6 Unique Ways to Get Instant Links to Your Site

It seems as though everyone wants something done quickly, or nearly instantly. We want success quickly. We want to be successful online and we want to get links to our web sites quickly. We want traffic to our web sites quickly.
There are many reasons why you would want to get an "influx" of links to one particular article on your web site. Perhaps it's a blog post. Perhaps it's just a new web site and a brand new domain name and you "want to do something" to jumpstart it somehow. I've put together a list of six things you can do right now to get nearly "instant links" to your web site. In many cases these six "techniques" of getting links are nearly automated, so your link will show up almost as fast as you can go check to see if it's really there. Some other techniques I've listed below are faster; and some require that you actually create some content (like writing a few blog entries).

I am not making any sort of "guarantees" at all whether or not these work or whether or not they're completely "white hat", meaning that if Matt Cutts from Google picks up on it he won't have problem with it. And I haven't tested each and every one of these to see if the "links count" at all the search engines. In any case, though, there are legitimate reasons as to why you would want to get a link quickly. One reason I can think of right now is that you need to get a URL crawled quickly; especially when you're going to syndicate the content on other web sites. Duplicate content can be a real issue nowadays, and it's important to make sure that the content on our site gets crawled first.

Here are fix ways to get nearly instant links to your web site:

1. Submit site to get-listed-quickly directories.

OneMission.com
Sign up as an editor, then add links in appropriate categories. Top level categories are better, not many links from home page http://onemission.com/

Easy Link Directory
A bid for placement web directory, submit a link to your site and bid to for placement; lowest bid is only $1. http://www.easylinktrade.com/

2. Add your own blog at a few sites:

Start a blog. Unique content, link out to trusted sites, add tags, to posts with appropriate keywords

http://wordpress.com/

Start a Squidoo Lens on your topic.

http://www.squidoo.com

Start a weather blog at Wunderground.com

Start a blog (choose free option) at http://www.wunderground.com/blog/

Other places to add your own content:

hubpages.com
zimbio.com

3. Add the link to your social media accounts.

Add a link to your social media accounts that you've already set up.

StumbleUpon
Del.icio.us/delicious.com
google.com/bookmarks
wirefan.com
simpy.com
folkd.com
blogmarks.net
corank.com
megite.com/discover
dropjack.com
a1-webmarks.com
jumpup.intuit.com
spicypages.com

If you have the option available to you, consider adding "link bait" type articles, content to the web site and use the social media sites to help promote that content.

4. Add your site to new social media profiles.

If you plan on using the new social media profile in the future, then it might make sense to set up social media profiles for the site. There's a good list of social media sites at www.socialposter.com.

5. Check for broken links at Web Directories

Check for broken links. Use a dead link checker to check for sites that are listed in the category where you want to be listed. Sometimes you can find a domain name that is listed (or one that you can buy) and redirect to your site with a 301 Permanent Redirect.

dir.yahoo.com
business.com
dmoz.org

Besides the Yahoo! Directory, Business.com, and DMOZ.org, there are most likely other authoritative sites or in your niche that list sites in your niche. Run a dead link checker script on those pages to find domain names, sites of formely competitive sites on your topic. Watch out for domain names that have trademarks, don't register those. Whether or not you actually get credit for those directory links is questionable, though. Once a domain name drops (goes pending delete) and is available, I tend to see them removed from the Google index. If you're after a directory listing, though, this may be an option if you don't want to wait or pay for the directory listing fee (some are as much as $299).

Here are a few broken link checker scripts:

Xenu
404 Checker
Dead Links

6. Make useful comments on some dofollow blogs.

Here's a list of some dofollow blogs (blogs that have removed the "nofollow" tag on their blog comments. Keep in mind that you really DO need to make a useful comment (especially on my blog) because most of these (if not all of them) are moderated. If you want a link from my blog, make a useful comment on a *recent* post, not one from 6 months or a year ago.

Comment Hunt
Do Follow Blogs
Courtney Tuttle DoFollow blogs
Link Building Bible

Like I mentioned before, there are many reasons why you would want to links to a site quickly; and you easily force a search engine crawl of your site by doing any of these things. I tend to prefer to do as many as I can, especially when it comes to a brand new domain name or when I need a link to an article or press release on a site that I know is going to get "syndicated" somewhere. Hopefully this list is helpful. If you know of any other ways to get a link that I haven't mentioned, feel free to comment about it.

