Today I thought I’d talk about some of the regular questions I get about backlinking.

1. My backlinks aren’t showing up, what gives?!

My first question to you is going to be, “when do you do them”. My guess is going to be that you just did them within the last week or so.

Here’s the deal with backlinking… it takes time! That’s why if you want to be on top for holiday shopping you need to get started NOW! (or yesterday would be better).

It takes Google time to find your links, and to take them into account.

2. My ranking isn’t changing! What gives?!

Again, my question is how long have you been building links, and how consistently?

It’s pretty easy to get geared up one day and go out and build a bunch of links. However, it’s MUCH better for your site, and your rankings to do your link building consistently over time. If you even find a way to build 5 links a day and do that every day until Christmas you’ll be riding high! Promise.

These days while the number of links are important, what’s really important is how consistently those links are showing up over time.

3. How do I make a clickable html link?!

You use this code:

<a href=”yourwebsitehere.com”>Your targeted keywords here</a>

This code will make your targeted keywords here clickable… and when someone clicks it will go to yourwebsitehere.com. So… make sure you put your actual website url in that part of the code, and your actual keywords in that part.

4. What about anchor text? Should I vary it, stay the same, what?!

It really depends on what you’re doing. If you’re building link suns or something similar, I’d suggest using your primary targeted keyword in the first ring… those big sites that link directly to your money site. However, when you start creating other sites to back those sites up, I’d say use other keywords as your anchor text. They can be related, or even click here… for that level of linking.

5 How do I know where to build links and where they should point?!

I’d say create a system, and get organized. There are hundreds, if not thousands of free sites where you can add your own content. You can google free blogging platform, or something similar and find tons of places where you can create an account and add your content (with a link to your money site of course!).

It is important to have at least some sites pointing directly at your money site, but you also want to have links pointing to the links pointing to your money site. (That’s what the link sun is all about). You’re creating more authority to the links that are pointing to your money site by linking to them as well. That additional authority pointing to your money site will only help it do better.

It seems counter intuitive… it feels like you should point all your links to your money site, but it’s really a better idea to point some there, and then boost those up with even more links.

Damn… this is all so confusing! 

It definitely can be. A while back I created a system to help people get organized and actually get their linking done. It’s called Backlinking 101.

Back then I was pretty adamant about only giving one linking assignment at a time. I know how hard it is to keep up with everything, and I REALLY wanted people to get through the program, get their links created and SEE the powerful difference it can make.

However… it’s getting late in the year, and if you want to get started now you don’t really have the luxury of taking 4 months to get through this whole course…. SO I’ve done something I didn’t think I’d ever do…

I’m offering all the content of Backlinking 101 up front… instant access. 

So you no longer will only get one assignment at a time… you’ll get access to everything all at once. I am still sending out the assignment emails. Hopefully this will help keep you focused and remind you that you need to do some linking.

Oh, and one other thing… I decided since I was giving it all to you up front, that it really only seemed fair to have a one time price. So I changed that too.

Instead of 4 monthly installments, it’s now just a 1 time payment.

If you feel confused, or frustrated about your link building and you want to get it under control and really ramp up your sites before the holiday shopping rush, Backlinking 101 might be just the perfect thing for you.

You can check out the whole she bang  at Backlinking101.com

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This is a post I published early this year… however it is a great post that’s been buried in the archives. Now is the time to get on top of your link building if you want to capitalize on the holiday shopping rush. It takes some time for your links to be found, and to boost your ranking, so get started now!

Here’s the post!

I know, I’ve backed off on doing a ton of niche marketing, but I’m getting the feedback that my readers haven’t. I’m also getting feedback from people that the place they’re getting stuck is getting traffic to their sites, and getting them to rank on Google.

That is all about the links. So today I’ve got a couple things up my sleeve to help you out with that.  I’ve got a series of backlinking tutorials you’re welcome to grab if you want them. I also thought I’d talk a little bit about linkwheels. I’m sure you’ve seen the crazy diagrams ~ spokes, and hubs and it can be really confusing, but it doesn’t have to be.

What is a Link  Wheel?

The term got its name because it’s a circular set of sites all linking to each other, and then using the power of those links to link to one other site (your money site).  I personally don’t link all the spokes together in my wheel, so I actually create more like Link Suns.

The reason that link wheels are so effective is this. If you create a brand new site and then slam it with tons of links trying to get it to rank for your targeted keyword you’re going to land in the Google Sandbox. The no mans land that sites go to. You can end up in the sandbox for a couple weeks, up to a couple or even 6 months.

