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May 23, 2011

Making Money Online Through Affiliate Marketing



Affiliate marketing is one of the most common avenues for making money online.  Affiliate marketing is, in essence, when you sign on with companies to market their products and services on your own website in return for a certain percentage of money made by people who buy things after clicking on a link on your site.  Generally affiliate marketers make between thirty five and eighty percent of the profits made on a sale.
Signing up as an affiliate marketer is free and you can even market for free on a personal blog or site through something like blogger.com or WordPress.  Affiliate marketing isn’t a bad place to start if you want to make money online, but if you want to be well off, you’ll have to know some tricks and tips.
The trick to succeeding in affiliate marketing is to build a blog or info-site built around your affiliates so that people researching what you’re pushing can learn about it and then click on a link to buy whatever it is you’re talking about.  Many successful web entrepreneurs do this because it is free to become and affiliate and hosting your own website is highly affordable; usually just a few dollars a month.  You have to become an expert in your field, which means researching and writing on a given subject that you wish to market. This information can then be used in email marketing and your website.
However, you can’t only write content, you also has to push your site out there.  There are a number of tools geared towards increasing traffic to your website, optimizing your site for search engines, and making places like Google rank you.  After all, you won’t be a successful affiliate marketer if you aren’t seen, so you have to do just as much work into pushing your site as you do towards filling it.
There are entire libraries of information devoted to how to do this and the information is always changing slightly, so you’re better off exploring reputable tools to help.  Knowing things like Search Engine Optimization, forum marketing and email marketing are all things that take practice and training, so be prepared for some education in order to make lots of money.
Affiliate marketing is one of those making money online schemes which actually works if you put the effort into it.  There are many people who can make hundreds and even thousands of dollars a month with just a few months of hard work and the rest of the time largely spent updating sites and watching the cash come in.  Businesses pay very well to have their names plastered on other sites and many online businesses work entirely on the premise of being affiliate marketers.
It’s a fantastic money making niche and almost entirely free to start.  However, it is highly advisable to put a bit of money into a good system that will show you how to go about making the most out of affiliate marketing right from the start, so make sure to look around and then get down to making money online by helping others find what they need.

You know that you can make money becoming an affiliate for various businesses, large and small. For many people, that is the sole way that they make money online and it can be really good business. But what about promoting the affiliate programs themselves? Can you make money promoting affiliate programs for affiliates? And if so, how? First of all, understand that you can easily promote other affiliates simply by signing up with the larger merchant. For example, ClickBank not only allows you to sell niche digital products, but you can also sign on with the affiliate program for ClickBank and sell advertising for the company; this is what it means to promote other affiliate programs as opposed to promoting products sold on a given website. Other good affiliate programs to promote include Ebay and Amazon, but any site which sells affiliate marketing as well as products is a good candidate. Why Is Promoting Affiliate Programs Good Money? It may seem a bit odd to promote a program rather than products, but you can make good online money doing it for a number of reasons. First of all, these affiliate programs give a higher commission for people who refer other affiliates as opposed to referring customers. Second of all, these affiliate programs also sell plenty of products; for example, ClickBank sells tens of thousands of digital products on the site which you can also get a commission for should someone you refer buy something. This means that you get double the chance for cash. Most affiliate programs give a minimum of 25% commission and upwards of 75-80% commission. Amazon.com is the only one that offers only between 4-8.5%. However, don’t judge by numbers alone; the higher the commission, the more narrow the niche and that means that though you get more money per referral, you end up with far fewer referrals in the long run. Instead, you should opt for a moderate commission base depending on how you intend to push your chosen affiliate program. If you get a smaller commission, but a wider possible consumer base, you may make far more money online than a larger commission with a smaller base. Sign Up! It’s generally free to sign up as an affiliate marketer for an affiliate program. Once you sign up, you are given a range of codes for all different kinds of advertising such as banner ads and text links which you can then use on your own site. Then simply work on ranking your site high as you would be doing anyway. Remember that the more traffic you have coming to your site, the more potential people there are to send to your affiliate sites and the more money you’ll make. Affiliate marketing for other affiliate programs can be a great way to make money online if you do it properly. Choose a company that offers a good commission and as wide a possible consumer base as possible and then work on pushing your site higher in the ranks so that you get more traffic. You can make good money promoting affiliate programs online just as you can make good money promoting products and in the same way.

You know that you can make money becoming an affiliate for various businesses, large and small.  For many people, that is the sole way that they make money online and it can be really good business.  But what about promoting the affiliate programs themselves?  Can you make money promoting affiliate programs for affiliates?  And if so, how?
First of all, understand that you can easily promote other affiliates simply by signing up with the larger merchant.  For example, ClickBank not only allows you to sell niche digital products, but you can also sign on with the affiliate program for ClickBank and sell advertising for the company; this is what it means to promote other affiliate programs as opposed to promoting products sold on a given website.  Other good affiliate programs to promote include Ebay and Amazon, but any site which sells affiliate marketing as well as products is a good candidate.
Why Is Promoting Affiliate Programs Good Money?

It may seem a bit odd to promote a program rather than products, but you can make good online money doing it for a number of reasons.  First of all, these affiliate programs give a higher commission for people who refer other affiliates as opposed to referring customers.  Second of all, these affiliate programs also sell plenty of products; for example, ClickBank sells tens of thousands of digital products on the site which you can also get a commission for should someone you refer buy something.  This means that you get double the chance for cash.
Most affiliate programs give a minimum of 25% commission and upwards of 75-80% commission.  Amazon.com is the only one that offers only between 4-8.5%.  However, don’t judge by numbers alone; the higher the commission, the more narrow the niche and that means that though you get more money per referral, you end up with far fewer referrals in the long run.  Instead, you should opt for a moderate commission base depending on how you intend to push your chosen affiliate program.  If you get a smaller commission, but a wider possible consumer base, you may make far more money online than a larger commission with a smaller base.
Sign Up!

