas about creating more regulations for affiliate networks, to what would/could be accomplished by completely illegalizing adware and other marketing channels that are considered aggressive in nature.

Note: To help promote the good name of affiliate marketing please tweet using the hashtag #fbame (for the betterment of affiliate marketing everywhere). For more information read For the Betterment of Affiliate Marketing Everywhere #FBAME.

The Affiliate Summit Meetups in Baltimore take place every month at the Buy.at office and we encourage Internet marketers, web designers, programmers, product developers, advertisers, media buyers, etc. as well as other agency members, publishers, and SEO professionals to attend. The group welcomes people of all experience levels that have an interest in learning more about the performance based marketing industry.

It’s a problem that we’ve all heard before – those who are experts tend to neglect their area of expertise in their own lives. It happens to the blue collar, white collar, white hat and black hat. It especially happens to many SEO agencies over time, which can negatively impact growth in a competitive and emerging industry.

The services offered by a full-service SEO agency can span many aspects of online marketing ranging from website development, ad campaigns on search and social media sites, content development, content distribution, reputation management and much more. No matter what type of SEO agency you are, if you’re neglecting your own search engine optimization and Internet marketing campaign then you’re shooting your business in the foot.

The SEO Agency Checklist

The life force behind an SEO agency for the most part lies on the web. The most common ways of obtaining new clients is by word of mouth, networking at conferences, a sales department, online ads – or through your social media campaign (hopefully you have one!).

Companies and individuals may want to hire your agency for all of their online needs, but if they see that you don’t have what they’re looking for on your company site, they might look elsewhere. It’s important to practice what you preach by ranking for branded, geo-targeted, and industry/service related keywords, updating your social media campaigns, using proper URL structures, etc.

We could go on about what’s needed to perfect an SEO campaign, and what aspects of SEO are overrated or overused, but for now we’ll just review the basics that SEO agencies should stay conscious of with respect to their own websites and online presence.

On-page SEO:

• Titles, descriptions, keywords, and tags
• Appropriate URL structures (ex: using hyphens to separate words, categories, etc.)
• Headings – using H1’s, H2’s, etc.
• Images with alt tags
• Using internal links to reference information on other pages
• All pages on the website load quickly
• Frequently updated content
• All pages can be/are indexed by search engines

• Active Twitter and Facebook pages
• Social buttons visible on the website (Facebook, Twitter, RSS, etc.)
• Creating a LinkedIn company page
• Using a social share app/plug-in on content pages
• YouTube if you’ve created how-to videos or video content to share

• Reputation Management – What’s on the first page when you search for your company name?
• Social Bookmarks
• Guest Posts
• Article Submissions
• Press Releases
• Forum Postings
• Local Listings (Google Local/Maps, YellowPages.com, etc.)

Of course, there are also paid traffic campaigns too!

• Monthly Newsletters
• Personal E-mails (“hey, I noticed I haven’t heard from you in a while, how’s your campaign going?”)

For SEO agencies that don’t have the majority of these checklist items covered or not actively pursuing them, it’s extremely difficult to remain competitive with other SEO agencies and consultants that are managing and growing their online presence to build their business.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve heard of the legislation being considered by the House of Representatives called SOPA. The Senate’s version, PIPA, also encompasses this Stop Online Piracy Act legislation.

The bills are intended to narrowly address the problem of piracy on foreign websites. Companies and the government have been trying to stop online piracy ever since Napster went viral. However, they’re going a step further than what many consider appropriate, or even constitutional.

What is SOPA?

The SOPA legislation states that “an Internet site is dedicated to the theft of U.S. property if…the site is primarily designed or operated for the purpose of, has only limited purpose or use other than, or is marketed by its operator or another acting in concert with that operator in use in, offering goods and services in a manner that engages in, enables, or facilitates…” acts of copyright infringement, intellectual property contracts, selling illegal goods, etc. The problem with this statement is defining the terms of “enabling” or “facilitating”. What does that mean why should this be a source of concern?

The SOPA legislation proposes that any website or company affiliated in any way with a website that they believe (emphasis on believe) is participating in illegal activity will be issued court warrants, shut down, and will be forced to cut ties from said illegal web property. We’re talking about websites and companies that are simply doing their job, such as:

• Search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.)
• Ad networks
• Payment facilities (such as PayPal)
• Hosting companies (Domain name registration, etc.)

However, including the words “enable” or “facilitate” takes this control to another level.

For example: Many websites, whether it be a video library like YouTube, or news websites like CNN.com, offer open forums. Many individuals place links on those open forums to further emphasize the point they’re making in a comment. However, what if an individual links to a site that the American government deems illegal? The hosting website where that link can be found is, by definition of the SOPA legislation, facilitating illegal websites, and therefore should be terminated. YouTube, Ezine Articles, Huffington Post, Twitter, Flickr, Wikipedia, Facebook… all of these websites have individuals with their own agendas writing and posting links to every type of website imaginable. This legislation is saying that the websites hosting these links should be penalized.

