Getting Backlinks

Now this may not come as a surprise to you but this might - they have a lot of juice for terms that are not even relevant to the authority sites main keyword. An authority site is just that - an authority. Perhaps this would be better phrased as an authority site is any site that has built up trust with Google. Once that trust is formed Google assigns a lot of weight to the links that these sites display. Whether the outbound links are on topic or not, the results are the same - the recipient of the link will see an immediate benefit in the serp rankings for the keyword used in the link.

Conventional wisdom has held that only relevant links from relevant sites will give you the G juice you need. I believed this myself for a long time and still do - these are the best links you can hope for - but... It is now apparent that relevant links from irrelevant authority sites have just about as much weight.

What is an Authority Site?

So how can you know if you are an authority site? Google doesn't send you an email telling you that your site rocks.

Well... actually they do in their own way.

Check this out:

(Click images to enlarge)

Regular readers will know who these 3 sites belong to; Vic at BloggerUnleashed.com, Court at CourtneyTuttle.com and of course myself.

If you want to know if Google has trust in your site just type the keywords in your domain name (url) into the search box and see what they return.

When you get listed on top of the serp's for your domain keywords then you are the authority for those keywords and you will see the site-links listed below the indexed blurb. (The site-links will not appear if you haven't interlinked your pages properly but you will still be considered an authority)

Now I mention this because my goal is to get all of you, my friends and readers, ranking as authority sites as well. The reason is simple. There are a lot of wonderful people in our little group, or network if you will, and we can and should help each other out. The more of us with authority the easier it will be to help each of us dominate our niches. I have no problem sharing page 1 on the serp's with all my friends and not my competitors.

It has become obvious that all the competitive niches are dominated by small networks of blogs who have traded links amongst themselves. The MMO niche is no exception - there are two major groups vying for page 1 domination; the group I belong to and another group of a dozen or so blogs all linked together. I'd like to see several others join our group and we can do it by sending them authority links.

There are far too many friends to mention everyone by name because I will surely leave someone out but my plan is simple. I started a "Reader Review" section below the main post and I plan on sending out links to everyone who has written an on topic post about my blog. It doesn't matter if you have a "shoe" blog - if you write a post about "Making Money Online Selling Shoes" and link to me with a MMO keyword (any main or longtail will do) then I can send a legitimate keyword anchored link back to you. This solves two problems that has bothered me about link love in the past; sending links out to irrelevant sites without the no-follow tag could be seen as a paid link (even if it isn't) and this will build relevancy for both sites. The "Shoe blog" isn't relevant but the post "Making Money Online Selling Shoes" will be and my return link will include a useful keyword like "Croc Shoes" or whatever is most appropriate depending on the blog's target.

This system will allow non-relevant blogs to pass decent link juice amongst each other without running any risks with G. No paid link problems and a real human reader will see how the posts are relevant to one another even if the niches aren't.

I don't care if you are a PRO - I will still send you a PR4 link back. My link will help the PR of the page you have your link to me on and by next update the page should have picked up some authority and PR. This in turn helps me as your page and site ages. It's all good.

Using my Reader Review post is also a quick way to get your new sites indexed. I will change the home page post a couple of times a week but this will give G enough time to track down each link and index the site at the other end. The posts will be rotated from the PR4 front page to a back page (What my Readers Think) with all the other Review posts as new posts are added on the home page. The back page is PR0 at the moment but this will change as of next update as I am building links to the page. Eventually you will get a home page link first and then a permanent link from my secondary page which will increase in value as it's PR grows.

I hope this isn't too complicated as I am going to suggest you all do the same thing on your sites. Sitewide Blogroll links are great but you can't add hundreds of outbound links to a sidebar. Also a sidebar link has no content. The reader review section does have content and this gives the link much more credibility. This is also a good way of sharing some traffic with your friends.

I haven't asked Vic or Court or anyone else for that matter to join in on this. This is what I'm doing and if the rest of you want to participate then please feel free to start a Reader Review section of your own. When people link to you - link back. Yes this is reciprocal linking but it is the only way to get those "targeted anchored Keywords" that you need to increase your authority. Give out a anchored keyword link and get one back. Simple.

