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To the haters,
I was interviewed for the book and honored to have been asked. I don't think I'm any kind of hero and sure the premise is corny. Heroes are my 85 year old father who doesn't know who he is anymore and my 84 year old mom who now wipes his ass for him.
So quit whining and ranting just for the blog links, and find a reason to be happy. Look at the sky, go to the effing beach or have a beer. Do whatever it takes to quit hating.
I've now been at this link buildng/web publicity stuff for 14 years, and I still work for a living as a one person business, in a garage office, for any size client, big or small. I've taught linking to people at Proctor and Gamble as well as mom and pop dot com. I've given away hundreds of hours of free training sessions and advice to non-profits over the years, and still do so when it's feasible.
I'm no hero, I'm human. I try hard, I succeed, I fail. I move on and try again. I'm proud to be asked to participate in that book, and look forward to showing it to my parents, who have never been online, because they will know it means I done good, and that will make them proud.
Is that ok with you, haters?
Eric Ward
Excellent points Rae and welcome to LinkWeek!!
The best content in the world is meaningless until
someone knows about it, and more importanly, links
to it. Until then, it's just files on a server, growing mold.
Eric
I was thinking that in addition to the editorial filters, I'd include a summary of how to go about getting the link itself. A step by step. For those who are already savvy enough to be reading SEL, this may not be too helpful, but for those who don't have time to bounce from blog to blog and don't know when a link opportunity is presenting itself, it could be useful. I was thinking it would be free, not fee based, or just donation driven. I could run it off wordpress, tag each how-to with keywords, and then it would be self archiving, plus as they age and rot, I could prune them. Later, if it actually has legs, I could password protect it or feebase it to keep spammers form ruining it.
eric
Below is an example of what I'm envisioning. Obviously this one is only of value to people in this this specific niche, but that's good, because some will be of value to everyone, while others will be nichefied. The topical opportunities that do not apply to your particular situation can simply be ignored. The idea is to have a steady stream of these you can pursue or ignore based on the relevance to your site(s). I'm also thinkiing about keywording it so you only see the ones you want to see.
WardReport - Link Opportunity Alert
Spotted: High trust link opportunities
Subject Area Tags: Aviation, Aerospace
Site Name: SkyControl
Site URL: http://www.skycontrol.net
Short Explanation of Opportunities
1). Any aviation event with a web site can be listed here FOC (free of charge)
2). Any aviation web site issuing a press release can submit it here
3). Any aviation web site can submit to their topical directory
4). Paid links / banners
5). Editorial partnerships
Of special note:
Are you a professional in aeronautics or space? Are you originating a project in one of those fields? Are you a member of a company, an organisation or an association and wish to edit some news or releases in a widespread aeronautical media? Feel free to contact them to become a Skycontrol editorial partner at edition@skycontrol.net
Please let me know what would make it better. One crucial point I need to make is these
link opportunity alerts will only be available to members who request them. I can't have the venues I identify spamhammered with viagra submissions :)
David - please read http://www.ericward.com/articles/whylinkmoses.html
I was given the LinkMoses moniker by another speaker at SES San Jose several years ago.
I would never give myself a nickname, let alone one like that. It bothered me at the time so I decided to make light of it, and used it as a way to get even. Three years later, bingo.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=linkmoses&btnG=Google+Search
Mission accomplished.
Content is nothing without links, which I know from 14 years seeking them, so I'd never say such a foolish thing without clarification. Up until last year I kept my mouth shut about several link buildng approaches that were pointless. Since I have become more outspoken against them, I have been attacked. So be it. I know I'm not perfect. I suck at several aspects of this link-buildnig-as-a-business thing. I get overwhelmed with it all, I don't respond fast enough etc. I know all this. But one thing I will not do is sit by while people sell bullshit services or don't at least have the decency to give the client the opportunity to request and receive a 100% refund.
Eric Ward,
aka, well, you know.
hugoguzman said:
Inbound links (internal and external) are all that matters, and understanding how to evaluate their potency on a case by case basis is all an entreprising link builder needs to know.
Awesome awesome awesome statement. Link Potency. Can I borrow that term? It's brilliant.
The best link builders know three simple things.
1). Which targets will be potent for which reasons
2). What content is likely to have a chance to get those potent links or not
3). How to get them
The rest is just noise.
