The Google Blog Network Massacre - Blog Networks Deindexed

         

By Samuel Frost on March 29 2012 Mar 29 2012 140Comments

If you're anything like me then you love to keep your finger on the pulse of the affiliate marketing and SEO world. Just like you probably watch the 6pm news broadcast on TV, you should keep up to date with SEO current events. The biggest headline story this week has to be the deindexing of blog networks by Google.
Thousands have been affected by Google either partially or completely removing entire blog networks. When Google removes a website from its index, any outgoing links automatically become null and void. Also, it doesn't look very good if a big portion of your links come from services that Google dislikes.

What is a blog network?

In case you aren't aware what a blog network is, allow me to quickly explain. Basically, blog networks allow you to publish blog posts (read "articles") on different websites that are linked into some form of automatic content distribution system. For example, if I wrote an article called "5 Killer Guitar Solo Secrets", I could then submit to a blog networks and in theory this article will then be published to sites in the network related to "guitars", "music", "hobbies", and things like that.
Blog networks come in many different flavors and varieties, with the only real underlying similarities being they are a system for generating backlinks by submitting content, and there is usually a price for membership (I'll come back to why this is important soon) "Public" blog networks consist of blog owners putting their sites in the network to receive free content. "Private" blog networks are slightly different, because the administrators of the network actually own the sites to which writers publish their content.
The biggest casualty so far of Google's push against blog networks is the Build My Rank service. This was a private blog network, and the sites which made up the network have all been deindexed by Google. Any links generated through Build My Rank are now worthless, and the service has been closed down to new members. You can read BMR's statement about the closure of their network here - kudos to them for coming clean straight away about what happened too.
Other notable networks that have been punished include SEO Link Monster, Authority Link Network, and Linkvana.
If you want more evidence of this latest algorithm update in action, just search "blog networks deindexed" and see how many discussion results there are. Some of them are truly frightening - SEO companies relying entirely on blog networks like BMR to build links for their clients' websites, entire websites disappearing from Google's index; it's like Nightmare on SEO Street (I'm keeping the horror related quips going here!)

Why are blog networks being targeted by Google?

I see three principal reasons why Google has started to crackdown on blog networks, so let me run you through them:

1. Blog networks are a form of paid link building. Google's policy on paid link building is crystal clear, especially the fact that "buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results." The purpose blog networks is to facilitate link building, and these links are most definitely paid for in a slightly less obvious manner. Google penalized the website of their own Chrome software when it was revealed that a marketing company they used had employed paid backlinks; Google were hardly going to think twice about penalizing other paid link users were they?
2. Blog networks are a form of "link scheme". Just like paid linking, Google's opinion on link schemes leaves no room for confusion. They are not a natural form of link building, especially once blog networks developed the technology to allow you submit a spin-ready article to hundreds of different blogs in a short space of time. Nobody submitted to blog networks just for the sake of getting content published - it is and always was about generating links. Blog networks sold themselves on this basis of being a way to get unnaturally large amounts of links quickly, and it was only a matter of time until Google caught on.
3. Articles posted to blog networks tend to be low quality. The vast majority of articles posted to blog networks were low quality "filler" content that was only written to get backlinks. That might sound harsh, but the unfortunately the truth hurts. If the Panda update of 2011 wasn't a big enough wake up call, then hopefully the newest of Google's changes is. Google wants quality, unique content to populate its search index. Google wants you to create and distribute content for the purpose of providing value to readers, not just to build links. If you want high search engine rankings then you need to focus on providing value first, and link building/SEO second. I simply cannot stress this point enough! 

Are any blog networks still safe?

It's still early days with Google's latest rollout. Some blog networks, such as Article Marketing Automation appear not to have been hit yet. In fact, blog networks that publish content on member submitted blogs (as opposed to admin-owned blogs) appear to have fared better than other networks. However, that's not to say that more blog networks wont be penalized going forward, so proceed with caution.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket and rely on a single blog network as your main source of links. In fact, you shouldn't even rely on multiple blog networks for the bulk of your links. If you are going to use any of the remaining networks, it should be as the cherry on your SEO cake. The ball is in Google's court here, so you should be playing by their rules of natural link building and quality content.

What now?