What we already have in place is a system where if illegal content was found on a site like YouTube then the government or any type of entity would send a notice telling hosting party to take down the content. However, this legislation shoots first and asks later by totally demobilizing any website deemed “questionable”.

In addition, the SOPA legislation also stipulates that the terminated (or “immobilized ”) website cannot sue the organization (the government) that closed them, even if it is found that the alleged illegal content falls within legal boundaries. Why? Because the government was not knowingly materially misrepresenting the violation.

For more information on what SOPA can actually do watch this video by Khan Academy. It’s 11 minutes long, but by the end you will be worried about being arrested for enabling an illegal website .

What are People Doing to Stop SOPA?

Thousands of people have spoken out against the SOPA and PIPA legislation – 7 million signed Google’s protest according to The Washington Post.

Google’s black censor bar over their logo on Wednesday was a link to an online petition to stop this bill from passing. Of the 162 million people who saw Wikipedia’s black out page, 8 million of them reached out to their representatives through the Wikipedia links. The Fight for the Future nonprofit organization, who was behind the overall web movement, estimated 300,000 emails were sent to members of Congress.

On Jan. 12, the White House waded into the SOPA debate, posting a statement that said, “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote this anti-SOPA message on his Facebook page: “The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet.”

Who is Sponsoring SOPA?

Although it seems like everyone is against SOPA there has to be a few people who actually in favor of it to reach the House and Senate floor. The movie and music industries and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business-lobbying group, back the legislation as a means to fight piracy by websites that operate outside the U.S.

However, due to the outcry by millions of American citizens many lawmakers are dropping their support. As of Friday morning (January 20th 2012) 13 lawmakers who co-sponsored this legislation withdrew their support, including Senator Marco Rubio (R-fl) who was one of the legislations key proponents.

The Link Builders do not support SOPA , PIPA, or the regulation of the concept of a free Internet.

The biggest challenge that many SEO companies have with their vendors when running link building campaigns is accountability. Understanding the cause and effect relationships between applying strategies and methods within your campaign and seeing how those efforts translate into higher search engine rankings and profitability has historically lacked.

Have no fear – although we usually blog about themes or topics in SEO, we could not go on (with a clear conscience!) and continue to use this daily web-based rank tracker without singing its praises. A relatively new product on the market is Microsoft Masters – Reliable and Accurate SERP Tracking for SEO Professionals.

A Different Kind of Rank Tracker

What makes this SERP tracker different than the rest? Well, for starters, it tracks rankings daily. Yes, daily. How many of us at agencies or as vendors have been asked by a co-worker or client to see the SERP impacts from social bookmarks that were created last weekend, or how a new blog post released yesterday is affecting rankings today? You would be staring at that person with drool running down your chin with your eyeballs crossed if you were still using a SERP tracker that updates weekly.

Not the case with Microsite Masters!

Not only do you have daily updates for multiple campaigns across multiple search engines, but you can add notes to reflect applied strategies (and associated costs) into attractive graphs so both you and your clients can see the cause and effect relationships between strategies and SERP movements.

Cost reduction is just one of the many bi-products from the visual tracking aspects of being able to monitor expenses on a per-keyword basis within Microsite Masters.

Why it Works for The Link Builders

Let’s be honest… a rank tracker is not just a rank tracker for some agencies and serious SEO professionals. Pretty bells and whistles can be placed inside of a user interface to make one slightly better than another, but over time other rank trackers on the market will leave you with a sense that “something’s missing”.

The creators of Microsite Masters recognized the need for more depth in terms of accountability. Hallelujah!

Are you managing multiple vendors? How about utilizing different types of links? Tracking hundreds or thousands of keywords? Yeah, they’ve got that. Here is why Microsite Masters works for us:

• Unlimited domains. Even if you decided to sign up for the “Mom’s Basement” plan (props for the awesome, shame-filled name!) You would still be allowed to track an unlimited amount of domains. As their plans go up in price, the amount of keywords you can track will increase too.

• Pretty Graphs That Are Easy to Read. Green = Google, Red = Yahoo, Blue = Bing. Even my 89-year old uncle can understand that! Not happy with their color selections? Feel free to change them to the colors of your choice. Adding notes to highlight an action placed on one of your tracked keywords? That’s what the black dots are for.

• The Whole Daily Tracking Thing. Did we mention how much this rank tracker rocks? We add notes to our link building campaigns daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Yes, that’s how we roll. We’re also not the most patient people in the world, and neither are our clients. Being able see SERP movements reflected every day makes us better at what we do.

