The Situation.

If you're bookmarking your own sites with a tool like OnlyWire — or bookmarking your favorite sites manually to StumbleUpon, Digg, or Google Bookmarks, then you probably already realize the benefits of doing so.. Hopefully you'll get more traffic, right?

If you're bookmarking other people's sites, you're doing it because you like the person and their content. Or you might be doing it to diversify your own profiles – so that you're not just constantly bookmarking your own stuff. To make your social profiles look more natural.

The Problem.

Well.. the problem comes in getting OTHER people to bookmark your stuff.

You can encourage, beg, trade, and hope that other people will bookmark your stuff – but there's it's not easy or guaranteed.

And, more is always better, right?

The Solution.

I found a cool program and I've been playing with it the past day to make sure it was something that I liked and that was totally legit and that I could recommend to you.

It passed all my tests – except one (which I've contacted their support about – and will tell you about in a sec).

What is it? A HUMAN-powered Social Bookmarking Service.

I don't like to promote any “bots” or tools that can get you into trouble, which is why this was so interesting to me.

This site has two levels.

The free level is the most interesting to me – and it's the foundation for everything, actually. You earn credits by bookmarking other people's content. And, once you have some credits, then other people will start bookmarking YOUR pages that you've submitted (so they can earn more credits). Yes, your site gets bookmarked by Real Human People.

The paid level is for people who just want to get other people to bookmark their stuff. You buy credits – and then the free members bookmark your stuff in order to earn credits – so that other free members will bookmark theirs.

Make sense?

So, which plan is right for you?

If you're actively bookmarking stuff already (and have set up profiles that you use) – I'm going to recommend that you start with a free account. You can always upgrade later or buy credits if you like it.

If you're not actively bookmarking your own stuff, then just go for the paid version. I did. That way it's “set it and forget it” easy.

The results?

I signed up for a paid account yesterday and my sites have been bookmarked 30 times already.

Click here to Get your Sites Bookmarked More.

What do I Wish Was Different?

I've emailed their tech support already about this. What I WISH they'd add in is the ability for paid members to also earn credits. I'd definitely bookmark some of the sites I've seen of other members if I could. Why not? I always like to diversify my own profiles so that they're full of good stuff — not just my links. So, if they add that, I'd definitely be interested.

How It Works.

ok. So if this sounds interesting – go sign up.  Then, I'll show you how to add your bookmarks. It's super easy.  I'll wait.

If you're a free member, you have to earn some credits first. I don't have a free account, so I can't help with that part. Sorry! But they have good training inside the member area. Once you've earned some credits come back to learn how to add your own sites.

If you're a paid member – or after you've earned some credits – this is all you do.

You click on “Add Bookmark” and you'll see this screen.

Here's what you enter in each field…

Address (URL):

Here you enter a single page or post from your website or blog. Link directly to the page/posts that you want to get more traffic to. Ideally, this will be a page with interesting information – that others will WANT to bookmark, too.  Hopefully it's also a page that's monetized in some way – or that builds your list.

Example:  http://www.nicoleonthenet.com/7574/run-your-business-from-the-road/

Title:

The title will include the terms that you want that page to rank for in the search engines. But remember, people see these, too, so capitalize the first letter of each word and make it make sense.

Example: How to Run your Business from the Road

Advanced Tip: You can “Spin” these titles if you'd like, so that each person who bookmarks your page will use different text to do so. (If you don't understand this, skip it. No worries.)

Example of Spun Title: {How Do You|How to} Run your {Internet|Web-Based} Business from the Road

Description:

They say this should be a paragraph about the page from the perspective of a visitor.

Example: “Cool blog post about how to work from anywhere, even the beach. My favorite internet marketer Rachel Rofe included a video. Love this.”

Advanced Tip: Yes, you can spin this, too – if you want.

Example of Spun Description: Cool blog post about how to work from anywhere, even from {the road|the beach|a cabin in the woods}. My favorite internet marketer {Rachel Rofe|Nicole Dean|Tony Shepherd|Connie Green|Jeanette Cates} gave advice. Love this.

Tags:

Add a few short phrases that describe the content of the page.

Category:

Choose the most appropriate category for that page.

Then click “Save“.

That's it! Then just watch for emails when your site gets bookmarked.

I immediately added 17 bookmark URLs to my account. I'm also watching Google Alerts for my name. When I see those, I'll add some of them, too. So, if you've been talking about me on your blog – you may have already been bookmarked.

Appreciate you. Let me know if you have any questions!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. As always, there is no tool that is the be-all, end-all answer to getting more traffic. I believe strongly in diversification – which is why I like this. So, please, don't ditch all your other traffic methods thinking this will solve all of your traffic problems forever. It's ONE tool. A cool one. But just one tool.