However, there is one new blog network that looks quite promising - it's called The Content Facilitator. In fact, it isn't really a blog network at all because the articles you submit aren't automatically passed to sites in the network. There isn't really a network to speak of at all. Instead, I like to think of The Content Facilitator as a guest blogging marketplace. Bloggers looking for quality, unique (and non-spun) articles for their blogs can come and browse for content written for those who want to reach a larger audience and get some backlinks in the process.
The Content Facilitator also runs on a credit system, which means membership is free for both writers and those looking for content. Every time one of your articles is picked up by a blog owner, credits are deducted from your balance (this means you don't wind up with hundreds of articles being published at once, and an unnatural link profile) You can earn credits by referring new members to The Content Facilitator, and by publishing others' content.
My favorite feature of The Content Facilitator is the ability to set your article as "unique", meaning it can only be published by one member in the marketplace. Writing "unique" articles for The Content Facilitator therefore provides a strong incentive to other members to pick up your content and publish it before it's gone.

Mark has managed to organize a pretty sweet deal with the owners of The Content Facilitator, where you can get 100 free publishing credits by signing up here (you will need to use the coupon code TrafficTravis inside the members' area to get these credits) The Content Facilitator is in its infancy at the moment, and I predict it will get much bigger and more popular in the coming months; just remember that the early bird catches the worm!

 

Closing thoughts

One issue a lot of people are raising with the deindexing of blog networks is the theory that a competitor could simply submit hundreds of spun articles to networks, featuring links back to YOUR website. Think of it as a kind of "SEO sabotage". However, there is no need to worry about this - if a blog network is deindexed, the outgoing links in the network count for nothing, and therefore won't be able to affect your website. This is just disinformation at best, and scaremongering at worst.
If you've been affected by the closure and deindexing of blog networks, I'd love to hear from you. Just leave a comment below!

Is Getting SEO Certification Worth It?

          

By Adam Hansen on Wed Jul 16 Wednesday July 16 0Comments

         As the need for search engine optimization professionals grows, there is a growing debate: Is it better to “learn from the trenches” or get formal training through some sort of SEO certification program?
While formal education isn't necessarily an indication of workplace competence, most employers have certain expectations in regard to knowledge, fields of study and practical application.
If you have a degree in chemistry, I can assume you have a strong understanding of the sciences and math and in addition to specialized knowledge in chemistry. If you have a degree in finance, it’s assumed you have a general understanding of business administration and so on.

The explosion in online marketing over the last decade has allowed countless businesses to flourish and succeed like never before, but it has also created a new set of problems for employers. There is a huge demand for qualified online marketers, but finding quality professionals isn’t easy for most businesses.

Unlike other fields, there aren’t “Ivory Towers” for online marketing specialties like SEO, PPC, social media and so on. It’s difficult to have well known educational programs for occupations that didn’t even exist 15 years ago.

This makes it challenging for many employers to use education as a baseline in considering a potential employee for a job in SEO or other Internet marketing fields.
Many argue that knowledge and results will reign supreme, but is the tide beginning to change?  Education versus experience — it’s a battle that has been going on as long as there has been job hunting. How will this industry deal with it?

Is SEO Certification Worth It?

Education of any sort is an investment, and like any other investment, you have to look at the cost compared to the perceived return.
The reason many people are willing to shell out $60,000 a year to go to an Ivy League school is because they think that the education and pedigree of those schools will pay off later, in the form of better jobs and higher salaries.

Of course, you can also get an education without the fancy piece of paper.  As Matt Damon tells a Harvard graduate student in the movie "Good Will Hunting," "you dropped 150 grand on a f@*%in' education you could have got for a dollar-fifty in late charges at the public library!"
There are plenty of examples of titans of industry who never had formal education in business, yet were able to rise to the highest ranks through hard work, ingenuity and intelligence. But if you’re hiring for Goldman Sachs, who are you going to go with: the Harvard business grad or the "wicked smart" kid with no degree?

When deciding to take SEO certification courses, what you really need to look at is the return on that investment of time and money compared with your goals.
If your dream is to own your own online marketing empire of affiliate sites that make you passive income while you live the "4-Hour Work Week" lifestyle, then gaining SEO knowledge is more important than getting a formal SEO education.

If you’re looking to work at a large company’s online marketing department and they require or prefer SEO certification courses, it might not matter how much knowledge you have. You could be an SEO god, but if you don’t fit their parameters you might not even get a chance to prove that.

Another factor to consider is how potential clients might perceive you and your SEO business. Maybe being certified and having a cool-looking diploma hanging on your office wall will make some clients feel better about forking over the large amounts of cash you’re asking for.
The decision to get formal SEO training or not is one that highly depends on you, your goals and what value you estimate you’ll gain from it. Run through this analysis yourself and see where you come out.