• ROI and SERP Impacts Shown and Addressed. With this SERP tracker you can better determine ROI and associated SERP impacts delivered from specific providers and vendors and cut the fat from those who aren’t adding value to your bottom line. Determining SERP efficiency when compared to dollars spent over time has never been easier.

• URL Exports: Imagine being able to send a URL to a client to an industry friend bragging about your SERP gains? With Microsite Masters this is a reality. Example here: Microsite Masters Dynamic Exports

OK, now for the stuff we think is just freaking cool.

1. The Scoreboard: At a glance, you can see your top and negative performing keywords on Google, as well as how much they’ve increased or decreased over the past day.

2. PDF and .CSV exports: Add your own image or your client’s logo through their white label reporting feature. Enough said.

3. Support In Multiple Countries: You can now track every single one of your keywords in multiple countries inside of one platform. Microsite Masters currently provides tracking in 11 countries as of January 2012. Who knows where they’ll stop!

Needless to say, Microsite Masters is a rank tracker that we’ll be using for quite some time. The need for a daily web-based rank tracker that focuses on accountability, ROI, and SERP performance inside of a sleek interface has changed the way we view and measure our data.

Microsite Masters: http://www.micrositemasters.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/micrositemaster

The big question: Is my business social media literate?

The big answer: probably not.

There’s more to social media than simply having a Facebook page or Twitter account. Many companies are still pondering whether social media can really affect their bottom line before they join a social network. Understanding the practical, applied skills that allow a strategic plan to form in your social media communications is necessary for any growth and success.

The first step in becoming social media literate is to know what you want out of a social media campaign, and then understanding how you are going to accomplish those goals and how you are planning to show your boss or colleagues that you accomplished them.

Most Popular Social Media Goals

1. Traffic to your company website
2. Higher sign-up rates for a contest/newsletter/service/etc.
3. Acquire clients
4. Raise awareness of your company and services rendered
5. Increase revenue
6. Social acceptance in the market place
7. Accessibility from a (public) communication perspective

Choose one of these goals before even beginning to think about creating a social media campaign. Don’t touch Facebook or Twitter until you have your goals clearly in your mind.

The Typical Business Model Changes

As Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton wrote in her Social Media Today post, “the lines between business and personal life have blurred in the 21st century. [Some businesses] do not understand that social media has challenged us to accept the complexity of human identity that includes work, family, volunteer activities, school and personal interests.”

However, older CEOs and presidents of companies may not be sold on social media yet. How would you pitch upper management that social media can raise awareness of promotions your company is advertising? Do you know how to track ROI and performance of social media campaigns to prove it’s helping your bottom line?

If you don’t know the answers you’re not alone. The problem is that the ROI for social media is still difficult to determine.

Understanding and Measuring Social Media ROI

Scenario: Your small business decided to create a Facebook page and Twitter account in an effort to form a more personal relationship with current clients, and hopefully gain more clients. You tweet two to three times a day, follow leaders in your industry, “like” your clients pages on Facebook and update your status once or twice a week. You’ve had these social media channels for about two months. Now what?

You need to measure your social media performance. How? The first thing you need to know is what to measure. Social media key performance indicators (KPIs) focus primarily on: percentages, averages and rates/ratios. Percentages of what, you might ask. Well, here are some useful measurements to determine if your social media campaign is effective with respect to your company’s goals:

1. Conversational exchanges – number of replies/comments to your posts. Although not truly a measurement, this will help to better understand the topics your followers are interested in so you can share more content on those topics in the future, thus gaining more interactions
2. Reach – your primary audience, consisting of people who directly interact with your brand or take on call to actions
3. Content amplification – getting your tweets or posts to other facets of the web. For example, retweets, sharing on forums, social bookmarking sites, email, etc.
4. Content appreciation – likes on Facebook, placed in Favorites list on Twitter, or +1ed on Google+

Once you understand what to measure, how to measure, and the strategies involved in maintaining a successful social media campaign, the ability to create a long-term social media strategy will become easier as expectations can be defined and KPI’s.

Despite 2011 being another hard year in terms of the economy, social marketing trends continued to grow and rise, birthing new ways to spread news about your website, as well as new ways to track your social media presence. And don’t worry – even those tried and true social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were swept away by the flow of innovations and upgrades.

Some of the big changes in 2011 surrounding social media were as follows:

• Pinterest came out of nowhere and instantly engaged the minds of women and men everywhere with their easy-to-use image capturing site.

• Google+ appeared on the market in June, although it didn’t offer brand pages until October. It’s still a bit hazy as to what the advantages are over Facebook, although once businesses really start circles (allowing them to key in on certain demographics, interest groups, etc.) there could be a huge growth in user participation.

• Although Twitter originally created their Promoted Trends and Tweets in 2010, the price and popularity skyrocketed around June of this year. The 160-character biz finally understood advertising!

