I was making my social media rounds today and happened upon this YouTube video by Mary Wilhite. The video was recorded on the Monday morning following the Niche Affiliate Marketing workshop in Atlanta a couple of months ago (August ‘09).

The next NAMS workshop will be in January, and it’s almost sold out already – there are less than 20 seats left. If you’re interested in attending (and hanging out with us! ) see: Niche Affiliate Workshop in January for the speaker line-up and a coupon code to save $100 on your ticket.

There was a comment left at YouTube by Kathleen Gage that I wanted to share with you as well:

Lynn Terry is the real deal. Thanks for an excellent interview. As you show by the questions you ask Mary is Lynn knows her stuff.

Imagine if you get this much from a 7 minute video what you could learn by joining Lynn’s marketing forum and membership site.

Rock on Lynn and Mary.

Kathleen Gage
TheMarketingMindset.com

Kathleen – thank you! A high compliment coming from you…

I hope you enjoyed the video, and I hope you’ll consider joining us at the NAMS workshop in January!

Best,

Mike Hays asked: Lynn, have you seen any reference in the Dec 1 guidline changes as to what you can say on social media sites i.e. Twitter?

I reread your blog posts as well as the FTC pdf doc and I only saw one reference to social media having to do with a celebrity posting to a social media site. I searched the FTC site and didn’t find anything…

The revised endorsement and testimonial guides define an endorsement as:

…any advertising message (including verbal statements, demonstrations, or depictions of the name, signature, likeness or other identifying personal characteristics of an individual or the name or seal of an organization) that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings, or experiences of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser…

An advertising message is defined as:

For the purpose of these guides, an advertising message is a review or statements made by individuals or companies that have a relationship with the merchant. That relationship could be free product, payment, or commission on sales made.

A product review written with no relationship to the merchant or company is not considered an advertising message, or an endorsement or testimonial. It’s simply a review.

Example 8 in the document linked to above explains this clearly:

A consumer who regularly purchases a particular brand of dog food decides one day to purchase a new, more expensive brand made by the same manufacturer. She writes in her personal blog that the change in diet has made her dog’s fur noticeably softer and shinier, and that in her opinion, the new food definitely is worth the extra money. This posting would not be deemed an endorsement under the Guides.

Assume that rather than purchase the dog food with her own money, the consumer gets it for free because the store routinely tracks her purchases and its computer has generated a coupon for a free trial bag of this new brand. Again, her posting would not be deemed an endorsement under the Guides.

Assume now that the consumer joins a network marketing program under which she periodically receives various products about which she can write reviews if she wants to do so. If she receives a free bag of the new dog food through this program, her positive review would be considered an endorsement under the Guides.

Complying with the FTC Guides in Social Media Marketing

You are expected to disclose your relationship with the merchant in all advertising messages, including your social media marketing campaigns.

Let’s take the case of my book reviews as an example. I purchase a lot of books on Amazon.com, and I also get a number of free press copies from authors in the mail. They send me the press copy as part of their marketing campaign, in hopes that I will blog about it and/or discuss it on my social networks.

As an affiliate marketer, if I do mention the book I also include an Amazon affiliate link so that I will earn a commission if my readers also decide to get a copy.

Prior to writing my review, I might mention the book to my social networks – probably via Facebook and Twitter. I might post an update along the lines of:

“Just received a press copy of XYZ Book in the mail. Looks interesting! Will post my review soon – Anyone else reading it?”

I would also disclose that in my actual review. It may be a review copy of a software program, the company may have contacted me and offered me a virtual tour of their features, or I may have purchased the product outright myself to review and test it. Either way, you can casually work that into your review so that your readers fully understand your relationship (or lack of) with the merchant.

On the domain where you publish your review, you should have a disclosure statement regarding affiliate links that can be easily found by your readers. A link in the sidebar or footer is the norm for these types of statement or site policy pages.

Using Affiliate Links in Social Media Marketing

Sometimes we will include a direct affiliate link in a social media messages, such as a Tweet or a Facebook Update. While the FTC did not specifically address this in their guides, I’ve put a lot of thought into how I will personally handle this once the Guides go into effect on Dec 1st…

Back when I was doing pay-per-click marketing heavily, Google used to require that we disclose direct affiliate links in Google Adwords ads by using (aff) or -aff within our actual ad.

My first thought was that this same method may be a good idea within social media updates, as good measure. As an example, I might tweet:

Reading Socialnomics by Erik Qualman, awesome book! Will publish my review soon. http://bit.ly/4pXiNP -aff

In a recent Facebook discussion about Netflix, I included my Netflix affiliate link when I started the conversation. I disclosed that it was my referral link, and the discussion continued on with 20+ comments…

I am more likely to use a link to a blog post or a page on my website that discusses the product or book in more detail, versus a direct affiliate, and so your site disclosure will suffice in most cases. But when using a direct affiliate link, it wouldn’t hurt to disclose that in some way within the update.

You might also include a simple disclosure statement on your social media property. With Twitter you could integrate this into the background image of your profile. On Facebook you could add a simple statement in the About area on your Info page.

Best,

It’s called the Blog World Tour Planner and it comes with a 38 page detailed guide, an idea generator, research worksheet, sample email for contacting bloggers, and a “blog tour” planning spreadsheet.

The price? Only $17!

