Jon Clark is a Internet Marketing Consultant specializing in Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This search marketing blog serves as a backdrop for educational search marketing conversation as well as a resource for cutting edge (and free) Internet Marketing tools to make all of our lives as search marketers easier!
To follow up on my last post regarding the possible spam implications of building links through blog commenting I thought I might share a few resources for actually finding 'do-follow' blogs to aid in your link building efforts. Please note, I am not encouraging you to SPAM! Rather, comment only at blogs are relevant and in which you can add something useful the conversation.
I wanted to follow up my top list of search marketing associations post with some additional training associations that will surely help your Internet marketing knowledge base. Our friends at Link Building Best Practices has put together a comprehensive list of link building training programs.
The debate surrounding what links are best and the placement of those links will no doubt continue, BUT one thing we all know that link building is one of the keys to the success of websites on the Internet.
That being said,there is always more to learn about link building and you can’t learn it all from “experience.” In fact, trial and error could be the death of your business – too many mistakes while trying to develop link building strategies could tank your website and search engine rankings. Sure, you could tell yourself that you’ve learned some valuable lessons along the way, but that’s not going to take the sting out of a failed business venture.
There are a variety of link building programs available tailored to the needs of corporations, copywriters, advertising and SEO specialists that can provide you with the skills you need to build links that will work.
We Build Pages offers one or two day programs to give companies solid overviews of the link building process, SEO, competition strategies and search ranking factors. This is ideal for companies who want to begin “in house” programs.
Eric Ward offers personal evaluation of your company’s website and, in the two hour session, a link development strategy session, including evaluation of competitor’s sites and full reports. This is individual instruction by phone unless you opt for the six hour on-site training session, which includes six months of IM access for follow-ups.
Justilien Gaspard focuses heavily on link building and offers one-on-one training that features lots of in-depth discussion specific to your own business and site. Link bait and email campaigns are among the topics.
Search Engine College is less personalized and less expensive. This is a “nuts and bolts” of SEO and SEM with a wide range of courses you can take online that are self-paced and self-directed. There are also lots of valuable resources in PDF form that you can download. Covers more than just link building.
Sempo Institute is geared toward those who are looking at starting a career in SEO or SEM more than business owners who want to tweak their own websites. You can learn a lot here, but it will be of a general nature rather than specific to your company or industry. They also offer corporate training options for corporations who feel that their in-house marketing teams need refresher or advanced courses.
As 2007 quickly comes to a close we have seen a lot of changes, shake-ups, mergers, mix-ups - whatever you want to call it - in the Internet marketing industry. I stumbled upon a great blog post that combines a few of the better stories and articles of the year in review.
There is a lot of good information here, so please take the time read any that you may have not see before now.
You will not be disappointed! Enjoy:)
Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM I don’t remember if social media sites were as widely popular in the beginning of 2007 as they are now, but this guide provides almost all of the details you need to start creating link bait for promotional efforts in high traffic’d social media websites. Need more assistance? Here are some more specific link bait and viral marketing examples to get you on your way.
But is it SPAM? I could probably include a dozen posts from SEOBook that I find of value, but the specific examples herein provide a thought provoking discussion on what you should or should not be doing for your own search engine marketing strategy.
Google Local Search Glossary The promise of local search has a bit more luster on Cape Cod than in other places, and this collection of local search terms and definitions is one of the first places to reference when considering how to implement local SEO strategies.
The First Question You Should Ask Your SEO Consultant Brian Provost caused a real stir when he wrote this post about the field of SEO consulting, but it made me think a lot more about why I am an SEO consultant and where I want to be, 1, 5 and 10 (plus) years out down the road.
Google’s Power - The Only Thing to Fear, Is Fear Itself Maybe I am missing the point, but this post provides inspiration and motivation on ways to create self-sustaining business models and depend less on the stability of other entities (or sole entities) for revenue generation. A must read if you are out there forging your way with an online business model.
Blogging Is About Writing Guest authored by Lorelle VanFossen, this post basically sums up about 100 other “how-to-blog” posts out there today, detailing 30 blog writing tips, suggestions and best practices. Of course there is material more detailed out there, but start here to figure out which areas of blog writing you need to improve first.
The SEO Playbook - Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Alice This post on SEO strategy is a must read for those getting into the search engine marketing space or even the fairly experienced looking to touch up their skills and background. Easy to digest concepts with an incredible amount of third party links and reference points to follow.
The First Principle of Social Web Apps and its Implications What interested me most about “First Principles” is the sheer simplicity of the concept. “For each ‘complete’ user interaction”, the user must receive more value than the energy expended, to complete a given task. Basically, this idea needs to be applied to every online marketing strategy recommended and implemented.
Newsflash: You’re Damn Right It’s a Popularity Contest When people started complaining about social media sites like Sphinn, popularity and popular people, Rae Hoffman’s “straight up” way of communicating what really is a key component of search engine marketing was simply a breath of fresh air amidst a lot noise pollution.
“There Are No Secrets” and other SEO Myths Are there SEO secrets? I really don’t know because I don’t know if you know what I know about search engines and search engine rankings. It all sounds so easy in blog format; then you roll up your sleeves and need to determine just how easy, and how many secrets there really are.