Because of, or maybe in spite of, these 2011 trends, it’s not hard to see where some of the social media trends for 2012 will lie. Many lie around Twitter. The others seem to be around online videos and social media measurement tools.

Twitter’s taste of advertising in 2011 was sweet… and they’re coming back for seconds! With the expansion of the company’s first international office (located in London) for sales, the addition of political ads, the increase in pricing for Promoted Tweets, Trends, or Accounts (although Twitter refuses to publish exactly how much they charge), eMarketer researchers say Twitter will post an estimated $259.9 million in revenue for 2012 – that’s a 86.3% increase from 2011.

Online video popularity is another trend that seems like it will fully blossom in 2012. Did you know Justin Bieber was found by Usher simply from one of his amateur YouTube videos? Plus, who can forget that mind-numbing anthem by the teeny-bopper Rebecca Black that became a national sensation overnight originally found on YouTube.

Whereas most small businesses cannot produce a rap video with a catchy tune to pull in customers, the world of online videos is definitely shifting towards in the right direction for increased SEO benefits and to help increase conversions.

Megan O’Neill, a writer at Social Times and a self-professed web-video enthusiast told Kentucky.com columnist Ann Marie Van Den Hurk that while many online-video trends in 2011 were fun, the most important for next year could be more businesses getting involved. Just as the past couple of years have seen a mass acceptance of social media, with businesses and brands large and small taking to Twitter and Facebook to engage and interact, O’Neill says 2012 will be the year that more brands than ever before embrace online video.

The Rising Popularity of Klout

There’s only so much one can say about a program that came up with its own tagline: the standard of influence online. There was a bunch of issues individuals and businesses had with Klout in 2011, but I think 2012 is the year for them. They’ve finally created a stable algorithm to create Klout rankings, which is allowing businesses to see in real time how their reach, topic selection, and hashtag usage is really affecting their bottom line. With the addition of Perks and the +K’s you can give away to others who influenced you, I see nowhere but up for this measurement tool.

Some might argue that 2012 will begin the era of social media exhaustion, citing the fact that Facebook numbers have stabilized, Facebook ads are not really getting huge click-through rates, and Google+ isn’t making as big of a splash as it was anticipated originally.

What do you think?

Melissa Rubin is the Marketing Coordinator at The Link Builders. Ms. Rubin handles the day-to-day operations of running client campaigns and manages vendor communications. Additionally, she was asked to direct the company’s social media campaign. Her passion and insight with respect to social media has allowed The Link Builders social presence to reach new audiences with the focus of engaging new clients, agencies, and re-sellers.

Ms. Rubin has a B.A. degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. After graduating from one of the top journalism schools in the country and working at multiple nationally recognized media publications, Ms. Rubin made the transition to online marketing in 2010.

At One to One Networks, Ms. Rubin’s responsibilities included: web copywriting, search engine optimization, managing social media campaigns, and link building. Ms. Rubin also founded the company’s first internship program. Melissa studied social media and link building trends while assisting with the optimization and growth of an internal network of web properties owned and operated by One to One Networks.

Ms. Rubin proves herself to be an asset at The Link Builders which resulted in Q4 growth in terms of revenue, expense reduction, and streamlining processes. The Link Builders recognize her hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm. We look forward to supporting Melissa’s growth within the Marketing Coordinator position as she takes on additional responsibilities that will come with company expansion.

The Link Builders are excited to announce that we’ve taken the role of organizing all future Meetup202 events in Baltimore, MD. Simply stated, we’ve recognized the growing number of affiliates and Internet marketers in the area and have decided to step-up and take over the duties as meet up organizers. The monthly gatherings will take place at our offices located in Elkridge, Maryland.

We encourage attendees to take advantage of the networking opportunities that Meetup202 presents and share ideas with other like-minded individuals. We welcome people of all experience levels that have an interest in learning more about the performance based marketing industry.

Additionally, we’d like to extend our welcome to web designers, programmers, product developers, advertisers, call center operators, media buyers. etc. as supporting industry roles should also be recognized.

Meetup 202 – Baltimore Affiliate Marketing Group
Tuesday, May 10th 2011 at 7:00 PM

If you plan on attending the meetup202 baltimore event, please register today. The initial meetup will be held at our offices located in Elkridge, MD.

The Link Builders, LLC
6755 Business Parkway, Suite 403
Elkridge, MD 21075

Our evenings speaker (Robert Adler, The Link Builders) will be discussing organic affiliate strategies, traffic building, and conversion tracking. If you’re interested in speaking at future meet ups, please contact us if you’re interested. We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, May 10th, at 7:00 PM.

As more businesses are becoming conscious about the importance of ranking for particular keywords to generate sales or additional revenues, setting realistic expectations for clients is important.

