Before going on I would like to let you know that you can get some paid links for free.

From Digital Point thread:

TNX is not considered a link exchange or broker! You do not have to choose every page you want to place your link at, just choose the amount of links, its quality and link text with keywords. Links will be placed on websites with chosen Google PR, Yahoo Backlinks count and those of chosen Category.

I participate in many SEO forums and no matter the colour of the hat you are wearing, no matter how 2.0 you want to be, how linkbaitable you strive to be, traditional organic seo and link building (on which paid links are a big component) are still very much in use, and will continue to be for years to come.

TNX has some features that set them apart from the competition. There’s this new paid links service that has a new feature. Links on every page are tradeable. This means as an advertiser you have more options, and as a publisher you have more real estate to make money from.

You can also make money with TNX affiliate program, which has an interesting twist. You will earn 13.3% of the lifetime earnings of every webmaster you refer. This is measured in what they call TNX points. You can either use these points to buy links to your own websites or just sell them to other webmasters within the system. You will also receive 5% of the money made by advertisers that you refer.

Overall I think this baby looks pretty good. Think that with just one point you can buy one link. And you can buy 1,000 points with just over a dollar. So go ahead and sign up with TNX now. Get started with the free links on the DP thread and give it a try.

So let me get this right: According to the thread, if you sign up you get 2,000 points for free. If you sign up and get a websites approved you get 5,000 points for free. With 5,000 points you can buy 5,000 links for one month.

Why are you still reading this?

So the practice of SEO moves away from algorithm reverse engineering and becomes an activity whose main focus is on influencing people.

Of course, half of the statement above is false. Algorithm reverse engineering is still a great component of good SEO, as well as competitive analysis, link analysis, link building, on page optimization, keyword density optimization, etc.

In fact, many if not all the aspects of SEO that do not have to with Viral Marketing are still as relevant as they ever were. They are still relevant, but they are becoming increasingly commoditized for a number of reasons that exceed the limits of this post.

Marketers are realizing the explosive power of linkbait and viral marketing which has to do basically with two variables:

• content creation, and
• networking

Both of which are easy to categorize as “Social Science” because they have to do with influencing people.

But what the heck is “Science”? Is Social Science best described as being opposed to Exact Science? What is the difference between them?

The term is often used without a clear understanding of what it actually means.

The Issue With Empiric Evidence

From a strictly logical point of view, even though empiric evidence shows us that something has been in such a way until now, there is no logical reason that tells us that it will remain the same in the future.

For example, let’s look at the following scientific hypothesis: “All men and women die some day”. This is supported by empiric evidence. So far, we haven’t known any human being that lived past the hundred and something years.

The cells in human bodies go through a process in which they develop themselves until they reach certain point where they start an ageing and deteriorating process.

This is a fact. Not a logical deduction. In fact, there is nothing logical or rational about it. It is just the way it is.

Empirism Vs. Deduction

1+1 = 2

Now that’s logical. Can it be verified by empirism? No it can’t. Deductive knowledge operates this way. It is not looking at reality and trying to find out how reality works (that is empirism’s job.)

The deductive scientific knowledge is governed by one set of rules contained within what most of us refer to as “logic”. Given certain premises and the set of rules dictated by the logic, we can deduct a logical outcome.

Why am I ranting about this? Besides the fact that I enjoy making your head hurt, I think we need to get over the dichotomy “Social Science Vs. Exact Science” in which the SEO discipline tends to be misinterpreted.

Traditional SEO Is An Empiric Science

SEO has an empiric component, which has to do with the reverse engineering practice in which professionals interpret the reality of the SERPS and then attempt to apply the conclusions on ranking new sites (they attempt to verify their hypothesis.)

If the results are as expected, the hypothesis is verified. If the results are not as expected the scientist goes back to analyze the reality of the SERPS looking for more empiric evidence, then applies the new knowledge on an iterative cycle that only ends when the results are as expected.

Viral Marketing SEO Is Also An Empiric Science

Bait artists such as myself approach Viral Marketing from an empiric point of view. We research our audience, identify those elements that are known to work, and we use all this corpus of knowledge to create our hypothesis.