It’s generally free to sign up as an affiliate marketer for an affiliate program.  Once you sign up, you are given a range of codes for all different kinds of advertising such as banner ads and text links which you can then use on your own site.  Then simply work on ranking your site high as you would be doing anyway.  Remember that the more traffic you have coming to your site, the more potential people there are to send to your affiliate sites and the more money you’ll make.
Affiliate marketing for other affiliate programs can be a great way to make money online if you do it properly.  Choose a company that offers a good commission and as wide a possible consumer base as possible and then work on pushing your site higher in the ranks so that you get more traffic.  You can make good money promoting affiliate programs online just as you can make good money promoting products and in the same way.

5 Tips For Ensure You Succeed Working At Home As An Affiliate Marketer

As an affiliate marketer with your own online business, you can enjoy many benefits of working from home. Today, many people want to work at home and earn money online and avoid being stuck in a nine-to-five job.
Working at home an affiliate marketer brings many benefits, namely you are your own boss and you can manage your own time. This means that you can set your work hours and adjust them to suit your personal life. You can spend more time with your family or kids. You don’t have to drive to work everyday. You set the targets of what you want to earn from your affiliate business, and you simply go for it! wealthy affiliate
Although having your own affiliate marketing business and working from home has many benefits, working from home requires a lot of discipline and organizational skills so that you can plan your time properly. There can be many distractions at home, and you must make sure that each day you do what you need to do grow your affiliate marketing business.
This article outlines five basic tips that you can use as a work-from-home affiliate marketer so that you can manage your time effectively and have enough time to expand your business and earn huge affiliate commissions.
1. Set the hours that you will be working everyday and stick to them. Affiliate marketing involves a lot of work especially when you are still starting to build your business. It is therefore important that you allocate enough time everyday to work on your affiliate marketing business. While working at home, many things can happen that can take you away from your work, but you must exercise a lot of discipline so that you do not neglect your business. one week marketing
2. Have your own office where you can work without any interruptions. Although the benefit of working from home is that you can work in your pajamas anyway you want, it is recommended that you have an office where you can organize your work and be able to work in peace and quiet without any disturbances. Having a suitable working environment will increase your productivity.
3. Have the necessary tools. Obviously, to succeed as an online entrepreneur you need the necessary tools. This includes your own computer, printer and fast internet connection. If you handle your affiliate marketing business professionally, you will succeed in making money online.
4. Do not neglect your health. Most affiliate markets are driven to succeed quickly. As a result they can work long hours during the day and night to grow their business and start to earn big commissions. It is important for you to take a break, exercise and get enough rest. 4 day money making blueprint review
5. Get a mentor and interact with other affiliate markets. Depending on your experience in internet marketing, interacting with other marketers can help you learn some tips that you can use to grow your affiliate marketing business.
Tagged with: wealthy affiliate review
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building

Compare the two posts below, both written by the exact same SEO expert and each containing around the same number of words. Without knowing the subject, can you guess which post earned more links?
Which Post Earned More Links
Try 378 to 6. In addition to its visual appeal, the left post was more timely, useful and informative - all hallmarks of copywriting grace.
The “secrets” of copywriting have existed since before the ancient Greeks. Generations of Don Drapers have perfected the craft. Today we use computer analysis and data mining to uncover the most effective SEO practices. Rand’s early peek at the Ranking Factors hints at some of these factors. My colleague Casey Henry conducted a study of link-worthy material that included elements such as title length and word frequency. Fantastic stuff and I hope he does another such study soon.
So why don’t more authors take advantage? Why all the cardboard looking blog posts?
Here’s the takeaway. To earn links, use copywriting to organize your content.

1. Write for Power Skimmers

Steve Krug’s words of wisdom for website usability in his book Don’t Make Me Think ring true for all elements of SEO copywriting.
Heat Map"We don’t read pages. We scan them.”
-Steve Krug

Krug advocates for a billboard style of design. This means using language, images, layout and color to make your material stand out and shine. Think of motorcycle riders speeding past billboards. Which one will they remember?
To be fair, prettying up mediocre content won’t make it any better. But does your best work look like it belongs in an encyclopedia?
Unless you are Wikipedia, don’t look like Wikipedia.

2. Why Headline Formulas Work

Headlines organize your content by making a promise to the reader. The body of your content delivers on that promise.
Check out this recent cover for Wired Magazine.
Why Headline Formulas Word
Using the “who-what-why” formula isn’t the only way to format your headlines, but it works. Another technique I like is to ask a question, e.g., “Have You Been Secretly Penalized by Google?
Don't be scared of headline formulas. Instead of "gimmicky," think of them as a framework for the promise you make. When I’m stuck for headline inspiration, I surf the fantastic resources over at Copyblogger.
There are literally dozens of effective headline formulas out there, so you need never worry about repeating yourself.

3. Get 20% More with Numbers

I made that number up. Why?
Numbers grab our attention. Look at the titles to some of the most linked-to posts on SEOmoz.
It makes you want to click one of those links right now...
Whether in a headline or a list, numbers light up the ordered, mathematical part of our brain to make content more attractive. It also provides you with a way to structure your material in a way that makes sense.

4. Free and Easy Power Words

My writing life changed when I read Robert W. Bly’s seminal work, The Copywriter’s Handbook. He introduced me to the power of choosing the right language for successful communication.
Although some of his “power” words belong in the back of a Sunday newspaper advertisement, their effectiveness can’t be denied. These include words like quick, easy, guarantee and free.
“Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter’s vocabulary. Everybody wants to get something for free.”
-Robert W. Bly
Words are magic. The opposite of power words includes language like try, maybe, might, possibly and perhaps. These "halfway" words kill your writing.
The point is not to use a rote list of words like a checklist in your copy, but rather be conscious of the power (or lack of) your language. Don’t hedge your bets with weak prose.

5. A Picture is Worth 1000 Clicks

Rethink your visuals. Visuals are essential to any story and include:
  • Photographs
  • Artwork
  • Charts and Graphs
  • Slidedecks
  • Video
  • Infographics
The wrong way to add images is to buy stock or steal them off of the web. Instead, make every effort to include original media in your content. A simple, 100% original hand drawing attracts more interesting any day of the week than using Parked Domain Girl.
Unique Images Earn Links
Original Pineapple Artwork by Dawn Shepard
It doesn’t matter what you use, just make it original.

