Today I am gonna show you two ways to get links and use a recent post by Darren Rowse to do it. He wrote a really good piece on Optimizing A Single Post For SEO recently on Pro Blogger Blog Tips: Go read it and then come back… oh, and look at that, I even gave him good anchor text in that link, I am such a good dude!  BTW– to learn more about good anchor text and what that means, take an hour and explore my video introduction to backlinks.

Darren’s SEO Post

Just to summarize Darren’s excellent (I am serious about that) article, he basically talks about going back to certain older posts (keep in mind that a ‘post’ is actually a ‘page’ that is indexed by engines) and cleaning them up based on the results they are or are not getting. There are on-page factors to consider that will effect the traffic and rankings. In my little world, I call this “content pruning” and it is based on John Chapter 15 of the Bible believe it or not. I will do a full posting on this in the future as it is very important when you want to build and sell a site for $30,000.

Darren also talks about off-page SEO (ie: links) and that is where I will focus today. I will also attempt to add to the foundation he laid so nicely for us. With that in mind, let’s get after it!

First off, I know that I have been talking a lot about links, but have not showed you how to really get them yet, and there is good reason for that. It’s because I want you to take the little bit of time you do have and use it wisely instead of just flailing all over the internet ocean wasting time with crap that doesn’t work. So today, here are three ways you can get links.

The first way we are looking at is taken from this quote in Darren’t article: (he is talking about his competition)

what I found was that in the case of my competition on this one is that the competing site had a lot of forwarded links pointing at it. I’m not sure what was going on with it but it seems that the majority of the links pointing at my competition are from forwarded domains and not actual live pages.

DISCLAIMER: this first way of getting links is NOT something I recommend you do, but I can tell you that it does work. (how’s that for clear as mud?) We can talk all about this first method (using Darren’t article as the launch point) and beat it with comments until the cows come home… but you should be very careful about how you use this knowledge young Jedi!

301 Redirects And Forwarding Juice

Here is the loose definition (for our purposes) of a 301 redirect from Wikipedia:

A web page may be redirected for several reasons:

  • A web site might need to change its domain name.
  • An author might move his or her pages to a new domain.
  • Two web sites might merge.

With URL redirects, incoming links to an outdated URL can be sent to the correct location. These links might be from other sites that have not realized that there is a change or from bookmarks/favorites that users have saved in their browsers.

Now watch the video to see it illustrated (yeah, this is Blogger Illustrated!)  in a way we can all understand:

I will tell you that redirected or forwarded link  juice is NOT ALWAYS a long term strategy for growth. It is quite temporary in a lot of cases. But if used correctly, it can help your site. In case you are wondering, “yes” I have used 301 redirects in the past with some fairly good success, but I didn’t do it with the “juice” factor in mind. I did it for the traffic factor.

301 Redirects For Traffic First, Juice Second

To make a long story short, I bought a pre-owned URL in a fairly competitive niche. The URL was still indexed, had lots of incoming links, and was getting about 100 visitors per day. I purchased the URL and forwarded it to another site of mine in the same niche so when the traffic came, the people still got what they were looking for and I made money. Eventually, my own site began to rank for all the keywords anyway (because of the forwarded juice!), and the actual 301 forwarded traffic dwindled to nothing.  Are you following that? WHAT CODE do you use for a 301 redirect?…Here’s an article on how to do it. I use the php version because it is easiest for me.

Using Your Own Sites For Links

As if all of that above wasn’t long enough, let’s look at another part of Darren’s post that is helpful. It’s the simple mention here:

I don’t tend to do much of this type of SEO as I find my site tends to get a nice number of links pretty naturally from other sites but I know those who are more into SEO will work hard on some of the following:

  • analysing where the competition is getting their links and looking for opportunities to get links there too – for example if a link is coming to your competitor from a forum discussion or blog comment you might also have an opportunity to leave a quality comment there with your own link.
  • links from other blogs you own (particularly one on a relevant topic) link to your page from it
  • internal links – this is something I do do – basically its about interlinking your posts. While internal links don’t count as much as an external link they can help a little.
  • pitching links to other blogs – if you have a relationship with other blogs in your niche try pitching a link of the page that you’re optimizing to those bloggers.
  • sharing links in social media – most social media sites like Twitter and Facebook put no-follow tags on links so they don’t count directly for SEO but I find that an occasional push of an older post on social media sites can lead to indirect links from other bloggers. I also suspect that search engines are paying more attention to what links are being shared in social media sites so getting your links into them (without spamming) could be useful if you have a network of people who will pass them onto their own networks.