Links don't always show up in a timely fashion so I would suggest that if any of you have written a post or write a new one then email me the url that has the link to me in it. I can then put your post in the queue for a return link. It wouldn't hurt to let me know what keyword you would like me to use as well.

I would like to create a list of friendly sites willing to join in on this - you don't need to be an authority site. Everyone is welcome and hopefully you will all become authority sites in no time.

If interested email me your info and I will publish a list of blogs who are willing to share links with others. I will publish the list on...

drum roll please....

What is a Blog Worth

Many of my readers also read Blogger Unleashed and probably already know that Vic has kicked up a firestorm over the recent purchase of One Man's Goal by a beginner blogger for the price of $10,500. I won't rehash that story here but for those who aren't familiar with the controversy you can catch up by following the link trail below - I want to talk about another Blog for sale - John Cow dot Com.

Read Vic's post and watch the Video here; Blogger Unleashed

Read One Man's Goal comments and Video here; One Man's Goal

Read Don's post at Making Sales Making Money

And Justin's post at Blogging Zombie

I found this interesting as I was planning on writing about this subject a couple of days ago when I found out that John Cow was up for sale. You can see the Cow's post here; Cow for Sale and the prequel post done prior to the announcement here; How Much is our Blog Worth

To summarize the fellow behind the "Cow" persona is moving to Oz from Europe and won't be able to continue the Blog. He figures it's worth $25,000 - $50,000 and lists his reasons why in the latter article.

Do I have a beef with this blog? Nope. It was a clever parody of John Chow that gave the owner some quick fame in the MMO niche. Is it really a MMO blog. Nope. It is much like the rest of the blogs that claim to be "make money online" blogs - it is a social blog that makes money selling ads and promoting affiliate sign ups and basically has a readership base but no organic traffic. It doesn't teach others how to "make money" which is what I call a "real" make money online blog. It makes money for the owner and not for the reader. In other words a typical "John Chow" spin off site but with a talented writer behind it for a change.

Where I do have a problem is that someone will likely pay $25,000 or more for this blog and it is not worth a fraction of that price. This isn't a slam against the owner, just an objective look at the numbers.

First off - the blog is a social site with 1658 readers who subscribe based on one thing - an affinity for the owner. Basically the readers like the guy and enjoy his writing. They will not necessarily like the new buyer and will likely never return upon the sale. Remember Cash Quests? This blog sold a while back after rising quickly in the social arena based on the talents of it's creator - Kumiko? I forget. Like the Cow it was good at link baiting and getting attention. Cash Quests sold for $15,000 and then promptly nosedived as the new owners (a blog network) proceeded to post the most useless keyword stuffed generic rehashed crap imaginable.

Look at Cash Quests Alexa Ranking below.

Click on all images to enlarge



That shows what happened to the RSS subscribers - they jumped ship. As for search engine traffic it has none. It's keywords don't rank anywhere in the serp's front pages. The site has no visitors now and if you doubt me - check the comments out. There are no comments. Is it worth $15,000? It will never make that investment back under it's current operator.

The Cow lists a number of "assets" that he believes makes his site a valuable commodity. This includes things like;


He Claims to make $2,500 per month. How this is made is not specified but if true it must be from selling ad space and flogging affiliate sign ups to things like TLA. There is no Adsense income.

He Claims 30,000 uniques a month for traffic. He believes that this equates to having to spend $144,000 a year on Adwords to get the equivalent amount of traffic.

He boasts of having a 5th spot Google ranking for the term "Making Money Online" and a #1 ranking for the term "John Chow". He mentions that it would be hard to put a sum on this but you would have to pay a lot for a text link campaign to get these rankings.

He mentions that the blog has 382 posts and content like that would cost almost 6k if paying someone $15 per post to write it. There are 2,830 pages indexed by Google.

He has 1659 RSS sbscribers and mentions that Mark at 45n5 estimates that each RSS subscriber is worth $30. This makes his blog worth $49,770.

He also mentions that he has a professional theme and header worth another $2500.

He will introduce the new owner to John Chow.

In the end he mentions that the blog could be worth up to $344,000 but realistically notes that no one would pay that amount. His point is that the blog s likely worth more than the 10-12 times monthly earnings which puts it in the $25k or more category.

Now for some critical thinking.