6. Use Sub-Headlines or Die Trying

This is a no-brainer. Imagine the front page of a newspaper with just one headline. All other text is equal. You wouldn’t read it, or you would tire quickly if you did. Our brains don’t work that way.
We want things broken up and organized.
If your text is longer than 250-400 words, you must use sub-headlines. No exceptions.

7. When in Doubt, List it Out

This entire post is a list. Try these numbers on for size:
  • 75% of the top 20 post on SEOmoz contain a bulleted list
  • 60% feature a numbered list
Why do lists work so well? Why is David Letterman’s Top Ten the most anticipated part of his show, even if it’s not as funny as the rest of the show?
Lists are the building blocks of ideas. When we go to the grocery store, we don’t write a story – that’s ineffective. To communicate your thoughts quickly and effectively, nothing gets to the root of the matter like a list can.
Humans crave order. Use lists to create structure and build your content from the ground up.

8. Quotes

My all-time favorite use of effective quoting comes from Michael Crichton’s science fiction work Timeline. He juxtaposes two ideas against each other to explain a single concept about quantum theory.
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory does not understand it.”
NEILS BOHR, 1927
“Nobody understands quantum theory.”
RICHARD FEYNMAN, 1967
Utilize quotes to set your ideas apart.

9. The Bold and the Italic

Along the same lines, use bold to emphasize important points. If you don’t have important points, you have bigger problems.
Italics do the same job but sound more European, like this guy.

10. Be Honest

Effective SEO copywriting should never alter or misrepresent your work. Indeed, its purpose is to help you communicate your core ideas more clearly and effectively.
"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know."
— Ernest Hemingway
Writing from the heart is always the best copywriting technique.

Introducing MozCation: Nominate Your City for an SEOmoz Meetup

Posted by jennita to SEO Events

Imagine this if you will… you're sitting in your office in Denver, working away and see a tweet come through your stream about an SEOmoz meetup in New York City. You think to yourself, "self… why do they always have these meetups so far away? It'd be cool if they came to Denver, we have lots of SEOs here too, yo." [that's at least how I talk to myself] Ok… ok so perhaps you've never had that exact situation happen, but perhaps something similar. :) Which is exactly why we came up with the SEOmoz Family MozCation!

We're hitting the road, and want to have a meetup in your city!


MozCation

But why?

Our community means the world to us, and getting to spend time with you in a small setting is the best way to get to know you. Usually we have a meetup in large cities which we're already visiting because we're speaking at a conference, or something like that. But we're ready to expand our horizons a bit and possibly hit up some smaller cities or places we don't often visit. This is where you come in...

Nominate your city for our first meetup on June 29th!

But here's the thing, obviously you know your city better than we do. So we're asking you to put together some piece of content to tell us why we should plan a meetup in your town. We want you to get creative here. Nominating your city is easy. Just follow the steps below:

1. Create some awesome content to tell us why your city is awesome

Tell us why we your city (town, area, whatever) is perfect for a meetup of online marketers. It doesn't matter if it's a big city or a small town, if you're in the United States or Timbuktu.  What types of content can you come up with? Get creative, but here are some examples:
 A video: Show us the sights, get your friends together a do a quick jig, tell the camera why your town is the best.
 A blog post: Make the case using your brilliant writing skills. Do you have an amazing fountain in your town, is there a great brew pub, do you and your friends meet and talk SEO every single day?
 A song: Are you musically gifted? Write a song and tell how why we should come to your town.
 A photo: Is there one perfect shot that explains your city? Can you take a picture of the 30 people who would come? Take it, and link to it!
 A drawing: Perhaps you're more inclined to draw it out. Show us why the Mozzers should invade your area.
You can go in on it with several people in your area to try to combine your efforts even. We're open to going pretty much anywhere and who knows, you may even meet some new people!

This is my lame attempt to show there are lots of SEOs in Denver (my hometown). Photo courtesy Rudy Lopez.

2. Complete the nomination form with a link to your content:

3. Send a tweet to share your nomination with the world!

Once the content is created, use the form on the MozCation page to create a nominating tweet. Add the link to your content, the location you'd like us to come to, hit submit, then send the tweet it creates. Bam! You're done. :)  And be sure to get friends in your town to tweet (or re-tweet) your link for further consideration!

Deadline for nomination is May 24th for our June 29th event!

We'll have three meetups throughout the year, so this is just your first chance. You're free to nominate your city each time around. For now though, you have a little less than two weeks to get your content created and your nomination in. So what are you waiting for?? Time is ticking away!

The first meetup will be held on Wednesday, June 29th so you won't have to wait too long. :)

We Pick The City

Once the nominations are closed, we'll go through all the entries and pick the most compelling entry. Remember we're open to going to smaller cities, just give us a good reason why we should! Getting retweets on your submission can help, but it's not a necessity. We're making the final call, so if the best content comes from an entry with 2 tweets, it's all good.

What is an SEOmoz Meetup Anyway?

Each time we plan a meetup it's slightly different based on the city we'll be in, event location, etc. But normally it runs 2-3 hours, we like to get 2-4 industry leaders to speak to the group, and there's always plenty of food and drinks to go around. We think these are ideal situations to meet with and give back to the community. Most times we'll give away some kind of swag and we'll always have a discount to try out our PRO membership.

Questions, Questions and More Questions

I know, you have lots of questions right? Check out the official MozCon page for a lot more information and details about the events. But don't think too much about it. :) Create some compelling content telling us why your city is the perfect place for an SEOmoz Meetup, and we'll figure out the rest!

We look forward to the nominations and we'll be retweeting some of the best ones we see come through. Now it's time to get crackin' folks and create something awesome.