PS again. I'm also using this to “Promote my Promotions” — meaning bookmarking sites that link to my other web properties — including individual YouTube videos, guest blog posts that I've done, and my articles on LadyPens.com. Just another idea for you.

No, I won't be showing the undies from Expert Marketers (although that would certainly be funny) – but I will be grabbing my friends who I respect and admire and will be asking them to give brief replies to your burning questions about internet marketing and online business success. (Get it? Briefs? Yes, I am easily amused.)

I've been wanting to do this series for some time, and, thankfully, I have a great Virtual Assistant who is helping me to put this together or it may never have gotten done.

So, let's jump in. Today's topic is Link Building, specifically how to get one-way incoming links to your website or blog.

If you recall, I've posted a few blog posts about Link Building recently that you can go back and review if you're wondering what all the fuss is about Link Building and why on earth it's important.

• What is Link Building? Into for Beginners.
• What to do Before You Begin Link Building.
• Link Building FAQ: Questions and Answers

The question I asked our experts today is:

“What is your favorite method for building incoming links
to your website or blog? Why?”

I only asked people who I know are actively link-building. Of course, I have plenty of other friends who use other methods of generating traffic, but this blog post is about one-way link building so these are the experts I chose to ask along with their replies.

Willie Crawford of SellMoreBigTicket.com says:

My favorite method is writing and distributing articles.  I've written over 1500.

The reason is that not only do I get lots of inbound links from some fairly high page-ranked sites, but the articles also actually bring me in visitors who have read my material and arrive at my site pre-sold on me.

Lynn Terry of ClickNewz.com says:

My favorite method of link-building is to get featured on blogs that reach my market. There are a couple of ways you can do that. You can write guests posts for those blogs, or offer to let the blogger interview you. Text interviews are best for creating relevant content to go along with your backlink, but audio interviews with a description and live link work well too.

With blog interviews, I email the blog owner and introduce myself (with credentials, basically selling myself as a good match for their audience). I give them the option to reply with 3-5 questions (or more if they like) on a topic related to their current theme. I then reply with the answers, creating a very nice blog post for them to publish.

If you have an affiliate program, you can offer to let them sign up as an affiliate so that they can earn commissions on the interview as well.

This is one of my favorite methods for 2 reasons:

1) Bloggers need content. It's the one thing they are constantly searching for, or working on. You can step in and help them out, and help yourself out at the same time.

2) This is one of the BEST types of inbound links you can possibly get. You have control over the topic, so you get a relevant backlink from a related page. And you control the link, meaning you can deep link to an internal page on your site or blog – and use specific Anchor Text with that link.

Plus… it's easy!

The trick is to make it highly relevant to their current theme of content, or to expand on a topic they recently blogged about. You just want to find a good tie-in that makes sense both for the blogger and for their readers.

Mark Mason of MasonWorld.com says:

Nicole — getting links is all about a tradeoff between effort, quality and quality.  Often, especially when people are just starting out, they will make the mistake of spending lots of time (or money) on low quality links.

For me, time is my most precious resource.  So, when I go after a link my efforts need to be highly leveraged.  That means that for my investment of time, I need to get lots of links or really great (powerful links).  The answer almost always lies in quality content.

For example, I can write one piece of quality content and syndicate it to multiple high quality article directories using automated tools.  This get's me multiple quality backlinks in addition to whatever click-through traffic the article generates.

Or, I can write a great article for a guest response post on a high traffic blog like NicoleOnTheNet.com in exchange for a backlink from the article.  That get's me a quality backlink and clickthrough traffic as well.

Either way, the key is great content out on the internet pointing back to my site.

Susanne Myers of EasyLinkLove.com says:

My favorite way to build links is to create what I like to call a link magnet. It’s a piece of REALLY GOOD content that you post freely on your website. This could be a report, an article, a list, even an audio file or a video. You want to give away some of your favorite stuff here.

Start by thinking about what your target audience really wants. You can also do some research by asking your current readers and visitors or using sites like Yahoo answer or forums in your market to get a feel for what your audience wants.

Spend some time creating exceptional content and post it to your site. Do some keyword research and optimize the page for those keywords so you can build some free search engine. Start promoting the content by blogging about it, mentioning it on twitter and other social media outlets. Tell our lists about it and always invite people to share the link to the content.

Monetize your link magnet by adding a link somewhere toward the end of the content for one of your products. It’s important not to be pushy here or people will be less likely to link to it.