The current earnings if true are based on the RSS feed numbers. He sells ads and promotes stuff to his readers. If the new owner loses those subscribers then the advertising sales stop as well as the affiliate signups. What do you think is likely to happen? People don't learn how to make money online on the site - they are there to be entertained by the Cow. Unless the new owner has the same ability then say good bye to the readers. (If such a person was out there they probably already have a popular site - who knows maybe it's worth the money to someone already established and known but the chance of an unknown keeping the readers is slim.)

Take away the RSS readers and the income stops. Without the income the blog is worthless.

He has almost no organic traffic - yes he has 2800 pages indexed but they aren't on page 1 for anything. No search traffic.

The two terms he ranks for; "Making Money Online" and "John Chow".

What are these terms worth?

As it happens there are only two people in the world that knows as much as me regarding "Making Money Online."

The Cow actually ranks 4th on Google not 5th and guess who ranks 3rd for that term?



Would you like to know how much traffic that term generates?

Not as much as you might think.

Here are the last 80 keywords people used to find my blog. Take a look and notice how many times "Making Money Online" shows up in comparison to the other make money online keywords.









I had 4 searches out of 80 and I'm in 3rd spot. I used to be in 4th spot. I get 4 times as many hits now as I did in 4th spot. I have mentioned not to put too much stock in the actual numbers given out by keyword tools. The list below is keyword Elites list of the most searched keywords related to "Make Money Online". The term "making money online" appears to be the 3rd most searched term.



But is it? Here is my Statcounter stats showing the percentage of what keywords people use to find my blog for the same period as the screenshots above.



This is not very scientific and only gives a brief shot in time compared to my entire days stats but the ratios don't change that much over a 24 hour period. The fact is the term "making money online" is my second highest ranking "main" MMO keyword and yet my 4th ranking term "How to make money" pulls in a lot more visitors everyday than it does. Yet the keyword tools don't show many searches for the term at all.

John Cow won't get more than 20 visitors a day for his 4th place ranking.

As for the term "John Chow" I see keyword elite shows 179 searches for that term last month. Again it may be incorrect in actual numbers but there won't be much traffic gained because the Cow ranks number 1 for it. Maybe 2-3 visitors a day.



Btw - the Cow mentioned that it would cost a hefty sum to get this kind of ranking using Text Link Ads. It probably would although it didn't cost me diddly to get a better ranking. Of course I don't use Text Link Ads nor recommend anyone else using them. Then again I only dominate all the MMO keywords in the rankings but what do I know - I don't have 1600 RSS subscribers.

SEO doesn't have to cost a lot if you know what you are doing.

As for Mark's evaluation that RSS subscribers are worth $30 each I guess this is what this post is really all about. I have nothing against John Cow - I'm just trying to stop the insanity that has spread through the blogging world. RSS subscribers aren't worth shit - really. It's false hype and here is why. The top A-list subscribers are worth a lot because the A-List can make money from them. They get paid to promote crap to their readers because they have huge numbers. No one will pay you to promote anything to your 100 or 1000 subscribers. By the time you start promoting TLA with an affiliate link the market has been saturated by the A-list. TLA has already paid John Chow to sign you up and 10,000 others like you. Who are you going to sign up? Your readers have already joined. There is nothing that you can sell that your readers haven't already seen and done. Your RSS subscribers aren't worth a dime unless you can actually come up with something new and if you do you will just pay John Chow to flog it anyway.

This post isn't aimed at people trying to sell their blog - it's aimed at the people thinking of buying one.

There is only one stat that can make a site valuable. Search traffic. Why? Because it is independent of the former owners personality and you can see concrete proof of earnings that won't change the minute you purchase the site.

For example. If I was to sell this blog I could guarantee two things; my readers won't likely be back and tomorrow you will make $100 with Adsense. And the day after... and next week and so on.

Oh you won't have to post everyday or every week either. Your income will not be derived from keeping readers happy and returning. Remember to keep advertisers paying you have to keep readers coming in daily. I can keep my serp rankings for months without ever posting an article.

If you ever decide to buy a blog ask to look at the search stats and the Adsense revenue. If they have no Adsense revenue then they have no serp rankings for any decent keywords. If they have no serp rankings for decent keywords then the blog isn't worth a dime - yes this includes the A-List because a new owner will lose the readers and be left with nothing.