When you’re in the sandbox you’re site just disappears completely from any Google ranking, and sometimes it is even deindexed, so you can’t find it anywhere.

This is NOT what you want.  You want your sites to slowly but surely climb up the ranking so people can find you and come to your site.

With a link wheel instead of sending all the links to your money site, you send a few links to your money site. This is the first ring in the wheel.  When choosing these sites you want to choose sites that are well established, authority type  sites. You want to do this because they can handle getting a bunch of links to them at once. They’ve been around for a while, and it won’t seem crazy and unnatural if all the sudden they have links pointing at them. When I say authority sites I’m talking about sites like Blogger, Squidoo, Hubpages, sites like that. Web 2.0 properties you can use to create your own content and link to your money page.

This is not about creating more and more self hosted wp blogs to use in your wheel. That won’t work because those sites will not have the authority and the page rank to help you out in this process.

It’s important to host your own stuff… but not in this instance. You’re going to have to rely on the sites available out there.

The next step is to create more links that point to the sites you just created. This is where mass bookmarking, and mass article submission come in. Instead of pointing all your UAW articles at your money site ~ you want to point them to the sites you put together at Squidoo, or blogger, or Hubpages.

As these sites gain more links they will gain more authority, and their pagerank will increase and they will become really strong wonderful links pointing to your site. They will definitely increase your sites search ranking.

Take note, there are many ways to build links in your link wheel (sun). If you ask 10 niche marketers how they do it, you’ll probably get 10 different answers. So don’t think there is only one way. I’m showing you the way I’ve done it and what’s worked for me.

Why don’t you make wheels instead of suns?

I’m sure this will be the first question asked in the comments, why don’t you link your first tier properties together. I just haven’t found it necessary. I’ve also found it makes it much easier for Google to catch on to. The whole idea of creating a link Sun is to NOT leave a footprint. You want your links to look as natural as possible. You don’t want to leave a big breadcrumb trail from each site leading to the next site and the next. I find linking them all together is a great big breadcrumb trail ~ and it works without them.

One Keyword At a Time

When you’re targeting a specific keyword to rank for your money site the important piece of the puzzle is the anchor text. These are the words that people click on in the link pointing to your site.  This is not talking about the topic of the lens, or hub ~ just the anchor text. You want the anchor text pointing at your money site to be the keywords you are targeting.

However, you don’t want your web 2.0 properties to outrank your money site for those keywords so when you get to the mass article submission level you want to use different anchor text pointing back to your web 2.0 properties. It would be wise to find some related keywords to target for those properties ~ then use those keywords as the anchor text in your articles. This way you can get your web 2.0 properties ranked for a relevant term, get on the first page (from all the links pointing at them) which increases their value and strength when they point to your money site.

So, what if I want my site to rank for more than one keyword?

Build more than one link sun. Plain and simple.

What if my site isn’t ranking after doing a link wheel?

Give it some time. It always takes some time for links to be found and counted. If you’ve waited a month or two and you’re still not ranking build another sun, or add to the one you’ve already built. Choose a couple different web 2.0 properties you didn’t use in the first round ~ tumblr, EZA, typepad and then do the outer hubs (mass bookmarking, and articles) pointing at those new properties. Then give it some time to work.

Holy shit this is a lot of work.

No kidding.  But this is what niche marketing is. The work in niche marketing is NOT in writing your money site. It’s not in finding the perfect theme to make your site look pretty. It’s not in finding the perfect buy now button to get people to click. It’s about building links so you can get the traffic.

I would say the lack of follow through on the link building process is what keeps 99% of people from succeeding in niche marketing. It is THE money making activity, and it’s boring, and tedious, and frustrating at times. And it must be done if you want your sites to rank.

Now what?

Now it’s time to get started. Get yourself a piece of paper, or jump on to https://bubbl.us/ and create a map for your sun. Fill in the sites you’re going to use, make sure to note the keyword you’re targeting, and start writing and linking.

If thus far you’ve created a bunch of pages that link to your money site, that’s fine, but when you put all your linking efforts into an organized linking structure like this it tends to work even better. Go ahead and try one and see what happens.

If you’re just plain confused I’ve created a program called Backlinking 101. It will walk you through the entire process of creating these link suns. Each step is clearly outlined in text, video and/or images… whatever worked best. There’s also a place on each step to ask questions, and just like here… I’ll be there to answer them.

Check it out… Backlinking 101.

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The Basics on Guest Posting: This post answers the basic questions, what is guest posting, why would I give someone else my great content, talks about how to find places to guest post, and a step by step outline how to approach people you’d like to guest post for.