Here are a few examples of good link magnets:

$40 Emergency Menu
This is on one of my own sites. The basic idea is a low cost emergency menu that people can turn to when grocery money is extremely low.

Online Success Podcasts by Nicole Dean
Nicole has recorded several hour long interviews with various experts in the Internet Marketing Field. She focuses on delivering high quality content and does an amazing job coaxing all kinds of useful information from her guests.

Quick Extra Tip –

I always like to get the most mileage out of everything I do, especially link building. Don’t do this just for the sake of building links, take it a step further and reap even more rewards. An easy way to do this is to keep tabs on who is linking to this new page. Contact the owners of some of the best sites and see if you can collaborate even further.

And, here's my 2 cents. I wrote this before reading the others just to make sure I wouldn't let their ideas sway mine.

Nicole Dean of .. well, here! .. says:

My favorite method of building incoming links is simply sharing content. I know, it's kind of a cheater answer, but let me finish here and you'll see what I mean.

All of the most effective methods, in my opinion, revolve around sharing your own expertise. Let me demonstrate…

-> Article Marketing is simply sharing content.

-> Guest Blogging (or even hosting a kick-butt Blog Tour) is sharing content.

-> Video marketing (recording and posting videos to sites like YouTube) – again, is nothing more than sharing content.

-> Podcasts (being a guest on other people's podcasts) – is simply sharing your expertise, again.

-> Doing quick interviews like this one – you'll notice all of my experts are receiving links to their sites. Badda bing, badda boom! I'll bet those are some of the easiest links they've gotten.

-> And, blog commenting works, too. Blog commenting means just leaving comments on blog posts like this one. (Hint, hint.) Although I honestly believe that it's not the most effective method of generating incoming links, at least not compared to the methods outlined above, it's still worth doing.

Of course, you can tie in social media and link to all of these sites where you've got your content to really boost your effectiveness. But, it all starts by doing what you're already doing as a blogger – sharing your thoughts — just doing it on other websites.

In fact, that's one of the biggest mistakes that I see online business owners make is keeping all of their content on their own sites and not sharing it on others.

How Can You Learn More about How to Get One-Way Links?

Again – Susanne is the queen link builder. If you want to learn the basics of Link Building, again, here’s here course  -> Beginner Link Building Course

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Please post your favorite method for building incoming links to your site below. Thank you!

I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again… I love Web Traffic. It's a goooood thing.  And, that's what we're going to talk about today. Specifically traffic from Google.

In fact, Google sends my websites a nice bit of traffic.  Here are my stats from last year for two of my niche websites. (Not this blog.  They are two of my other sites.)

This shows how many web visitors that Google sent to each site during 2009.

and

As you can see, Google sent each of these sites over 300,000 visitors. Like I said, web traffic is a goooood thing.

How on earth do I get Google (and Yahoo and Bing) to send me hundreds of thousands of web visitors each year? Simple. Marketing. Specifically link building… which we'll talk about in just a minute.

Now, you guys know me well enough by now to know that I preach quality over quantity – and building a business that lasts the test of time. So, if you're looking for automated, spammy link-building tips today, you'll be sorely disappointed.

However, if you'd like to learn more about Link Building the right way, I've got some Link Building FAQs for you. I invited my good friend, Susanne Myers, here again to chat – and this time, I'll add my thoughts, too.

And, as a reminder, Susanne teaches a course in Beginner Link Building if you'd like to learn more about this topic.

Just click here to get started -> Beginner Link Building Course

On to the Link Building FAQs…

First, What Is Link Building?

Susanne says: Link building is the process of creating (one way or another) links on other pages across the internet that point back to pages of your own websites.

Me: Link building is getting other websites to link to your website. For example, if you like this blog post, you are free to link to it from your blog. Talk about it in a blog post and link back to it. See how easy that is?

Why Is Link Building Important?
Susanne says: Links help other people and search engines find your site. In other words, links are one of the most important things to get traffic.

Me: Link building is important for two reasons.

1. Sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing look at how many other websites link to your site to determine how valuable and important your site is. So, for instance, a site like WebMD.com or CNN.com that is informative and is considered an authority site has tons and tons of incoming links to it. While you don't have to compete with those sites, I use it as an example to show that valuable sites get linked to.
2. The other main reason that link building is important is that having links on other websites gives you a much better chance at having people run across the links and click through them to your website. So, it's not just about the search engines. It's about placing links on sites where real people read the info and will click through to learn more about what you offer.

The combination of the two is extremely powerful. And, if you do it right, it's unstoppable traffic.

How Many Links Do I Need To Get?
Susanne says: That really depends.