Eric
Geez wiltonbiz, I am sorry you are so pissed you felt you had to attack Danny's site, rather than mine. I've checked every google and paypal transaction going back 5 years and can't find wiltonbiz, so I can't send a refund until I know who and where. I've had my share of unhappy clients over the years, and most certainly will have some in the future, but never once, I repeat NEVER ONCE have I been unwilling to give back every single penny of every fee I've charged to any client who is unhappy. I'd rather sleep at night than make a few hundred bucks. In fact, in your case, I'll send back twice the fees, or $300, plus leave your access to the archive of 20+ private columns live forever. I'll sleep even better that way.
Eric Ward
865 637 2438 and I'll answer the phone for the next two hours :)
wiltonbiz - Bingo! Hi Neal. I just searched for other wiltonbiz profiles, and went through my saved mail archives and found your original subscription from 11/4/06. Why didn't you just make a refund request at paypal? You would have had your refund years ago. Anyway, I then logged into paypal and sent a double refund to neil@smallbusinessonline.net. The transaction # is (ID #32T79759RA971383W).
I hope by sending you double what you paid I will end the pain and suffering this caused you. Email me and I'll give you a one hour consult pro bono to further salve the wound.
You are correct that sometimes I take on more business than I should. Perhaps the point of this article should be for me to take my own advice, and go underground.
Also, I stayed by my phone for three hours. No call.
Thank you again for questioning my integrity in public.
Eric Ward
I'm a big boy and can take the heat. Sent the refund, done. His claim that I never offered it was just stupid. I still have the five different emails I sent to everyone, and anyone who knows me knows I will give back ten times what I charge if someone feels I am not helping them. Plus the entire WARD REPORT archive was given to EVERYONE, even those who joined way later. However, his attack did bring out something that I need to address.
I agree that I am very hard to reach sometimes. Sometimes I go dark for days and folks wonder where the hell I am, including my own clients. Ask TVguide.com or PBS.org for whom I've worked for years.
When I am deep into a link building campaign, I do not come up for air and I do not answer email or the phone. I focus on the task at hand. The challenge I face every day is that I want to remain a one person business, but becasue of the demand for what I do, I am guilty of taking on too much sometimes. This does in fact lead to me having to apologize and even send fees back for work I was not able to start by an agreed upon date. The WARD REPORT was a casualty of a new baby ahead of schedule, and my poor planning for that eventuality, and I am happy to admit it. I suck at business management, but I'm awesome at link building. :)
Perhaps most important, I have never taken a penny I was not willing to give right back, because in business, as in life, you cannot please everyone, and the net is a small place.
Admit failings, work to do better. Move on. That's life.
Eric Ward
The moment a link is pursued is the moment the link is arguably paid. Doesn't matter if it's via a press release, a link builder, or even an employee who sent an email asking for a link as part of their job, then it's a paid link. It's all a matter of intent and and degree. If you hire me to show you where your site can earn high trust links, and I get them for you, then you paid me to get you links, and thus they are paid links. Just indirectly. I'm a middle man between your content and the sites who don't know about your content yet. It's the blatant sale of pagerank or link juice or whatever you want to call it that to me is when the slope gets very very slippery...
Great stuff Elisabeth,
Eric
Some clarifications
Yoav asked...
You included linkbait in the mix of unhealthy linkbuilding techniques. Why? If you create a highly useful/helpful/informative/funny piece of content and then use social media exposure to get trusted links. Whats wrong with that?
Eric's reply:The term Link bait encompasses an ever-widening variety of content/approaches. There are some types of link bait that are sublimly clever, do work, and make the web a fun and useful place. Often these happen by accident. Others can absolutely be engineered. But be honest, if you are creating link bait not becasue you have a passion for the content but because you are chasing links, then join the 40 million other web sites that are just in it to make a buck. Analogy. When I was a kid I desperately wanted a pair of these Puma Clyde sneaks. My mom, always frugal, would never spend the money, becasue at K-mart they had these kinda sorta looked like Puma Clyde sneakers, and she would tell me, with conviction, that none of the kids on the playground would know the difference between real Puma Clyde's and my K-mart knock offs. Yeah, right. Same with Link bait. You have the real deal that was created with purpose and function, you have the fun and playful, but 99% of Link bait is of the the K-mart knock off variety. That's what I was referring to.