For example: My post titled “Top Ten Boob Jobs Gone Wrong (Pic)” will make the homepage of Digg if I am able to give it an initial push of 21 votes.

That is the hypothesis I elaborated after researching Digg users behavior and previous case studies. Next step in my scientific approach will be to verify or falsify my hypothesis.

So I go and perform the test. If the hypothesis is verified, I will leave it as is and consider it a “scientifically verified truth”.

If it is falsified I will:

• go back to the empiric field to collect more information
• develop a new hypothesis
• perform a new test

As you can see, the process is iterative.

So What’s The Point Of This Lengthy And Obscure Post?

• I want you to think about your SEO campaigns from a scientific standpoint
• I want to eliminate the misconception that exists in the dichotomy between Social Sciences and Natural Sciences
• I want to eliminate the misconception that equates “empiric verification” to “rational”
• I want you to think about the two basic forms of scientific knowledge so you are self aware of how you are making decisions that affect your marketing campaigns.

Let me share something with you. I am a communication theory geek. Mc Luhan, Adorno, Horkheimer, Noelle-Neumann, Umberto Eco, Watzlawick, Van Dijk, Tufte, and many other great minds live in my library shelves and drink Scotch with me in the evenings.

This post is going to be the first one of many in which I explain Communication Theory elements that have a direct impact on your SEO and Viral Marketing Campaigns.

During the time I was exclusively a Black Hat SEO, these guys did little for me in terms of business and generating revenue. How could they help when I was building millions of auto-generated pages to trick the search engines?

However when I decided to get in the business of Linkbait and Viral Marketing, well, what can I say. The communication studies university fees started to pay off big time.

So without further introduction let me introduce you to the first communication theory that you need to keep in your mind tool box.

The Spiral Of Silence

I already described how the fear of social isolation is the key to unlocking the power of Tribe Penetration Marketing.

I didn’t expand on the theory behind this concept though. This is what this post is about.

The spiral of silence theory is based on the premise that the majority of people is afraid of isolation, and that when expressing their opinions they are in fact trying to identify themselves with the majority (thus, avoiding isolation.)

The main source of information contributing to create the dominant climate of opinion is the complex of Mass Media Communication.

In other words, it is the Media that creates a certain conception of reality, and people will inevitably stick to it because they feel that if they don’t they will become isolated.

Why is it called Spiral Of Silence? Because the logic within the theory states that the more one version of the facts is broadcasted, those who oppose it will be more silent about it.

The author of this theory (Noelle-Neumann) illustrates how this process occurred in Germany in the years between 1960 and 1980, benefiting the Social-Democrats in the government due to the undeniable leftist bias amongst journalists in the main Media Outlets.

Some of you may be thinking about the United States of America and the dominant climate of opinion after 9/11 that allowed a president to violate international laws and go to war using evidence that was being challenged by most of its ally countries and proved to be wrong in the end.

This theory is the result of research conducted in times when the Internet wasn’t a reality yet, so it will be up to us to take it one step further and see how it applies to Online Marketing.

SEO and Viral Marketing

But Marcos, you mentioned something about Scotch, and then you went ranting about theories and mass media communication. How is this relevant to SEO and Viral Marketing? Are you drunk?

I am so glad you asked.

The theory describes a communication model that applies to social groups when there is one group of messages that become more dominant than others, provoking most opposing voices to become silent.

Do you still not see how is this relevant to your Viral Marketing Campaign? Do you really need me to draw the B and the C or you already jumped from A to D?

Just in case, here is the B and the C. Let’s talk about the one social media site we all love to include in our marketing campaigns. That’s right, Digg.

What is the dominant climate of opinion amongst such social group? Would you try to market anything that opposes such climate? What do you think that bury button is for? What do you think the Bury Brigade is there for?

Don’t get me wrong. A polemic hook can be a killer linkbait. But that’s one home run you will have a hard time enjoying again, at least from the same domain.

When you are trying to build a consistent and solid relationship with your target group the future proof strategy to success is to decode the complex of messages that are mostly accepted and agreed upon in such group. Map them up and become the most committed messenger of such messages.