Not mentioning this earlier was a major oversight on my part. I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately after that spell of my daughter being ill, and in a mad catch-up phase ever since. At any rate – my apologies. This is definitely something you’ll want to hear about, so I sat down last night to give it a proper Lynn-style review…

Nicole Dean’s Summer Blog Tour

You may recall that Nicole was a guest blogger here at ClickNewz for an entire week over the summer. My blog was just one of her many stops in what she called her Blog World Tour where she made appearances as a guest blogger across popular blogs all over the web, week after week.

It was a huge success in many respects – from high-quality inbound links to tons of exposure & traffic, and even setting up long-term passive streams of income.

Nicole is brilliant like that, coming up with creative new ideas and documenting every detail. Not only do I like and respect her as a friend, but as a marketer – I pick her brain every chance I get!

The Blog World Tour Guide for Guest Blogging

As I mentioned, this package comes with a detailed guide and a number of super-helpful bonuses to help you take immediate action and get started with your own guest blogging venture.

Sure you can go it alone, and figure everything out as you go – or you can take all the guesswork out of it and just get started for only 17 bucks. That’s kind of a no-brainer, if you ask me.

The guide starts out giving you some insight into how people think, and how Nicole’s idea was born. If you’re smart, you’ll read those couple of pages carefully and consider other ways you can apply that to your business. It’s a simple but brilliant thought process – just one of the things I love about Nicole.

Even though I was part of her summer blog tour, I never knew exactly what all went into it – or that she ultimately wrote 75 blog posts across 15 different blogs (not including her own). Wow!

Obviously you don’t have to go to that extreme – or you could set out to out-blog Nicole Dean if you like – but either way just ONE of those blog posts is worth way more than 17 dollars. Consider that just one post on one blog equals a permanent high quality one-way inbound link.

Or let’s say you have a product of your own that you sell, and your guest post ranks high for a specific keyword phrase. That one blog post could result in ongoing product sales for months – or even years…

Nicole discusses the benefits of guest blogging, or doing a “blog tour” as she calls it, and she also discusses the benefits to the bloggers – why they would agree to let you guest blog, and how to make the offer even more enticing to them.

Having been involved in her blog tour personally, I can tell you that what she did was a HUGE benefit to me. I’d let her come back and guest blog here anytime! And my personal experience from that side of her guide gets me even more excited about using her methods myself…

By the way – she details out tips for you in the guide that make blog owners LOVE having you as a guest, and BEG you to come back and write for them again. Obviously those tips worked on me, so I paid special attention there!

The guide is laid out in steps, starting with choosing your commitment and your objective. You might need inbound links, or you might use this as part of a pre-launch buzz campaign for your product, or you may be recruiting affiliates.

There are a number of reasons to consider guest blogging, and a variety of ways to use it for major leverage and advantage.

Nicole goes through the process of finding the right blogs in great detail, as well as which blogs to avoid (and why). She also gives you a spreadsheet to keep track of each blog and their details, with screenshots of how she used it herself.

Organization & scheduling is covered as well – such as creating an editorial calendar you can share with an assistant, if you choose to outsource some of the groundwork. Even if you’re doing this on a small scale and managing the details yourself, this part is very helpful. Nothing like dropping the ball on a promise made…

By the way, Page 18 shares 3 resources I had NO idea even existed. Be sure to check those out

The Bonus Planning Tools

The guide itself is incredibly rich in ideas and step-by-step instructions, but the tools included is where this product really overdelivers. The “idea generator” that I mentioned earlier is a brainstorming resource for coming up with topics to blog about. Very helpful for those that struggle with writing but really want to make this work for them.

Also included is a guest blogging planner – particularly helpful if you’re going to be doing a full-on blog tour like Nicole, but also a very handy spreadsheet to use as an editorial planner for your own blog plus your guest blogging opps.

To recap the bonus tools included, you get the 38-page guide plus:

• Content Idea Generator
• Blog Research Spreadsheet
• Same Email To Bloggers
• Editorial Calendar Spreadsheet

All that, for only $17. Click here to get started!

Best,

p.s. I was hanging out with Nicole over the summer, during her vacation here in TN and at an event where we roomed together in early August. She was right in the middle of her now famous Blog Tour both of those times, so I got to see her in action firsthand.

That’s in addition to seeing how it all worked when she made her stop here at my blog – and experiencing the sales & traffic that she brought to ClickNewz. Nothing short of amazing. But what was most amazing about it was that, while Nicole IS brilliant in her creative marketing ideas, she simply rolled up her sleeves and did it.

And that my friends is what sets Nicole Dean, and other successful online marketers, apart from the rest- apart from the hopefuls and wannabe’s.

You can sit around and need inbound links, want to sell more product, or wish you could recruit more affiliates- or you can download these tools and take action.

I’m off to quit talking about it, and get started setting up these awesome tools…

I’ve often joked about being a “lazy affiliate” – but the truth is, I do prefer to do things the easy way if at all possible. That’s the reason that blog interviews and guest blogging are my two favorite methods for easily getting high quality inbound links. And no – you don’t need a blog of your own to make this work for you…

Nervous? Don’t be!

If you’re nervous about pitching a guest blog post to bloggers in your niche, or pitching an interview idea – don’t be! Sure you need that solid inbound link, and it almost feels like begging. Or at best, that you’re asking for a favor.

But the reality is that bloggers have needs to: they need constant, relevant, interesting content for their readers. You are actually doing them the favor!

Finding The Right Bloggers

Your first step is to find the bloggers in your niche that are reaching your target market. Search Google.com, Google Blog Search and also Technorati.com for your topic or your keywords. Use a Feed Reader and add these niche blogs to your reader so you can keep up with them.