New in PRO: Subfolders + Root Domains; Linkscape Update + More

Posted by randfish to SEOmoz News

SEOmoz PRO has been taking some big leaps in improvement, albeit quietly. You may have noticed many small improvements and fewer bugs (though we're still working out some kinks), but you might not have noticed one awesome change to how we support campaigns.

Subdomains, Subfolders & Root Domains Now Included!

Since the web app launched, one of our most requested items (in fact, I think it actually was #1 on the request list) has been the ability to track keyword rankings + crawl data on either a specific subdomain, an entire root domain or a specific subfolder. After many challenging hours of re-writing our crawl and tracking system, the engineering team launched this last week! What does it mean, you ask?
 Parts of a URL - Subfolders, Subdomains, Root Domains and Pages
Thus, I could not set up a campaign in SEOmoz PRO for any of the following:
  • The subdomain "webdesign.about.com" which would only crawl pages and track rankings from that subdomain
  • The root domain "*.about.com" which would crawl pages and track rankings on any page on the about.com root domain
  • The subfolder "geography.about.com/climate/" which would limit crawling and rank tracking to pages in that particular folder
For many of us who already use the web app extensively, the best part of this may be the ability to put separate subfolders into separate campaigns. With a 5 campaign, $99 account, you can now track 5 subfolders on the same site, meaning your crawl, keywords tracked, etc. can scale up much better. Those of us who've been frustrated by rank tracking not catching other subdomains on our sites (one of my personal pet peeves) should switch to root domain tracking (yes, sadly, this means having to set up a new campaign) to catch everything.
NOTE: We can't automatically segment your Google Analytics data, so if you want to separate visit numbers into subfolders or subdomains, be sure to create a unique campaign in GA and connect the right one to the app.

Linkscape Update: Index 40

Linkscape's index updated this past weekend with brand new link data crawled in April. Be sure to check OSE + the web app for your new scores.
  • 40,283,351,470 (40.3 billion) URLs
  • 395,648,189 (396 million) Subdomains
  • 115,483,313 (115 million) Root Domains
  • 410,406,731,584 (410 billion) Links
  • Followed vs. Nofollowed
    • 2.24% of all links found were nofollowed
    • 57.25% of nofollowed links are internal, 42.75% are external
  • Rel Canonical - 7.49% of all pages now employ a rel=canonical tag
  • The average page has 61 links on it (up from 60.88 last index - the first rise in many months)
    • 51.64 internal links on average
    • 9.36 external links on average
NOTE: We're trying something new in the next Linkscape index (index 41, scheduled for early June) that may have a dramatic impact on some of our metrics. We believe this is the right thing to do and will increase the quality of the resource, but there may be some oddities as it will be the first time we publicly show an index with this structure.

Linkscape Metrics' Latest Correlation w/ Google Rankings

Although we've been tracking Linkscape's correlations with rankings on a semi-regular basis, this is now becoming a key part of how we measure each index. Below are the latest correlation numbers (these use the top 30 results in Google across ~10K keywords):
As you can see, Page Authority is still our best correlated metric and the one I'd generally bias toward when doing link opportunity analysis. Domain authority is, likewise, the best correlated domain-based metric, though it's only slightly better than other domain-based data like DmT (of the root domain).
In this index, we also worked with SEO By The Sea's Bill Slawski to help build a more robust, more accurate trusted seed set for MozTrust. Although the correlations with rankings aren't much higher (only +0.01 improvement from our previous index), we're not sure that rank prediction is the best way to actually measure mozTrust. If you've got feedback about the new mT or DmT scores, please do let us know - my rough observation was that it seemed at least as good, possibly better than before.

More Improvements to PRO

As long as I've still got your attention, I thought I'd call out a couple of other smaller improvements that went out last week as well:
  • New help guides: Find yourself stuck in the web app and need a hand, click help at the top right of the page to learn how to get the most out of the feature or report. We've also just released this awesome PDF guide.
  • Faster loading Google Analytics data. You'll notice that the traffic data on the ranking summary and history now load right away. You can also see this with the weekly data on the traffic data tab, and soon with the monthly data too!
  • .csv exports from the ranking summary reports now include the ranking URLs.

Coming Soon:

  • A big update to our SEO toolbar for Firefox with a bunch of cool new capabilities for analyzing pages and SERPs (with Chrome to follow). BTW - speaking of the MozBar, it does work with the new FF 4; if you're having any trouble, just re-install!
  • Some brand new PRO pricing and plans,  providing some great new options for those seeking more campaigns and keywords.
  • The much-anticipated SERPs Analysis tool (no certain deadline, but probably before July).
That's actually not all - there's some other big features on the way, but we have to keep those secret (particularly the launch of something very exciting at Day 1 of MozCon).
If you've got feedback for PRO, don't be shy! Use that "feedback" button on the left-hand side of the app or leave a note on our feature request forum and tell us what's bugging you, what you want and all your hopes & dreams (for SEO tools that is).

Competitor Analysis for Linkbuilding: A Guide for People who Hate Linkbuilding

I hate linkbuilding. In my perfect world, linkbuilding is done scalably via widgets, with a big budget to promote a perfect product. This is pretty much never the case, so manual linkbuilding needs to be done
In January, Michael Martinez posted a long rant about why competitor analysis for link building is a waste of time. My post is about how to get more out of competitor analysis for link building than just links. The extra bit of juice I get out of the process is high level business intelligence. This is my basic process for competitor based linkbuilding, with specific examples from various live linkbuilding campaigns.
I use Open Site Explorer for the link analysis as well as to measure my rate and quality of link acquisition.
1. Find your REAL Competitors
When working with a client, I always ask them who their main competitors are. In most cases they over estimate some brands and underestimate others. They often think only of brick and mortar companies and forget web-only players and content aggregators.
I take a basket of 100 keywords that I think are likely to be the most ROI beneficial to the client and check competition by SERP Saturation.
Example of SERP Saturation for a basket of travel industry keywords

Often this process throws up new sites that no one was aware of, but that have been quietly doing very well
I choose three top competitors and load them into the SEOmoz Campaign Manager. Here is the real data from my UK train industry campaign

2. Understand what Types of Links you Need
I create a range of graphs per competitor from the granular competitor link analysis data. This allows me to see what type of links I need.