It’s often easier for link building and SEO agencies to work with clients that already have experience building links and understand the importance of on-page optimization, as opposed to working with clients that are new to SEO. Setting realistic expectations for your clients and properly informing them when selling SEO services will not only help build trust, but define the terms and conditions of the business relationship on the first call.

Below are some common questions that many link building and search engine optimization agencies are faced with when working with new clients. As some SEO professionals take the approach of telling potential clients what they’re looking to hear, taking the position of educating and informing prospects by setting realistic expectations early on is key.

Ranking “number one” is a function of how competitive the keyword market is, how many links are currently targeting the keyword, the amount and quality of content promoting the keyword on the site, and how much work you’re looking to put in to enable the potential of ranking competitively for the term.

Link building and SEO agencies making claims of their abilities to rank “number one” for clients is simply a sales tactic. It’s possible, but should never be guaranteed. While the strategy works, asking prospects why they are looking to rank for the term “XYZ” is equally important. Potential clients that are new to SEO may not understand that ranking for “XYZ” may be unrealistic to the way their offer is being presented; geographic location, sales capacity, and most important, budget.

When potential clients are focused on “how long will that keyword take to rank”, be careful. Recent algorithm changes, the likelihood of competition becoming more aggressive, and not continuing link building efforts after ranking has been achieved are important items that should be disclosed to prospects.

The short answer to that question will always be affirmative. However, learning more about the company and the infrastructure of their website is critical. Was the site coded in HTML or any of the other various CMS’s?

This can be a great segue into learning more about how the site is currently being optimized. There may be additional consulting and on-page optimization opportunities which should be addressed prior to link building.

Most clients new to SEO will understand and appreciate how content strategies and on-page optimization will help rank for desired keywords in conjunction with link building. Clients that do not wish to publish fresh, targeted, and compelling content on old, outdated, and poorly designed websites (visual / code) may become problematic if suggestions for improvement are not disclosed prior to link building.

There’s nothing wrong with taking the à la carte approach to link building as some clients may be focused on promoting a small set of keywords with corresponding URL’s. Many US agencies require contracts or long term working agreements in order to “show results to clients”. From a predictable cash flow perspective, the requirement holds ground.

Explaining to potential clients that one-time link building packages are a “waste of money” or may “hurt your site” over the long term is a common scare tactic used to influence the client into working with the agency long term.

Every client has different needs when it comes to SEO and link building services. Some clients have websites that require regularity when building links (internal / external) in order to remain competitive from a search engine perspective.

Link building over a longer period of time may be recommended to achieve results in competitive niches. That same client may wish to engage another agency in “one-time” or transactional business to focus strengthening a particular area of their website. It’s not uncommon for higher-end prospects to utilize multiple service providers.

There’s nothing wrong with shutting the door on transactional link building from a business perspective, but informing potential clients that it’s “worthless” or may “permanently damage” the site is wrong.

In the SEO industry, the term “link bait” has historically carried a stigma and dismissive connotation. Link building crafted for the purposes of gaining mass attention and encouraging people to link to a website have raised flags over the years if strategies utilized were rogue or deceptive in nature.

Link bait may be one of the most sophisticated, creative, and fun techniques to build links from authoritative websites. When search engine executives claim that content can be both “White Hat” and yet remain wonderful when used as bait for links, the practice holds merit. Link bait strategies are here to stay!

Piggybacking a trend that already has some traction is the best way to go if you’re looking to receive attention without breaking your budget. Link bait campaigns are usually content driven so selecting a domain name that will be the focal point of your efforts is key.

It shouldn’t matter if you’re using a new domain name that pertains to a targeted search term or an existing website that contains keywords in titles, tags or URL’s. It’s all relative to your vision and goals when “taking the show on the road”. The amount of exposure that you’re seeking should dictate future actions and methods of promotion.

Most successful viral campaigns that contain elements of link bait are branded. Branding your headlines, images, keyword sets, and domains will help influence others to link to your content with “branded” anchor text.

Having trouble with branding your link bait campaign? In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series or words. Alliteration is commonly used in headlines, business names, expressions, phrases, and within anchor text for link bait campaigns. Use alliteration and the power of suggestion to your advantage.

Most great viral campaigns become the topic of conversation at the office water cooler, on popular websites, and traditional media outlets. That nature of most successful viral and link bait campaigns (local, national, or International) should put your audience in a state of prolonged debate where there is no right or wrong answer to what’s being presented, just opinion.

When writing viral content, always show both sides of the story while remaining consistent with the facts that you’re presenting. Creatively sharing what’s “already known” (while citing and linking to other sources of content) and alluding to the possibilities of future outcomes works well. This tactic builds credibility and gives audiences the feeling that the writing is not biased. Always make sure that your content is factual or holds ground, within legal boundaries, and fueled with substance and emotion to win the trust of readers.