And no, I can’t possibly keep up with dozens of blogs every day, but I do scan through them once or twice a week

If you’re on Twitter (and you should be!), use the Twitter search feature to find bloggers in your niche. Follow them and get involved in conversations with them. Twitter is one place where I find the majority of my guest blogging opportunities.

You can also ask for recommendations on your favorite discussion forum, and ask them which XYZ blogs they read and like the most – and why.

This should give you some great starting points…

Pitching Your Content

Start by switching your mindset like we talked about above, keeping in mind that you have something of value to offer them: unique content.

Your first step is to figure out your angle, and how you want to frame the offer when you contact the blogger. This is all going to depend on who you are, what you do, and how you can work that into their blog.

Here’s a bad example – which would get ignored & deleted:

Hi Clicknews,
I really need links to my web site. Can I guest blog for you??

-Jack

Three major problems with that message: 1) they didn’t address me by name, 2) I don’t care what you need, 3) I have no idea who you are or what you do or whether I even want to find out.

Here’s a good example – which would get my consideration:

Hi Lynn,
Love your blog! I’m really enjoying your series on link-building. I have a software product that automates guest blogging – I’d be happy to let you test the program if you’re interested in reviewing it.

I also thought it might be fun to do a Q&A post for you on automated vs manual. If you’re interested just send me your top 3, 5 or even 10 questions about it and I’ll reply back with the answers so you can publish it on your blog.

Best,
Jack Black
JacksDomainName.com

Another good example:

Hi Lynn,
I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now – nice work! I noticed you haven’t written any posts for your Google Adsense category lately. I have several reports on the topic, and would be happy to write a few guest posts for you in exchange for a link back to one of my free reports.

Let me know if you’re interested!

Jack Black

p.s. Here’s the link to one of my free reports if you want to check it out: linktoreport.com

See? Simple enough.

The key is to be personable with the blogger. Address them by name, and let them know you are familiar with their work – and have something of value to offer them that fits in line with their current goals or needs.

As a blogger myself, I have been doing blog interviews (or blog conversations) and guest blogging both ways – publishing them here on my blog, and getting published on other people’s blogs. It’s a great way to create unique content, and to get high quality one way inbound links.

Give it a try!

I’ve actually been doing so many interviews lately that my daughter decided to mock me with a video interview on our way into the city yesterday:

If a 13 year old can do it…

Next, See: Guest Blogging Guide & Planning Tools

Best,

It’s been years since I ran campaigns on Google Adwords (pay-per-click advertising) but I’ve taken a renewed interest in it. In your post, you talk about Quality Score. This is new since the last time I ran campaigns. Can you explain what it is, and how it’s calculated?

For this one, I couldn’t say it any better than Google itself, so here is their definition:

The AdWords system calculates a ‘Quality Score’ for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance.

In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

In addition to the Quality Score of the merchant’s landing page, if you’re promoting a direct affiliate link, you need a good Quality Score on your own landing pages if you’re sending traffic to your own domain first, right?

Any tips for creating a good affiliate landing page that will get a good Quality Score?

Absolutely. Creating a good affiliate landing page is all about quality, relevancy, value and user experience. As long as your pages provide good content, which will eventually impress your visitor to take action, you are on your way to a good Quality Score.

Most people want to write a couple short paragraphs and give an affiliate link: that that won’t cut it most of the time. One of the best ways to create a great landing page is to involve your visitor with a well crafted “story” that uses your keywords and involves them emotionally.

The link(s) on your landing page need to take your visitor to a page that’s closely related to the keyword/key phrase they entered through. And of course, an easy and explicit navigation that takes your visitor straight to the item they were searching for helps too.

Don’t forget to include a link to your privacy policy.

I like that you discussed price points in your blog post. While higher price points bring larger affiliate commissions, I used to choose some of the “low hanging fruit” or lower priced products/offers – and some of those had great conversion rates.

Is there a minimum that you work with, or do you analyze campaigns on a case-by-case basis?

That’s right: some of the low hanging fruit will give you success much easier, since your key phrase is more targeted, the cost is lower, and not everyone bothers with them.

With that said, I usually try to look for products that will give me a commission of $10 or more. The work involved in starting a campaign is the same regardless of how much or how little you’ll make, so I might as well shoot for larger commissions.

In the mean time, I don’t shy away from promoting a lower priced offer, if I think it will convert well.

What are some of the first things you do when you notice a campaign tanking, or not turning a profit? Do you immediately give up on it, or are there other things you try or test before quitting?

It depends: if I had 300 clicks for that campaign and no conversion, I usually give it up. But, if I made a sale in the first 300 clicks, I’ll try and see how I can improve it.

For example if I see a lot of clicks for a certain keyword, but no sales, I’ll pause that keyword and let the campaign run.

If a campaign has been doing well, and all of a sudden tanks, I’ll immediately look at the merchant’s page where I am sending traffic. More than likely, the merchant removed the page, or made another change (like add AdSense or other advertising), and that’s the reason for the “tank”.

I used to track my campaigns VERY closely – even with a daily budget set up. Do you turn your new campaigns off if you’re going to be away from the computer for the day, or even while you’re sleeping?

I try to stay away from starting new campaigns at night, since for the first few hours I keep a close eye on all my campaigns.

But if the campaign has been online for a few days and it’s somewhat predictable, I don’t turn it off. If the campaign has been online for a while, and I know what to expect, I don’t worry about it even when I go on vacation.