My goals for building links are always to:

1. Get traffic directly from the link. (From people clicking on my link.)
2. Move up in the search engines for my keyphrase for that particular page.

The more links and the higher quality the links you are building the better. For SEO purposes, keep building links until you are #1 on google for your search terms and for traffic, just take advantage of any and all link opportunities.

Me: It's an ongoing process. I recommend that you do something “Marketing-related” every single day to get links to your website… forever.

What Are The Best Ways To Get Links?
Susanne says: I have two different ways of getting links. Some I actively create and others that are generated on auto pilot. Let me give you a few examples for each.

Active Link Building

• Write and submit articles to article directories
• Write and submit articles to quality sites in your niche
• Write guest posts for popular blogs in your market place
• Participate in forums in your niche linking back where applicable and in your forum signature line. (Make sure you comply with forum rules before posting any links).
• Leave valuable blog comments on blogs in your niche.

Passive Link Building

• Create a “Link To Me” Page that explains that it is ok to link to any page on your site and invites readers to grab links and buttons with simple copy and paste code that they can add to their own pages.
• Add a Share This button to your blog. It will allow people to bookmark and email your link. There are several wordpress plugins out there that will do this and automate the process of using social bookmarking sites, twitter, facebook etc.
• Write great content that people want to link to. Answer most commonly asked questions, create a list of resources, write a report or record a video. Create something of value and share it with your readers letting them know that it’s ok to link to this page.

Me: I love Susanne's answer. The only things I'd recommend in addition are Video Marketing and doing a lot of interviews on other people's sites — like this one.

Can I Just Buy Links?
Susanne says: Yes, you can, but it’s not a good idea. In the eyes of the search engines buying links on a site is cheating and they are constantly working on finding those links and punishing the sites that are involved in link buying schemes. In other words, if you value your site and your traffic, just don’t do it.

You can however outsource a lot of link building tasks. This basically means that you pay someone else to go out and post valuable comments on blogs, participate in forums or hire a writer to ghost write blog posts and articles for you.

Me: I'm with Susanne on this one. While there are shortcuts, I don't recommend purchasing links, especially when marketing is FUN! (Well, if you're geeky like me, it is.)

How Can I Learn More about Link Building?

Again – Susanne is the queen link builder. If you want to learn the basics of Link Building, again, here's here course  -> Beginner Link Building Course

I hope this was helpful!

Please let us know if you have additional questions by commenting below. We're happy to keep answering questions as long as you keep asking.

Have a great day!

Warmly,
Nicole

A few days ago, we started talking about what link building is and why it is so important. I'm sure by now you are anxious to go out and start building one-way links, but before you do that, there are a few things you need to have in place to make sure your link building efforts are worthwhile. These are all things you need to have in place on your own site first.

#1 Keywords – The first thing you want to do is a little keyword research. I like to pick a keyword for each new page on my website. For example, for this blog post I chose the keyword “building one-way links” even before I wrote the first word. I then created a title and the content for this post around the keyword I would like this post to rank for.

#2 Great Content – Next, you need to sit down and write some great content. Each of your pages is going to have a goal, something you want to accomplish with it (more on that in #3). In order to reach your goal you first have to impress your readers with some really good content. Put some thought into what you are writing. Make sure it is well laid out and easy to follow. I do this by creating a quick little outline before I write the actual post.

Make sure you also include your keyword in both the title and the first 100 words of your post or article.

#3 Call To Action– Last but not least you want your readers to do something at the end of your post. This could be joining a mailing list, buying your product, checking out an affiliate offer or just leaving a comment. No matter what you would like them to do next, it is important that you tell them. It's called a “Call To Action” and if you keep reading you will read mine shortly.

Once you have those three things in place it's time to start building links. Your first few links should come from your own website. These are called internal links and they will help make sure your new content is indexed quickly by the search engines.

If you are using a content management system like a WordPress blog for example, some of those links will be created for you automatically. If you have a static website, make sure you link to the article from a category page (i.e. your articles page ) and if possible from your home page. I suggest you use your keyword in the anchor text whenever possible.

Once all that is in place, it's time to start building one-way links to your new content. Nicole has some great resources on how to build links here.

I would also like to invite to join my link building class at EasyLinkLove.com. Over the course of 13 weeks we go over various things you can do to build incoming links including social media, link directories, link exchanges, article marketing and guest blogging.

Did you catch that? The invitation to join my link building course was my call to action. Now go sign up
http://www.easyplr.com/r/getlinks

She'll be here this week, talking about Link Building (specifically for Beginners).

You may be wondering “Who the heck is she to teach link building?”

Well, let me tell you…

She has gotten over 50,000 incoming links to one of her sites in under 2.5 years.