What you need to know before writing your guest post: This post goes over the questions you need to ask/know the answers to once you’ve got yourself a guest posting gig. If you know what the blog owner wants, then you’re more likely to give them something they’re willing to publish.

How to Become a Guest Blogger: This post covers some of the best ways to connect with people, and ask them if you can write a post for their blog.

Guest Posting; What Others are Saying: This last post I pulled together some of the best resources I could find about guest posting. Including posts from ProBlogger, CopyBlogger and MenWithPens. I also link to a community that is specifically designed for finding places to guest post.

Taking Your Article Marketing to the Next Level. If you’re still a little bit leery about approaching other bloggers you can ease your way into guest posting by using “High Profile Content Sites”. This is pretty close to article marketing, but with a twist, and a bonus. It’s a great way to build up some courage to do some guest posting.

Here’s the thing about guest posting…

There are SO many benefits to it. Just off the top of my head:

1. Get to know and reach other blogger’s community.

2. Link in content on another great blog

3. Get to know and connect with other bloggers in your niche.

4. More traffic.

I could probably go on and on… and I have in the posts listed above lol.

Here’s the three main resources I use when it comes to guest blogging and making connections:

Guest Posting Workbook by Chris Garrett. Very easy to read, understand and implement workbook to get you started with guest posting.

Blogging World Tour by Nicole Dean. If you want to make a summer adventure out of guest posting. This is the definitive guide. If you’re ready to make a big leap, and do a LOT of work to really move your blog forward this Summer, I highly recommend this book.

7 Steps to Networking Your Way to the A List by Dave Navarro. This is a free workbook, and it’s worth it’s weight in Gold. You’ll have to opt in for it, but Dave’s fantastic, and his free workbooks are so much better than many paid products I’ve bought.

All right… I hope this has got you thinking about doing a little guest posting! Remember, I accept guest posts over at It’s A Wahm Life… so if you’ve got a website that is relevant to my readers, or you want to talk about a topic that’s relevant, feel free to shoot me an email through the contact form… make sure you follow the “rules” I outlined in the above posts. I don’t accept all requests… but I’ll give you a hint, if you use my first name, and actually know what my site is about, and tell me what you want to write about, we’ll probably talk.

No related posts.

What I am doing here is trying to give people a visual lesson in how to spin an article. It can be very confusing, even to me. I haven’t been spinning articles for all that long. I only do the very basics, but for what I’m doing it’s enough.

Let me be clear here:

I am NOT using spun articles on any of my blogs or niche sites. I am however, using spun articles to help me build backlinks to said sites. I make sure I choose words that make sense in a sentence and flow and are very readable. If you use a piece of software that does all this for you ~ I can almost guarantee your articles will not make sense. Remember, whether human eyes ever see the articles or not, your name will be on them. For me that makes it important for the article to make sense and be readable. It may result in a lower percentage of uniqueness, but I’m ok with that.

Again… spun articles going to article directories and other secondary places I’m using to build links to my main websites, not on the main site itself.

I’m using Content Professor for these videos. Other spinning software will be similar, but probably a little bit different. Content Professor is a nice system and provides quite a few features in the free version of the program.

This first video will show you how to work Content Professor, how to actually go through and spin an article.

This next video will show you how to get your spun version of the article from Content Professor, and how to get multiple articles once you’ve spun your original one.

As I mentioned in this video, once you have your article in spin syntax you can convert it to other spin syntaxes other programs might use ~ including Free Traffic System. You can also then get new versions of your article to copy and paste into other article directories or web 2.0 sites you’re using to get backlinks for your main site.

These articles are perfect for using in the first month of Backlinking 101. I have found it takes about an hour to really do a good spin on an article. However, it takes maybe 30 minutes to then submit that article to all the sites/places in Backlinking 101. If I had to write an article for each of those sites it would take me a week to get through one article/keyword.

These articles are quite readable, and spinning in this way will allow you to build many more links than you would be able to if you were starting from scratch for each unique article.

So… if you are stuck writing articles for link building, and have a hard time coming up with new content for Backlinking 101 or your own backlinking endeavors I suggest you try this method.

If you try it, let me know what you think. If you have questions go ahead and ask… like I said I’m still fairly new to spinning and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Again… no spinning wars in the comments. Thanks.

Related posts:

1. How PLR Can Solve the Top 3 Internet Marketing Problems
2. More Video Marketing Tips for the Camera Shy

And then I left it.

