by EricHammer on January 16, 2012
The short answer to this question is: it depends. Now before you grown and think this is another rehashing of old topics, the question of whether .gov links are worth “thousands of dollars” depends on more than just the perennial question of what makes them valuable to begin with (a refresher on this in a moment). There are other factors involved as well.
What Are .Gov Links?
As you know, a backlink is basically considered to be a kind “vote” for your website. When you get a .gov backlink, it’s basically a “vote” from a government website. The thing is, just like with regular links, not all .gov links are created equal. Thus some .gov links may indeed be worth thousands of dollars while others are worth the time it takes for you to create them yourself.
Why .Gov Links are Popular
I won’t spend too much time re-explaining why these kinds of links are popular. As I’ve mentioned in this blog in the past, there are two theories. The first theory is that Google and other search engines consider such links to be inherently valuable because they come from an ostensibly reliable source (i.e. a government).
The second theory holds that these links are worth more because .gov websites tend to be linked to more often and thus tend to get higher PR ranks which in turn means that links on the sites are inherently more valuable.
Why It Matters
The distinction is important because this would mean that even a very obscure government agency which happens to have a website (for example, the US Board of Geographic Names, which decides whether or not particular names will be adopted by the Federal Government) could give you a valuable link. On the other hand, if only government agencies which actually get linked to regularly are valuable, then something on WhiteHouse.Gov is likely to be much more useful.
The Difference between Links
Now here’s the real kicker though and the reason that I said that it depends when I discussed the question of .gov links – regardless of what the reason for .gov links being more or less valuable may be (and again, it’s not clear one way or the other), the fact remains that just like with regular links, different links have different values. A link from a page entitled links is going to be worth less than a link from a page with news releases is going to be worth less than a link from the homepage.
Bottom Line
Nobody knows for certain what makes .gov links valuable to begin with and I’ve seen passionate supporters of one opinion or another everywhere on the web. Therefore, when asking the question whether they are “really” worth thousands of dollars, I prefer to examine what kind of link it is. Obviously, the government blog comment link is worth less than a link from the President’s Home Page. However, one thing is certain: all of these are likely worth more than a link from some unknown blog on Blogger.com. . .
Tagged as:
backlinks,
gov links,
seo,
whitehouse.gov
by EricHammer on January 16, 2012
I thought that given how long it has been since I wrote here, I’d start out with a topic which is appropriate for a blog about SEO and blogging and which also explains where I’ve been. The short version: I’ve had major upheavals in my life the past month or so which are frankly quite tragic (a close and dear friend was killed and then my mother was ill) which have had me dealing with “life interrupted” instead of working (I quite literally did no work for the past the month and am excited to finally be getting back to my job).
What Do You Do When Life Gets In the Way?
However, all this experience has made me consider the question of what to do when life gets in the way of running a professional blog such as this one. One possibility is to simply abandon blogging for the time when you are unavailable (as I have done this past month or so, though I don’t recommend it). However, there are other possibilities. I thought it might be useful to run through them here:
Hire Someone Temporarily
If you know you’ll be unavailable for a while, consider hiring someone else temporarily to help with running your blog. This person can be involved in writing on a day to day basis and you can even have someone ghostwrite for you so that you don’t have to worry about people thinking that you’ve disappeared.
This is of course only a good choice when you can plan ahead for such disruptions. However, there are other ideas you can try which will get you through a hump like I just went through (and which I’m now in the process of implementing).
Follow the Teacher’s Rule
In another life, I was a teacher in junior high school. I’d write lesson plans and teach my class for 45 minutes. However, every now and then, I’d find that the lesson plan didn’t go as planned or that it wouldn’t last the full 45 minutes. The solution to both of these problems was to have a stock of “fillers” to fill the time so that the kids weren’t running wild until class was over.
Fillers might have included doing a review in the form of a game (Jeopardy for example) or they might have included mini lessons which could easily be whipped out and run on a moment’s notice.
Blogging Fillers
When it comes to blogging, you can use a similar idea — have a set of blog posts ready to post to your blog which are evergreen. These kinds of posts can be posted anytime so that you don’t have to worry about being topical (so for example, the piece I was working on about Yahoo Site Explorer is probably not relevant anymore, but the piece I have in the works about creating link wheels is still relevant because it’s a common SEO tactic which can be employed any time).
