Link Laugh

Start your day with a laugh, check out this hilarious video by comedian Anita Renfroe.

Browse8 Directory Special

The good folks at Browse8 Directory are offering a 2-for-1 deal on regular and sponsored submissions through the end of the month . Here's what you have to do...

Submit your site through the directory's submission form and then email them at:

contact@ browse8.com

with the second link you want submitted. Be sure to reference the URL you submitted and paid for in the email so they can match it up and tell which link is yours.

Yeah it's a little confusing but hey, you get two lifetime links for $35 so it's worth it.

Sponsor listings cost more and are annual so be sure to read up on those details.

UPDATED: Found out today this TwoFer offer is only good if you already have a link in browse8.

Small Business Brief Relaunches And Looks Fetching

First we dugg, then we sphunn and now we can fetch!

Small Business Brief, which has been home to small business marketing news since early 2004, re-launched Wednesday with a new look and now incorporates the story submission and voting concept made popular by social news site Digg.














I encourage anyone interested in marketing a small business to register and share your news, thoughts and impressions.

See you on the Small Business Brief!

Who's Lying About NoFollow?

Aaron: Have you ever felt a search engineer was lying about something? If so, have you ever called them out on it?

BLueHatSEO/Eli: I think we're being lied to about nofollow. Consider this the call out :)

Oh man, that's like waving Boones Farm at a wino but jerking your hand away when they lunge for it.

Come on Eli, spill and I love the way you use the word "gosh". :)

Great interview on SEOBook

**(Added) Found another good interview done by my buddy Peter D from LinkJuicy on link baiting, this one given by Michael Gray. It's a good read with one exception:

If Google wins what’s going to happen is the market will go underground. You’re going to have to "know a guy" to get you links.

...OR - "know a girl" ;)

What The Best Dressed Link Builders Wear

Are you looking for something new to wear to SMX New York this month?

I was until I found this on SEO Shirts!

What do you think, hair up or down?

That Virginia, She Links Around

SEO skepticism, thy name is Virginia.


Yes, Virginia, Google Will Hurt Your Site For Selling Links Danny Sullivan, 10/7/07

Yes Virginia, you can brand with search David Singh 9/28/07

yes-virginia-there-are-followed-wikipedia-links Matt McGee 7/12/07

Yes, Virginia, Search Engine Optimization Is Worth The Investment Robert Ezparza 6/15/07

Yes, Virginia, there is a natural and paid search synergy Greg Jarboe 4/29/07

Yes Virginia, SEO Is Rocket Science - Defending Search Engine Optimization Once Again Danny Sullivan 12/21/06

yes-virginia-design-can-be-link-bait-too Rand Fishkin 12/6/05

Yes, Virginia, There Is SEM Brand Lift, Parts I & II 7/23/04 Kevin Lee

Yes, Virginia, Viral Marketing Really is a Key Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Component 7/01 John Lustina

It's interesting, the premise behind the answer eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon got over 100 years ago still applies, albeit on a slightly different topic.

I wonder if I wrote a newspaper like Virginia did, say maybe the New Scientist or the Stanford Daily and asked if SEO was real... I wonder what they'd say.

Sometimes It's Just A Damn Link!

In regards to directory submissions as a link building tactic:

Sometimes it's not about quality.

Or relevance.

Or community, networking, neighborhoods, complementary sites or rocket science.

Sometimes it's just about getting backlinks from sites already in the search indexes so you can get started.

Granted, some of them have taken a beating lately but there's a good majority of general and niche directories that haven't. And if by chance one of the directories falls from grace after you've added your site to it, that's ok too.

You'll be long gone doing other things to get the link ball rolling. (right?)

So please. Let's call a spade a spade. Using the directories to build inbound links won't up your relevance/quality/credibility factor much, but it will add to your link count.

And that's important too.

Help! I'm New, I Need Links, What Can I Do?

I took a telephone call last week from a woman who was looking to hire a link builder for a new site in a very competitive niche. I'm under contract to a business in the same industry so I passed but we had a nice chat before I sent her along with my standard list of link building referrals.

Several days went by and I heard from her again, this time in a state of panic. Seems everyone she contacted was unavailable, and she was convinced it was because her industry was a competitive one. Could I please give her an honest assessment of her website and tell her if that was indeed the case?

Competitive industries tend to be established industries so it stands to reason they have linking staffs in place and link builders tied up. If that's the case, what can new sites in a competitive niche do to attract links?

To begin, do all the "foundational" link building every other site starts out doing before branching into the more indepth promotional linking:

- Apply to the Yahoo! directory (cost - moderate)

- Submit to solid directories such as Joe Ant, GoGuides, BOTW, Ezilon, Rubberstamped and Massive Links. (cost -moderate)

- Join a Chamber, your industry Association, and clubs. (cost - low to moderate)

- Issue a press release announcing the new site (cost - low)

- Buy a list of high-profile journalists and contact directly for one-on-one interviews (cost -moderate)

- Backlink your competitors and those ranking ahead of you for link and advertising leads. (free)

- Develop a "how to" video for your site and it's products. Submit to the video and HowTo sites (cost - low)

- Buy ad space in offline publications annoucing your new site (cost -moderate to high)

- Find an established business in a complementary industry to host a co-promotion or buy their mailing list to send out link incentives. (cost - low)

- Find out who's podcasting in your niche and buy space, offer to be a guest or donate products to be given away in exchange for either of the above. Look for high visibility podcasts to advertise in, sweeten the deal with incentives. (cost - free to low)

- Locate the prominent bloggers in your niche and start adding to the industry by commenting on their views. Don't be obnoxious and don't do it everyday. Join their community and they'll join yours. (cost - free)

- Be sure to incorporate an incentive-to-link program in all your external correspondence such as autoresponders, confirmation emails, reminders etc. (cost free)

- Create a corporate blog and invite bloggers, journalists, and your customers to contribute. Continually promote the site and it's writers and in turn, they'll support your site by linking to it. Don't forget to add an RSS feed as well. (cost free to low)

- Be sure to add the blog to all the blog directories as well as the RSS feeds to RSS directories. (Cost - free)

I could go on but you get the picture. While most of these tactics have a small to moderate cost associated with them, others are free. Not only will you gain links but you'll also gain the much-needed influx of traffic competitive sites need to break into the race.

So what happened to the woman looking for a link builder? Well she's still looking. If you're available and like a challenge, holler. I'll send along her name ( added - she found someone!)
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What The Best Dressed Babies Wear

Emmitt Laycock wearing his best tee-shirt! Go Tribe!

Shana Tova!

Peace and happiness to my family and friends.

http://drybonesblog.blogspot.com/