I was feeling a little burned out. Didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do for the product. Got excited about other projects. And all the time, this little idea… backlinking 101 was in the back of my head. Every once in a while I’d get an email ~ hey. are you going to do that backlinking thing? I’d kind of brush it off… yeah, I’m gonna do it.

Then the first of the year came. I decided I was going to launch a new product each quarter of this year. I chose Breakthrough as my annual “theme” and I knew creating products, and getting them OUT there was going to be part of that breakthrough.

hey, hey, hey… I’m still sitting here. I’m just a little idea, but you’ve already got the domain name. That little project started pestering me from the back burner.

Then one day I got motivated.  I got excited. I got out a big old piece of paper (gave one to Hanna) got down on the floor and started mapping out what this thing could look like. As I started mapping it all started getting clearer. The content, the platform, the billing structure… it all came to light.

Once I’d finished my huge old mind map I had a lot of clarity about how it was going to go. There was a LOT to do, to write, to create, to make this product what I wanted it to be. I definitely needed a plan of action so I could take one day at a time, one task at a time, and not get so overwhelmed I freaked out and quit.

I downloaded and printed out some blank monthly calendar templates. I was then able to figure out how much writing I would need to do, and when. I mapped it all out on the calendar… There are 4 months of content for this project ~ with 15 “assignments” each month. It could easily get overwhelming. However, with things mapped out on a calendar I knew exactly where I was. I got a few posts done, and got out ahead of the site.

I then asked for some Beta testers… these are people who would follow the course and give me feedback (and catch my mistakes) along the way. I was lucky to have such amazing volunteers at different levels of internet marketing skills. They started going through the program, and I penciled in the writing I had to do to stay ahead of them.

This was one of the best decisions (in a couple ways) I made on this project.

1. Deciding it didn’t have to be “finished” before I had people involved (and launched the site)

I usually would have had to have everything done, finished, wrapped up in a tiny bow, but not this time. Since it’s a membership site, and all the content is not available at once, there was no reason why it had to be complete before people started.

2. Asking for beta volunteers.

My beta testers have rocked it! They have given me awesome feedback, and also caught some pretty dumb mistakes I’ve made. Having that feedback, and knowing people are expecting new content kept me moving forward and motivated. I could have seen myself giving up on this… it’s a LOT of content. but knowing my testers were expecting their next lesson gave me the motivation to keep going.

All in all, this has been a great experience. If you’re on the fence about creating your own product, I highly recommend it. Just keep in mind a few things:

1. Make sure you have an audience.

2. Make sure you’re creating something your audience really wants.

3. Make sure it’s something you are going to be super proud of when you launch it. (Which doesn’t mean it has to be absolutely perfect to the perfect degree, but you don’t want to launch things you’re not 100% happy to put your name on)

4. Get some people to help you out. It’s easy to miss little things, and other people can catch them for you! (They can also provide some awesome testimonials for you ~ if your product is good that is)

So… there’s the back story of Backlinking 101. I had some challenges getting to launch this morning, which I may talk about more next week, but things all worked out, and now you have access to a fantastic, step by step tutorial course on how to do backlinking. woot.

No related posts.

Commentluv and Keywordluv are both wordpress plugins. They are plugins that create links to your site when you comment on someone’s blog who has them installed. Keywordluv creates a link to your site that uses your anchor text in the name field of the comment. This way you can use your name (so you’re not a spammy goofball) and get a link with your anchor text as well.

Here’s how keywordluv works.

You find a blog that is using keywordluv. (This blog is one of them) You will probably see a note in the comment area that lets you know they are using keywordluv… like this one:

When you see this note you know instead of trying to just stuff your keywords in the name field to get an anchor text link you can use your name and your keywords, and your keywords will be the only thing linked to your site.

Here’s how you do it.

In the name field of the comment area you put in your name @your keywords. It will look like this:

Jackie @Internet Marketing Simplified

Then in the url field you put your site url. I’d put http://internetmarketingformommies.com

(and enter your email address in the email field)

Make a meaningful and helpful comment and then hit the publish button.

When you publish your comment you’ll find that only your keywords (Internet marketing simplified in this example) will be linked to your site. This provides you a great anchor text link back to your site.

Why would a site owner want to do this?

A couple reasons. As bloggers we like to help other bloggers out. The best way to help people out is to give them a link to their site… and keyword anchor text link is even better.

It also encourages people to leave comments on your site ~ which is great for you. It builds community, and provides new content for the spiders to come check out  ~ which brings them to your site regularly and often.