When I see that I have all followed links and no nofollowed links, I know I can target low quality, exact match links with little risk of penalties. In the example above, you can see I need to concentrate on getting links from a wide number of sources.
3. Create a Baseline for Measurement
This is very simple. I just record the granular link data from my site and 3 competitors into Excel whenever the SEOmoz crawler updates.
Hotel Industry example:

I can get a very easy view-over-time on what is and has happened to backlinks. Once this data is in excel, its quick to create graphs for visualisations and reporting.
Train industry example:

It is very easy to see we have a significantly increased the number of incoming links in a short space of time.
These graphs keep clients happy but there is more going on behind the scenes.
It is very important to monitor the Domain Authority and homepage Page Authority to make sure that your linkbuilding does not gain links at the expense of reducing your other domain-wide authority metrics.
4. Export a Competitor's Backlinks into Excel
I keep only the URL, Page Authority and Domain Authority columns. Add a column for Action, Category and Notes. The Category column is the real value add.

Sort the list into 100 unique domains, and then by page authority. Then visit each site on the list.
In the Action column, record the action you take (UNO means Unobtainable, I don't think we can get a link etc) In the Category column, categorise the website.
This is the list I use for the train industry:
  • News - Quality news site
  • Blog - Personal writeup about that company specifically
  • Reference Site - Write up that mentions the company as a reference or resource
  • Owned Other site - a different website that they own
  • Twitter - I will follow them with the Twitter account
  • Student Site - specific for each industry
  • Timebased Event - specific for each industry
A lot of links are from student sites and a lot are timebased events like past conferences, so I make a specific category for them.
When I email the webmaster, I keep track of the date I sent it, the person's name, the email address I sent it to and any other notes like phone numbers.
I keep an email folder for each linkbuilding campaign that contains all the replies.
I got three great tips from Frank at www.orchidbox.com while writing this post.
  1. Check the whois email address if there is no email on the site. A bonus here is that these people are less likely to be being spammed, so your email may be received without preconceived scepticism on their part.
  2. Add a column for whether the site uses Adsense or not. This can allow you to target PPC ads at high quality websites in your niche.
  3. Add a column for whether the site takes article submissions or not. If you can't get a free link, you can at least write a decent guest post for your link.
5. A Linkbuilding Email Template
Keep it short and simple but do all the important bits.
----------------------
Hi there
Would you add www.clientsite.co.uk/ to your page http://www.yoursite.com/uk/en/careers/student/offices?
They have discounts for buying online and no credit card charges and serve the area your users live in.
Cheers
Stephen
----------------------
  1. Informal, personal where I can get the recipient's name form the website
  2. Not a lot to read, tells them exactly what I want and where I want it (i.e. Don't make them think!)
  3. Tells them why giving me a link is good for their users
  4. Tells them why giving me a link makes their site better
  5. Doesn't make any wild promises on my site, or suggest anything spammy
  6. Doesn't take a lot of my time to replicate or personalise, I can shift a lot of these in a day if needed
Don't overthink this. If you are in doubt, just send the email. I have had PR 9 backlinks using this method. Follow up if you need to.
6. Gather your Business Intelligence
Now that the link building is done, segmentation is where you get extra business intelligence. I have two extra columns in my Excel. The example below is from an analysis of links pointing to the www.thetrainline.com.
Actions
Describes the action taken - already have a link, sent email, called, filled form, don’t want etc.

This gives me a good overview of how my links compare to theirs.
Site type
Describes the type of site it is. This changes slightly depending on the site and vertical, there is no hard and fast rule.

This tells me where they get the bulk of their links from and can be used to guide the next phase of linkbuilding strategy as well as in this case, feeding back into actual product development.
7. Turn Business Intelligence into Strategy
Here is some actual feedback to the client based on link analysis of The Trainline.
Geography   One of the main reason links are not obtainable, is that The Trainline operates on a larger geographic scale than [client] and therefore gets a larger numbers of targeted links from local organisations. A lot of websites use The Trainline site as a single reference point when they just want to list one place to go to look for cheap tickets. [client] cannot compete as they do not have comprehensive geographical coverage.
Student   Student websites are a great source of natural links and are a good fit for our product. They are also very price conscious and could respond well to a value message.
From this I would suggest
  • Linkbuilding to focus on student websites
  • Building a separate, country wide, student focused ticket selling domain. This will be incredibly powerful in achieving links not only from education institutions but also being available to use as a countrywide reference point by newspapers, blogs and other references
8. Know When to Move On
I normally do this for the three main competitors and then stop.
By that time I've done three sites I have good feel for the link landscape in the sector and have sponged up most of the available links. Each site after this brings diminishing returns.
That's how I do it. Having a plan to follow makes it easy to sell and less painful to do.

5 Suggestions for Google Suggest



Wait, what were those suggested searches? I just spewed Theraflu onto the Mac. Who am I kidding, those queries aren't helpful at all! In fact many are horribly offensive. If you want to replicate those searches today, you might not find them because Google has since refined their autocomplete algorithm and in some cases perhaps applied an offensive filter. If I lost anyone with that last sentence, take a minute to head over to Search Engine Land and read Danny Sullivan's enormous post on how Google's autocomplete suggestions work. Or you can read the 60 second overview here:
From what we've been able to determine, the following are the primary contributing factors to Google's Suggested Search algorithm:
  • SEARCH VOLUME - There's a minimum threshold for popularity and once reached the suggested search will be triggered. How "sticky" a suggestion is depends on whether the popularity is long-term or short-term.
  • PERSONALIZATION - IP address is definitely being pulled, as well as, the user's own search history, the country of the search engine itself (e.g. Google.fr vs Google.com) and the language.
  • QUERY DESERVES FRESHNESS (QDF) - This is the short-term popularity filter, which can pop within an hour as seen with Osama bin Laden's death and on Monday, news of Meredith Vieira's departure from The Today Show, which showed a massive surge in popularity for her name immediately after the announcement:


What followed were two new suggested searches for a search that starts with just [meredith v...]:

  • MISSPELLINGS & VARIATIONS - Google will display common misspellings. This can be seen in recent news on the discovery of [Rita Chretien] and her missing husband:
  • AUTOMATED RESULTS - Google displays automated results often for queries like flight status, local time zones, area codes, package tracking, certain answers, definitions, calculations, plus currency and unit conversions.
  • BLOCKED SEARCHES -

    Q: Does Google exclude any users' searches from autocomplete? A: The search queries that you see as part of autocomplete are a reflection of the search activity of all web users. Just like the web, the search queries presented may include silly or strange or surprising terms and phrases. While we always strive to neutrally and objectively reflect the diversity of content on the web (some good, some objectionable), we also apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, hate speech, and terms that are frequently used to find content that infringes copyrights.
It looks like Google (and the other search engines with autocompletion) have a lot of secret sauce behind this feature and it sounds pretty nifty. What could possibly go wrong?
According to a lawsuit Google lost in Italy for libel and an appealed ruling in France for offensive language, there are some very unhappy campers about suggested searches. When the plaintiffs' names came up in Google with "fraud" or "scam" attached, this feature went from convenient to libelous and costly.
They're not alone.
Take a peek at Google's own Webmaster forums where you'll find a number of cries for help and frustrated threats of litigation. I can personally attest to the fact that 40% of the clients at Outspoken Media come from online reputation management and in many cases the business or individual has been harmed by a competitor, a single crazy customer, a crazier ex or worse a well-optimized negative review on a "consumer advocacy" site built solely to extort money and/or generate income through AdSense.
Many reading this post will adamantly believe that if a negative review was resolved positively then what is there to worry about? The problem in my eyes (and those of our clients) is that potential customers are alarmed when they see [company name scam]. In industries with a high level of competition and little brand awareness, customers aren't going to take the time to investigate further. When clients have followed Google's own advice for reputation management and that can't turn the tide of suggested searches, there's nothing left to do but see their business get damaged or resort to other means. More frustrating is that Google isn't publicly addressing concerns. They did temporarily block [scam] and [ripoff] searches at the end of March, but after two weeks of hesitant celebration they were back.
SEOs are getting more vocal about the need for change. Not because we're spammers, but because we're fighting on behalf of clients and those who can't afford our services, but read our blogs everyday looking for guidance and a way to solve a very real threat to their livelihood. So, without further ado:
5 Suggestions for Google Suggest
Note - Some of the following may be controversial. These aren't meant as a to-do list, but a start to a much-needed conversation. Let's try not to get into the tired black vs white hat debate or gangsta-style snitch threats. Please do take a minute to share your recommendations and findings in the comments below.
  1. Develop a support area - This might be a unique area under the Google Webmaster Central forums or something as simple as more actionable advice than the previous post on managing your reputation through search. It could be even simpler by taking the form of a public response to the many questions already being posted.
  2. Prompt a Google Webmaster Central message - Setup an alert for webmasters similar to the malware alert and other automated messages in GWC that triggers a message like "Google has detected that your website is ranking for [your name scam]." Link this message to the aforementioned support area or the tool mentioned below, so that webmasters can take necessary actions to report or repair the findings.
  3. Provide a reporting tool - I know this is going to be controversial, but hear me out. This already exists in Google Places as a feature for reporting spam in a listing. Google says the tool should be used if a:
    - Listing contains incorrect information or spam
    - Place is permanently closed
    - Place has another listing
    - Place doesn’t exist or is private
    - Some photos, reviews, or details belong to a different place
    This report would be subject to abuse, but I'd like to think that by placing it within Webmaster Central there would be less so, especially if Google invested in the upkeep of the support section. I don't know that I would personally even use it, but it would make a lot of clients happy to feel like Google was listening.
  4. Rely on reputable third party partners - Instead of making small businesses spin their wheels with fruitless attempts at a resolution with a dozen scraped "consumer sites" give more value to the reputable advocacy sites. I know, another controversial topic! Everyone has their opinion of the Better Business Bureau or Yelp, but when it comes down to it, those are real businesses with contact information, clearly established resolution guidelines and public representatives. I'd much rather focus my efforts there and I already know they have more effective filters for *real* reviews.
  5. Improve the algorithm - This may seem simple, but if it was the post would be moot. I'm not a genius, so I'll let those guys figure this one out, but there has to be more consideration for what the actual search results pages look like, less value placed on popular search volume and more consideration for the sites causing those searches.
Those are my suggestions for Google Suggest! There are only so many ways to write [company name scam] content with a positive spin or tempt fate by turning to other solutions. Leave your ideas in the comments and while we're at it, maybe we can find a way to solve world hunger.
Also, in case you haven't already signed up, Rand, Jen, Avi Wilensky and I will be presenting in New York THIS Thursday. If you're in the city, come out for some fantastic insight and company.
About Rhea: Rhea Drysdale is the CEO of Outspoken Media, which specializes in SEO consulting, link development, social media strategies and reputation management. When she isn't fighting trademarks for the SEO industry, she is She-Ra on Twitter.

More "Panda" Update Information Starting to Come Out


On Friday, Google posted an update on its Webmaster Central blog entitled "Providing More Guidance on Building High-Quality Sites". The piece expands on much of what Google has said about the Panda update since its original release on February 24th.
In public statements about the Panda update, Google has referenced a number of questions that they're attempting to answer algorithmically. "Would you feel comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?" and "Would you accept medical advice from this site?" are two that have been around since the beginning. Friday's Webmaster Central post offered up a more substantial list with some of the highlights below:
  • Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
  • Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
  • Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
  • Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
  • Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
  • Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
  • Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
  • Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
Along with the set of questions, Google's Amit Singhal also added:
One other specific piece of guidance we've offered is that low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.