The targeted social group will embrace you as one of its own and be receptive to what you have to say.

Then you will be in a position to inoculate your virus, I mean, spread your message.

The ulterior objective of any SEO activity is to influence on other people’s behavior. More specifically, we want them to perform an action on their end that will benefit our search engine rankings. Just like a War General plans for his troops to move according to his plans, you need to influence your visitors to perform the actions you want.

The War General has the easy job. He says, they do. The tough job is on you: you need to influence and persuade.

You want your visitors to:

• Link to your website from their website
• Bookmark your pages
• Vote for your submissions on social media websites where the exposure an article gets is directly proportional to the amount of votes a submission achieves
• Subscribe to your updates

Do you agree so far?

Good - but it can get more complicated than that. In other words I hope you make it more complicated than that because if you don’t you are missing out big time.

The bullet points above show a very simplistic picture of how you should graph your People Influencing Strategy.

Let’s look at the following case study:

My last post had viral elements that made it a Stumbleupon success. I am receiving a steady stream of traffic from Stumbleupon.

I am a bit annoyed that even though I am receiving all this traffic, I am not getting anything out of it. They are not subscribing, they are not converting, they are not commenting on my blog. All they do (and I don’t complain) is thumb up my blog on SU and some of them review me.

I guess this could result in some links and there’s always added value that I won’t be able to measure right away, but I’d like to take better advantage of the situation.

This is what I would do in this situation - Part I (The General Outline):

Analyze your post and the stream of traffic carefully and try to find out what exactly made it viral.

You need to know what is it about your post that made it a SU hit. Was it the use of an image? The headline? The humor? The quality of the research included in your post?

Decide what you want to do with them.

Get them to subscribe? Vote you on Digg? Fave you on Technorati? Join your group on Facebook? Befriend you on Mybloglog? This step is crucial and it will be a direct consequence of your conclusions in step 1 above.

Once you know why they liked you and you know what you want from them, get them to do what you want.

Craft a little message specifically for them. Give them more of what they like. Ask them to do something for you.

They are reading you because they think you have something worth their time, so some of them will do what you ask.

This is what I would do in this situation - Part II (The Example):

Analyze your post and the stream of traffic carefully and try to find out what exactly made it viral.

Let’s say my post had a wonderful eye pleasing image of a beach sunset. I took this picture with my camera when I went surfing to Brazil with my school mates. The picture captured the essence of the moment, the sunset, the surfers still going at it, you can almost listen to the swaying sound of the sea if you close your eyes for a sec.

I think it’s pretty obvious what drew the attention of SU surfers to my post. So what does this tell me about my audience?

They like beautiful inspiring pictures, especially those that have to do with the beach and with surfing.

They may also be keen on surf and possibly have an affection for outdoors in general.

Decide what you want to do with them.

Given what I know about them, I will figure out what can I get these people to do for me. Let’s see, here are some ideas:

• I could recommend them my Flickr group where I added more pictures like this one.
• I could tell them about Sojjo and get them to sign up and befriend me.
• I could just tell them that I will keep making posts like this one so they better subscribe or bookmark my blog before it gets lost in their temp folders (right - I wouldn’t phrase it that way)
• I could ask them to link to my site if they have a blog. If they do I have some goodie for them that they will like.

Once you know why they liked you and you know what you want from them, get them to do what you want.

This is up to you and how you decide it’s better to execute the ideas above. Usability rules apply. Write a little message where you know they’ll see it and won’t spoil their experience. Or make it a graphic. Or make a Youtube video and embed it on your sidebar.

It’s up to you how you deliver your message. Just make sure it fits your audience.

In case you missed that last bit: Make sure it fits your audience

So next you check your stats and you find out that you are receiving a new stream of traffic from a unique source ask yourself if you are taking full advantage of this. Understand what they want and why they are looking at your blog. Crack that code and move your troops in the direction you want. Get this right and you’ll be able to make people do what you want (Vote your stories on Digg, join your groups on social network sites, the possibilities are endless.)

