Chris - Moderator
Founder of DMOZ
Jim Boykin - We Build Pages
The presentation isnt flashy and until the other day there wasnt even a presentation *some chuckles*
The Questions:
What link building methods have changed? - Link Trades - c'mon this is Pubcon - Submitting to 100's of directories - 3 way linking - Buying PR8 and 9 - they are all block - Link Brokers - Ill leave that to you - Linking sites together - Google knows its all you - Paid blog reviews - we all know how Matt feels about this
What always has worked:
Write the most amazing content, or have the most incredible pictures.... moved the screen.
Day 1
Directories - a few old good ones and industry related
Day 2
Talk on some blogs - maybe you will get some
Day 3
..was too fast...
Day 4-20
Write great linkbait articles, create free tools and widgets and more
short coming of LinkBait - hard to get links to pages you are targeting - hard to get links using phrases you're targeting Day 21 - 31 Analyze your competitor's links using free tools, WBP's tools or by hand (yahoo)
Way to check
linkdomain: comp1.com linkdomain: comp2.com linkdomain: comp3.com - linkdomain: yourdomain.com
Day 32 to 1000
Google/Yahoo searches to find related web pages
Contact the owner of the page and request a link via email/phone
If you contact them via email, prove you are human
Then tell them why they should link to your site and possibly rec'd how they should
What will be the value of a link be? - How old is the site? - How many and what kind of backlinks? - How trusted is the site? How many .edu/.gov's does it have - How interlinked to the main site is the page that the link is coming from? - Do other sites link to the page you are getting a link on? - Who else does that page link to? - will the link be in the body - will the link be part of content - What do you have to do to get it? do you have to build content?
Who to link out to? - .edu, .gov's and other sites that dont rank above you
Greg Hartnett - CEO - Best of the Web
Link Building via Directories
Q: Isnt a directory just a paid link? A: No way
- Pay for placement - Successful transcation results in a link - Directory Submission - Successful transcation results in a review
Q: How can I tell a good from a bad directory? A: Common sense - Good - have a history - contain great resources - have populated categories - are designed for the user - add lots of sites on their own - not paid submits - Is it a lobor of love? Does it feel good to you?
Q: What kind of traffic can I expect? A: Have you heard of the Digg effect? - minimal volume - targeted - converting
Q: Can I list my site multiple times? A: Yes - One site one listing in some cases - some allow deep links - if it makes sense then why not? - Relevant content for the category - CNN is listed 745 times in DMOZ
Q: Is the Yahoo Directory worth it? A: yes - Even at the price
Q: Is the ODP corrupt? A: No - not as a company - the few dont represent the overall value of the project (bribes, anti-competitive, and so on) Q: Which directories are considered most trustworth? A: Yahoo, DMOZ, BOTW, Business.com
Q: How can I get into DMOZ? A: prayer? - read the guidelines - find the most relevant category - properly title and describe your listing (should be title of your site) - submit and move on or... - become an editor
Q: How can I ensure my site gest listed if I go and pay for one of these review fees? A: You cant
Q: Where can I submit my Blog? A: Yahoo and Dmoz, BOTW has blog directory, Search Engine Journal "20 places to submt your blog", Top Rank Blog "Top places to submit your RSS"
Rae Hoffman - Sugarrae
Delegating Link Development
I talk fast, it has alot of wording - it will be available on the site and then appologizes *Thanks Rae* Outsourcing Link development takes on many forms - has a long list
The problem with outsourcing is that a good firm can do good but a bad firm can do ALOT of bad. If you dont know anyone, take a look at the conference list of vendors and see who keeps showing up as they must be making people happy and money.
Check a outsourcing company's own links - Are they marketing theirselves or just all talk?
You are who you hire.
A list of potential questions: *she goes over it quickly*
Rae is not a fan of outsourcing - and prefers to hire inhouse.
Providing that you hire the right people and monitor their progress.
A list of potential questions for finding a future link developer *again, goes over quickly*
You will need to create training documents if you bring them in house. Another list that she goes over quickly *Rae talks faster then I can type*
The best thing you can do is train them to be marketers, think for themselves and get traffic and links and not just send emails.
Factors for going inhouse or outsourcing - another quick list
Rodger Montii - martinibuster
Likes Rae's thoughts on Outsourcing.
When having a team he has them bcc him on each email they send out. A team in India and the team in the US both do this.
Isnt a fan of giving control to a group you dont know that well.
Advertising/Link Buys - banners as long as its a link
Newsletters - some get emailed and many are archived and live on the site. You pay for the email but keep the link
Paid Links - a huge fan. How else are you going to get the anchor text you need. When you just ask your success rate goes down. Blogs - go to a directory of blogs and start there. Look for a blog with a Google adsense unit about 1/2 way down the site - it shows they want to monitize the site. Contact them and see if they are open to advertising. You can get run of site links pretty cheaply.
What you should look for when buying a link: - relevance - no mention of Pagerank - site could be above the radar - No ads for non-relevant sites - year long purchase. 200$ looks better then saying $15 a month
Search Queries "advertise with us keyword -cpm Search: "rate card" -cpm advertisint" allintitle:"sponsors" -cpm site:.org keyword (this is done on Yahoo.com)
Buy websites - inactive sites - search "temporarily down for maintenance" - Search allintitle: "site is offline" - under-performing websites - You can do a copyright 2004 or something similar to find sites that havent been updated
Things to look for: - archived links - ideal if dedicated to a niche - search: "site of the monht" + keyword - Site of the day and week, too
Sponsorships - industry associations - charity groups - concentrate on .org - search: keyword sponsors site:.org - research competitor backlins in yahoo: linkdomain:example.com site:.org - .edu job fairs
YouTube - Videos can have links - if it gains popularity it can get some traffic and pass it along to you - Put URL first to help get click throughs
Software - b2bsoftware section on BOTW
Charity Site Design - from time to time he does it. They are however quite demanding. Might be some work but you can get some links.
Some moderator lead questions that gets Rae going and Greg talking. Both jump around and talk to fast - you have to be here :)
Conversation moves to what is changed from 1999-2002 and now? Greg talks about links exchanges and having your sites all link to eachother and makes reference to Jim's slides and presentation.
Martinibuster says that buying trust is part of it now.
Contributed by Dave R.