Asking readers for their opinion or for their “help”, can take your next link bait campaign to the next level. It’s human nature to share compelling content with others and participate in online discussions when called to action. Direct your audience to “spread the word”, and you’ll be surprised how many readers will follow your instructions.

The best way to scale your link bait campaign is to get your content in front of influencers that are privileged to publish content on authoritative websites. Depending on the circumstances or subject matter of your campaign, contact media sources directly to accelerate distribution.

This process can become hit or miss if you haven’t already established relationships with media sources willing to break your story. Many well-known news sites receive “tips” and editorial requests daily. Additionally, respected websites have a responsibility to provide accurate content to their readers from reliable sources.

Most media sites are savvy about link bait and aware that their medium provides a significant source of traffic and influence. However, if a media outlet decides that your story is interesting enough to share with their readers, they will most likely give it a run by placing their own outlook on the topic while citing your target URL as the source. Jackpot.

By positioning your content as the “breaking source”, media outlets will have no choice but to seek information, commentary, and content from the publisher. As most authoritative blogs and media sites monetize on a CPM basis, driving impressions from a hot story is in their best interest.

Should your campaign enter a phase of public interest, it will usually become a race against time to respond to e-mails from other blogs, journalists, news correspondents, and radio shows accordingly. The biggest mistake that you can make prior to entering this phase is not having a hosting package or server that can tolerate thousands (sometimes millions!) of users simultaneously trying to access your content.

If your website is not live when an author is looking to cite your URL as a source, anchor text and content distribution cannot be realized as your credibility and reputation are now in question.

If your campaign URL is on a new domain, hold off on monetizing in the early stages. Simply put, authoritative websites will view your intentions to obtain coverage as a basis to put money in your own pocket. Not good. While this may be the case, it’s best to gain credibility before cluttering your website up with ads or affiliate offers from third parties. In this case; the more novice you look, the better. Playing the role of a “concerned citizen” never fails.

Are you looking to retain value and continuity from your readers? Create a newsletter where users can subscribe to receive “breaking news and updates”. During traffic surges, it’s common to receive thousands of new subscribers eager to learn more. Integrating RSS, Twitter, and Facebook should go without saying as social sharing should happen naturally.

Depending on how much traffic is generated; and what niche the campaign is in, the opportunity to monetize traffic will present itself. Depending on the number of authoritative links you’ve obtained from link baiting, additional SEO value can be used to promote other websites.

As far as exit strategies are concerned; most people will sell the web property to another Internet marketer, turn the concept into a “big business”, or sit back and collect passive income while occasionally positing new content.

Link bait campaigns give Internet marketers the ability to generate a significant amount of traffic quickly with minimal costs, and boost long-term SEO value while creating new revenue streams. People tend to see resistance when promoting viral campaigns when their focus is on monetizing out of the gate. When performed intentionally, link bait is an art that still remains one of the most powerful, effective, and underappreciated forms of link building.

There’s been a lot of media exposure in the world of search engine optimization in the last few weeks. Most news articles have shed a negative light on many SEO strategies and link building methods with respect to intentionally ranking for desired keywords.

Is link building considered a form of search engine manipulation? Should SEO professionals be deemed as “librarians” as search engine algorithms have become the modern day Dewey Decimal System? And most important, what methods are considered “White Hat” in 2011?

Let’s be honest, Internet marketing is a competitive industry regardless of the method of promotion. According to guidelines set forth by leading search engines, the following practices have been stated as a violation of webmaster terms:

• Creating links intended to manipulate rank
• Building links from “bad neighborhoods” on the web
• Exchanging links excessively
• Buying or selling links to pass ranking or authority

As guidelines encourage webmasters to produce high quality and unique content, how is it possible to remain competitive without building links (strategically) after content has been created? Taking the “if you build it, they will come approach” and adhering to suggested webmaster terms (entirely) will not help users discover content (compelling, time sensitive, etc.) without a strategy that involves some form of link building. For new websites entering competitive niches, this can be nearly impossible without link building (intentionally) and utilizing content distribution strategies. Simply put, On-page SEO tactics will only get you so far without building links.

The Dewey Decimal System was originally developed in 1876 and has been greatly modified and expanded over the years. The system has undergone 22 major revisions for the purposes of organizing books (content) on library shelves (results pages) in a specific and repeatable order that makes it easy to find any book and return it to its proper place. The Dewey Decimal System is used in over 200,000 libraries (search engines) in at least 135 countries.

While some search engine optimization specialists may pride themselves as being “Black Hat”, their purpose is really no different than a librarian intentionally reorganizing results pages on search engines as linking methods have become the common denominator to influence the categorization of content. Is this practice against the law? No. Is it ethical? That really depends on methods, applications, and intent.