Now if you consider this post was worth reading, I need to ask you for a favor. It’s not money, don’t worry. Do you see that blue button a few centimeters down, to your right? That’s a Sphinn button. I want you to click on it. If you don’t have an account on Sphinn you can sign up for one in less than one minute. It doesn’t hurt one bit. Once you are logged you’ll be able to click on that button and vote for my story.

Alternatively you can use your Stumble Upon toolbar and review and thumb up this page. Once you did this I want you to look at the top right corner of this blog (you may have to scroll up) and click where it says Full RSS Feed

Sigh… it feels good to act like a War General

By the way, do you need a linkbait writer?

He sees his girlfriend looking at him curiously.

- Hun, where have you been? Why are you holding those cigarettes? You don’t smoke…

- Yes… I… I mean, I went for a walk, and then Chris called me on the phone and asked me to get him cigarettes for him.

- Really? Can’t he buy his own cigarettes?

- He said, just in case, because sometimes when we hang out here he runs out so he doesn’t need to go out and buy more.

Geez… what a lousy excuse

What do you make of this situation? What do you think the guy was on?

I’ll unveil the mystery. It was a psychological experiment. The guy had been hypnotized and told to walk out of his apartment. He was handed the cigarettes and told to walk back in. Then he was woken up. He didn’t know what he was doing and why he was holding those cigarettes.
The experiment consisted on testing his reaction when he found out he had no idea what he was doing.

Would he admit he didn’t know or would he make up a story to rationalize his behavior?

Empiric evidence show that statistically, 6 out of 10 people tend to do the latter.

Psychological experiments show that 6 out of 10 people will agree with their peers even if they know they are right and everyone is wrong. On experiments where the accomplices agree on a false visual perception, 6 out of 10 subjects tested end up agreeing with their peers even if their eyes tell them that the longer stick is not the one everyone else claims.

This is incredibly dangerous. It means that given the right propaganda and public opinion manipulation, 60% of the population can agree on ideas that are contrary to their beliefs. Like, I don’t know, go to war with France, the UK, Russia, and wipe out a few million jews in the process.

Why is this relevant to SEO?

Listen up. I’ll tell you in one sentence why this is relevant to SEO, and more specifically to Linkbait Development: Human Beings are not rational, they are rationalizers.

Given a certain belief they will do anything they can to find rational arguments to support it. Even if they know they are wrong, they will end up convincing themselves, so they can fit better on that social group they want to be a part of.

This is what you want to keep in mind when you work on your linkbaits. What tribe am I targeting? What is their view of the world? What do they think about global warming? Are they pro Mac? Are they pro Google? Are they pissed at Matt Cutts about the whole paid links circus? Do they consider Danny Sullivan a Hero? Do they consider John Reese a hero? (not comparing Danny ) Do they like sports? Are they conservative or liberals?

Please please please think about this when you work on that headline, when you work on that description, when you work on that post. Because if you don’t something horrible will happen: your linkbait will fall on deaf ears, discredited because it is a subversive threat to someone’s symbolic system.

With everyone talking about SMX Social Media in New York City taking place October 16 and 17, I thought it was worth mentioning another event taking place in the Social Media space.

Chris Pearson described Facebook Applications as the key to unlocking the goldmines in micro networks. This is your chance to be there, where the goldmines are nurtured.

Graphing Social Patterns: The Business & Technology of Facebook is going to take place in San Jose, CA from October 7th-9th.

From The Graphing Social Patterns website:

a conference for developers and marketers on how to build and distribute apps for the Facebook Platform. This event is for both business executives & technical developers who want to learn more about the Facebook environment, and how to reach online communities using social networking platforms and applications

The list of speakers is pretty impressive. These are just some of them:

• Tim O’Reilly - O’Reilly Media

• Dave Morin - Facebook

• Danny Sullivan -Search Engine Land

• Reid Hoffman - Linkedin

• Seth Goldstein - Social Media

• Michael Arrington - Techcrunch

You can register here.