But, if you are worried, you can either stop it completely, or you can schedule when to turn it on and off. Google has an ad scheduling feature, where you can schedule when you want your ads to run.

Thanks, Adriana – very helpful!

Be sure to read Adriana’s original blog post on how to make money with Adwords, and feel free to leave her questions about PPC below in the comment section.

Best,

p.s. Perry Marshall has a brand new 2010 Edition of the Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. He has long been THE authority on mastering Adwords with higher CTR and conversion rates. A wise investment if you’re considering PPC advertising, and a guide I’ll be studying again myself before I dive back in with my campaigns.

Joel Comm mentioned a good example in his recent webinar regarding the new FTC guides – a true testimonial he had received from one of his ebook customers:

“after reading your guide I went from making a thousand dollars a day to making 10 thousand dollars a day”

A glowing testimonial indeed, and one that would serve Joel well in his sales copy, but certainly not FTC compliant…

Key Issue: Atypical Results

One of the key issues in complying with the new guides regarding testimonials & endorsements is the use of atypical results. Obviously not everyone is going to make $10,000/day using Joel’s methods, so the testimonial above serves as a good example of an atypical result.

The FTC is not saying that you cannot use atypical results under their new guides, but simply that they must be qualified. You can no longer get by with a generic disclaimer such as “results not typical” or “results may vary”.

This does not affect endorsements or testimonials that don’t mention results. I have a glowing endorsement from Willie Crawford for my Fast Cash Strategy that remains complaint, and serves as a good example:

You can click through to read the other endorsements and testimonials on that page to see a good example of the wording you can use – wording that isn’t affected by the new FTC guides either by mention of results or by needing to be ‘current’.

Requirements For Using Atypical Results

There are 2 major requirements for using testimonials that reflect atypical results. One is that it must be current, meaning the person who wrote that testimonial is still experiencing those same results using your product or service.

The second requirement is that those results be qualified. This means you need to include the reason they achieved atypical results using your product or service.

If you have results-based testimonials on your sales pages, you need to contact each person to make sure they are still current and accurate. And if so, you’ll need to modify those testimonials to include more information.

In the case of Joel’s testimonial above, an addition is needed that explains why this buyer achieved such great results. Obviously he already had multiple websites or a lot of work invested, as he was making $1,000/day when he read the guide. But according to the FTC, the obvious needs to be made even more obvious.

An example the FTC gave in their original documents back in October was for a diet pill. The atypical result was along the lines of “Sally lost 100 lbs in 6 months with our product”. That’s not compliant. But if it said “Sally lost 100 lbs in 6 months taking our product, working out for 6 hours a day, and eating nothing but raw vegetables” – that IS compliant. See the difference?

Creative Idea For Using Atypical Results In Your Sales Copy

Before you go removing all of your glowing testimonials and settle for the fact that your conversion rate is going to tank, thanks to the FTC (glass half empty mindset)… consider the ways you can use these new guides to your advantage.

Get in touch with each of the people who wrote those testimonials, and find out if the details are still current. Are they still achieving the same results, using your methods or your products/services?

If so, ask them for a quick interview on how they achieved such exceptional results. It can be a text interview that you do via email, they can submit a video testimonial with the details, or you could conduct an audio interview.

Install a blog on the same domain as your sales letter, specifically for these interviews, and create a new post that features each customer and their personal testimonial for your product or service.

On the actual sales page you could display a glowing testimonial that reads:

“after reading your guide I went from making a thousand dollars a day to making 10 thousand dollars a day” find out how John did it!

Each blog post will contain the text, audio or video testimonial in detail – qualifying their results and making it FTC compliant. That post will then link back to the sales letter (”return to the ABC page”), which will ultimately give you some very nice internal linking structure as an SEO bonus.

New FTC Guides = New Marketing Opportunities

Instead of falling for the hype & scare surrounding the new FTC guides for endorsements and testimonials, look at this as a bright new opportunity. It really opens the door for more creative options and more creative marketing styles.

I think this could be a great thing.

Think about it: if consumers feel more protected, and are fed more realistic results and less hype, they’ll be less skeptical. And less skepticism will ultimately result in higher conversion rates.

In the process of making sure that your sites and sales copy are FTC compliant, consider creative ways to increase trust and make a better connection with your target market. Let them see the potential that your method, product or service as – in a true light.

Best,

There’s a lot of hype surrounding this topic, some alarmist type talk – things like “10’s of thousands of dollars in fines” or “expect letters from the FTC starting Dec 1st” or “The FTC will freeze all of your accounts while they investigate claims”.

Some of it is a little over the top (in my opinion). Most of this is coming from people who have new products they are promoting to help you become ‘FTC Compliant’…

The FTC has gone out of their way to address the blogging community. They have reached out to address our concerns through videos, interviews, Q&A series and detailed examples. I’ll share those with you here as well…

What’s new about the Endorsement Guides?

Why did the FTC update the Endorsement Guides?

What do the Endorsement Guides mean for bloggers?

How do bloggers follow the Endorsement Guides?

Is the FTC planning to sue bloggers?

Where to go for more information…

One of the biggest questions I hear is: Where should I put the disclosure? Do I need to make a statement beside every single link?