SEO Certification Courses to Consider

If you’ve run through the numbers and you think that pursuing a formal SEO education is the way to go, there are plenty of options to consider.
While it doesn’t take much for “an expert” to throw together a certification program, here are a couple of quality programs that are well known and worth you looking into:

• Market Motive: This self paced course runs $299/month and you have up to six months to complete the program.
• SEO Certification: This is a great beginner's course as it offers various levels of education at different price points starting at $89.
• UC Irvine: If you’re looking for a well known name in education that employers might respect more, then check out the SEO program at University of California, Irvine’s extension center. But at $3,500, you will be paying for the name along with the education.
• Web CEO: This is an in-depth program at a reasonable cost of $295. There is also no time limit to complete the course.
• Full Sail: This online university offers certification courses, bachelor's and master's degrees in Internet Marketing that all include SEO education. If you’re looking for a wider scope to your education, you might want to consider this.

If none of these online courses work for you, check out your local options. Many community colleges, universities and for-profit schools offer “brick and mortar” classrooms where you can learn the same SEO skill sets.
What’s your take? Do you think formal SEO training and certificates are the wave of the future? Let us know in the comments.

Global Internet Marketing

Global Internet Marketing - Is It Different Than Internet Marketing:

It might be natural to think that internet marketing is actually the same thing as global internet marketing since you can access web content from all over the world. But if you've decided to market your products or services internationally, you will have to do it in a way that offers the best site and most appropriate message to your various audiences. 

Among other things, this involves choosing the right language and interface for your users' locations while taking into account the multitude of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) factors for a global marketing campaign. As many of you are aware, the internet enables less expensive and efficient online international distribution options for media products and informational types of products. Software companies are the most obvious examples of those that can save by distributing their products online all over the world.

When it comes to SEO, one of the most important technical decisions you need to make before getting started with your global Internet marketing campaign is how to manage the many international domains. What you decide doesn't just potentially affect your rankings, but also how well you will be able to manage each of your sites and even how much you end up investing in this marketing endeavor.

There are two options when it comes to launching websites in different countries. First, you can host all of the different language variations on one site and separate the languages by subdomains or subdirectories.  The second option is to create a separate site for each language you are targeting.

If you choose the first option, you will probably have greater centralized control when it comes to the site's management and better SEO because all of the links will be coming in to one singular domain. This method can also be more effective when it comes to suppressing the possibility of duplicate content in the search engines.

If you go with the second option, you will probably spend less. You can start with one site and then add others one by one if you feel it is feasible. Contrary to the first option, by having multiple sites, you will rank better in the country-specific search engines.  Because using this method allows you to set up country specific hosting, you can target your SEO efforts to specific countries. It often makes sense to host your site in the country being targeted.

Another important concept to understand at the onset of your global internet marketing campaign is that you can't do your keyword research in English and just translate to your target markets' languages in order to be successful. You need to do extensive keyword research in the language of the market you are targeting.

The best case scenario would be to have a native speaker supervise or do the keyword research. The very least you should do is to use a foreign language/English dictionary that includes idiomatic expressions and is as local to the target market as possible.

How To Get The Most Out of Expired Domains

Benefit of Expired Domains:

When you are creating a business or new website on the internet, as you probably know you will need a domain name. This of course is the obvious for any internet business, without a domain name you will not have a website, end of story. Now if you are new to the internet business world (where have you been?) you may not realize the importance of SEO tactics. SEO tactics, if done correctly, are designed to give you an advantage within the search engine ranks. Of course, you may be sitting there wondering, “What in the world are you talking about”.

Well, this all leads to the title of the article and will answer the question what is the “Benefit of Expired Domains”. You see when an domain has been in use by another person and this person allows the domain to expire without renewing, the domain name is placed back into the pool of “domains for sale”. This is where the benefits begin to show, just like a new domain name, the expired domain name is available to anyone who wishes to purchase it. What is the difference between a new and expired domain name? Simple, the expired domain name has already been in use. This means that the previous own has likely invested a great deal of effort and time, not to mention money into the promotion of that domain name.

Furthermore, this means that the expired domain is likely all over the internet, with a multitude of back links. Think about it, taking possession of an expired domain name means less work for you and more time for other, more important issues. You will have the opportunity to take advantage of the work that someone else has already performed. The expired domain could already be listed with many search engines, forums, directories, and a wide variety of other websites that have this link already on them.

What does this mean? Because the previous owner already did most of the legwork, it leaves less for you to do. The traffic specific to that expired domain now becomes your traffic, which leads to your sales, and ultimately your revenue. All of this because someone else was kind enough to do the work for you already and let the domain name expire.

Now surely you would know by now, that if you were to purchase a brand new domain name, you would have to do all the advertising, promotion, SEO work, submission to search engines, forums, and directories yourself. That is a lot of time, effort, and money spent on your part and trust when we say it takes a lot of all of the above to make a new domain work. It makes sense to take advantage of an expired domain does it not? We think so, you should find the expired domain of your choice today and begin taking full advantage of the legwork that has already been done for you and use it for your website.