Chris Crocker has one natural talent most marketers would die for. He can create buzz. If you haven’t heard of him before check out this post from Pablo Palatnik at The Palatnik Factor.Here is what this extroverted gentleman generated in a short period of time.

• 1,880,000 Google Results for “Chris Crocker”
• 1,210,000 ” Google Results” for “leave britney alone”, a phrase he launched to the blogosphere
• More than 5 Million Views on Youtube alone from one of his videos “Leave Britney Alone” (hard to track exactly because there are so many video duplications and remixed versions)
• The start of a new catch phrase that will start penetrating all spheres of public communication: Leave [insert your public figure here] Alone. This is already going on with: George W., Hillary, Ron Paul, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and an increasing number of celebrities, amongst which of course you can count with none other than Chris Crocker.
• Mentions on Popular TV Shows such as Jay Leno, Rove (Australian TV)
• Popular actor Seth Green Video Reply to Chris Crocker original video (if you think you don’t know him, you probably know his voice - he’s the guy who plays Chris Griffin’s voice in The Family Guy)

Wow.

When was the last time your Marketing Plan took you this far?

Unfortunately, it’s not all fun and games for Chris Crocker. Apparently he has been receiving death threats and if you have a look at the top results in Google for his name he is not controlling what’s going on there. Most of the top ten results are on domains he doesn’t control.

This is what I call a reputation management problem.

Chris Crocker should have done the following. He should have hired me, an SEO and Social Media Consultant, to manage his reputation and support his viral campaign from a SEM perspective.

If he had done so, Chris Crocker would now be enjoying 10 positions in Google listings for the phrases:

• chris crocker
• leave britney alone
• leave chris crocker alone (we would have predicted this one)
• other phrases that we would have predicted such as “leave George W. alone”, “leave Paris alone” “leave Lindsay alone” etc.

If I was about to launch a viral campaign that was going to generate so much buzz I would make sure I am ranking for all the phrases that my campaign is going to create search volume for.

Not only because it would give me the chance to reply to negative criticism, an outlook very easy to predict given his extroverted personality and his standpoint on many sensitive matters. But also, and more important in my priority list: it would allow for optimized monetization.

So I will make an open call to Chris Crocker: if you are reading this blog post, give me a buzz or shoot an email. I can be found here. I will provide a Search Engine Marketing support to your online popularity (and in the process make a bunch of cash for both of us.)

Tags for this post: britney spears, leave britney alone, chris crocker, leave chris crocker alone, you tube.

The hooks used in these articles are celebrities that your average person (however educated or uneducated) knows of or has heard something about and can on some level relate to.

Lyndon, from Cornwall SEO took it one step further and stated (wisely):

Connecting on a cultural level is vital if you want to attract a reader. This doesn’t mean your article has to have a mass appeal, just the headline. Your article can focus in on a subject that has nothing to do with the “icon” you have mentioned in the headline. It is merely a device.

In my headlines I introduce recognisable imagery to instill a curiosity factor in a reader. Something that seems a little ridiculous or a little silly. Maybe I follow the Monty Python school of headline writing.

A thought occurs. It’s the imagery rather than the word that is important. It is what a reader imagines in their mind. Once you connect as a writer, to someones imagination, then you have won the battle.

It’s all about finding the door into a readers head.

It’s the imagery rather than the word that is important. What a great thought. I would add: it’s the music too.

Haruki Murakami, a great japanese author whom I strongly recommend, explains in an interview:

I am a writer who learned everything from Jazz. [...] When I sit in front of the keyboard, I think I am staring at a piano and then I start playing. [...] I still look up to Miles Davis as a model of constant self renewal. I take that and adapt it as a literary model.

Spot on. So we have images and music in our minds. And it all grows from that? What a concept.

It reminds me of an interview I saw on TV (okay I admitted, I also watch E). It was the writer of the popular TV series The OC, Josh Scwartz. He said he started writing the script for the show with one scene and one song on his mind. It was this:

The final episode of Season One. That’s what inspired him. Josh and his team wrote one of the most successful teen drama shows on the last years inspired by this vision. He could see the emotional impact of that scene and it all grew from that. Isn’t that exactly what Lyndon is saying?