When you’re leaving a comment, remember to read the notes in the comment section… they’ll let you know what you can do on each site. Keywordluv does give you the option to not leave a note at the bottom, so if you don’t see one, go through the other comments, hover over the links connected to the name ~ see if they are all just connected to the name, or if they have a name and keywords with just keywords linked up ~ if they do, they’re using keywordluv, and you can use the name @ keyword in the name field of your comment.

Here’s how Commentluv works:

Commentluv is a little bit different. It’s automatic, and you don’t really need to do anything more than put the url of your site in the url field of the comment. Commentluv does the rest. Once you’ve added the url and start typing your comment you’ll see commentluv will pull up the last blog post you’ve published. It will use the title of that blog post as the anchor text, and create a link in your comment back to that post.

If a site is using commentluv they will probably have a little icon at the bottom of the comments area. You can see it in the image above. There may be a place where you can check the box if you don’t want a link from your last post to show up.

If you don’t see the icon at the bottom, look through the comments on the page ~ the blog owner may have just decided not to add the icon at the bottom. If you see something like “so and so’s last blog post… in the comments above you that means the blog is using comentluv.

Now, not all blogs use commentluv, in fact, probably, most blogs DON’T use commentluv. If you are using blog commenting as a linking strategy it’s a good idea to try to find some that are. If you want to look for blogs in your niche that are using commentluv you can go to Google and search for them. Simply put in the search box:

your keyword commentluv enabled

(of course substitute your keyword with your actual keyword lol). This will bring you up a list of sites that are related to your niche that are using commentluv. Go in, take a look at the site, the posts, get a feel for them and if you like the site, go ahead and leave a comment. If you really like the site, go ahead and add it to your RSS reader (or Igoogle) so you can go back when they post again. This is how you not only get links, but also become part of a community.

Should you use commentluv and keywordluv on YOUR site?

It’s up to you. There are advantages and disadvantages to using these plugins.

1. If you’re doing a niche site they can be nice because people will google their niche (as I suggested above) and come to your site and leave comments because they’ll be getting a link from a related site… on the flip side, they may leave sucky spammy comments and you’ll spend time deleting them.

2. If you’re building an authority site, where you want to build community I think it’s a good idea to add them. That way you give people a reason to leave a comment, and you make it easy for people in your community to get to know one another. (It’s easy to have something catch your eye in a commentluv link and go check it out).

You’ll have to decide whether using these plugins is right for you or not. Remember, you don’t have to use both of them. You can install only one. If you’re thinking about starting with commentluv and keywordluv I’d start with commentluv. I have found you get less spam comments with commentluv. Once I added keywordluv to my sites I started getting a lot more spam… everyone and their brother is looking for a keyword anchor text link.

I hope that helps you better understand the commentluv and keywordluv plugins. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section.

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Hi Jackie,

Well it looks like I got another page pushed back from page 3 to 284. This is a page from my moneysite I have been spending a lot of time and effort on building links to and to the web 2.0 sites pointing to it. This is the second one from the same domain. The first one completely disappeared completely. It looks like Google will push you back very quickly. I do not think I was pointing too many links to these pages. I was mostly pointing links to the web 2.0 sites that were pointing to these pages.

Needless to say this is very aggravating.

Do you have any suggestions?

Do you think think I should just pick a web 2.0 and make it the center of the wheel?

Thank you for your help.

Sincerly Disgusted

Here’s what you have to understand.

This is part of the process. This is regular, normal, and to be expected. It is not worth getting so frustrated and disgusted over. It is part of the business model.

You can not expect you’re going to take action A and then B, C and D are automatically going to happen. It just doesn’t work that way.

You will build links. Your site will go up. You will build links and your site will go down.

As you continue this process you will find that eventually your site will stabilize in the rankings, and it will stop jumping around so much.

So how do you not lose your mind through this process?

1. Set up a linking plan. Whether it’s a link wheel, links from web 2.0 properties, article marketing, forum links, link packets. Whatever you want to do, make a decision about your plan.

2. Make sure your plan includes regular links being built over time.

3. Do it.  Not just today, or tomorrow, but do it over time.

4. Stop checking your ranking. I’m so serious about this one. At some point you have to have a little faith in the process. It does work. Really. It does. You have to have some faith that it’s going to work. You have to understand your site is going to jump around. You have to accept that this is just the way it goes, and you stop looking at your ranking.

5. Work your plan for a month, and then check your ranking.

6. Work your plan for another month, and then check your ranking.

7. Work your plan for another month, and then check your ranking.

Do you see numbers 5 through 7?