Answering the "Feeling" Questions

We can deduce how Google can algorithmically answer quite a few of the questions (Richard Baxter did just that in a great post), but what about those "feeling" questions, like the credit card question? It's tough to say, but actually having most of the questions answered about your site might provide some valuable feedback. If you're an in-house SEO for a site that has been punished, perhaps one of the following services can be used to support a claim for a redesign or some other change in site philosophy.

Mechanical Turk/FeedbackArmy

mechanical turk
The cheapest and most scalable way to get this feedback would have to be through Mechanical Turk. If you haven't used the service, mturk allows you to break a project down into mini tasks that mturk's users will complete for sometimes as low as one penny.
Let's assume our task is for the user to visit the site in question, then answer one of our "feeling" questions. It would take no more than a minute of a Turkers time, so a fair price would probably be around 10 cents. Set your project to run until you've got 50 answers, and for $5.00 you've got 50 responses to your question. For another $5.00 you can ask Turkers to visit a competing site and ask the same question, allowing you to compare the results between the two sites.
FeedbackArmy is another option that would work. Think of FeedbackArmy as a front-end for Mechanical Turk, as they both use the Turk workforce. You'll end up paying a bit more than if you dealt directly with Mechanical Turk, but the setup process is much simpler.

UserTesting

User Testing LogoUserTesting is a higher-end feedback solution. For $39 you'll get a video of a user interacting with your site. UserTesting allows you to ask the user up to 4 questions after they've completed the feedback video, which would be a perfect place to ask some of our Panda questions.

Other Panda Odds and Ends

NPR did a story on Panda's effect on one company's struggle since getting Panda-fied: Google's search tweaks puts a company at risk
Matt Cutts quote from that story:
Think about something like an Apple product, when you buy an Apple product you open it up, the box is beautiful, the packaging is beautiful, the entire experience is really wonderful.
It sounds to me that this statement is really just another way of saying "large amounts of duplicated or poor content on your site can impact the entire domain".

Reversing the Effects of Panda

Tom Critchlow had this exchange with Matt Cutts on Twitter:

@mattcutts assuming a site completely reworks their site/content after panda, how long before they will regain traffic?less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply


@tomcritchlow short version is that it's not data that's updated daily right now. More like when we re-run the algorithms to regen the data.less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply

Moral of this story: Don't expect rankings to come right back after making changes. This is a little frustrating because webmasters can't make a change, wait to see if the change "worked", then try something else. It also might explain why there have been so few reports of sites regaining their traffic.

A Third Panda Spotted?

Rumors picked up in early May that a third Panda update may have gone live. Users were reporting wild fluctuations in rankings and other oddities in the Google cache and site search commands. Considering what Matt Cutts said above, it makes sense for Panda updates to hit suddenly and all at once, rather than over a period of time. Some are reporting that their exact match domains took a hit.
So our Panda timeline now reads:
  1. Feb 24th, 2011: Panda rollout on Google.com searches
  2. April 11th, 2011: Panda rollout to all English speaking Google sites. Additional tweaks made to original algorithm
  3. May 3-6th, 2011: Third Panda update?

Have you seen any traffic changes during this time frame? Have any of your sites recovered from initially being Panda-fied?

Competitive Analysis in Under 60 Seconds Using Google Docs

Faced with a new client, and having established a list of keywords they need to target, you want to evaluate the competition to find out what sites are dominating the SERPs for these keywords. However... being an SEO you're a busy guy (or gal), and you need it done right now. I've built a Google Docs tool to automagically do exactly that and this post will walk you through it.
The basis for this tool comes from a report in this linkbuilding post on YOUmoz which contained a neat little 'SERP Saturation' report. I don't know how Stephen made his snazzy looking report (he's now shared a few details in this comment), but in response to a few people asking about his I thought I'd put together a tool. Here is Stephen's report:
SERP Saturation Report
Cool, eh? We are going to produce something very similar, albeit not as pretty. We will automatically pull ranking data and tie into the Linkscape API to pull in some helpful metrics.
1. What does the report show?
So, what's the report all about? It is a pretty standard report, and most SEOs will have put together similar reports in their time. It shows which domains are dominating the results pages for the specified list of keywords. It is an excellent way to quickly see who the main players are, and see a few metrics for them.
Ours will be sorted by the cumulative number of times a subdomain has appeared in the top 10 of the search results over all the keywords we specify, and will display the mozRank, Domain Authority and Linking Root Domains for each. We'll show just the top 10 competitors in our report.
You can just duplicate the Google Docs spreadsheet I provide below, and change almost any of this to add, modify or take away as per your needs.
2. How do you configure it?
You must configure it the first time you use it:
1) If you've not yet done so, get a SEOmoz API key. Its free!
2) Open the Google Docs spreadsheet. In File menu select 'Make a copy' so you have a version you can edit (call it "Report Template" or such).
3) Go to the 'Config' sheet at the bottom, and enter your SEOmoz API details.
4) If you'd like to change the template for which Google URL to do (it defaults to UK for me), you can do that here too.
3. How do you use it?
Open your report template spreadsheet you just made.
1) On the config tab, paste up to 50 keywords, one per row, starting at cell B7 (its indicated).
2) Open the 'Report' sheet.
3) Now select 'Make a copy' and give it a name ("Client X Report" or whatever). This  step is *essential* or the fields will not update properly (I'm working on making this not necessary - any clues?).
4. What should you see?
 You should see a snazzy little report:
SERP Competitive Report
It shows everything I promised, and more even:
SERP Competitive Report Graph
A colourful and interactive, albeit it slightly wonky, graph! What more could you want?!
5. Under the hood
You don't need to read this section if you are neither interested in how it works or need to edit it at all. Besides which, I'm mostly just going to refer you elsewhere! A big shout out to Tom Critchlow, whose prior work contributed heavily to this little tool. Firstly, you need to read:
How To Build Agile SEO Tools Using Google Spreadsheets
Which introduces how to scrape the SERPs for ranking data. I modified what Tom did slightly as I wanted a list of subdomains, rather than pages, so there is a bit of string cropping (and fudging!).
Next you need to read Ian Lurie's post (which Tom also helped with):
Linkscape + Google Spreadsheets. Together, at last.
Again, this I also edited. I changed the code around quite a bit, which you can see in the script editor. You end up with a function you can enter into a cell:
=getLinkscapeData(A1, 1)
The A1 is a cell reference to a URL, and the 1 is a dummy parameter to prevent annoying caching issues.
For a look at the full code for the Linkscape API interface, and some pointers on how to modify it to suit your needs I've put up a separate post on Using the Linkscape API with Google Docs, which includes a simpler example spreadsheet to try the code out with.
The rest of the spreadsheet is a few simple bits to filter and cumulate the necessary bits and pieces, along with a few tricks to try to sidestep some bugs in Google Apps. Nothing in the sheet is protected (there are a fed hidden columns) so you can take a look at the workings. If you have specific questions, post them in the comments and I'll try my best to answer.
This was my first real foray into Google Docs, so it might not be particularly elegant. Also the document seems to have trouble updating sometimes - if anyone has a solution that would be great. In the meantime, if you just 'Make a copy' it seems to force an update.
6. Wrap up
Ok, it isn't in depth analysis, but if you have a keyword list, and want a very quick peek at what domains are players, and their general stats, this tool gives you a quick and dirty look. Most importantly - it is free and open, so you can tweak it to your hearts content.
Questions, comments or suggestions are very welcome - post below and I'll get back to you.