So if you are still there, thanks for not bailing out on my post. I sincerely appreciate you putting up with me. In exchange for your time I will give you a pointer that has the potential to increase dramatically the traffic you are getting from social media sites: Before hitting the Publish button read your headline and put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Does it make you smile? Does it intrigue you? Does it make you angry? If the answer to all of these questions is “no” then you need to keep working on it. Find an original angle. Make a connection with something your readers are familiar with.

So why did I include Tom Cruise in my headline? Well I don’t know, maybe “to instill a curiosity factor” in my readers? Is that too manipulative? Do you feel baited? If so, please allow me to bait you one extra mile and ask you to post your formal complain in the comments section.

By the way, do you need a linkbait writer?

If the answer is Yes, Yes and Yes, keep reading. This post is meant for you.

This is what you need to do to expand your social popularity in the social network of choice:

1. Join Mybloglog, Blogcatalog and Bumpzee.
2. Find Groups related to Blogging and Online Marketing with lots of members. Join them.
3. Start a thread on each group and offer people a backlink from one of your blogrolls. This is how you would phrase it:

Heading: Get a link back from one of my blogrolls: most niches accepted

Body: I have a number of blogs across many verticals. These are not A-List blogs but all of them have original content and have been set up with some effort. I will emphasize this: these are not splogs. They are real, good quality blogs with original content and a flow of traffic. They are SEO optimized and count with a handful of quality backlinks, especially from Web 2.0 sites.

If you want your blog added in my blogroll please do the following:

1. If you don’t have an account on Technorati, sign up for one
2. Fav my blog: [blog url here]
3. Email me at username@domain.com with the technorati url where you faved my blog.

That’s it. If you want your blog added in another one of my blogrolls please do the following:

1. If you don’t have an account on Stumbleupon, sign up for one
2. Add me as your friend (my SU username is [username])
3. Stumble and review my SU Blog (my SU blog is [username.stumbleupon.com]).
4. Email me at username@domain.com with your SU review.

That’s it. If you do one of the above I’ll add you on one of my blogrolls. If you do both I’ll add you on two blogrolls (each one on a separate domain.)

So stop reading and get going if you want an easy backlink from one my blogs.

Benefits: The most obvious benefits are that you are going to increase your popularity in Technorati and Stumbleupon, leading to more traffic and links from these two sites. The additional benefit is that you will make new relationships with fellow bloggers. It’s hard to measure this benefit in terms of ROI but you will agree with me on the fact that expanding your network reach is the name of the game in Social Media Optimization. If you don’t agree on this I would like to know why.

Potential Risks: Some people may argue that expanding your popularity in Technorati this way may get your account in trouble. What’s your take on this? I personally don’t think so but if you think this way you could swap for any other social site. There’s got to be something you can ask your fellow bloggers to do that will benefit you in some way. Ask them to join a group of yours in Facebook is that’s your thing, ask them to digg a few stories, or to join your other communities in Mybloglog. Whatever makes your day.
If you are playing the Social Media Game you must have some action that you want other bloggers to perform. This is your chance to ask them to do it.

If you were setting up a campaign like this one, giving out blogroll links in exchange for an action performed in a social site: what would you ask in return?

Pretty ambitious project, don’t you think? The problem, as Brad Fitzpatrick explains, is the lack of of consistent framework that would allow for global mapping:

Unfortunately, there doesn’t exist a single social graph (or even multiple which interoperate) that’s comprehensive and decentralized. Rather, there exists hundreds of disperse social graphs, most of dubious quality and many of them walled gardens.

This has a great impact on usability. As he continues to explain:

People are getting sick of registering and re-declaring their friends on every site.

Faced with this scenario Brad argues that a non profit organization should exist to manage all of the user’s information (personal profile information, friends, email, address, etc.) Then when the user goes and register in a new site he is prompted with a message such as: “Hey, from sources available to us through public means we know that you have all these friends, blogs and personal info. Would you like us to fill your profile for you using all this information?”

If you are in the mood for some reading go ahead and read the full article about the social graph project.