Optimizing Your Web Site With SEO Organic Techniques

Optimizing Your Web Site With SEO Organic Techniques:

SEO organic methods take more work from the individual, but is a safer and, in the end, more effective way to optimize a web site for search engines. In a way, Organic SEO helps to keep Internet “pollution” to a minimum, so you're also helping the virtual environment! In the following paragraphs, you'll find a few easy ways to use this type of search engine optimization.

You're no doubt familiar with the basic concepts of search engine optimization, but are you familiar with SEO organic methods? While search engine optimization is a very important aspect to any online business' marketing plan, it's become increasingly standardized and mechanized. Many SEO services and applications simply use the same basic plan to enhance a web site's search engine rankings.

This has led to a lot of marketers using nasty search engine optimization methods to get results. These types of methods can be great for generating traffic, but in the end they make the Internet an uglier place. These methods, known as “Black Hat” SEO methods, are just a bad idea. Not only do they frustrate potential users of your web site, they may not even work forever…
You see, Google and other search engines are constantly looking for ways to defeat Black Hat SEO techniques. If their efforts are successful – and really it's just a matter of time before they are – your time and money may be wasted. Why spend money on search engine optimization that could be useless in just a few months? Worse yet, search engines aren't just knocking these sorts of sites down in rank; they're totally removing them from search results.

Some of these Black Hat methods include using cheap labor or robots to perform a number of tasks. For instance, sometimes these services will sign up to tons of forums and or social networking sites and simply spam the link to a site everywhere possible. This is a definite annoyance for many webmasters, who end up with sites cluttered in meaningless links.
Link farms are another common type of Black Hat SEO. These sites are knockoffs are legit online directories, and are packed with links, many of which lead to very poor web sites. Some of them just link back and forth between each other and the link site, causing users to get lost in a sea of useless information. SEO organic techniques can be a great alternative to some of these Black Hat search engine optimization plans.

The main thing that people associate with web sites is their domain names. Domain names that feature the keywords that your website is targeting are a great start to organic SEO. Another, related, search engine optimization idea is to customize your web site's title the same way: feature the keywords that your site targets. Both of these elements are factors that search engines use to rank a site.

There are many more ways to optimize a site with an SEO organic plan, but these tips will get you started.

How to Learn Blogging Software

How to Learn Blogging Software:

A lot of blogging software is specifically designed to be
simple to use, but even the least intimidating blogging
program can feel very overwhelming to somebody who
has not spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of
different kinds of software. Particularly for newer
bloggers, learning how to use the interface of blogging
software is the most difficult part of blogging. If you are
somebody who feels comfortable expressing themselves
in another medium, it may prove to be well worth your
time and effort to learn blogging software, but that
doesn't mean that the task will be easy.

The main thing that will help you find success as you
learn how to use a new kind of blogging software is to
try and take things slowly. Many people get so excited
about learning to blog that they try to rush into the thick
of it and start exploring the most complicated features
of a program right away. This can lead to getting
confused and feeling frustrated, and all too many
potential bloggers burn out during this stage of the
process.

If you take your time learning the basics of
your blog software program before you move on to
more advanced techniques, you will be more likely to
retain what you have learned, and to keep feeling
positive about your ability to understand the world of
blogging.

12 Secrets To Website Success

12 Secrets To Website Success
Posted by Janet Attard

Click the play button to listen to the podcast:

(If you can't see the player, you can use this link to listen)

Are you finally getting around to getting a website set up for your company? Or, are you ready to have your existing website redesigned because you're unhappy with the way it looks or performs?

If so, you'll want the new website to be successful. In fact, as more and more business and consumers research and make purchases online, a successful website is critical to the success of your business. So, what can you do to make the new website successful? And how can you build a successful website on a small business budget?

Here are twelve secrets to website success. I know they work because I've used them to build BusinessKnowHow.com into a website that reaches 2.5 to 3 million unique individuals a year. And, I've done it the way most of you build your businesses - on my own nickel.

