Entries Tagged 'Blogging' ↓

Ok, so my re-created blog has been live for around 2 weeks now after the deletion of the original site and I have to say that since I moved to Wordpress I’ve never encountered so much spam. I’m running at over 100 spam messages in just a few days… starting with an influx from day 1. It seems that spammers out there are targeting the Hello World post trying to get around sites without Askimet running… If you’re running Wordpress and have a significant spam issue then I suggest choosing another platform as, like I said, Wordpress is a Spam Magnet!

topseo.org has featured my article on how to get more than 1000 baclkinks listed from Yahoo Site Explorer (I’ll post a link once I’ve reinstated the page). The post was placed at position #47 and is amongst such names as Dave Naylor, Marketing Pilgrim, CopyBlogger, SEOMoz, Matt Cutts, Shoe Money, Grey Wolf and Bruce Clay… great company indeed

*pats self on back* LOL

To view them all copy and pase this url http://www.topseo.org/2009/12/24/top-50-blog-articles-2009/
(edited to preserve inbound link juice:)

It’s really great when people you don’t know can see the value in what you’re doing and today was such a day. I received a nice little email about my Glastonbury post where I mentioned buying walking boots in place of wellies. It said something along the lines of…

“shame you’ve already bought some walking boots as I’d have given you a pair in exchange for a link”

As a died in the wool Yorkshire man, I couldn’t resist a freebie so I quickly emailed Adam from Fitness Footwear and opened expressed my interest.

It seems that Adam is using product bribes as a way of increasing his serps for the term ‘walking boots’ (amongst others), approaching blog owners like me and offering a sly bribe of some free equipment in exchange for some juicy links.

Needless to say, this post is the result (let’s throw in another reference for walking boots just for good measure lol) however it begs the question…

“Why don’t other product suppliers offer goods in exchange for marketing assistance?”

In my previous life, as owner of a small web studio, I’m no stranger to blagging some freebies from the occasional customer. yet in the realm of online marketing with millions of casual bloggers creating masses of content on a daily basis, such an approach could yield massive results. Sure, you have to cherry pick the brightest and best of blog owners, the articles need to be well written and come from authoritive sources, and you’re offer has to be tempting enough for a bite, but this is no different from ‘obtaining links’ for cash.

Where it does have the advantage is that its a more personal relationship and instead of a couple of pounds spent buying some dodgy links from an Indian blog network, you could get bigger and better product placement reviews from a more Google friendly sources.

Adam also mentions that It’s also worth mentioning that bloggers have been so impressed with Fitness Footwear that they’ve bought products from us, essentially making our money back on the freebies that were sent out in the first place.

So if you’re a marketer working for a product based company consider throwing some freebies at worthwhile bloggers… you never know, it could be the trust/authority/juice you need to top the rankings.

I’ll post a picture of my new walking boots when they turn up next week shoe money stylee

…and thanks for the bribe Adam.

Some dude named Evan Carmichael has featured my post on squeezing more than 1000 back links out of Yahoo Site Explorer as one of his top 50 SEO posts of 2009.

/evancarmichael.com/Tools/Top-50-SEO-Posts-Of-The-Year-2009.htm

Thanks Evan – It’s nice to get some fame and glory at last lol.

I’m kind of all over the place today as I’ve been given the day off for Xmas shopping by my great boss (it would never have happened in some of my past workplaces so big thanks to Steve) and as usual I’ve built up a nice set of tabs all containing things I really need to get around to reading, so instead of adding bookmarks onto bookmarks I will dump them here

Google Translated information on Eyetracking studies for the new Click 4 Beds design

frankwatching.com

Nice post by Aaron that should tie in nicely to a future post I’m writing about beating the Google Caffeine change:

http://www.seobook.com/2010-year-information-pollution-takes

Alternative uses for Xenu Link Sleuth on SEOMoz

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/xenu-link-sleuth-more-than-just-a-broken-links-finder

IBL Tracking post

http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/11/1-seo-tools-for-tracking-inbound-links/

Review of SEOMoz’s Ranking Factors post for my Caffeine article

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Tips on Becoming Famous

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/internet-famous-becoming-an-online-celebrity/

End of Line.

I just realised that I haven’t removed nofollow from my blog comments on this site so as of today, I’m proud to announce that all links out of this site will be dofollow (its going to take some time to go through every post but I promise to get onto it).

Why have I chosen to do this? Well as nofollow is no longer a method of containing and redistributing link juice within a site (instead the juice evaporates which is not good for anyone) I’ve decided to let the juice flow where it may.

This also means that I’m going to come down extra hard on people who try and post spammy comments. I must get 100 comments a day that say ‘good post’ with a spammy link. Even if your comment is worth while, if I find your link to be spammy i.e. NOT YOUR REAL NAME then I will edit your comment and remove your link and try and put your real name in.

You have been warned!

So, because of this re-purposing of link juice and the complete ineffectiveness of nofollow in retaining juice within a site I ENCOURAGE ALL WEBMASTERS TO REMOVE NOFOLLOW FROM YOUR ASSETS and instead pay more attention to managing bad comments and spam.

I’m getting a lot of spam comments using keywords for names and linking out to domains (in particular from my dofollow social bookmarking list) so starting now, if you post a comment and use a keyword as your name I will remove your link from your comment and if possible, use the name from your email address as your name in your comment.

Peace out.

Mark

You should always accompany any form that gathers personal data with an accompanying link to your websites Privacy Policy. Business Link have a good (and free) one you can use however its stuck in MSWord. The philanthropist in me has taken to providing this privacy policy in a ready to run, cut and paste format for all you web designers out there who love stock resources.

To use, simply search and replace the following items: [COMPANY], [DATE], [EMAIL] & [ADDRESS]

— Start Copy —

<h1>Privacy Policy</h1>

<p>This privacy policy sets out how &quot;[COMPANY]&quot; uses and protects any information that you give &quot;[COMPANY]&quot; when you use this website. </p>

<p>&quot;[COMPANY]&quot; is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement. </p>

<p>&quot;[COMPANY]&quot; may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from [DATE]. </p>

<h2>What we collect</h2>

<p>We may collect the following information: </p>

<ul>

<li>name and job title</li>

<li>contact information including email address</li>

<li>demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests</li>

<li>other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers</li>

</ul>

<h2>What we do with the information we gather</h2>

<p>We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons: </p>

<ul>

<li>Internal record keeping. </li>

<li>We may use the information to improve our products and services. </li>

<li>We may periodically send promotional email about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided. </li>

<li>From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. </li>

<li>We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests. </li>

</ul>

<h2>Security</h2>

<p>We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. </p>

<h2>How we use cookies</h2>

<p>A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. </p>

<p>We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. </p>

<p>Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. </p>

<p>You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. </p>

<h2>Links to other websites</h2>

<p>Our website may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question. </p>

<h2>Controlling your personal information</h2>

<p>You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways: </p>

<ul>

<li>whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes</li>

<li>if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at [EMAIL] </li>

</ul>

<p>We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen. </p>

<p>You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to [ADDRESS]. </p>

<p>If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect. </p>

— End Copy —

If you’re like me then you love free blog sites. BayWords is a new site by the makers of The Pirate Bay, notorious for their Torrent site and debacle with the RIAA and other oppressive regimes.

Blog sites are great because they make link building a breeze. Now I’d never advocate setting up a load of sites just for the purpose of link building, however creating and maintaining a few blogs that are on-topic and used as a hub for aggregated news can make quite a powerful platform.

Anyway, the big thing about BayWords is their focus on freedom of speech… which may not mean a big thing to you right now, but with the web becoming ever more policed its nice to have a service provider that fights to retain the originality of your content. They say…

We’re proud to present a new service – baywords.com. Because of the need of freedom of speech and secure hosting facility of the words being said we could not agree to how people behave towards bloggers.

Many blogs are being shut down for uncomfortable thoughts and ideas. We will not do that. Our goal is to protect freedom of speech and your thoughts. As long as you don’t break any Swedish laws in your blog, we will defend it.

We will update the blogging system all the time to add new features and themes. If you need to contact us, you can do so here.

We decided that although the system is quite minimalistic right now, the most important thing was to get it up and running. So stay tuned for updates and please blog your heart out. Your ideas and your thoughts are the most important ones.

(Upcoming stuff: We will add support for your own domain hopefully. Captcha system will be installed. Stats will be better. Ads will be added, sorry about that but we’ll keep them as usual to a minimum.)

All in all… its worth having another platform to use. It just needs testing to see how effective it will be in an SEO application.

I was really nervous about yesterdays Barcamp in Leeds as I’d been called out by The Hodge after slating his SEO presentation at a previous GeekUp and asked to co-present an SEO critique session with him. In addition it wasnt until around 8:30 yesterday morning that i realised that the event was an all day thing and not a 7pm start as GeekUp usually is which meant I had to rush to get there.

For those of you who havent been to a BarCamp yet (theres loads all over the world) its a strange format thats basically ‘web2.0′ only in human form with everyone opting on the day to do presentations on something they know about and its all worked out on post it notes on a board so you can see who’s scheduled to talk about what in each room. Althgether it workded really well (apart from anything that relied on technology *cough* The Hodges live linkup with Barcamp Toronto *cough*

With time-slots being roughly 20 mins, many people opted to simply introduce a product or service and there were few actual practical sessions which was something Ive been striving for.

…so I attended seminars on:

• Futurology (we came up with a dog version of Match.com based on the cryptic connections between a dog and disposeable camera)
• Drupal (which everyone agreed was too hard to get into and customise)
• Case study on a social loan company who’ve set up a whisky distillary based on community monies
• Case study on some interesting nodal tagging for the BBC

…and lots more.

Our presentation on SEO went well, tho I found the touch sensitive digital whiteboards a complete nightmare to work with and couldn’t really figure out how to jump into wordtracker etc to give some real impacting feedback so I opted to talk to interested people on a 1-2-1 basis afterwards. Read an impartial review here and SEOMOZ.org has a nice document that supports my comments on link juice and control of your websites internal link structure.

Loads of beer didn’t turn up due to someone not ordering it in advance. And the pub we all ended up in smelt like an armpit lol.

So will I go to the next one? Hell yeah!

Oh and I won an iPod lol!