(that's no typo)

What does that mean, exactly? And, why are links important?

1. Having links on other websites to yours get people to click through to your websites.If you've got links to your website all over the net, people will run into those and click through them. That's a gooooood thing. (People have wallets to spend money on your stuff.)

2. Having lots of links TO your website tells the search engines that your website is important. That way Google, MSN, Yahoo, and all the rest know you're a “real” site with “real” value.

However, I won't steal Susanne's thunder. I'll hand the stage to her.

What's the Buzz about Link Building?

By Guest Blogger Susanne Myers

I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot about link building lately. Every six months or so it suddenly becomes the “hot” topic of the week usually at the same time some new course or piece of software is released by one of the big internet gurus. But here’s the thing…  link building is something you should be doing consistently throughout the year.

Nicole was nice enough to invite me to talk to you about link building for the next couple of days. We’ll talk about what link building is and why it is important today. The next post will be about what you need to have in place before you ever start to build links to your site and then we’ll chat a bit about effective link building and how you can fit it into your busy schedule.

What Is Link Building

Definition for Beginners: Link building is the process where you go out to other websites across the internet and through various methods (many of them are free) and get them to link to one of the pages on your website. This can be done in a variety of ways.

Here are just a few examples:

Link Exchanges – These used to be all the rage and worked very well a few years ago. You would simply ask a website owner to link to your website and would offer to do the same for them.

Article Marketing – Every time you write and submit an article to an article directory or another website, you are including an author resource box with a link back to your site. That’s a link building strategy – a really good one in fact and one I am dedicated two lessons to in my 13 week link building class.

Guest Blogging – Do you remember when Nicole went on her guest blogging tour last summer? She gained a lot of exposure and traffic, but also a lot of powerful links to various pages on her site. Guest blogging is another great link building strategy.

Link To Me Page – Something as simple as setting up a page on your blog or website that tells people how they can link back to you can be effective over time. You’ll be surprised how many fans of your site would love to help spread the word for you but don’t realize that they can link to you.

Those are just a few link building strategies.

If you’d like to learn more, I invite you to take my beginner link building class were we’ll cover those strategies and more in great detail.

Why Is Link Building Important

But why do you need to worry about building links in the first place? Let me answer that question with another question. Could you use some more traffic, more people to your website and thus more subscribers and more customers? I’m sure you could, I know I can.

Link building is how both visitors and search engines find you in the first place. Think back on a time (maybe even today) when you were surfing the web, going from page to page, clicking on links and coming across some really neat stuff. You wouldn’t have found those sites if other websites didn’t link to those.

More importantly though, incoming links will help you rise in the search engine rankings. Let’s say you sell an ebook on underwater basket weaving. Just imagine how much traffic and how many buyers you could get to your website if you were the first page to come up in Google anytime someone types in “underwater basket weaving”.

Link building is one of those things that should always be on your mind and more importantly something you should do on a regular basis. Let me share with you how I go about building links and how I was able to accumulate well over 70,000 links pointing to just one of my niche websites.

Sign up today at How to Get Links: A Course for Beginners

Thanks, Susanne, for stopping by. I look forward to more posts from you this week.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I'm an SEO geeky type person. But, when I have a question about SEO, I go straight to Susanne. So, if you're ready to rise up through the Search Engines, be sure to check out her course.

Before I hit “send” I realized that this information can probably help more people, so I asked Lain if she would mind if I shared the discussion here. She's a sweetie and said “go for it”.

Here's the conversation…

Hi Nicole-

I was thrilled to discover your success cast. It's very educational and inspiring. I just listened to the Susanne Myers Interview, and she had so much great content and advice! I like hearing what Internet marketing “gurus” have to say, but I always take their advice with a grain of salt – after all, it sometimes seems that the only people making money online are those telling others how to make money online! But her story was so true and honest, and she's actually been there in the trenches doing what she turns around and suggests to the listeners. Wow!

I listened over and over and took notes about her advice on what she'd do if she had to start over from scratch. Amazing!

I would like to learn more about how to get incoming links on my website, but I haven't found much on that topic.

Can you possibly help steer me in the right direction?

Also, I was interested in knowing if you sponsor any training programs, or if you do coaching. Out of all the Internet marketers, I think I resonate most to what you have to say. I love how much you love your mom, too! It's so sweet. You're a real person, not some used-care salesman.

I believe in offering quality content to help people improve their lives, first and foremost. I don't want to automate a business selling something people don't need, or take part in some shell game or pyramid scheme. You seem so honest and real, and that matters to me.