When used inside the terms of recommended guidelines, does ethical link building help search engines provide the most relevant and accurate results to users? Absolutely.

With recent updates to search engine algorithms the need for bright and creative SEO professionals is needed more than ever. Building links for the purposes of categorizing relevant information for users on results pages should be viewed as a positive action from both search engines and users as efforts are often designed to promote related content to enhance the user experience. What concerns both search engines and users is that such tactics are often associated with monetizing without defined or set parameters of control.

If you’re creating content for a blog, business website, or product that you’re trying to sell, it’s likely that you’re conscious of ranking positions for targeted search terms. Have you purchased links or solicited webmasters to “trade links”? Have you tried leveraging links from authoritative websites to increase ranking positions on selected keywords? If you’ve engaged in the practice of intentionally building links to increase search engine ranking positions you’re probably not considered “White Hat” by an executive working at a search engine, regardless of how ambiguous the term has now become.

If link building professionals were buying 125×125 banners on authoritative websites they would be purchasing advertising which doesn’t raise any flags or concern. Nobody really considers the title attributes and associated link properties because it’s considered advertising. When that small banner becomes anchored and backed by 20,000 links, a line is now crossed where the action is no longer viewed as just “advertising”.

It’s important to keep in mind that any promotional methods directed toward search engines may one day have a negative impact as algorithms are constantly being updated. The only reason why search engine optimization has recently become a hot topic is because people have become tremendously reliant on search and more devices have been enabled for search.

Whether it’s a local plumbing business relying on their rankings to generate leads for jobs or an e-commerce website selling auto parts, there is a pot of gold sitting at the top of search engine results pages. From local to competitive national markets, economies are now driven and dictated by search.

Simply stated, an algorithm change can put established and upstanding companies out of business if they are no longer ranking well for targeted search terms. How will that company react? What are their alternatives?

SEO in 2011 is like playing chess; if you’re not thinking 10 steps ahead, there’s a good chance you will not remain competitive when drastic algorithm changes take effect. New changes will always bring opportunity. Take advantage of recent updates by thinking long-term.

Many Internet marketers have great ideas when it comes to building custom niche sites, creating monetization pathways, and maximizing earnings per click with unique strategies. After overcoming the initial hurdles of development, sometimes marketers lose sight of delivering long-term value by simplifying sales processes to enhance the user experience. As most Internet marketers have the affiliate mindset and focus on lead generation techniques, incorporating the methods below will help take your SEO campaign to the next level.

Branding: Many companies and lead generation sites overlook the importance of branding and the value a custom logo will bring in terms of conversions. Branding your offer or products with a targeted keyword may also generate additional traffic. Analyzing the logos of competitors in the niche should be the first step when creating a new logo for your brand or website.

Relay your discoveries to your favorite designer, outsourcing service, or crowdsourcing website such as 99Designs.com if you’re not a graphic designer. After achieving success with one lead generation website, scale efforts in the same niche or local area by creating multiple brands to add “artificial competition” in the market.

Phone Numbers: Providing users with a telephone number is a powerful lead generation tool. Most Internet marketers prefer not to speak with prospects, potential clients, or parties interested in purchasing goods or services. If speaking with and qualifying prospects by phone isn’t for you, there are many options that can be utilized.

Leads can be collected through voice mail and delivered to call centers or direct buyers. Incorporating a pay-per-call affiliate program to your monetization mix will drive inbound inquiries to a call center managed by the advertiser where the user will speak to a sales representative. Using phone numbers in your titles, keywords, and descriptions (when applicable) within an SEO campaign may yield conversions without requiring a user to even visit your site. Additionally, having a phone number visible on all pages (not just the contact page) may encourage users who are inclined to dial for more information.

Content: Is your web copy encouraging users to buy or inquire for more information? Does your website come across as “just another” lead generation site? Web users are savvier than ever before so putting them at ease is important. Using content to connect with users is critical to maximizing conversions and generating a consistent buzz around your offer from search, especially when targeting local markets.

Use images that demonstrate “proof of concept” to build trust with readers. If writing content that’s both keyword optimized and sales orientated is not your thing, find a copywriter to work with. There’s a huge difference between outsourcing content development for deep internal pages and articles used to promote your site. Developing a relationship with a skilled and reliable copywriter can take your business to the next level.

The Link Builders focus on optimization elements beyond the realm of link building as the performance and growth of micro sites around a niche or “money site” is both considered and deemed valuable for lead generation and sales purposes. While some properties are just dedicated to linking and passing authority, the importance of optimization elements from a web psychology perspective to compliment link building will create sustainable assets that can be sold or repurposed in the future. The ability to scale search engine presence in both local and national markets can be achieved when basic optimization methods are applied.