This is not a week long project. SEO and getting your sites to rank in a stable way doesn’t happen overnight. Hell, it doesn’t happen in a week. It can take 3 to 6 months for you to gain a stable ranking.

If you go into the process expecting not to be on the first page for 6 months, imagine how happy you’ll be if you end up staying there after 2 months?

It’s a totally different perspective than being pissed off after a month because you were expecting this to work after a week.

It just doesn’t work that way.

This is true for any program you purchase to help you with the link building process, whether it’s traffic bug, or Unique Article Wizard, or 1 way links, or whatever you’ve decided to go with.

These programs DO work, but they do not work in a week. You can’t expect to see your site ranking on page one because you used Traffic Bug for the 2 week free trial.  These programs are set up for the long term gain. They are set up to drip links out to your sites. They are set up to send out a few links every day so you regularly have new links pointing to your site, just the way Google likes it.

So please, don’t get a 2 week free trial and complain the program doesn’t work… it does work, you just didn’t give it enough time. When you sign up for any of those link building programs you really should have in your mind that you will need to have it for at least 3 months to see the benefits from it.

Ok, well I seem to have gotten off on a tangent, but it’s the mindset that this is going to happen in a week or two that leads to the frustration voiced by the reader. He’s not the only one… that’s for sure.

If you can change your mindset a little bit, start thinking longer term for these project, and STOP checking your rankings you’ll end up having a lot less stress, and you’ll be surprised how much better it seems your sites are doing.

To end on a bit of a positive note… when your site drops from page 1 or 3 to page no where to be seen, it will usually come back up higher than it was before. Be patient. Take a deep breath. Keep building your links.

If you have questions ~ please feel free to ask.

No related posts.

The question has come up in the Link Sun post a couple times, but more than coming from you, this topic is coming from me, as a blog owner.

Blog commenting is a good way to get links and get to know other people in your niche, and let them get to know you.

This will never change.

Blog commenting is also a great way to waste your time when no one publishes your comments because of the way you’re going about it.

It is interesting to see how my position on this topic has changed over the years. I used to think it was ok to just use your keywords in the name field of blog comments ~ but that was a few years ago, when things were a bit different. Times have changed, substantially over the last few years, and my opinion on this topic has changed as well.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Blog Comments

1. Check and see if the site is using commentluv or keywordluv. If they are do NOT EVER use your keywords alone in the name field. The blog owner is giving you the opportunity to have an anchor text link in your comment.

I can tell you right now… I use comment and keywordluv on this blog, and if you only use your keywords in the name field I will delete your comment before it ever sees the light of day. If you can’t take a second to see that I’m offering the opportunity for a win/win situation ~ then you’re not going to get a link at all.

2. Read the post. Not just the last sentence. Write a comment that actually has something to do with the post.

Really.

3. Write a comment that adds to the conversation. This usually tells the author you actually read the post they spent their valuable time writing for you.

“This is the first time I’ve been here, I’m gonna tell all my friends”. <–that gets deleted.

Really.

4. Do not link to sites of questionable content. This includes porn, gambling, affiliate sales pages ~  yeah, those get deleted. Even if you tell me Texas Hold ‘em isn’t gambling, that doesn’t help. This is my blog, and I do not want it linking to anything that could be construed as a “bad neighborhood”.  Unfortunately, sites that are in a different language and don’t have the ability to be translated on the page will be deleted as well. I can’t read many foreign languages, and if I can’t tell what you’re talking about… then no go. However, if you have a translate feature, I’ll click it and take a look. If you’re not talking about something I don’t want to be linked to you’ll be ok.

5. Do not be rude or hateful. There’s really no reason for it. If you’re trying to make a point, or you don’t agree with the post, that’s fine. You’re welcome to say that, as long as you don’t employ name calling or hateful language. I delete that as well.

You know, I remember a few years back, I was so excited to get comments. I published all of them. I was just happy to see people here. I remember getting comments that were glowing, I love you, your blog is awesome, only to realize they were computer generated spam. Yeah, it happens. With whatever new programs people are using it’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s computer generated and what’s the real thing.

I get enough comments here now to not have my worth as a blogger measured by them, which means I’m a bit quicker with the delete button these days, and from talking with other bloggers about this topic, I’m not the only one.

I know you’re trying to get links to your sites. I know you’re trying to build your business. I think that’s great. I have no problem with that, but if you’re going to use MY blog to do it, then it had better be a win/win for both of us.

Does blog commenting work?