Thanks for all you do-

Lain Ehmann – www.getscraphappy.com
Life doesn't have to be perfect to be good.

Hi Lain,

First of all, I LOVE your blog. I just got sucked in when I clicked through your link. Your writing is very genuine and heartfelt. I love it.

Second, thank you for the kind words. They mean the world to me.

As for your question, my belief is that 80-90% of your efforts during your day should be spent “off” site, rather than “on” your site. Yep. That means time spent actually marketing your products and services Well, that is IF it's a blog that you want to make money. Personal blogs are different, of course. But, the ones that need traffic to support your family – be doing at least one marketing activity per day (that not counting blog commenting or time on Twitter).

My awesome helper said she sent you the link to WebTrafficBasics.com to help you with some basic link building – it's an older course and needs to be updated, but it's still solid, and still free.

As for me, my one-on-one coaching rates are really high – just to try to protect my time a bit, so I really hesitate to send you to the page. I mostly work with infoproduct sellers who have a stream of income that I can help them to boost.

Actually, Susanne does have a link building course now. Just click here to get started -> Beginner Link Building Course

There are $300-$3000 courses that I could recommend, but I think you'll get more than what you need in that course. I trust Susanne 100% when I have questions about Link-Building so I recommend her course without hesitation.

Warmly,
Nicole

This week, I have THE Dan Thies, with me.

That's THE Dan Thies!

The audio recording of our interview is at the end of this blog post. Just look for the “play” button and listen. It’s free!

Here's more about Dan, so you can see why I think he's cool. (And, yes, you've probably seen this picture about 20 times on my blog, but can you blame me? It's Warren Whitlock AND Dan Thies! – yes, I'm a bit star struck.)

Warren Whitlock, me, and Dan Thies

Dan Thies, former Dean of Faculty for StomperNet, has been a heavy hitter in the SEO world for a long time now, and he's respected among his peers as THE keyword guru.

He has been helping his clients (and friends) promote their businesses online since Netscape was a start-up. He is the author and publisher of the top-selling e-book “Search Engine Optimization Fast Start,” now in its 4th edition. Dan launched SEO Research Labs in early 2003, following numerous requests from readers for keyword research services.

That's the most recent bio I could find and it sure doesn't do him justice. He's freaking brilliant, super funny, and a link building mad-man.  Plus, unlike many SEO guys I've met, he's focused on building a quality business, not just gaming the search engines. He makes so much sense. In fact, he is referred to as the “White Hat Black Belt”.

If you're just learning about SEO, white hat means that you do things according to the rules. Black hat – means not so much. (A cute take on the Wild West.) And, much like in the Westerns, the bad guys may run off with a big ole bag of cash, but it's not too long until the Good Guys win.

That's my take on it, anyway. I'm a White Hat girl. I'll gamble on the Nickel Slots, but not in my business.

I think I say this every week, but this is another of my favorite interviews. I just love having the opportunity to talk with smart people so frequently. It's a dream come true! And, Dan is one of my heroes from several years back. Although he probably doesn't know it, a lot of my interest in SEO came from hearing him speak a few years ago.

Be sure to listen to the entire interview. It's another great one.

“Must Have” Online Business Tools Recommended by Dan:

• Mailing List. I recommend Aweber.
• Shopping Cart (A Way to Process Orders).
• Content Management System. Recommend WordPress.org Blog
• And, a MAC.

Great Resources from Dan Thies:

Check out these free videos from Dan and get thy butt on their notification list, pronto:

• Dan Thies Case Study Video
• Better Rankings and Traffic Video
• Rapid Rankings Video

Be sure to post your comments below. I'd love to hear what you learned and will apply from this interview.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If you can make a phone call, you can have a podcast like mine: Click to learn  How to Record a Telephone Interview like I do.

Benefits of Commenting on Blogs:

Leaving comments on blogs is a worthwhile activity as it provides several great benefits:

– You can get more incoming links to your blogs, which the search engines love.

– You can get the readers of the blog to click through your links, which is always good.

– You can get the attention of the blog owner, which can help you to network with him/her in the future.

Of course, we don't want to run around willy nilly spamming blogs with our marketing message. As we've discussed, there is certain Blog Commenting Etiquette that applies, too.

Selecting Which Blogs are Comment-Worthy:

If you're in the internet marketing or affiliate marketing niche, you're in luck as I have a shortcut. My good friend, Doug Champigny posted 20 Must Follow Blogs for Internet Marketers in 2010 this month.

Imagine my surprise when I realized my blog was listed. I was, of course, honored to be on the list, but I also liked how he grouped the blogs by certain criteria (as you'll see below). I asked him if I could reprint the list here with my 2 cents added. Of course, being the great guy he is (and knowing the value of getting free exposure) he said that would be just fine.