Note: the generation of links can be a fairly ‘black hat’ game at times. It can also be pretty addictive and become an obsession. I personally would prefer to spend my time producing quality content than spending my days asking for links. Do be a little careful with link building – not only can it be a time suck but if you engage in tactics that Google sees as against their Terms of Service (buying links for example) you could also be jeopardizing your sites ranking in their index.

The portion up there in RED is what we are going to focus on today, but I do think it is funny how Darren makes sure to uphold his “baby jesus of blogging” image by saying he’d rather produce good content than build links. ROFL! I dunno about you, but I am able to produce KILLER content AND build links (not buy links, build links… distinct difference) without wasting lots of time. I am not obsessed… I am just a realist and my name is not well known; so for me to get “natural links” in the ‘cordless drill niche’ is like trying to squeeze blood from a dead dried turnip! ROFL  :)

You go Darren, we love that polished image brother! ;) seriously man, good for you… I think you sell yourself short and you are very capable of producing top content and building links… but for the rest of us…


This is very important guys, and it really does make a big difference in your sites’ rankings. Once again, don’t be stupid with this technique. If you are going to build a “support” site for your money niche site, make sure to include superb, well written content on both the support site and the money niche site. Don’t be an idiot! You will NEVER hear me telling you to put out crap on the web, NEVER! If you put something out there, make it good, period! Look above, even Darren says it’s “ok” to get a link or two this way… but he warns you to be careful with it. If it’s good enough for baby jesus blogger, it is good enough for me! ;)

This means that your cordless drill site could get a supporting link from another site of yours that is about electric drills. See how that works? Once again, go see my videos on backlinks if you are unclear of HOW to point the link.

By the way, if you watch the heavy bloggers in the world (not the MMO ones) you will see that this is exactly what they do but not so over-simplified as presented here. What they do is take their mega-giant computer site, for example, and use the power and popularity (mostly the link juice) of that site to jumpstart another site that may be about Mac Hacks or IPhone or something like that. Get it? That only seems like a natural thing to do, which leads us to…

The Plus One More (that’s funny!)

The Family Of Brands Concept

Real quick, have you ever looked at a page like this:  That’s a “family of brands” and the page links (do-follow BTW) to each of the individual brands. This is kind of like a reverse way of looking at “linking out.”  The actual page you see there does not make any money directly, but the pages it links out to do make money… follow that?

Even Darren has “family of brands” type links on his B5Media site. See it here. That page is a PR5 boys and girls! Nice juice flowing there eh?

So many times we internet marketers think that we should be sending 1,000 links at a site. But what if you have one big site, like a home base or brand home, that sends links out to your individual brands? Just an idea. Not saying I would do this, but it’s just to get you thinking a little bit ya know? You guys gotta think for yourselves sometimes in this game and test test test! Some of you are too worried about leaving “footprints” all the time, and I get that… but I am of the belief that my content is so stinking good, that it doesn’t really matter about footprints because I am genuinely helping people! (ack!) You also need to spread out the kinds and types of links that you get (link variation) and we’ll talk about that here in the near future as well.

Again, if you don’t like this idea, then don’t use it.

almost last thing: YES, I am gonna show you a very easy way to get a PR4 or PR5 sites that you could use to your advantage using one or more of the tactics above. Stay tuned, it’s all free.

VERY IMPORTANT

I also wanna take a quick second and introduce you to a blogger/marketer who has struck the perfect balance in my opinion. Sugar Rae kicks all form of ass and demonstrates it in this post about her branded web site about Black Berry. The key with Rae is that she is the truest of the “Third Tribe Marketing” type. Not Chris Brogan who has his head up his bloated ass. If you don’t know what the third tribe is, don’t worry about it… just go read Rae’s shiz… it will help you. If you wanna build websites that sell for big money, follow this site, of course, but also read what Rae writes on her blog too… I mean that guys.