Eavesy asked...
You have deemed just about every form of link building useless, what links do count?
Eric's reply: I mentioned only a few forms of link building. What works? Recognizing the content value and intent of your client's site, say for example, this site, and then doing the heavy duty research and analysis to identify the exact editors who would be most inclined to care about it, like this. Bingo. Link happens. Do this enough, and even a site less than 2 years old can dominate the rankings.
ethtar2004 said...
I personally submit five articles that are unique, each week, to ezinearticles. I have been doing this for the last three years and the results have been superb.
Eric's reply: ezinearticles is a terrific site, and I did not mention them by name and did not mean to imply they were useless, however...even at ezinearticles, the positive effect will only be as good as the particular subject niche you are writing articles for. If you are writing articles about marital problems so you can drop links in them to your viagra store, then yawn. if you are writing articles about deaf children and classroom listening systems, then there are high trust links to be had and go for it.
The reality is that just about any technique can work - or not work - depending on the content, intent, target site quality, and many other factors. What troubles me is when I see a company not taking the time and effort to do it right, choosing instead to take the easy way out, because the client has no idea what the true potential for link building for their specific site really is.
-Eric Ward
Story: Goodbye, Yahoo Picks
What awesome feedback! You'all have spotted more blunders than I'd ever imagined. iBrian's comment hit me dead on. Anyone looking at my site would realize I don't swap or grant links to anyone, no matter how they ask. I link when it makes sense for my site's readers or when it illustrates a point or when it helps me convey the message I want to convey. The down side of having a 14 year old pagerank 6/7 site devoted to link building is that I'm a target for any link seeker who doesn't know better.
iBrian - I really mean it when I say no offense, but for you to say I haven't the faintest clue about contemporary link dev is about the stupidest thing I have read in my life. I work requesting links for clients every day. I am exactly the contemporary link builder you reference. Today I have sent over 50 link requests for two different clients. Tomorrow I will do the same. Just as I have since 1994. Every minute of every day I study, test, read, execute linking related strategies and campaigns. Frankly, I am as contemporary a link builder as anyone you will ever see.
Tell me one freaking thing you know about the details of the link dev work I have done in just the past month alone.
I'm a laid back guy, but attack me and the years I've spent busting my as*, and you can expect return fire.
Eric
Thank you for commenting back. I'd say about 50% of my clients are in the "easy linkin" category. It's true, obtaining links for PBS.org content ain't exactly like doing trigonometry. But the other half of my clients are just like anyone else's - in competitive niches with no brand equity and nothing but good content to use for link seeking. I'm told my fees are absurdly low, and I keep them that way on purpose. I'm one guy with zero overhead. Why overcharge? So what if I've been at it forever. The real truth is it isn't me that gets the links, it's the content on the site I work on behalf of that EARNs the link. I'm just a conduit implementing strategies based on the site I have to work with. And I often do not have the success I want to have, and have to try again and again.
One thing I am guilty of is putting those big name clients on my homepage. I do that because when you live in the middle of nowhere working alone from an office over a garage, it's one of the only ways I have to validate I actually exist :)
Story: Happy Birthday, Rand!
Why does it bother me that I am just about old enough to be Rand's father?
What I don't get is this.
- I use google all day - I use Gmail - I have a personal google page with stuff I care about - I use the google reader for useful feeds - I have a google bookmarks account - I use google checkout - I use google calendar - I run several google groups - I've geolocated my biz for google maps/local
So you'd think google would have PLENTY of signals from me to personalize my search results. But I have seen only a couple results with an obvious personalized flavor, and none that were helpful.
So as heavy a google user as I am, if they can't personalize MY results, whos can they? It makes me think that I've given them so info about so many topics that they can't really make any distinction as to what I care most about. If that's the case, then PS will only work for the user whos signals are more vertical, like about cars or football or food. Give google too much, and PS can't help...
It's all good! I am ready to open the link building floodgates for sphinn Thursday at 11am.
Sphinn search algorithm Q's
Would it be possible to give me options to get search results based on...
# of sphinns high/low, low/high as well as those that are getting sphinned/sphunn at the fastest rate?
by age of post
limited to categories
feed options for result
Maybe an advanced search page with these and other options?
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