As for where disclosure about relationships should go, whether that be affiliates or sponsored mentions, Fast Company interviewed Richard Cleland – the assistant director of the division of advertising at the FTC, in a post titled FTC Responds to Blogger Fears: “That $11,000 Fine Is Not True”, and he said:

“Disclosures can be made in different ways, whether you make it outside of the text but in proximity to blog, or incorporate it into the blog discussion itself–those are the issues that bloggers will have discretion about.”

He went on to clarify that the government is not out to slap 5-figure fines on violating bloggers, but rather that they may receive a warning and an opportunity to comply. He states there will be no monetary penalty on the first violation.

To quote Mary Engle of the FTC:
“We just want to bring some transparency to the process.”

I’ve done a sponsored blog post (link) and a product review (link) in the last month, both of which stand as good examples of simple compliance. I qualified my atypical results in the product review, and I stated right in the sponsored post that it was an advertisement and opened the floor for discussion on the service.

When doing book reviews, I simply need to disclose if I received a press copy. If I bought the book myself at a local book store or on Amazon.com, I can shout my opinion from my blog all I like – without any sort of statement.

But there’s nothing wrong with writing a blog post about a press copy of a book you receive in the mail, or a free product a company sends you, as long as you mention that in your blog post or review.

I highly recommend you go back and read my original FTC post and the links included, which will give you facts and examples – and real answers.

I hope this helps calm some of the alarm and fear over the new FTC guides.

Best,

p.s. Another common concern is the use of endorsements and testimonials, and specifically “atypical results”. I’ll address that in my next post, along with a creative new idea you’ll love! You can subscribe below to get notification by email:

WordStream interviews link building expert, Debra Mastaler
Interviews are one of my favorite post-styles to read. I particularly liked Debra’s answer on whether social media sites make traditional link-building an outdated practice. I use social media to locate opportunities just like she describes…

101 Ways to Get Links to your Website
A great list to scan for ideas & resources!

25 Link Building Tactics to Improve Blog Search Engine Rankings
Excellent checklist style post for content marketing…

Mining 31,500,000 Free Links For The Taking
This, my friends, is what you call opportunity. Brilliant share!

Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics for 2009
Post includes 7 internal link building strategies, 10 easy link building starters, 12 old school link building techniques, 12 places to submit your URL, 12 ways to make people write about you, 12 common business tactics, 4 important considerations… and ZERO advanced link building strategies.
(lol- I love how he wrapped this one up!)

Link Request Strategies for Blogs, Edu’s & .Gov’s: Respect My Authoritah!
Melanie gives great practical advice, example emails, do’s & donts – a great read.

Enjoy

Best,

p.s. Know more great blog posts about Link Building? Share them with me in the comments section below and I’ll had them to the post…

In this post I’ll give you 7 simple one way link building strategies that give your Link Reputation a nice little boost, and also bring in highly targeted traffic all on their own.

One Way Links are valuable because they are viewed as truer votes towards your web page. The exception is sponsored links, or one way links that are obviously purchased. There are a number of ways that Google can tell this, which is one of the reasons that a permanent inbound link tends to gain more weight over time.

Easy One Way Link Building Strategies

The goal is to get permanent one way links pointing to your web pages, whether that be the main page of your site or internal pages or blog posts on your domain. You need a good number of quality deep links to those internal pages to boost your overall Link Reputation. Following are 7 very easy ways to achieve that…

1. Interviews

Interviews come in all shapes and sizes, and you can really get creative with this one. A traditional audio interview on a webinar, podcast or online radio show will usually get you a link on the host’s site and also a mention to their mailing list (even better if those newsletters are archived online).

I prefer text interviews on relevant blogs, as they give you a high quality contextual link from a relevant content page. This can be done by answering a series of questions via email that are then published on the blog.

Another option is Q&A style, which is fun and easy.

Examples:
Advantage & Disadvantage of Outsourcing Q&A Style
Lynn Terry of ClickNewz an interview Text Interview
Life Change: Interview with Lynn Terry Text Interview
On Becoming a Market Leader Audio Interview
Lynn Terry Affiliate Marketing Success BlogTalkRadio Interview

2. Guest Blogging

Interviews are great, but guest blogging is even better for one way link building. Why? Because as the author of the content on the page that is linking to your page, you have full control over that link.

You can choose the keyword phrase to optimize the blog post, choose the page you want to link to that is relevant to that topic, and use your preferred anchor text in that backlink. And if that wasn’t reason enough to start guest blogging, you’re also putting yourself in front of an established readership in your niche!

Examples:
My Guest Post on Problogger
Guest Post on ClickNewz by Danny Cutts

3. Private Paid Link

One thing you really want to stay away from is programs or schemes designed to create your one way links, or text link brokers that sell you one way links.

These programs and brokers are really frowned upon by the major search engines and could hurt your Link Reputation rather than improving it.

This being the case, I still purchase text links from time to time – I just do it smarter. And I never purchase a temporary link, but rather a permanent contextual inbound link on a relevant content page or blog post.

How do I manage to do that? Simple: I offer bloggers a one-time payment to blog about a specific link on my site. Most of the “pay per post” brokers pay their bloggers $5-$15 for blog posts, so that price range is suitable – particularly for B-list or C-list bloggers. I usually use Job Boards on forums to make the offer.

I do not specify anchor text, give them more than one page or blog post to choose from, and just request that they blog about the topic and link back to the page/post. I do this because I want link variation, and because I’m buying “advertising” or “buzz” – rather than specifically buying text links.

Never use a broker. Do it yourself, or hire a virtual assistant to manage it. Period.