DONE… (just look at this freaking post… THAT is good content. More than 2000 words about making money with oil filters baby!)

Couple things right off the bat here:

1) You need to read/view my video blog post defining backlinks before you try to grasp this concept (beginners).

2) Many of you have asked me when I am gonna tell you how to get links, and I assure you it is coming. But I have to make sure you understand linking before I teach you all my methods. This is because getting links must be done carefully and methodically so you don’t waste time or effort. However, MAKE SURE you read all the way to the bottom here because I do share some very simple ways to get backlinks. These ways/methods are NOT gonna make you a superstar in the SERPS, but they are a start.

So let’s talk about link stacking. This concept is so very important because when you do get a link (especially a natural one) you def want to maximize that baby! If you stack, you can hedge your bets against losing the link as it ages and becomes lost or eliminated from the index. On the flip side, stacking can even strengthen the authority of the page the link is located on. Huh?

Watch the vid here: (BTW– if ads show up in the vid, that is because I am maxed out on my Viddler free bandwidth and THEY put the ads in there, not me. I get nothing from them)

I really hope that came across clearly in the vid. You need to stack links because first off, there is no risk to you! (yes, you can get ‘dinged’ for ‘building links’ in an un-natural fashion), but when someone else linked to you from a page, there really is no risk for them or you. In addition to that, stacking up links that come to you from authority sites can make them stronger faster. Basically guys, in real niches, natural links come very rarely so you need to play them up as much as possible. Of course, you can (and should) stack man-made links too.

There are many opportunities to stack links and you should take advantage of every one. Here is a short list of links that you can or will get that should be stacked:

1. Links you get from other blogs/sites

—Stack links from blogs that are higher authority than yours (higher PR).

—Stack links from blogs that are in your same niche regardless of authority

—Super stack links from blogs that are higher authority AND in your niche!

—Stack links from blogs that deep link to YOUR important internal pages.

You want to send some good quality links in this case, no spammy junk. If you get good natural links (which are rare in “real” niches), you want to stack them with good links in return. Good examples of links to stack here would be from places like Ezinearticles, GoArticles and ArticleDashboard. I would also send links from other high quality blogs that I just might happen to have access to. It also might be a good idea to send a link or two from one of your related HubPages or Squidoo lenses.

DO NOT recipricol link! That means DO NOT send a link back to the guy in return from your site. This lessens the juice on both links and just looks funky if you do it alot. Trust me, I am gonna talk a lot about “link spreading” in a couple more posts, but for now, just don’t recip! If you want the guy to know how appreciative you are of his natural link, just shoot him an email and show him your article submission pages or your Squidoo lense. He will be very happy that you went to all that trouble to send him a link as a “thank you.”

(FYI– I do lots of recip linking here on Blogger Illustrated because this is a social site and also a place for fun and experimentation…I am not monetized; this is not a money site! Always keep in mind that what I teach you here is in reference to real niche blogs or sites in the real world, not the Make Money Online world!!!!!)

2. Links you get by directory submission

This one is fairly straight forward. Just so you know, one of the first things I do with money sites is hire my buddy Jeet from Get Links Pro to submit my site to 1,000 directories. When you do this, you get confirmation from about 300 or so sites that actually show you where the live link is located. (many more of your submits get approved, but not all directory sites actually show you where the link is located on an individual page)

I save myself a little text file of all the exact locations where my directory link is housed and I send a few links to those pages. I don’t spend tons of time on this, but I do want my directory links to get indexed and stay indexed. I like to use basic bookmarking links for this task. There is a nice little piece of software called Book Marking Demon that can do this for you. Don’t ask me how to use it, however, as I ain’t got the time to teach ya! Learn everything about Book Marking Here. My friend Diane runs this site and she is the do-follow bookmarks queen! She actually will teach you how to ping your bookmarks so they get indexed too; very important!

Now listen up players: You are NOT gonna takeover the world of the Credit Card niche with bookmarking links. They are not designed to send your site to page one, position one! We (I) use bookmarking links for many purposes, and one of them is to get pages indexed and stay indexed. Keep this in mind!