Important Sidenote:

But before I give you the list, I have to make an important point.

We are all limited in time. Obviously. In number of hours per day and number of days on this earth. I teach how to be efficient and effective marketers, so it would be hypocritical of me to tell you to comment on all of the blogs listed below every day… unless you really wanted to and enjoyed it. Therefore, I recommend choosing just a few of your favorites and keeping up with them. Try to be one of the first to comment when a new post is published so that all of the other commenters have to pass yours to leave their remarks.

ok, so which to choose? The blogs are grouped below as follows:

In case you're new to the concept of “Do Follow” – it's a good thing. However, I wouldn't recommend deciding whether or not to comment on a blog that you love based on whether or not it has “do follow”.

The same with Comment Luv. While it's a nice plugin, I would recommend that you link to deep posts in your blog when leaving comments anyway, not just to your main URL.

So, here's Doug's list, and it will be followed by my additional thoughts.

Group One (Do Follow & Have Comment Luv):

• Blog: Internet Marketing
  • Blog Author: Doug Champigny
  • PageRank:* PR4

• Blog: Mike Paetzold Recommends
  • Blog Author: Mike Paetzold
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: WordPress Howto Spotter
  • Blog Author: Alex Sysoef
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Marketing Thoughts
  • Blog Author: Ken McArthur
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: The Internet Marketing University
  • Blog Author: Gina Gaudio-Graves
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Captain Affiliate Affiliate Marketing Training
  • Blog Author: Doug Champigny
  • PageRank:* PR2
  • Sample Post

• Blog: The Profit Shack
  • Blog Author: Shelby Carr
  • PageRank:* PR2
  • Sample Post

Group Two (DO Follow, No Comment Luv):

• Blog: Click Newz!
  • Blog Author: Lynn Terry
  • PageRank:* PR4
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Nicole On The Net
  • Blog Author: Nicole Dean
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Net Profits Today
  • Blog Author: Rosalind Gardner
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

Group Three (No Follow & No Comment Luv):

• Blog: ProBlogger
  • Blog Author: Darren Rowse
  • PageRank:* PR6
  • Sample Post

• Blog: CopyBlogger
  • Blog Author: Brian Clark
  • PageRank:* PR6
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Entrepreneurs Journey
  • Blog Author: Yaro Starak
  • PageRank:* PR5
  • Sample Post

• Blog: On Copywriting, Marketing & Life
  • Blog Author: Michel Fortin
  • PageRank:* PR5
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Marketing In A Minute
  • Blog Author: Marlon Sanders
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Mark Hendricks
  • Blog Author: Mark Hendricks
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Immortal Internet Marketing
  • Blog Author: Ross Goldberg
  • PageRank:* PR3
  • Sample Post

• Blog: DTAlpha Talk Back
  • Blog Author: Stephen Pierce
  • PageRank:* PR2
  • Sample Post

• Blog: Internet Marketing Center
  • Blog Author: Jimmy D. Brown
  • PageRank:* PR2
  • Sample Post

My Opinion?

Well, you may or may not be surprised, but I would recommend ignoring the groupings entirely and choose a handful of the blogs above to comment on regularly based upon MY criteria.

– Relevance to your market. If you're a copywriter, then choose the blogs above that are most likely to attract your perfect client.

– Voice and personality of the blogger. For instance, there are a few bloggers who I wish I could understand, but their communication style is just not in sync with mine. I honestly can't enjoy their writing because the discussions there get way too deep. (I'd rather be making money than analyzing some minuscule details about making money.) I know… there I go with the common sense, again.

– Ethics & Philosophy of both the blogger and the readers. Many marketers recommend products that I just can't endorse. Obviously I wouldn't hang out on those blogs and discuss my opinion when it would just make me look like a trouble-causer. Plus, I want to find blogs where I like the commenters. Certain people just attract good people. Those are the ones I want my name both in front of and alongside.

– JV partners and networking. I'd rather comment on blogs that are run by people that I have met in person. It's a great way to stay in front of people who you'd like to build your relationship with.

– Attitude. Where do you ENJOY commenting? I don't give a monkey's butt whether the blog has Comment Luv or not. If it's got the eye of your potential clients and you enjoy the discussions at hand, that's where I'd recommend spending your time.

Yes, I'm all about the SEO, but I'm more about enjoying my days. And, on that note, I sure hope you'll continue to read – and comment here.

Have a great week!