4. Article Marketing

Submitting articles to article directories is similar to guest blogging in that you have complete control over the content and the link. This is a great method that people have been using successfully for years.

In addition to getting indirect rankings when your submitted article ranks well, and then funnels traffic into your site, your article can also get republished all over the web – resulting in numerous quality one way links.

Sidenote: A lot of us – newbies and experienced marketers alike – are taking Jeff Herrings new article marketing e-course. It’s cheap and it’s awesome – super great investment to really nail this strategy.

Examples:
My latest article on EzineArticles.com
Quick Start To Setting Up Your First Blog Article at EzineArticles
Republished here, here and here (to name a few).

5. Testimonials

Most merchants won’t publish a live outbound link to your site from their sales page, but if you get creative you might just be able to get a link from their blog or an internal page on their website pointing to your review or case study of their product.

I’m actually seeing an example of this in the SERPs now with a page I’m trying to beat out for their #3 listing. By analyzing their backlinks, I discovered the merchant was linking to their review.

Look for merchants that link out to reviews, give live links in testimonials, or that have blogs. If they have a blog you can offer a detailed case study or success story as a guest post, which includes the link to your review of their product.

6. DMOZ Directory

Meh. Good luck. But if you can manage to get a one way link by submitting and getting an approved listing in the DMOZ directory – go you!

Here’s the link: http://www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html

7. Social Bookmarking

Ideally you should include social bookmarking buttons on your blog posts or web pages to encourage your readers to bookmark your content. This is the best and most natural way to get one way links from this source.

You can also set up your own social bookmarking accounts, but my advice is that for every link of your own that you bookmark… you should bookmark 5 or 10 other links on domains or properties you do not own. This keeps it natural, and resourceful.

See: Top DoFollow Social Bookmarking Sites by PageRank & Alexa Rank

Also download and read Social Media Daily by Michelle MacPhearson

8. Bonus One Way Link Building Tip!

This bonus tip is actually one of my favorite one way link building strategies. It’s so slick you’ll be shocked at how simple and effective it is. And it’s easy too – you don’t even have to request a single backlink for this one…

Write content so great that you get unsolicited one-way links to your page from all over the web. That’s it. This post serves as a good example.

Best,

Also See: How Many Backlinks Do I Need?

Your content may be a sales page, a product review, an article or tutorial with a strong call-to-action, or even a blog post or article that links to one of those pieces of content.

Regardless of what type of content it is, you need inbound links to market that content. Those links are a means of communicating with your target market, and an open door inviting them to view your content.

It’s too easy to get caught up in the mechanics of web content development and seo, and forget the true purpose – and the human element…

When we research keywords, we see search volume and profit potential. But behind those phrases are real people with real needs, typing those phrases into their favorite search engine. Someone’s mom, brother, or daughter. Maybe even yours.

Connecting with that image will help you frame your content, and your links in the best possible way. A way that answers their question, or offers them the solution they’re searching for. It will help you communicate with them more effectively.

Creating content isn’t a business. SEO isn’t marketing. These are simply tools to achieve your real objective: to reach and interact with your market on the internet.

Get your ideal visitor in mind. Are they a certain age? A specific gender? What do they need or want? What ways do they use to research and find that?

How can you best serve them?

Keeping these things in the forefront of your mind as you work on your business will bring you the success that you’re looking for.

It’s not about using all the right plugins, all the right link building strategies, or writing with an exact word count in mind. It’s not about on-page and off-page factors, or search algorithms. It’s about the people that surf and search.

Twitter is a good micro-example. You can set up auto-tweets to push your content out to Twitter, you can pull your tweets into web pages, you can automatically follow and unfollow people by the masses. There are all kinds of plugins and programs and tips and guides…

But unless you are out there actually having a two-way conversation with your target market (and their mother, and their friends), all that pushing and pulling is going to get you nowhere. Social properties aren’t just for inbound links, they’re an opportunity to interact with your ideal visitors and your potential buyers.

The same can be said for link building strategies. It doesn’t matter if you know the algorithms down to an exact science. If your links don’t ’speak’ to the reader in the right way, or if your content doesn’t open and close the conversation they are having in their mind, your conversion rate is going to tank.

Meet them where they are (find out where they are and place your links strategically). Engage them by addressing the thoughts and questions they already have (with well-written content that matches the intent of their search).

Lead them to a solution (with a strong call-to-action). Then keep that conversation going, even after the sale, by following up and continuing to address any ongoing needs they may have (via your customer list or autoresponder).

Your inbound links and your content aren’t just for search engines. Your customer isn’t just a sale. Put the human element into your marketing, and your link building strategies, to really make it work – both for you, and for them.

Best,

Their new Simple Six Figures method is taken directly from a model being used right now – in a niche that shouldn’t even be making money… but it IS. And it has continued to do so for YEARS. It’s revealed in the case study on that video.

The 14 minute video you get when you sign up… well, I’m just going to have to let you see it for yourself.

Go to -> http://www.simplesixfigureniches.com

Best,

If you look behind the curtain of any solo-entrepreneur, you’ll most likely find an entire team of assistants and service professionals keeping that business running smoothly.

One of the primary disadvantages of outsourcing is that you lose quality control over the tasks. This can be particularly risky if you are not familiar with the task, or how it should be done, and you’re working on blind faith. Especially with important aspects of your online business, like SEO or link building.