Hell  yes, it works. Just this morning I was over at ThinkTraffic.net looking for something. I saw Corbett had published a new post. I read it, and was amazed that it talked about something I was just dealing with yesterday. I left a comment about what I was going through and how it related to his article.

Did I leave my keywords in the name field. no.

Did he use commentluv or keywordluv.  no.

Have I gotten traffic to my site from that comment already? Yes.

Have I gotten comments from people who have stopped by? Yes.

As this post gets tweeted out to the world, will more and more people possibly come to my site. YES.

Remember, when you’re growing your blog, it’s not ALL about getting anchor text links. It’s about creating connections, growing your readership, and building your audience. Leaving a good comment that is interesting enough to get people to click through… that can end up creating you more income than one little link with your keywords in it.

I don’t want you to waste your time.

If you’re running around from blog to blog leaving crappy comments with your keywords in the name field many (if any) of them aren’t going to get published. All that time you’ve just spent is wasted. Completely. You could have left good comments on a couple blogs in less time and had more impact.

When you’re planning your day, and your business activities, make sure you’re taking into consideration the outcome of your actions. If you can take less time, less work, and get a bigger outcome ~ it’s a much better deal.

</rant>

If you need help creating a plan to promote your blog/build your audience/create a community, that ends in win/win situations all around I’d be glad to help you. We can work together at the KISS Club.

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I don’t buy too many things anymore, but there are times I pull out my wallet. I want to share with you what goes through my head before I plunk down my debit card.

1.  Is this something that will assist me with what I’m currently doing?

At this point I’m generally buying software and not really ebooks or courses. I have a grip on my online marketing strategy, and I’m not trying to get distracted by another shining thing with all its shiny promises of riches. In fact, most days I don’t even click through to sales pages (because they are generally so well written I would be very tempted lol).  However, there is a lot of “stuff” I have to do in my business and I’m finally realizing there are things out there that can help me get it done.

So… if I find a tool that can help me do something I’m already doing, save me time, and energy then I will at least look at it.

2. Who’s recommending the product?

About a month or so ago while I was in 3 step ads I saw an ad for SEO LinkVine. Now I use 3 step ads on a pretty regular basis, but I don’t know who runs this site, I don’t know anything about them. I looked at SEO linkvine and the sales page was great ~ of course. But that’s what people pay the big bucks for ~ great sales copy.  I went looking around to find some “real” information about this service.

Of course the first thing that popped up in a google search was a warrior forum thread.  I do not trust warrior forum threads at all. Here’s why. I don’t know these people from Adam.  What I tend to see is a bunch of beginners who haven’t made a dime, but are throwing their money at everything they can trying to make it and bitching about how it didn’t work for them and how someone scammed them out of their money, and most likely it’s because they didn’t use the product correctly or jumped ship to the next shiny thing before it ever had a chance to work.

I always look for the opinions of people who are successful in this business, who know what they’re doing, who have really used the product/service (in the way it was supposed to be used!). I can’t guarantee that from the warrior forum, and in most cases I highly DOUBT it is possible to get that kind of information from that resource.

I did eventually find a website from someone who did nothing but test out these linking services with some really good backup data. That helped me make my decision.

I don’t buy from any Tom Dick or Harry who says something’s great. I buy from people I know and trust online ~ people who are doing what I am doing, who I know I can trust and have had success with things they’ve recommended in the past.

I have a few people online that are like that for me. Yaro Starak, Ed Dale, Gideon Shalwick, Brian Johnson, Jonathon Leger. Who are the people you buy from? Do you know? I found once I started listening to mentors, I started spending a lot less money lol.

3. How much does it cost?

This is still important to me. It doesn’t matter how much a tool will rock my world, if it’s going to screw up my budget it’s a no go ~ or a save up money until you can afford it type thing.  I do not spend money I do not have. Period.

I recently got an email from a reader, and it’s very sad. They recently got some bad news about their health. They didn’t have health insurance because they decided to spend the $97 a month it would have cost on books/websites/services online to help them make money ~ thinking they would make money first and then get health insurance. Now they’re screwed.

I’m not going to get into a health care debate, and I’m in no way judging people with no health care (as I’m one of them) but I’m just saying… take care of yourself and your family first… then spend money on your business. There is nothing you can buy online that will serve you better than food or rent.

So back to Traffic Bug. Here’s why I bought it.

1. It does the linking I’m doing and MORE.

It submits my sites to RSS directories, website directories, pings them and bookmarks them, as well as submits them to search engines ~ over time ~ just as I would do it.  (It also has new features in the works)

This is all stuff I would be doing if I wasn’t so lazy. So it is submitting to RSS directories (which I do do) as well as a bunch of things that I wish I was doing. Right now. In my business ~ it takes about an hour or two a day out of my schedule.