Google Changes Algorithm - Anchor Text Less Important

This week I’ve noticed a number of interesting changes in the way Google ranks web pages. The following article is based on my observations and theory rather than fact. Please comment if you have noticed similar issues.

Quite a number of the queries we track have altered recently and websites that previously ranked have dropped down by a number of places. This doesn’t appear to be a penalty - just an alteration in the algorithm.

The common characteristic all the sites have is that their rankings were based very heavily on anchor text rather than on-site optimisation. The changes don’t seem to have affected major commercial queries yet but they are visible when you search for particular peoples names.

For example a search for “patrick” used to bring blogstorm.co.uk in 5th place, this week it dropped down to 35th place. The sites above all have better on-site optimisation for that keyword but previously a few good anchor text links was enough for Blogstorm to rank.

Last December I did a study to see how a few SEO bloggers ranked for their own name which gives a good barometer to see how the algorithm has changed since then. Some blogs have moved up and some have moved down but in general the trend is downwards depending on whether you use google.co.uk or .com (there are geographical fluctuations going on as well which affects the results).

Why would Google do this?

Anchor text is the biggest flaw in the Google algorithm. Google wants to show the most relevant and trusted websites at the top of the search results but anchor text has no relation to trust for most queries.

Just because a site has 5 million links with the anchor text “loans” doesn’t mean its a good search result for the query “loans”. Currently there are two types of sites ranking for commercial queries - ones that rank due to the TrustRank of their incoming links (links from newspaper websites and quality blogs) and ones that rank because they have thousands of paid links with keywords in the anchor text.

If I worked at Google then I would discount any links with really competitive keywords in the anchor text - nobody naturally links to a commercial site with “loans” or “car insurance” in the anchor text - they use the sites name instead.

If your site name is mega-cheap-car-insurance.com and all your anchor text is “Mega Cheap Car Insurance” does that mean you should rank higher than somebody like confused.com when a searcher is looking for “cheap car insurance”? I think trust (something which can’t be gamed) should play a much bigger factor than anchor text which until now was by far the biggest loophole in the algorithm.

Google believes $1B investment in AOL is crumbling

In an assessment that could lead to a substantial charge against its future profits, Google Inc. believes its $1 billion investment in advertising partner AOL is souring.

The Mountain View-based company disclosed in a quarterly report filed late Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the 5 percent AOL stake that it bought in 2005 "may be impaired." Impairment is an accounting term used to describe an acquisition or investment that has eroded.

Unless there is an about-face, the acquiring company eventually must absorb a charge on its books to account for the diminished value of its holdings.

Google acknowledged for the first time that it might have to recognize a loss on its 5 percent stake in AOL, whose struggles have made it a financial albatross for its owner, Time Warner Inc.

"There can be no assurance that impairment charges will not be required in the future, and any such amounts may be material," Google said of its AOL investment.

A Google spokesman declined further comment Thursday.

As the Internet's most profitable company, Google could absorb a fairly large charge without too much pain. In the first half of this year, Google earned $2.55 billion.

Google bought its stake in AOL largely to prevent one of its largest advertising partners — AOL — from defecting to Microsoft Corp. The bidding war helped drive up AOL's implied market value to $20 billion, based on Google's investment.

Some analysts have suggested AOL may be worth less than $10 billion now. Google didn't estimate in its SEC filing what it believes its stake to be currently worth.

Gearing up for a possible sale, Time Warner is splitting up AOL's Internet access business from its online operations. EarthLink Inc. is seen as a leading candidate to buy AOL's dial-up access division while Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. could vie for online operations that include an array of advertising tools and services that still attract millions of Web surfers.

Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo, but when the two sides couldn't agree on a price they separately began exploring a possible combination with AOL.

As part of its investment, Google has the right to demand that Time Warner spin off AOL in an initial public offering of stock or buy back its stake. But Google so far hasn't indicated any interest in going down that path.