One of the major advantages of outsourcing: getting more done in less time…

I outsource quite a bit myself, but I thought I would bring in an expert to discuss the advantage & disadvantage of outsourcing in more detail. My friend Traci Knoppe runs an outsourcing company for web tech services, so I sent her an email with a few questions:

Hi Traci, I was just reading your article on the pros & cons of outsourcing and it reminded me of some outsourcing nightmares I’ve had in the past…

Fortunately most of my experiences have been positive… but, any advice on avoiding a bad experience with outsourcing?

In a word: References. Just like hiring anyone, you need to check their references. So many people are too quick to hire the first person or company they believe they can afford, regardless of the integrity and work ethic of the person or company.

Without checking references, you are acting on blind faith that this person or company can do what they say they will do.

Ahh – very good advice! I usually start by doing a search on Google for reviews or conversations about the company or person I’m considering. References I hadn’t considered…

I tend to outsource tasks I am not good at, such as graphic design or copywriting, and then I also outsource tasks that are repetitive or time consuming. With those, such as link building or article submissions, I prefer to do the task myself at first to get a feel for how I want it done.

That way I can share detailed instructions with the assistant or company. As someone who runs an outsourcing company, would you agree with this process?

It can be helpful when a client understands some of the processes involved in accomplishing the work they require.

When we would need information from them, knowing even a little of the how and why behind the request can make it easier for the client to provide us with the exact information we need.

However, it certainly is not necessary for a client to feel they need to learn about what we do in order to work with us. After all, that’s why most companies outsource, because they don’t know how to do something, and they don’t have time to learn, or don’t want to take the time to learn.

True – I do love the people on my team that seem to just be intuitive to what I need and “get it done” – they rock! Especially with graphics and site design.

A lot of people fear the cost of outsourcing. I’ve found it to be a very rewarding investment, increasing my productivity and revenue exponentially.

You’ve been self-employed for over a decade yourself – what’s your personal experience with this?

Everyone outsources something: we don’t do our own dental work, and we don’t cut our own hair. For many who do cut their own hair, perhaps they shouldn’t. We buy goods and services every day: and that’s all forms of outsourcing.

Coming to realize that we are already outsourcing, can help one see outsourcing as a help, not just an expense. Outsourcing can actually increase your profits, and it will most definitely afford you the time to manage your business more effectively, leaving you to do the parts of your business that only you can.

Once I personally saw outsourcing as a time saver for me, then I quickly became the ‘Queen of Delegation’. Yes, I’m an outsourcing service provider and I too outsource, that’s why I have staff to help me.

Good point – and great way to look at outsourcing. You wouldn’t want to see me if I cut my own hair! For that matter, that’s what some of my sites look like when I don’t outsouce: a bad do-it-yourself job. LOL

For someone that wants to try outsourcing, just get their feet wet a bit maybe, what would you recommend as the best first step?

My recommendation is to start with one task or small project as a test; and delegate that to an outsourcer.

If you’ve checked references before you choose someone, then the true test of your compatibility to work together and communicate effectively will be revealed through your test project.

If the test did not go well, determine if another test with that same outsourcer might help smooth out some of the new working relationship wrinkles. If continuing with that outsource provider isn’t an option, then find someone else. It’s definitely worth the effort to continue your search until you find the right person or company.

If the initial test went well, then look at your work load and decide what you can effectively delegate and outsource it!

Great advice. Not everyone, or every company, is a good fit. It has taken me time to create a team I can depend on and really enjoy working with. I use the word “team” loosely – it’s made up of a lot of stand alone disconnected individuals who are awesome at what they do.

But I’m working on that.

Thank you, Traci! Very insightful to hear your take on these issues.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

I would love to hear your thoughts on outsourcing tasks for your online business, and specifically your personal experiences with the advantage & disadvantage of outsourcing. Leave us a comment below!

Best,

p.s. Traci Knoppe runs Your Web Tech Team, a virtual outsourcing team with very affordable rates.

The concept is that you have a money site, and everything else you create is for the purpose of linking to and boosting the ranking of this money site. The money site being where you promote and sell something, the spokes or other sites being relevant content that funnels visitors into that site…

This model can be a lot of work in regards to creating and maintaining all of the content and properties, and getting the link structure right – to and from each property. Done wrong it can ultimately penalize your money site in the major search engines, but done right I’ve seen some marketers have great success with it.

Howie Schwartz came to mind as I was first browsing through the site, and interestingly he was mentioned right there on the main page.

LinkWheel uses more than 60 different Web 2.0 Properties across unique IPs in addition to article directories, pinging, RSS directories, unique YouTube videos, images, etc. They say that all of their work is done manually, not outsourced overseas, and that they are the only link wheel service using 100% unique content.

You own all of the properties they create for you, with full log-in access.

I’ve read through every page of the site, including the 6-page PDF they offer via opt-in, and everything looks to be in good order. They have one-time plans as low as $65, and monthly development & management plans starting at $165.

This post is an advertisement for LinkWheel, and I would like to take this opportunity to open the discussion on their service and on the concept of the hub & spoke model… I’d love to hear your thoughts & questons.

Best,

In a word… WOW!

One of the biggest issues most people have had with Aweber and list building is creating a stylish, customized opt-in form. Up until now, that is…

This brand new opt-in form builder is scheduled to release sometime this coming week. Aweber hasn’t even publicly announced it yet.

Be sure to watch the video above to get a sneak peek at how this form builder will work. It is incredibly nice. Definitely a major upgrade from our options with the traditional Aweber forms.

A few highlights of the new opt-in form builder:

• Pre-created web form templates in a variety of colors, styles and sizes.

