Posted by Jason on May 10th, 2006 — in Forums
Looking through the logs yesterday, we had a huge surge in referrals from some very recognizable sites. As always, I went to each one in case there was some discussion going on to see if I could add anything. We got a lot of links to our AdSense Reinstatement Guide from non webmaster forums and I usually answer questions on the TOS, etc. In this particular case, I didn’t find a single mention or link. Usually that would mean they were Coop sites which linked to me at the time but now link to someone else. I scrolled to all the usual places and still didn’t find any evidence.
Due to the large number of uniques, curiosity got the best of me and I searched the source code. I quickly found the links and going back to the page itself, quickly realized someone was hiding links to us. The technique they are using is putting a lot of normal links in their posts/comments then on the last link, using a single letter in a longer word to link to us. This way the links are not moderated out. Normally, I would say it wasn’t right to take advantage of site owners in this way, except they seem to be linking to a few well known peoples sites, none of which they own. I am proud to have the Guerrilla links right there next to Jeremy Shoemaker and Jim Westergren but if anything, it just confuses me on who is doing it. None of the links have a no follow attribute so we are benefiting from them.
I would never encourage this kind of behaviour but I have to say, it is delivering a LOT of uniques. I can’t even say which sites they are because I am sure it would get back to the owners and get the Guerrilla Linker in trouble. This wouldn’t, however, be the first time we benefited from mystery traffic. Just 2 months ago I made a positive comment about a few hackers that defaced the sites of DMOZ editors that offered submission services at a cost to the gullible webmaster. Within a few days they hacked Open Directory Status, put up my picture then redirected to Off the Top of My Head. Despite bringing it up in the same forum I made the original remark, they never revealed themselves. Will the Guerrilla Linker be different and make him/herself known or will this be for me to figure out?
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Posted by Jason on April 21st, 2006 — in Forums
It seems that these days there is no shortage of “SEO Contests”, the quotes being there because these are no longer contests in the classic sense that we saw with nigritude ultramarine. I am sure existed well before that one, but that seemed to be the first one to really catch on and had a lot of the big names of SEO participating. Originally these SEO contests were about experimentation and the analysis which followed. The cash prizes were tiny, if they even existed, so although there were bragging rights involved, most people felt free to do the experimentation and get the most out of the contest.
These days its all about cash and benefit for those running the contests, which many times require a link back to the sponsoring site to be eligible. They are less and less about experimentation but instead about promotion (of the individual entries) and a whole lot of brut force. Just take a look at the Top 10 of most of these contests now and they are populated with those willing to throw several 100k of Coop Weight or Link Vaultage at them. As much as it seems Google has tweaked things, sheer numbers of links still seem to have the ability to rule the day when it comes to brand new keywords.
The little guy who has a sharp SEO mind really has very little chance as they would be more apt to use any weight they had to point to their own sites and generate revenue. In fact, if you have 300K of weight, you can make a whole lot more money with an affiliate or AdSense site then you could ever hope to expect with a prize fund. Not to mention that much weight could easily get you $3k a month in the rental market if you didn’t want to utilize it.
So, I wish to send best wishes to all of those entered in the retsambew dash klat for Charity contest and all the various other contests. But as for me, I will still be pointing my resources at money making ventures and leaving the contests to the big boys.
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Posted by Jason on April 13th, 2006 — in Forums
I have decided to take a hiatus from my online activities, most notably the handful of forums I post in on a regular basis. I did this once before and it was probably the best thing I could have done. Previously, I took a month off and concentrated solely on the sites that I make my living with (Although I found I had so much time, I could build a few more too). I have grown increasingly frustrated with some of the stupidity around me and I think it has actually been hurting my productivity so a break like before will be just what the doctor ordered. It’s hard for me to say if the bulk of the stupidity is new because I have a feeling its always there. It’s just it becomes more distracting when you are knee deep in it. I found the last time I took a break away, the whole General Chat areas became unbearable to me so although I was back posting again, it was strictly in the SEO/Business/Webmaster sections (Depending on the forum) and in those sections I actually learn a lot through my reading and posting.
So this brings me to a bigger issue and one that applies to those that run an online business and that is to break your routine. It doesn’t have to be forums or any one thing in particular. In fact it doesn’t even have to be something you feel is draining your time. I routinely break routine and spend some time being a customer of mine and criticizing every part of my business (Have you ever truly bought from yourself to see how your system works?). Other times I will change the way I try to bring in links and the more dramatic the change, the better. What you get from this breaking of routine is a refreshed spirit and if you have been doing business the same way for years, it is not having this refreshed spirit which may be keeping you from having the growth you could be having.
So give it some thought and pick a time to break your routine. Do it for at least a month and I guarantee you will see some huge benefits.
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