Indians Better Than British In English Usage

Indians must be proud as academics say that the students from India who are studying in British universities possess high potential in using English language perfectly. While many British students usually come up with wrong usage of spelling, punctuation and grammar, Indian students are often showing high standards in the basic English grammar and other usages.

An Indian-origin university lecturer said that British students even in their second year of degree course, use atrocious English in their assignments. He said that he often found it challenging to figure out what students wanted to express in English. "International students, in contrast, had better English language skill," he added.

According to the academics, most common mistakes are in spelling, student often use 'their' when they mean 'there', 'who's' for 'whose', 'truely' for 'truly', 'occured' for 'occurred' and 'speach' for 'speech'.
Ken Smith, a senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New University, said that many students failed to apply basic rules, such as 'i' before 'e', except after 'c'. The words 'weird', 'seize', 'leisure' and 'neighbor' are regularly misspelt by students. "Mistakes are now so common that academics should simply accept them as 'variants,"' he told.

Bernard Lamb, a Reader in genetics at Imperial College London told that many British students appear to have been through school without mastering basic rules of grammar and punctuation, or having their errors corrected.

As students find it difficult to use English properly, some universities have extended the course by a year to give extra tuition to weaker students.

"All the data suggests that there are more and more students at university level whose spelling is not up to scratch. Universities are even finding they have masters-level students who cannot spell," told Jack Bovill, Chairman of The Spelling Society.

7 Tactical Reasons To Use Mini Campaign Websites

7 Tactical Reasons To
Use Mini Campaign Websites

How many websites should your company have?

That's a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea hasn't crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?

If you're a large corporation, it is fairly obvious that you need a separate site for each brand you offer, and a separate site for corporate background material and perhaps investor information.

But what if you're a small or medium-sized company with a limited number of products or services? Then the question becomes, do your products relate to one another? Does one item flow into the next? Is your audience for each product or service the same? And what about totally different audiences for the same product: audiences that need to be approached with totally different tactics? And then there are special circumstances like new product launches, time sensitive marketing campaigns, and limited availability offers?

Mini Campaign Websites and Alternative Marketing Websites are an effective method of enhancing your marketing efforts and targeting optional audiences you wouldn't have otherwise reached using your traditional sales marketing approach.


7 Tactical Reasons To Use Campaign Websites

1. Focus Your Presentation: eliminate distraction and non relevant clutter.

It is human nature to want to get your money's worth, but when it comes to website marketing this can be counter-productive. Wanting to cram everything you provide into one website aimed, or more to the point not aimed, at every interested audience only creates clutter and confusion. Forcing visitors to sift through reams of material only creates frustration and irritation, and with a click of a mouse they're off to the next competitor listed on their favorite search engine before they even get to your relevant information.

A campaign or brand specific website allows you to get right to the point. Greet your targeted audience with a signature video Web-host supported by appropriate images and text. If a lot of text material is required, then have it turned it into an audio presentation so the material is made more accessible, understandable, and easy to absorb.

A focused brand or campaign site shortens the sales cycle by making what you provide clear and distinct; it provides visitors with the sense that you are both competent and innovative in what you do and how you do it.

2. Use Alternative Tactics: experiment with non traditional campaign and sales' approaches.

Most companies follow a consistent sales approach that they have found successful. This is both a good thing and a bad thing: following a plan that has worked in the past aimed at your traditional customer base makes sense, except that it also limits you in reaching new audiences for your products and services.

There may be markets for what you provide that you haven't ever thought of, or that you are afraid to approach because they conflict with your current methods, promotions, or initiatives.
If You Have a Website, You Need Web CEO!

Why give up on these potential customers when you can create an audience specific Web-presentation on a separate campaign website aimed specifically at that market. With a series of highly targeted websites you speak to the needs of specific audiences and at the same time insulate your regular clients from the alternative approaches.

In a highly competitive marketplace, your competition will be looking for every opportuníty to take advantage of markets you ignore. Don't let them. You can get to them first and establish your company as the niche leader. All it takes is a little imagination, effort, and a budget to implement. This way you can have your cake and eat it too.

3. Create Urgency & Impact: campaign sites urge quick response, while creating a memorable impression.

Website visitors are always complaining how much time it takes them to search for and find the products and services they need. This often translates into complaints about download times, but the fact is, with the extensive availability of broadband, it's not download times that frustrate people, it's having to search through multiple pages and levels, in a hide-and-seek game to find what they want.

A campaign or brand-specific alternative marketing site gets right to the point and delivers the information or the promotíon referenced in your email, banner, and print ads, or television and radio commercials.

And if you use a signature video Web-host to deliver the information, you are making sure the presentation has impact; so even if a visitor doesn't view everything, they at least get the core message in a way they won't forget.

Your targeted marketing sales pitch won't get watered-down by extraneous information that just gets in the way. Depending on how the site is constructed and what the marketing objectives are, a campaign specific website can create a sense of urgency by building in a time sensitive expiry date.

4. Target New & Alternative Audiences: create new markets for old products and services.

Not every audience for a product can be approached with the same tactics. Specific brand or campaign sites allow you to customize your approach for new or alternative audiences appealing to their specific lifestyles or behavior patterns.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!

If you've had experience running a sales staff or rep network, you know that salespeople who call on one specific market are rarely successful when asked to simultaneously call on another. Different markets require different approaches. Like a one-size-fits-all hat, it rarely fits anybody. Customize and isolate your approach to different markets, so you can speak directly to that market's needs and attitudes.

The marketplace is often more innovative than the marketer in finding new ways to use old products; ways the manufacturer hadn't realized existed. Ask your customers how they use your products and then go after that market with a direct campaign that takes advantage of that specific niche.

5. Isolate & Differentiate Brands: target specific audiences with specific tactics.

Companies that provide a large number of products or services often confuse potential customers by presenting far too many options and alternatives. The result is the Web-visitor doesn't buy anything because they don't want to purchase the wrong thing, or not get the best deal. Even if you get the sale, you may lose the customer because they made the wrong decision.

You want to provide prospects a limited number of distinct alternatives, just enough so they feel they have been given a choice, and don't have to look elsewhere. But too much choice within the same product category creates buyer indecision. If a product or service is aimed at a particular market because it has specific features, create a separate website to sell it. Isolating a product line on a separate website allows you to create a distinct image and brand story for that offering.

6. Accelerate Comprehension & Shorten Sales Cycle: be clear, be understood, be direct, and sales will follow.

Campaign websites get right to the point. They present the marketing message quickly, and promptly direct people to take action without making them wade through mission statements and corporate histories that for campaign purposes just get in the way.

The longer it takes for someone to understand what the campaign is all about, the less likely they are to stick around long enough to make sense out of it. This is why we strongly recommend adding video and audio to the presentation. Video and audio allows you to say what needs to be said in the most understandable, persuasive, and memorable manner.

When it comes to website visitors you probably only have one shot at making a lasting impression, so don't blow it by delivering a boring or confusing presentation.

7. Support Other Advertising Efforts: supplement other marketing material with engaging, viral presentations.

Campaign websites can function as landing sites and contact venues for print, television, radio, online video, banner, and display ads, as well as for articles, newsletters, and news releases.

By segregating your campaign site you can more easily track responses better than if the campaign material was integrated into your corporate site. Separating your campaign website from your main site allows you to experiment with marketing tactics aimed at new or alternative audiences, with approaches that may not be suitable for your regular site visitors. You may not even want your regular customers to know that it is your company that's running the campaign, so people will regard it as something completely new.


A Final Word or Two

You've heard about the "Long Tail" and 'niche markets' but what have you done about it? So many companies sell the same product, the same way, to the same audience, that people no longer pay much attention. Look no further than the search engine optimization market, when was the last time you actually read something truly different, truly innovative about SEO? What makes one company's promise of top ten ranking any different from the next? And if everyone who paid for optimization was in the top ten in their category, you'd have to redefine what the number ten means.

Today companies, especially small and medium sized companies, have to be different to be heard. They have to be bold and innovative and constantly try new approaches to reach their audiences.

By trying different tactics using different websites delivering alternative presentations, to alternative audiences you expand and build your business without the concern that these bold new approaches will negatively affect your more conservative existing clientele.