• Advanced design tools – customize your submit buttons, form colors/sizes, labels and more with a fully featured point-and-click editor.
  That way, even if you don’t want to start with one of our templates, you can still create great-looking signup forms without having to know a lick of HTML.

• Better-looking hover and lightbox forms: we’ve modernized the styles and animations for these. No more blue Windows 95-looking bar on popover forms (unless you want to add one) and the lightboxes are much smoother.

• Plus you can make ANY form a lightbox or popover form now, instead of just having the one look for each of those types.

• Dynamic thank you pages: you may be familiar with our audio thank you pages that tell people to go confirm their subscriptions.

• With the new web form builder, we’ve added a *video* version of this that will show the subscriber your exact confirm message (with the correct “from” and “subject” lines)…
  …and we’ll detect what email program they’re most likely using (Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Outlook, Mac Mail, etc) and show them what your confirm email looks like in that exact program. Uber-cool stuff IMHO.

• Insert a privacy policy with one click – handy for folks who don’t want to write their own email privacy policy.

I am really looking forward to seeing this new feature go live, and taking it for a test drive! I’d love to hear your thoughts – excited??

Best,

p.s. If you’re not building a mailing list from your blog or website yet, you should be. What are you waiting for?! Aweber offers a trial test drive. Check it out and get your list-building started today!

When it comes to your link building strategy, you want to focus on the quality of your backlinks over
just the quantity or number of links you can get.

The first thing we’ll look at is how to define quality and which types of links carry more weight than others (and why), and then we’ll look at ways you can easily get those quality inbound links pointing to your pages…

The Quality of a Link

In addition to the quality of each individual backlink, your links are graded as a whole. This is why effective link building requires a variety of link types, and sources for inbound links. You are building a network, a navigation system, and that network of links and connections will be judged- not just on a link by link basis.

Factors that go into scoring the quality of a backlink include:

• Anchor Text
  Your anchor text should define the page you’re linking to, and should be the same or relevant to the keyword phrases you used to optimize that page. Anchor text is simply the text that is hyperlinked to your URL.

• Relevance of Linked Pages
  Two pages that are linked together should be related, or relevant to each other. The goal is to interlink related content across the web, with purpose.

• Link Location
  Links within the content area of a page carry more weight than links in static areas such as the navigation, sidebar, footer, etc. A contextual link is the highest quality link placement you can get on a page.

• Number of Outbound Links
  The total number of links on the page affect how much weight, or link juice, each outgoing link will receive. A link on a page with fewer outbound links will carry more weight. It will result in a higher click-through rate (CTR) as well, since there are fewer choices for visitors to click.

• Their Inbound Links
  If the page link to you has a good number of high quality inbound links, this will give your link on their page more weight. Seek out quality web pages with solid link structure for link placement.

• Follow/NoFollow
  While I subscribe to the rule of thinking that you should obtain any quality link from a relevant source that has the potential to send targeted (human) traffic to your page… for the purpose of obtaining the highest quality inbound links, you’ll want to get a good number of links that do not have the NoFollow attribute.

• PageRank
  I put this at the bottom of the list intentionally. What most people know as PageRank is really only Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) and is not actual PageRank. That said, it’s common practice to use the toolbar to get inbound links from pages with “more green” or higher PageRank. A good rule of thumb is to avoid pages with a greyed out PageRank bar (which means the page has been penalized).

Considering every single one of these factors for every inbound link you are considering can be incredibly time consuming. It can also be very rewarding, in regards to search engine optimization.

You still need a variety of link types and link sources though. A good question to ask yourself, before placing or requesting a link, is: Does this link add value to the page? Real value. People value. If so, add link.

Patience & Aging

Link Building is not a one-day task. Even if you could get all of the inbound links you need in one sitting, they wouldn’t all count right away. It takes time for your links to be found and indexed, so a little patience is required in the overall process.

Link Building is a gradual and ongoing task. You want to build your backlinks over time, and the value of those links will grow over time as well. An “aged link”, or a link that has been there for awhile, carries more weight than a brand new link.

This appears natural to the search engines versus big shots of inbound links all at once, and then nothing new for months. Or 100 new inbound links this month, that disappear at the end of the month. Google knows the difference between a link that lasts a month or two (a purchased link) and a permanent, quality inbound link.

Regarding how long it can take for your inbound links to be found and indexed, or to show up in Yahoo’s backlinks, that depends on how frequently the page (where your link is) gets spidered or crawled by the major search engines.

Tip: You can tell how recently Google has visited and cached a web page by clicking the “Cached” link beside the listing in the Google search results.

How to Get Quality Inbound Links

Given all these details, you can boil your task down to getting inbound links within the content area of a related quality web page. Ideally without the NoFollow attribute, and using your Primary Keyword Phrase as the anchor text.

How’s that for simplifying it?

Some of the easiest ways to obtain these types of high quality links include: Guest Blogging, Article Marketing, Testimonials, Interviews and Cross Blog Conversations.

Another idea, a bit more difficult to achieve, is “Link Bait” – or having something so interesting that people share it, blog about it, and link to it around the web.

We’ll discuss each of these options in more detail, along with even more link building strategies and creative ideas for getting high quality backlinks, in upcoming posts in this series. Stay tuned!

Best,

p.s. If you subscribe below you’ll receive an email every Monday with the weekly archive from ClickNewz. You’ll also have the option to subscribe to daily updates, and receive notification about hot new topics as they are published: