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Building inbound links to your site

Trolling around for something for work, I tripped across http://www.mycontentbuilder.com/

It’s one of many resources for entire articles you can recopy and post on your site. I can see how contributing to a site like this helps you gain inbound links to your own site.

I’m just not sure how much value it adds to your readership to copy someone else’s content on your own site.

I’m interested in your thoughts on the subject (please leave a comment), especially if you keep a blog or consider yourself somewhat SEO savvy.

Here’s an article I picked up I picked up and copied wholesale from the site. The HTML was already in place.

Reciprocal Linking Isn’t The Only Game In Town by Jeff Alderson

Incoming links to a website are like the gold of the Internet. These can help sites generate traffic, PageRank, search ranking and even revenue. The unfortunate reality is that not all publishers understand how to go about getting these incoming links established effectively.

The reality is there are a variety of good methods that can be used to generate incoming links. Some methods work a little better than other options, but they can all help increase traffic in their own way.

One method many publishers use involves reciprocal linking. This is nothing more than putting another person’s site link up on your pages and handing them off yours to post, as well. This is achieved either through mutual agreement via e-mail conversations or with the help of services designed to help sites gain links.

Services that specialize in reciprocal links offer all types of options. Some services offer a fully automated plan that puts your links up on other sites and puts others on yours. Other services hook up publishers to arrange for link swaps and there are even companies that continue to track links after they’ve been placed to ensure they remain active. Which one of the linking services is the best really hinges on what a publisher is looking for and how much effort they want to put into the process of generating reciprocal links.

Link swapping services can be helpful, but they don’t always cover all the bases. The thing they miss checking into is where on another site that link happens to be and how visitors can actually find the links. There are horror stories about many who have used these services. Many find that other sites simply bury their links on pages that are not accessible from their home pages. This can be avoided by checking links if a service is used and even if it’s not. If another site makes its reciprocal links impossible to find, e-mail the webmaster and ask why. Should action not be taken, it’s a good idea to remove the link to that site from yours.

Reciprocal linking can have its perks, but its not the only way to go. Publishers have a number of other tools at their disposal for creating solid incoming links. One of the best methods, perhaps, is simply by doing what publishers do best. It all falls on content creation. The better, more interesting, more useful a site’s content happens to be, the more likely that site is to gain incoming links in a more organic, or natural way. The reality is other sites like to link to those in the field that do their jobs well.

When generating content, it’s a good idea to make sure it’s of high quality. Whether it’s a rant, a rave, a news article, an in-depth review or a humor piece, if visitors take something away from viewing the content, natural links are likely to come. Make sure content is at least search engine optimized in the title and in a few spots, but beyond that don’t let quality get sacrificed for keywords.

There are a number of other ways to boost incoming links. Some of the best ways include writing posts in forums with URL signatures included, retaining others to write blog posts about your content, running awards programs and contests and so on. The key with these ideas is to be creative and have a little fun.

When it comes to generating incoming links, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Exchange programs can help, but they shouldn’t be the only tool used.

About the author: Jeff Alderson develops search engine optimization software. Now you can easily boost your link popularity for free. Be sure to use Ad Word Analyzer to find top keywords for your anchor text.

This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.

Article Source: MyContentBuilder Directory | Submit Articles | Search Find Free Content | Author Submission

Photo credit: selva

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Uploading YouTube videos

YouTube videos are another great way to get your SEO results up. Get this free download to encode videos to be YouTube friendly!

You can encode videos up to three minutes in length without springing for the $39.95 price. And if your video is longer than three minutes, you can trim it back to 2:59 and still use the free software.

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SEO, social media, and a full-time job

There is SO much to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. It’s a full-time job!

I met a host of prolific bloggers at BizJam Seattle 08 today. I heard as many points of view of “what works” as speakers who took the stage. I understood DL Byron of Textura Design say that blogging monthly makes you irrelevant; and weekly, passable. It’s not until you blog five times a day that you really break through.

Jason Swihart, also from Textura, said that your business blog should be all about your business and your products. Aliza Sherman, named by NEWSWEEK as one of the “Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet,” disagreed.

She said that if people only wanted to read about your product, they could look at your website or a brochure. “Make it interesting, reveal part of yourself,” she said. “Humanize yourself and your company.” Then she went on to share dozens and Utterz.comdozens of social media sites including Utterz — you phone a number, leave a message, and it gets uploaded to your sites — and Hellotxt.com, “the one site to remember if you only remember one today.”

Matthew Haughey, who writes for the New York Times Technology section, said that SEO “consultants” pretty much waste their clients’ money. Five percent of what they teach is good: Flash doesn’t work in search, basics of wireframes and tags, but 95 percent of it is trickery and “Google changes its algorithm all the time,” so most of the tricks will be irrelevant in a few months.

They did agree on one thing:

Blogging is vital to your business.

Blogging is vital to your business. Your website serves a function: it showcases your products and services. Your blog enables you to reach out to your customers and demonstrate your expertise.

They also said that your blogs — my blogs — don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to all wrap up with a pretty bow at the end. You don’t have to be clever all the time. Just let the readers know what you’re learning, doing, and why they might care. And invite them to comment.

And so, Readers, any comments? Are you blogging yet? How are you using it?

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Those other Joe Hages!

JDH

(This article first appeared on April 24, 2008.)

Back in the day, me and Dad — we were the only Joe Hages that mattered. Now with this new-fangled Internet thing, there are Joe Hages all over the place!

There’s the Lebanese Coalition Joe Hage and the baseball-playing Joe Hage. The legal Joe Hage could defend the alleged diamond-thieving Joe Hage. And there’s a nice Joe Hage in Maryland. He takes care of the Sycamore Island Canoe Club.

But there’s one Joe Hage I do not like. That Joe Hage, if that’s even his real name, “enjoys a 27-year career in the software industry.” He worked for Agile Software and is now the “co-founder of Universant Corporation and has served as its Chairman of the Board since the company’s inception in 2006.”

SinestroThe Green LanternThat Joe Hage is, today, the number one Joe Hage on Google and therefore is the Sinestro Joe Hage to my Green Lantern Joe Hage. He is my arch rival. There can be no other way.

We all know how this ends. I belong to the Justice League. He belongs to the Legion of Doom. I win.

I’m the good guy.

Yes, my Google rankings come after his Google rankings today, but not for long. He’s intrigued me to learn more about search engine optimization (SEO).

The smartest SEO person I know, expert Barry Hurd, taught me that using expressions like Expert Joe Hage and Professional Joe Hage and The Original Joe Hage in your text and tags (when appropriate) can help. Doing so leads web spiders to conclude that this must be The Most Important Joe Hage and The Most Relevant Joe Hage to people searching for Joe Hage.

So, what’s-his-name better watch his back because you’re reading this and you may choose to join my guest list. Soon, this Joe Hage will be the most relevant Joe Hage in the entire universe!*

Mwwwaaaaaahahaha!

* According to Google and, perhaps, my wife and kids.

Postscript: Google recognized this Joe Hage as The #1 Joe Hage three days after this article appeared.

Thanks, Readers!

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The Joe Hage and Barry Hurd Marketing Adventure

Joe Hage Barry Hurd Marketing Strategy

My friend Barry Hurd and I hosted a fantastic marketing event last Thursday for real estate professionals.

What makes this remarkable, as Barry details in this very flattering blog entry (click here to read in its entirety) is, “In terms of the relationship between us, Joe and I would simply not have met in real life if not for Biznik. Realizing that two extremely busy professionals such as Joe and I can form a strong and healthy relationship using online networking is an eye-opener for other professionals like us.

Barry HurdI couldn’t agree more. I joined Biznik back in October when I was transitioning jobs. Now, gainfully employed at a job I love, I’m very active in the Biznik community because I meet people like Barry Hurd — easily the smartest search engine optimization (SEO) expert I know. To co-host an event with him was a real treat ~ I learn a new thing or two every time we sit together.

The punch line: You should join me at Biznik, the “Business Networking that Doesn’t Suck.” As of this writing, Biznik is the number one Google “business networking” result. Joining is free (if you want it to be), and you meet people virtually (and in real life if you want). I am a smarter marketer today because of Barry. And Cardiac Science is benefiting from my Biznik hobby: I am building some of Barry’s SEO tricks into our brand new website (launching Q4’08).

What complementary skills would you like to learn? New referral partners you’d like to meet? Join me at Biznik right now and start building your network.

And you can find Barry’s Joe-Hage-friendly article right here. An endorsement like his means a lot to me.