Warmly,
Nicole

PS. Please leave a comment!

vicque Says: November 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 am
Let me preface this note by saying I used to think there was no such thing as a dumb question -and then I taught high school English for a few years and realized that is not true! With that said, here’s my comment/question…

I am a T-O-T-A-L newbie to this whole world of niche marketing, web site marketing, and SEO keyword-rich writing – so when you write to do the niche search and blog about a product that maybe not that many people have already written about (so that you can get a high ranking on it when people search for it on google,right?) – the whole point is that…because of your high ranking, more people then go to your blog, read it, and click the link to the actual product, buy it, and hence… affiliate marketing?

Is that the process?

Post Script: This is also my first time on your web site! Though I somehow found a link to your interview with Lynn Terry a few days ago and enjoyed it very much!

Nicole
Twitter: NicoleDean
Reply: November 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm

But, the problem is that every SEO course that I ever bought seemed to completely toss common-sense to the side and throw the actual MARKETING part of online business out the window. That's the reason why I've never recommended any of those courses to you.

I've got two huge exceptions today that just make me GRIN. It's like the Google stars are aligning and I'm kind of liking it. So, let's dig in.

JOIN ME IN THE SEO CHALLENGE:

First, I'm a member of Lynn Terry's Elite Club (a GREAT investment for very little money, by the way). Each month, Lynn posts a challenge for all members who choose to participate.

This month, the challenge is to rank in the top 3 places on Google for a term of our choosing. Obviously, she's got all kinds of training in her forum for those members who need help and a lot of it. The thing is that I had been putting my SEO efforts on the backburner the last few years so it's really lit a fire under my butt to focus on that this month. And, it's paying off in spades.  (More about that in a minute.)

FREE SEO TRAINING FOR INTERMEDIATE LEVEL MARKETERS:

The Second thing that sprouted up this month is that Dan Thies and Leslie Rohde have been offering some free training for their SEO Braintrust course that's opening tomorrow and I'm loving it. Dan & Leslie are both new friends of mine. I met them at Stomper Live in Atlanta a few months ago and they're FABULOUS!

I actually had quite the heated discussion with Dan about how frustrated I was about SEO training in general. I believe I said “PEOPLE buy stuff. PEOPLE can become loyal customers and raving fans. SEARCH ENGINES are just the tool to get them to us!!!” Luckily Dan agreed and didn't walk away thinking “Crazy woman!”

The awesome thing is that, although they are totally SEO guys, they both actually take marketing into consideration when building their traffic. AND – they teach you to build your reputation as a whole instead of gaming the system, so that the next time Google does a little shuffle or dance (which means, they rearrange where everyone sits in their rankings) – we'll weather it just fine.

ok. First my recommendation and then I'll back up for those that need it…

NEWBIES, START HERE:

If you're totally new to the concept of SEO & getting free traffic from Google, and you want to learn more about it – run to Lynn Terry's Elite Forum and sign up. It's worth the investment.

• Lynn Terry's Elite Forum

IF YOU'RE INTERMEDIATE LEVEL & LOVE TO WRITE? THIS IS FOR YOU!

If you understand SEO & that you need incoming links – PLUS you enjoy writing, but haven't been doing it enough or are confused about article marketing and link building in general, grab yourself a copy of my Guest Blogging/Blog Tour Guide and you can get as many links as your heart desires.

• Nicole Dean's Guest Blogging Guide

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL AND READY TO TACKLE SEO?

If you “get” SEO and want to take your training to the next level, then check out the free videos from Dan & Leslie and get thy butt on their notification list, pronto:

• Dan Thies Case Study Video
• Better Rankings and Traffic Video
• Rapid Rankings Video

STILL LOOKING FOR A NICHE? OR NEED MORE INFO ABOUT GOOD KEYWORDS?

Pfshew. I told you that this was a long time in coming. Now, like I said, I'm a SEO geek, but its really not hard at all. The only really difficult part for me is the keyword research and my friend, Susanne, has you covered for that with her new Niche Research Packs.

She does the research for profitable niches and hands it to you on a silver platter. SWEET.

• Check those out here: Niche Research Packs

After that? In a nutshell, without getting too deep, it's just a matter of getting as many quality sites to link to your website that you possibly can. And, that, my friends will be the topic of the next blog post — if you'd like my insight into the matter.

In the meantime, go check out the resources above. You'll be glad that you did.

Have a fantastic day!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I mentioned that the work I've done on my SEO the last few weeks has paid off in spades. Well, check out who's #2 when you search Google for Naked Duvet Covers. I'm just sayin'…

Disclaimer: Obviously the Naked Duvet Covers is a joke and an attempt to not disclose my actual SEO plans for this site as they come together. I'm not a total doofus.