2. It was recommended by Ed Dale.

Ed Dale runs the annual “challenge” to make your first dollar online. I’ve done the challenge a few times, and I trust Ed Dale implicitly. The first Challenge I did with him he recommended Market Samurai which was in Beta at the time. Brand new, not even completely finished. I think we all know how that turned out.  He has since rolled out many many tools for the challenge and they have all been amazing. I trust his recommendation even for a product that is brand new and in beta.

3. The price was super low

Ed always gives a great deal. Even without Ed’s deal the price was less than half what the next closest tool would have cost me each month.  So far it’s been a dream to use ~ customer service has been excellent (yes, I’ve sent emails and they’ve been replied to multiple times ), and I’ve seen quick indexing thus far, and since it will take time for the links to go out I’ve documented where all my sites are now that I’m using with it so I can see my own results.  Traffic Bug is helping me, saving me time, doing work I hate, and helping my sites in multiple ways, so it was a purchase that was a no brainer for me.

Those are the things I think about before I purchase something for my business. I know in the beginning it was really easy to get caught up in a long thread at the warrior forum, but now, for me,  it’s not worth the time it takes to read it. I stick with recommendations from people I trust, and things that will work for my business. These are my three questions… what do you ask yourself before you whip out your card? I’d love to hear… tell me in the comments section.

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I’ve spoken extensively on link building, and hopefully you know how important it is.  These are the tasks that I know I hate ~ and have to force myself to do.  I now prefer to use software so the process goes a little quicker and I can work on other things.  When you’re just getting started you may not have the money to spend on software, so you’re going to have to pay in time. No matter what… you’re going to pay somehow.

I found it nearly impossible to force myself to go from article directory to article directory to paste in my articles. However, there was something in my brain that didn’t mind doing blog posts so much. For some reason, they just seemed easier for me.

So instead of mass distributing articles to article directories by hand I created a network of blogs for myself.  I did some searching online for free blog platforms and found some great lists. I went to each site, set up a free blog thereby creating a platform where I could write a short  post and add a link to my site ~ be it niche site, or lens or whatever.

Once the site was started I would add it to RSS directories ~ to get it indexed and give IT some links.

As time went on this little network grew ~ since a lot of the sites I build could fit into “gift giving” or “holiday shopping” niches I did a lot of my free blogs on the general topic of shopping, so I could easily fit in most of the lenses or sites I built.

Was it time consuming for me to go from blog to blog to blog adding a post. You betcha. But since I didn’t have money for someone else to do it for me at the time, it’s what I had to do.

I did finally come across a cool tool that made life quite a bit easier. It’s called ping.fm It’s free, which is fun.

What is ping.fm

It is a site where you can write a blog post and then have the post sent to your free blogs around the internet. They have a huge network of sites they are linked up with ~ they don’t work with every blog of course, but they do work with a bunch of the big names for sure.

How does ping.fm work?

You go into ping.fm, create an account.

Add blogs you want to send posts to, to your account.

Write your blog post.

Choose the group of sites you want it to post to and hit send.

Automagically your post will immediately be published on all the blogs you had in that group.

It’s very spiffy and works like a charm.

What about duplicate content?

I know that’s going to be the first question. I never had any problems. The links that came from these blogs showed up in a yahoo site explorer search, and my rankings seemed to improve.

The key to link building is this:

You don’t have to do everything… but you do have to do something.

If you hate article marketing, then don’t do it.

If you don’t mind creating profile links then get the 5K link packet or Angela’s link packet and build away.

If you love commenting on other blogs then do it.

If you hate twitter, then don’t do it.

If you don’t mind writing short blog posts then create blogs to do that.

The key is to find a couple strategies for building links that you like (or can at least tolerate and will do) and DO them. Do them regularly, consistently, persistently until your site is ranking on page one for your targeted keyword.

How many links does that take?

That completely depends on your keyword, so I can’t tell you that. The question you can ask is this:

Is my site on page one for my targeted keyword?

If not ~ keep building links.

I know link building is monotonous and boring, even mind numbing, but it’s part of the process. If you want to see success (without buying traffic) for your niche sites you’re going to have to build some links, some how, some way.  Test a few things out, see what works for you, and then put your effort and energy into that. Don’t worry about all the people who say you “have” to do this, or you “should” do that. Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant if it’s something you just won’t do consistently. It’s much better to find a linking method that YOU can and will do, and then do it.

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