1. Have specific goals for your website.
2. Know your customer or site visitors and what they want to get out of your site.
3. Have pages dedicated to specific items or subjects the customer or site visitor is looking for.
4. Don't make the home page of your site a "flash" animation. Web visitors routinely skip those animations (or just leave) because they aren't interested in pretty graphics. They want facts. If you're going to use flash to demonstrate your product (or a video) let people choose to view it, don't force them to.
5. Make it easy for visitors to find what they want. Use a simple navigation structure, and if you absolutely must use drop down menus, make sure visitors can actually click on the links without the drop down rolling up before the person hits the link they want.
6. If you're selling products, have category pages plus individual pages for each type of product. (For example, if you are selling jewelry, have one page for earrings with links to individual pages for different types of earrings, such as diamond earrings, ruby earrings, pearl earrings, etc.)
7. Pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO) in setting up pages. The more closely the page title, page description, and keywords match what someone would search for, the more likely they'll find the website, and the more likely they'll buy whatever product is advertised on the page.
8. Have a means for legally and ethically capturing visitors' email addresses so you can contact them in the future.
9. Plan to advertise and market your site on an ongoing basis through all methods available to you.
10. Track and measure traffic, bounce rates, sales conversions and progress.
11. Ask for feedback from site visitors.
12. Stay in contact with site visitors (those who gave you their email addresses) on a regular basis so they remember to come back to your website.

Get More Tips like this here: http://bizops.profitsonline.com

MLM Marketing and Recruiting Pointers

MLM Marketing and Recruiting Pointers:

In multi level marketing (MLM), relationship marketing if used properly, ensures you enroll loyal team members, and keep them.  They duplicate your efforts.  Article marketing is smart marketing. YOU provide articles you've written to other Web sites, blogs and eZines for free. This establishes you as an expert, give you leads, increased site traffic and improved search engine rankings.

Blogging and SEO (search engine optimization) are two other tools.  Blogging provides an arena to combine text, images, links to other blogs, and web pages. About what?  You and your business. SEO in this instance, refers to understanding what human visitors might search for, and to help match those visitors with sites offering what they want to find.  In order to use any of these marketing tools successfully, it's important to work with the right people.  People who can help you build your business.

So, who can help you build your business? Let's take a reverse look at recruiting!  Everyone knows you need to recruit lots of people for your downline, to make your online business a success, to ensure a good income.  Notice the term good, or qualified, or partner wasn't mentioned.  That's because the current recruiting philosophy doesn't take into consideration anything else other than the fact you need warm bodies.  Bad MLM move and an even worse move for your online business success.  Why?

If you don't take the time to properly qualify prospects – you can expect them to a) perform badly b) drop out quickly c) not perform at all or d) cost you business and give you a bad name and reputation.  Qualifying people you are going to work with is worth its weight in gold.  It takes extra time, but you can't afford NOT to do this.

If your business relies on cold calls, referrals, instant messenger communications, etc. you know the importance of properly qualifying prospects. You learn about your prospect and their needs and determine how your product can meet those needs.

Finding The Best Professional SEO Service

Finding The Best Professional SEO Service: The search engine optimization boom in recent years has led to the formation of hundreds of firms offering professional SEO service. It's no surprise, really – SEO is the buzzword (or buzz-acronym, in any case) in the world of Internet marketing these days. The options for professional search engine optimization are varied. There are all kinds of different services for a variety of prices… it's important to know exactly what you're looking before you sign up for professional SEO service.
If the world of Internet marketing is known for one things, it's for being fast-paced and highly competitive. There are thousands of talented people who can give you the kind of service you need, so long as you know what you're looking for. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. You simply can't expect top quality search engine optimization work if you're not ready to pay for it.
Finding a professional search engine optimization service isn't really that hard. Just search for SEO service on Google or any other search engine. The real trick is finding an SEO service that's going to work for you, and within your budget. That will require some research.
One of the best ways to choose professional SEO service that's right for you is to investigate previous clients of that service. If that information is available, it can provide a great preview of the kind of results you can expect. If you look at the client of a service and their website is on the 10th page of a main keyword search, you should stay away. However, if multiple keywords are showing that site on the front page, you may have yourself a winner.
Different SEO services operate differently. Some of them simply provide consultation services, letting you know the best ways to optimize your site. They leave the actual work to you. Other services provide a full package: they'll perform all the necessary modifications to your site so you don't need to. Of course, the prices for each service will vary. Some basic plans can be just a couple hundred dollars, while the highest quality services can cost thousands per month!
One thing to watch out for in your search for a professional SEO service is services that employ “black hat” SEO techniques. These techniques involve things like spamming a keyword all over a website, or forming “link farms.” These types of tactics frustrate and annoy users, and search engine operators actively seek to remove them from search engine rankings. They might be good for a short-term boost, but they'll eventually bring your website down.
Search engine optimization is a vital part of any business' marketing plan, especially online businesses. Avoiding search engine optimization is just throwing away potential customers. No matter your product or service or traffic needs, hiring a professional SEO service can pay for itself. The extra traffic you'll bring in thanks to solid SEO will be a great boost to your website.