If the Cow is worth $25,000 based on 1600 readers and $2500 in ad revenue a month what would my little blog network be worth...



And that's just Adsense.

Think about what would make a better return on your investment. Which would you rather buy? Oh that's right - some people want to be famous rather than make money - silly me.

The thing you should really think about is this - if anyone is really making decent money for the time invested in their blog they won't be selling. Why would I ever sell? I post when I want. I write about what I want. None of it effects my income in the slightest. My traffic comes in everyday whether I am here or not. Yes some of my readers get on me about writing another post but they don't have any effect on my income. They just make all this fun.

The Cow says moving to Oz is the reason for selling. Maybe. I travel a lot and have no problem logging in and maintaining my sites though. I'm not saying he is being dishonest but I have noticed a trend happening lately. The A-List and A-list clone sites aren't doing so well in the stats lately.

Check these Alexa rankings out - could people be getting tired of all the crap these sites have been spewing? Could the fact that a certain blogger, who has shown up recently calling all the A-listers out, be having an effect on how people are beginning to view the MMO niche. Just thinking out loud...

John Cow Traffic



John Chow Traffic



Darren Rowse (Problogger) Traffic



Shoemoney Traffic



Is it a coincidence that all these sites are heading south at the same time as the following site showed up on the radar?



Just speculating. Bloggers never had a choice of opinions or methods prior to Vic. It was the same old same old. Maybe the winds of change are coming and probably not a bad time for some of the old guard to start selling when the selling is good. Just don't be one of the buyers...

How to Increase Traffic

One of the Internet’s strengths is its ability to help consumers
find the right needle in a digital haystack of data. ~ Jared Sandberg

There are many creative ways to increase traffic to your website. Some will cost you money, and some won’t. Below you’ll find many legitimate ways (ranging from free to costly) to boost the number of visitors to your website. But if you don’t have so much as a cent to spare, read How to Increase Website Traffic for Free.

Offer free, original, and quality content on your site. This is the most effective means for increasing traffic to a website; offering people something that they cannot obtain elsewhere, or at least, not to the level of quality that you are offering it. Ways in which to ensure that your content is of higher quality than competitors or is unique include:

Creating content that is helpful and useful. Simply cobbling together information from another website will not generate traffic. You need to offer visitors the information they need to achieve a goal, solve a problem, be entertained, find out quality news or have a good laugh.
Keep it fresh. For repeat visits, it is crucial to provide regular updates to the website, especially in frequently viewed zones. Add fresh content every few days if possible; at a minimum, weekly.
Outsource article writing. If you hate the thought of generating content yourself, or your team is not writing-savvy, consider outsourcing this end of the task. Depending on the length, content, specialization and quality required, prices can start as low as US$5 per article. However, don’t neglect attempting to write your own work – who better than you knows your own business, hobby or club and can express precisely what needs to be said? Just sit down and start writing an article. You may be impressed when you’re done!
Get a proofreader. Poor spelling and grammar reflect badly on the services and information being provided; avoid unwarranted negative judgments by getting the writing in order prior to publication online.
Avoid content generators. While these were once the delight of a fledgling web industry, they are no longer useful. Putting your own team’s creativity online is what is useful.
Never copy and paste from another website – Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines are too smart for this nowadays and will detect copied and unoriginal content, sending you to the bottom of the pile.
Improve your search engine ranking by focusing your content on keywords related to your topic. This is called search engine optimization and will help people find your website when they’re searching the Web. Make sure the keywords flow naturally with the text and when you are brainstorming for good words, ask around for words that come naturally to people of all ages when looking for your type of site. To help you understand better, realize that the keywords not only go into headings and page names but also into “meta tags”. “Meta tags” are the software code that website visitors do not see but search engines do. Finally, don’t overdo the keywords; over-stuffing keywords will result in a very low search ranking for your website. Also, be very careful not to place key text inside graphics; search engines cannot pick up graphics.
Get linked. This is a very important part of website management. Exchange links. Trading links with other websites that are closely related to the subject of your website can bring you more website traffic. These are two-way links because you must provide a link to them, too, and linking to low-quality websites can threaten the credibility of yours. Only link to sites that are dead on topic, and truly help your visitors. Instead of trading links, you could also trade banner ads, half page ads, classified ads, etc.
Advertise your presence. Besides using links, you must make use of numerous other ways to increase web traffic. Sit down and write a list of all the ways you can think of to get your web address noticed and clicked on. For example:

If you have money – consider pay per click. The big search engines like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft provide schemes. But find out first how to limit your expenditure to the level you want.
Use e-zines. Make your own that relate to your website and form a regular reminder each issue for people to visit your website. Submit all the free e-zine directories on the internet.
Submit your articles to e-zines, websites and writing sites that accept article submissions. Include your business information and web address at the end of the article. This is a good way to create one-way backlinks to your website. This is the most effective way to get listed on any search engine. Usually, the more relevant links you have pointing to your site the higher you will rank.
Go beyond the electronic medium and into the print medium. Advertise in local newspapers, business brochures, magazines, nationwide publications and mail-drop literature. And don’t forget the perennial favorite, the good old Yellow Pages™ – printed version naturally!
Small business cards left in cafés, on signboards, exchanged at meetings etc.
Use local resources such as clubs, libraries and community centers for non-profit website awareness raising.
Participate on message boards. Post answers to other people’s questions, ask questions and post appropriate information. Include your signature file containing your website’s URL at the end of all your postings.
Start your own online discussion community. It could be an online message board, e-mail discussion list or chat room. When people get involved in your community, they will regularly return to communicate with others.
Use word of mouth. Tell everyone you know about your website, give out business cards to passers-by in the street, and so on. You might even want to run a guerrilla marketing program!
Use your car, especially if your website is area-specific (e.g. a website detailing local events or selling local services). Get some vinyl decals or bumper stickers created and turn your car into a moving advertisement, literally driving traffic to your web site!

Give freebies. Who doesn’t like a freebie?! Online freebies are commonplace and they leave the visitor wanting more when they are well written and informative introductory materials. Consider such freebies as:

Giving away an eBook with your ad on it. Allow your visitors to also give the freebie away. This’ll increase your ad exposure and increase web traffic to your website at the same time;
Holding free online classes or seminars. They could be held in your website’s chat room. The idea of “live” information will definitely entice people to visit your website. You will become known as an expert on the topic.
Giving visitors a free entry into your contest or sweepstakes. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your visitors. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results.
Letting visitors download free software such as freeware, shareware, demos etc. You could even turn part of your site into a free software directory. If you created the software, include your ad inside and let other people give it away.
Targeting specific groups who might worry about using the internet with free classes in using it on your site – senior citizens, busy workers etc. might find these convenient and alluring.
Offering free online services or utilities from your website. For instance, they could be search engine submitting, copywriting proofreading etc. The service or utility should be helpful to your target audience.
Giving free consulting to people who visit your website. You could offer your knowledge via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.
Offering a free start-up package that has a finite time; enough time for the customer to practice with your online product and like it enough to pay for continued use.
Sending out free CD-Roms, CDs, DVDs etc. that contain starter packs or teasers to encourage the customer to use your site more.
Offering free screensavers or templates for business cards, cards, writing paper etc., anything that a customer can print out.
Be patient. Search engines need a lot of time to index a new website and domain. They need time to index all your content; it’s worth the wait and should be factored into your website profitability and/or popularity timeline. In the meantime, continue to add high quality content to your website and keep it up-to-date and relevant.
Use all of these free techniques to increase traffic to your website: USFreeads.net, twitter.com, drop flyers, chat rooms, forums, Youtube, Myspace and Google Groups.

[edit] TipsStart right here on wikiHow. Read up on how to publicize your website on wikiHow without breaking the rules. If you can provide quality content, you can create a win-win relationship where you share knowledge and get publicity in return.
Use WT24 – http://www.webtraffic24.com is a free tool and estimates your website value and number of visitors.

[edit] WarningsNever, ever spam. Your credibility will be gone before you know it, and with it will go your traffic.
Don’t get caught up with website generators and internet tricks. All these “black hat” tricks will only work temporarily. Your business needs to be set up for the long term.
Do not be fooled by those traffic sellers promising thousands of hits an hour. What they really do is load up your URL in a program, along with a list of proxies. Then they run the program for a few hours. It looks like someone is on your site because your logs show visitors from thousands of different IPs. What happens in reality is your website is just pinged by the proxy, no one really sees your site. It is a waste of money.