Google Answer Me Link Cheer

Via Threadwatch today I found out Google Answers was in the process of closing its help desk.

On their blog, Google mumbles something about “reconsidering our goals” and never really comes out and says why they’re closing but I’m betting it has to do with a drop in answer revenue. As I understand it, Google takes 25% of the fee collected so fewer questions means less money coming in. I think this one had more to do with economics than innovation. Anyway…..

Before they shut down for good, pop over to Google Answers and look around. GA is one of my favorite places to search for current lists of companies, associations, government agencies, non profits etc., and it's a great place to brainstorm for ancillary niches.

For example, let’s say you were in the education industry and wanted to find a new, related market to mine for links. There’s several ways to do this on GA, you can search by keyword (be sure to set the search perimeters to answered questions) or you can look through the categories.

I searched on the generic terms “education” + “list” and after wading through a couple pages struck gold! ---- http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=532067

It’s a list of sites on mentoring! I hadn’t thought about the mentoring niche initially and was happy to find a list of sites and URL’s to contact for links.

Here’s another one:

Do you sell in or around the airplane industry? Check this out: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=440535

And one more…

Need a list of headhunters in Washington DC? http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=786189

You’ll notice some researchers have stars by their names – they’re reputation points (nothing in Google is immune to reputation it seems!). Once you find the categories you’re interested in, look for these 5-star researchers, they tend to provide better answers.

So... serve up some eggnog, get comfortable and cruise through Google Answers before they wrap up their toy and whisk it away. It’s a great little resource that could provide you with lists of holiday link cheer!

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Jingle Links Baby

Dashing through the blogs, I came upon the posts,

Dishing about paid links that no one is supposed to host.

That Google it keeps saying, if you host these links, we’ll zap them all and give no love and watch your site sink sink.

Ohhhhhhh ....

Jingle links, jingle links, jingle all the way.

Oh what fun it used to be to buy paid links all day – hey!

Jingle links, jingle links, jingle all the way....if Google could I know they would just wish us the hell away.

(No green fairy dust for me this year! ;)-

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Happy Thanksgiving

From my family to yours -


Debra.

Stinky Link Bait.

Here's a good example of a well optimized press release dangling bad link bait:

Chicago Trial Attorneys Win $7 Million Verdict in Defamation of Character Lawsuit for Former Bears Kicker

Joseph A. Power, Jr., and his partner Todd A. Smith, Chicago trial attorneys at Power, Rogers & Smith, successfully upheld the rights of Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice, a former Bears Kicker, in one of the more important defamation court cases in recent years.

Chicago, IL (PRWeb) November 21, 2006 -- Premier Chicago trial attorneys, Joe Power, Jr., and Todd Smith, founding partners of Chicago-based personal injury powerhouse Power, Rogers& Smith, won $7 million in a defamation lawsuit on behalf of Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas of the Illinois Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice alleged in his defamation court case, #04LK013 filed in Kane City, Il, that anewspaper columnist and the columnist's publication, the Kane County Chronicle, defamed him and his character by making false statements and, in particular, by falsely accusing him of a felony in a series of articles written in 2003. The Chronicle's columns had accused thechief justice of interfering in the disciplinary case of a former Kane County state's attorney."

Defamation court cases are critical to the person who has been defamed. I am very pleased that the jury understood how important it was to the Chief Justice to show that the columnist and the newspaper defamed his character," says Mr. Power.

Power argued as part of the defamation of character lawsuit that Chief Justice Thomas was significantly hurt by the newspaper's allegations. Not only did the newspaper damage his reputation but it also damaged his ability to get a high-paying job with a prestigious law firm when his Supreme Court term was up.

The allegations go to the heart of what a judge is, and that is integrity, as he told the jurors.

Mr. Power, in the chief justice's defamation of character lawsuit, had asked the jury to award his client money for damages, lost potential income, damage to his reputation, and compensation for the public humiliation that he suffered as a result of the false articles that the newspaper penned.