It’s difficult to embrace the power of search engine optimization efforts if you’re not patient, willing to work hard, and go above and beyond what your competition is already doing. Simply stated, generating quality traffic organically takes into consideration a variety of methods and strategies, research and tracking tactics, patience, and consistency.

The 5 methods below are often overlooked, but effectively detail how to maximize SEO efforts.

1. Select Relevant Domains: Selecting a domain name that is relevant to your product or service should take into consideration the keyword market that you’re looking to penetrate. The ability to rank for desired search terms (if they’re contained in the domain name) can be achieved with less resistance as opposed to selecting a domain name that’s unrelated to the nature of the niche. When selecting domain names it’s also important to consider the age of the domain, potential spelling errors users may enter, trademark or copyright infringements, the purchase price, expiration date, and if the URL can be branded.

2. Create Clean Code: Many web developers are not in tune with the recommended best practices for on-page SEO. When selecting a web developer, make sure they address SEO requirements by describing the methods they’ll be using to ensure that their work is visible to search engines. Suggesting keywords or META information is often not enough to cut it.

For most business websites we recommend WordPress to simplify on-page SEO elements. There are dozens of free WordPress SEO plug-ins that are easy to install, and will enhance future link building efforts. Free WordPress themes can be edited to your liking and provide a more stable option for reaching long term SEO goals over custom design work created from scratch.

3. Distribute Compelling Content: Content will always be king on search engines. It doesn’t matter if you’re operating a news media website or a site created for a local real estate agency, unique content that draws attention to your offer or business will bring interested users to your site. When crafting content, be creative and offer readers valuable information. If you’re an expert in your field, writing content that’s informative and helpful will attract attention in terms of improving search rankings, web traffic, and industry notoriety.

4. Leverage Authoritative Websites: After establishing your online presence with a solid foundation in terms of web content and flawless on-page SEO, reach out to authoritative websites that feature content similar to yours. Large websites and media sites are constantly sourcing industry experts to write intelligent features. They often allow writers to link to their website, previously written content, or Twitter accounts. When anchored keywords are added to the equation, the ability to pass and filter authority can be realized. Writing articles on sites like Ezine Articles can also help increase search rankings and generate traffic later down the road.

5. Write Unique Content Regularly: It’s easy to get sidetracked or neglect your website or blog when “more important” business activities become a priority. Updating your content regularly and committing time to create content for the purposes of distribution will bear fruit for years to come. Most audiences are smart and look forward to receiving updates from websites or blogs that feature information that’s both valuable and enjoyable to read. Regardless of maintaining readership, search engines may value your competitor’s website with greater regard in terms of ranking if they’re posting and distributing content of similar quality more frequently.

Applying principles of the methods listed above is recommended and beneficial for all types of SEO campaigns regardless of niche, keyword markets, or associated competition.

For many business owners, utilizing SEO strategies is now considered a viable way of attracting potential customers seeking products and services in local markets. With any campaign or offer that’s focused on leveraging search engines to generate targeted traffic, crafting quality content should be a top priority.

The common denominators of most search engine optimization initiatives are: creating quality content, content depth, and the frequency in which content is delivered. Many businesses feel that a “flashy” site may attract visitors and potential customers, but they often overlook the value of content creation and distribution to enhance search engine reach. Managing on-page elements will only get a local business so far if new links are not being generated internally. Fresh and interesting content is not only valuable to users, but also valuable to search engines for indexing and categorization purposes.

A simple method that more local businesses should get in the habit of is documenting the news and happenings of their business by blogging creatively. If you’re an automotive detailing company, it’s smart to take pictures that showcase your work with an article that’s easy to read, keyword optimized, and descriptive in nature. If your business sells custom floral arrangements, the same methods can be applied. Buyers in local markets make decisions based on proof of concept so building trust through content is key.

It’s also important to be aware that URL structures can be derived from the nature of business that’s being conducted or the geographical location where a transaction or activity took place. The likelihood of your clients sharing links on social networks when your content pertains to them specifically, can work wonders for any business.

The Link Builders take a different approach than most SEO agencies as we’re focused on understanding the goals and objectives of our clients business before recommending a strategy. Depending on the demand of a local product or service, origination of new business can be realized entirely from search engines in some cases. This explains why savy Internet marketers and SEO agencies are outranking many local businesses (intentionally) on search engines for the purposes of lead generation and monetization.

Search engine optimization strategies should be considered by all local businesses regardless of industry as both competitors and independent marketers have become proactive and often aggressive with link building efforts to rank for desirable keywords. Search engine presence is not only lucrative but critical to the long term success of any business as users are reliant on search engines (including search on mobile devices) to obtain information or influence purchasing decisions. Content development, link building strategies, and SEO initiatives are critical to the long term sustainability of any local businesses.