The key is to have a list of topics which can be employed in your field of expertise and then to write them up as a kind of “rainy day” set of blog posts. You can then pre-post them on your blog using the scheduling feature (both WordPress and Blogger have this) so that they appear whenever and wherever they need to appear, even though you are preoccupied with something else.
Guest Posts
Another possibility, especially if you have a popular blog with a decent PR rating is to encourage guest posts. There is actually a plugin available for WordPress which will allow people to submit guest posts automatically and then to simply allow you to approve them (or edit them as the case may be).
There are also several popular services available where you can offer your blog as a place to have guest posts published and this can help you get over the hump as well (one that I like is Blogger LinkUp though there are others).
Treat it Like Brushing Your Teeth or Showering
Finally, for those who have iron willpower, it is also possible to treat this like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. You wouldn’t go without showering or brushing your teeth each day (and if you would, you have far bigger problems than not getting to your blog), so consider blogging to be part of your daily routine. You wake up, you brush your teeth, take a shower, get dressed, pour a cup of coffee and write your daily blog post.
It doesn’t work for everyone because you quite literally have to make it into something you do every day, but for some, simply making their blog a daily part of their routine is enough to ensure that life will never get in the way of running your blog.
Tagged as:
blogging,
blogging schedule,
guest posts,
scheduled blogs
by EricHammer on December 7, 2011
Whether you are blogging in order to improve your SEO efforts or you are blogging in order to make money from blogging, there are certain things that you simply must do if you want to be successful at it. Here are five common mistakes new bloggers make which are relatively easy to fix:
Choosing an Aggressive Schedule
Not everyone has the time to write up four 1,000 word blog posts per day. That’s a lot of work and it’s not likely that most of us can handle it. However, many bloggers start off gung ho and decide they’re going to do just that. They may even manage to do one or two days like this, but it eventually drops to two a day and then one a day, then one a week and eventually to nothing at all.
Instead, simply choose a realistic blogging schedule that you can stick with. If it’s once a day, then great – do once a day. If it’s every other day, do that. If it’s once a week, do once a week. The key here is to focus on doing what you can do and being consistent about it.
Trying to Be Perfect
No, you don’t want to have lots of obvious grammatical and spelling mistakes in your blog. If you aren’t able to write good quality English, then you should probably hire someone to write your blog for you. However, at the same time, this isn’t War and Peace and you aren’t trying to write your Magnum Opus here.
Simply get your ideas out in a clear, concise manner and make sure you do get them out – one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is wasting time agonizing over every word they write and they end up not publishing anything at all.
Trying to Cover Too Many Topics
Presumably, your goal with your blog is to make money. Whether it’s to make money by supporting your website or it’s to make money with affiliate products, the fact is that your blog shouldn’t try to be all things to all people. You aren’t writing a daily newspaper here. You’re writing a blog. That means that you need to be focused. Have a single core area of focus and then a handful of subtopics (for example, making money online with topics on marketing, SEO, affiliate programs, etc.).
Not Having a Mailing List
I can’t stress this enough – no matter what your business is, no matter the reason that you run a blog, having a mailing list is essential to making money online. The money truly is in the list, so be sure to set up a mailing list as soon as possible when you get your blog up and running. Don’t wait to do it until you’re popular. You’ll be leaving potential customers blowing in the wind.
Thinking That it’s Easy
Finally, the single biggest mistake most new bloggers make is that they think that successful blogging is easy. It’s not. Writing a blog and making money from it, or generating traffic to your website from it is hard work. It takes commitment and the ability to work through every problem without ever giving up. If you can’t handle that, then hire someone else to handle your blog for you. Otherwise, you’ll never make any money from it.