Mr. Power and Chicago trial attorneys of Power, Rogers & Smith have been winning major sums for clients for nearly 30 years in a wide variety of tort and personal injury caseson behalf of their clients.About Power, Rogers & Smith: The plaintiff's law firm of Power, Rogers & Smith has been fighting and winning the hard fight for more than a quarter of a century. Armed with the best Chicagotrial attorneys in the state and the country, Power, Rogers & Smith has recovered more than $260 million on behalf of their clients in the past two years alone. Many of the law firm's medical malpractice, product liability, defamation court cases, and wrongful death cases have been featured in newspapers and on television screens across America. The personal injury lawyersat Power, Rogers & Smith have been winning some of the largest verdicts and settlements in the state and the nation. http://www.prslaw.com

While I give them two points for doing a good job on optimizing the release, they get a BIG thumbs down for dum-ass use of teaser link bait.

I mean, come on...what were they thinking when they used "Former Bear Kicker" in the headline? The man being defended was an Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice, that's him in the middle of the picture. Don't you think a law firm would know "Chief Justice" trumps "Kicker" in any situation?

On top of that, adding "Former Bear Kicker" to the headline pretty much assures a loss of female readership; most women aren't interested in the exploits of an old football player and won't bother to read on.

Neither would a lot of men I bet, we're all a little jaded to the idiotic exploits of professional athletes and care even less about lawsuits and court cases. Yawn.

So two points to the ambulance - I mean link chasers for the optimization efforts but boo to the wormy headline. Keep in mind headlines need to appeal to a wide demographic and focus on getting the reader to keep reading, not stop before they start.

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Welcome To The Neighborhood Links.

According to Technorati, there are 57 million blogs online in 2006, up from 100,000 four years ago. That's a lota blogs coming online every day which means a lot of link opportunities waiting to happen.

Since new blogs generally don't come loaded with multiple posts and take a little while to grow, offering them well written and topically focused content is a great way to spread your information and acquire new links. Not only do you get to add optimized material and anchor text links to an up-and-coming-blog but you also get to expose your products and services to a new audience.

Looking at it from the other side of the coin... if you happen to BE the blog owner, ask the guy dangling the content to link to his/her information once it's on your blog. You get content - you get a link. They spread content - they get a link. It's a win-win for both sides.

To find all these new blogs popping up, use a website alert service like Google Alerts (or just search on the term for more companies). Set it up so you're using all the variations of your keywords and don't forget to include people, professional titles and product names.

Another little tip - set an alert service like Track Engine to ping you each time the page of a blog directory changes. Whenever a new blog is added to a directory page or a particular category - the alert service sees a change in the page and notifies you. It's a great way to find new blogs or watch competitors since so many people are adding sites and using the directories to help with their link building efforts.

If there's a topic/product or service, there's a blog for it and more are coming daily. Get a jump on your competitors and broaden your inbound link structure by securing links from new blogs. Welcome them to your neighborhood and watch your links and partnerships grow!

New Link Tool

Saw a new tool today with a couple cool features you can use in your link building and PPC efforts:

http://www.spyfu.com/

Check out the "Industries" link under the search box, it brings back niche results (doesn't say from where) which can be helpful when searching for link partners.

Sorry Links

Whoa... this is such a great example of making the best of a bad situation.....

http://www.regrettheerror.com/

Crystal Clear Link Benefits

I picked up a story this a.m. on a new service Sony Entertainment owned Grouper.com just launched called Screenbites. They’ve put together short video clips of interesting lines/parts of movies (theirs of course) and offer them free of charge to anyone who wants to download hoping it will spur people to buy the film and/or perpetuate exposure.

Interesting. Since most people trust what they read in published sources and give credibility to public figures, it would make sense that using a famous movie clip on your website would elicit the same feelings.

Actually, using video is any form is a good idea, after all a picture is worth a thousand words right? Showing people how to assemble an item or sharing how-to's is the type of valuable and credible information the media and your supporters likes --- and links to. Add a video download or something catchy like a movie clip from Screenbites before your competition does and become the authority source people turn to.

The benefits of doing so will be crystal clear!

....Added later.... Ten bucks says Google will be in the market for a movie studio in no time after reading this. No not my blog silly, the exposure concept Sony is pushing through Grouper.com. The revenue potential there is - priceless!

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Promotional Link Placement

What do, Reeces Pieces, Gordon’s Gin and Cadillac have in common?
Hint: while the phrases “too much of a good thing” & “over-priced” come to mind, that’s not it ;)

All three brands have paid for promotional product placements.....

The rest of this article can be found here: http://www.linkspiel.com/2006/11/promotional-link-placement/