What Makes an Effective Link Builder

The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
Good link builders are a special breed of SEOs. There are a lot of solid SEOs in the industry, but effectively building links is much different from keyword research, copywriting, and technical analysis. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what makes an effective link builder.
Whether you’re an SEO looking to improve your own skillset or a manager looking to hire a new link builder, these are the characteristics of an effective link builder.
Internet Culture
SEO is one of the few industries where my history as a competitive video game player, an epic geared raiding Warlock, forum admin and hacker became a marketable skill.
I’m an effective marketer online, not because I have formal marketing training, but because I understand online communities intimately.
A link builder should keep on top of memes, read Reddit daily, use StumbleUpon, engage on Twitter, and read Hacker News. They should follow in-depth analysis about these communities.
Internet Culture
Creativity is one of the things that is difficult, maybe impossible, to teach. It can be encouraged through culture and environment, because everyone has some level of creative genius, but creativity is something I’d hire for.
SEO, especially link building, is moving closer to being inbound marketing, which is starting to become difficult to distinguish from pure traditional marketing. Creativity is a driver of holistic marketing strategies.
The creative process can also be inspired.
At Distilled, we have a culture and structures in place which help inspire creativity. It’s important to create boundaries and modes of thinking that help creativity. Having the ability the stop, separate, drink a beer, and invest full mental power allows your brain to free itself up to the creative process.
Analytical Skills
Creativity isn’t enough for an effective link builder. Technical chops are also a requirement. Distilled carries resident math, computer science, and engineering majors. Prior to leaving college to pursue a career in SEO, I was studying engineering and worked at Vanderbilt where I did pharmacology research.
Analytical skills are indispensable as a link builder. A link builder should have a basics understanding of data analysis to conduct competitive link analysis, to dig deep into a website’s information, to perform research, and bring insights out of large sets of information.
This also includes skills on using the right tools, such as Open Site Explorer, Excel, and Google Analytics.
Analytical skills allow a link builder to do two things really well:
  1. Scale processes by evaluating data effectively.
  2. Recognize changes and trends, which can be reapplied to your marketing efforts.
Technical Skills
Although a non-technical link builder can build links through the process of business development, content creation, outreach, and PR; they don’t have the capability to develop products or agile tools without leaning on a team.
Technical Skills a Link Builder Should Have
  • Intermediate knowledge of (X)HTML/CSS
  • Basic understanding of at least one modern programming language (no need to code, but hack at least)
  • How to build agile tools in Google Docs
  • Ability to upload files via FTP
  • Ability to execute 301 redirects using .htaccess and how to create robots.txt files
  • Sufficient coding skills to “get” tools like Firebug
I agree with Dan Cristo that every SEO should have a side project, and I like to see this in the form of a website where they’ve done at least a basic level of code / design tweaking.
Sociable Geek
A link builder is not the same as a technical SEO. The SEO who loves indexation and crawl analysis may absolutely hate talking to people. A link builder must be comfortable talking and engaging with complete strangers.
A sociable geek is the valuable combination of the introverted developer and the extroverted sorority girl.
I believe people like Rand Fishkin and Wil Reynolds are the epitome of sociable geeks.
I do believe being sociable is a skill you can learn. By nature, I’m exceptionally introverted, so I find people describing me as an “affable, personable search marketer” a bit odd. I’ve improved my skills as a link builder by constantly presenting, facing clients as often as possible, going to networking events, and talking to strangers on the bus (this is actually true). Reading books also helps. I personally enjoyed reading Never Eat Alone and The Exceptional Presenter.
Sales Experience
Few job experiences taught me more about link building than the three months I worked in-house as an internet marketing coordinator and was placed into the sales department. I worked on a 9 person cold calling sales team and was exposed to their tactics and culture during my time working with them.
Manual outreach is not too different from cold calling and business development.
Recommended Sales Reading for Link Builders
Ingenuity
By ingenuity, I mean something different from just creativity.
Ingenuity is intellectual hustle.
Ingenuity allows link builder to create well thought out, systematic and clever solutions. Ingenuity is seen in careers like scientists, engineers, artists, developers, and musicians. I relate this with INTP, INTJ, and ENTP personality types.
Ingenuity leads to agile tools, scrapers, and custom search engines. Link building ingenuity leads to building indexes of the internet and scalable link building tools. Effective link builders are willing to intellectually hustle to solution.
Hustle
A link builder isn’t just placing links on websites, they’re building businesses. They’re creating the differential between a business and its competition. As a link builder, you should be bringing hustle to your work every day. A link builder with hustle can dominate large brands and companies with large budgets by simply outworking them.
Enormous Talent is Not Enough
(Gary's language is a bit flavorful, but great video on hustle)