3. Links you get from Squidoo, HubPages, Blogspot, Etc (man-made links LOL)

I hope it’s pretty obvious by now that you need to help support your money sites with freebies here and there. A very well put together Squidoo lense full of hot content, videos and other fluff can go a long way to anchoring a money site. But that Squidoo lense needs links stacked on top of it also. Get it? I did a video about building a mini network quite a while ago, but I it should help ya out!

Link stacking is an important part of any internet marketing campaign. Some of you should go ahead and quit right now because you are not willing to put in the time that it takes to fully market your quality site. Trust me, link stacking is just one way we help juice our good, well written, helpful, high quality King content!

I am sure there are questions/disagreements here, so please fire away… let’s get social boys and girls! :)

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Profiling James The InfoPreneur

Some of you may wonder what I am doing with this post. I need you to trust me, there will be a lesson and case study here. There will be a followup post about a week after this one that will relate back here. For now, check out this guy, The InfoPreneur.

Ok, so I am featuring a guy (I call him the Info Dude) who likes to drive website traffic, James, the InfoPreneur. If you read his posts, you will find that he is a pure blogger, not an internet marketer. He posts often twice per day! He’s very new in the blogging space and loves networking and social media. Most of that is NOT what I do or teach here on this blog. However, James has one thing that is incredibly inspiring to me, and it is something that no matter how hard I try, I can’t teach other people. That thing is DRIVE! James is a bulldog on a piece of meat; he’s stink on shiz, he is pure fire and fired up all at the same time. He will succeed because he won’t quit and I respect that greatly! It’s something that just can’t be taught, but I think some facets of it can be caught! …but you need to be around people like James in order to catch their fire… that is why I comment there often.

Below are some basic questions I asked him. Check it…

1) real name

James http://www.theinfopreneur.net/

2) age

29

3) what do you do in the real world for your job?

Drive Trucks, used to be a physical training instructor in the military for 10 years.

4) when did you start your blog?

October 27th 2009, 3 months ago

5) why did you start it?

Because I was sick of seeing the same information over and over again and had a pure passion for motivating people, PTI in the military I guess.

6) what is your goal? (money, fame, fun, friends) Have you made any money?

I want to start making a full time living from my online activity and achieve a book deal.

7) do you have any other sites/blogs

I have resisted the urge to start a few other sites, I have tons of ideas, but I know the site won’t do as well as it is now if I split my attention.

8) traffic stats

3,950+ unique visitors, 75,000 page views with 41,700 from spiders.

9) total search engine only visits by month

476 visit via search engines, with firefox being the top used browser.

10) number of posts on your blog

180+ posts with 3000+ comments, the most being 93 on one post.

11) main topic/focus of your blog

I guess it’s motivation and quick ways to drive traffic to your site or business.

12) give me a quote that inspires you

“Your past doesn’t determine your destination, just influences the way you travel.”
– There were times as kid I was homeless and had an abusive upbringing, i have no education and shoulnd’t be where I am, but here i am a dumb ass like me is doing it, that’s my motivation, to make sure my family never have to go through what I did.

13) what motivates you to continue your blog?

I work a 60hr week in my paid job, I want to be able to spend all my time with my family and make the future financially secure, plus I love it when I get great comments on the site, as someone with has no qualifications it’s great to hear people call me a writer.

14) best advice you have for newbies

Write and promote, write and promote.

15) 3 of your favorite posts on your site

The Shocking Truth, Treat Your Website as a Sniper Rifle and are you running too many websites?

16) who is your online mentor, why?

I have a few, I have been likened to Gary V in the way I work in the site etc, I actually quite like ’some’ aspects of David Risley etc. Instead of learning everything from one person I ’save and delete’ what I like from each person I come across and ignore the rest.

17) where do you see yourself in 2 years? 5 years?

Good question, All I know that in a years time I want to be working from home having been able to replace my current wages, with a book deal on the horizon. 2 years time?… retired, 5 years time? buying my first boat!

I would encourage many of you to head over and say “hello” to James and leave him a comment or 4. But before you do that, get my RSS feed so you can see the followup to this post and learn a little something about links. Stay tuned.

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