Tagged as:
blogging,
internet marketing,
make money online,
seo
by EricHammer on December 6, 2011
If you just want a short answer to the question above, the answer is no – a massive email list all by itself will not make you millions. You need to do something with the email list to make your millions. Moreover, your email list needs to be a useful email list to make you those millions and you need to pitch things correctly. However, if you do all that, then you can make good money (though millions may be a bit of an exaggeration – here’s what you need to know):
Yes, the Money Is In the List
I’ve repeated this mantra quite often – the money really is in the list. If you want to make money online, the best way to do it is with a quality mailing list where people are hearing from you on a regular basis and know that you have good stuff to offer them for sale. My guru, John Chow turns over half a million dollars a year because he has built a massive email list. That said, there are caveats:
The List Needs to Be High Quality
You can buy an email list from some unscrupulous list brokers for as little as $200. These lists will have thousands or even millions of email addresses on them. However, those same lists will also be basically worthless. The reason is really quite simple – the lists have been scraped. This means that they were created by harvesting email addresses from websites. These kinds of lists are not only worthless but can actually hurt you because you can be sued for spreading spam.
On the other hand, if you take the time to build yourself a list of people who actually make purchases (this is done by giving things away, though you can get them to pay something by offering a freebie with a shipping charge), then these people will make you money.
You Need to Keep Your List Happy
The Internet marketer who spams his email list with constant junk mail offering a gazillion different meaningless and worthless products is the internet marketer who is constantly struggling to make a living. That’s because they have a very high turnover rate on their email lists and people tend to tune them out and mark the emails as spam.
A smart internet marketer will send out useful information to their email lists and share things which are actually worthwhile. This gets people to actually open the emails they receive and makes them more receptive to making purchases from you, thus making you your millions.
You Need a Good Pitch
Finally, pay close attention to how you market to your mailing list. Do split testing to see which messages convert best and which subject lines actually get opened. Don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit and be sure to include a call to action in order to get your customers to make a purchase from your email list. Then you’ll see that you are able to make your millions…
Tagged as:
email list,
internet marketing,
make money online
by EricHammer on December 6, 2011
The question shouldn’t be whether you can use software to game your YouTube views. The answer is a definite yes – it’s very easy to use software to game your YouTube views. The real question however is whether or not you can get away with doing so. And that sadly is a definite no – if you try to use software to game your YouTube views, it will likely be detected and at best, your videos will not get credit for the views. At worst, they could be deleted. Here’s what you need to know:
Why You’d Want to Game Your Views
Let’s start with the obvious. Why would you want to game your YouTube video views to begin with? After all, isn’t the goal to actually get people to look at your videos? Well, there are two issues surrounding this.
You’ll Get a Wider Audience
First and foremost, popular videos on YouTube will be shown to a wider audience and may even go viral, reaching the front page of the website. This means more traffic for you and that means that you have an incentive to game the numbers.
Popularity Breeds Popularity
The second reason you may want to do this is that popularity breeds popularity. I mentioned a while back when discussing buying Facebook likes that the reason to do is to make your page look more popular so that real people will “like” it. The same thing could be said here – you may want to game the system and have it sowing 10,000 views already so that people will think it’s worth looking at even if you didn’t get any benefits from YouTube.
Why It Doesn’t Work
The problem is that Google’s engineers (remember that Google owns YouTube) aren’t stupid and they have programmed their system to look for patterns where people abuse the system by creating fake views. It’s also in the terms of service that you cannot use methods which would not be possible for human beings to use to up your view numbers. When they do detect this, they reserve the right to suspend your videos and or to remove your ranking numbers.
The Google Bowling Issue
Now the thing is, while I haven’t seen it specifically mentioned anywhere, I’m going to guess that Google wouldn’t actually suspend your videos for doing this for one simple reason – Google Bowling. Google Bowling refers to the practice of deliberately putting up junk links for your competition to get them delisted as spammers.
A similar process can easily be employed on YouTube to get people’s account suspended or delisted so I don’t believe Google would actually remove videos and or penalize you. More likely, just like with the junk links, the views will simply be ignored and may even be reduced accordingly.
A Legit Way to Boost Your Views
Now if you want to boost your YouTube video views legitimately, there are ways to do it which won’t necessarily drive traffic but which will be fine as far as the Google filters are concerned. You can set up a job at Amazon Mechanical Turk to pay people to view your videos and pay anywhere from 1-10 cents for each view.
I’m really not sure how you verify this and it could get expensive pretty quickly if you want to hit 10,000 views (especially if you go with the more valuable offers to make it happen faster), but this would be fine with Google’s filters and would also show thousands of different IP addresses viewing your videos, meaning that you won’t be accused of using software to game your YouTube views.
Tagged as:
black hat SEO,
video,
YouTube
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