SEO Herald

I have developed a bit of an armchair critic’s fascination with the whole business of link-building and search engine organization. From surfing around the Internet and logging on to various respected newsgroups, I learned fairly quickly that a company called v7n has been making waves with its new web directory, Web Directory 7.

Since my younger son Barry has a keen interest in all things Internet-related, I rang him up to jaw about it on the weekend. Barry was surprised I was following the story, but he was glad to talk about it. He informed me that Web Directory 7 has been credited by several key SEO figures for significantly boosting blog traffic. According to Barry, because of their exceptional abilities in this field Web Directory 7 is fast garnering new subscribers.

Things have really changed at a mind-boggling rate. I mean, how old is Google? Not ten years, surely? And in just that short time we’ve seen the same people (for me, my son is a prime example) previously involved in land speculation or bonds and the like, shift their sights to such things as obtaining a valuable Page Rank. According to Barry, entire fortunes can be made in a day, if one manages to obtain the proper amount of website links.

I spend about 30 minutes each day browsing new sites on the internet to get new ideas. When I do, I see some excellent web communities. I see these communities are grabbing the interest of some very different people. Where do all these different types of people with radically different views and opinions come from? I bet that these webmasters are using some pretty unique internet marketing services to get all these people to their sites.

I see people from Poland looking for new farming practices and ideas on a webmaster forum because that is where the best discussion is. They came there looking for one thing and found 10 more interesting and valuable topics to discuss. That is great marketing and these websites know it. I see topics on these forums displaying thousands of different posts from people all over the world.

When I find these sites, I bookmark them and add a link in my review blog. They deserve more attention because of the value they are generating. I admire their vision to provide what most sites cannot or will not.

V7N's Contextual Links is having a Christmas Special.

32 permanent links, placed in related blog posts, for $1,000.

If you can do the math, you'll see that it is less than $32 per link. To be precise, it is $31.25 per link.

Now a friend suggested that $32 per link is a bit expensive. He said "you can get links on websites for $15 a month from text-link-ads.com".

Does it say stupid on my forehead? Because I learned to multiply in the third grade.

$15 per month equals $180 per year.

$15 per month equals $360 for two years.

$15 per month equals $900 for 5 years.

Why the hell would anybody pay $900 for a link for 5 years when they can get a permanent one for $40?

That's simply grotesque.

And contextual links are links embedded in a related blog post, with the keywords included in the title of page. If you know anything about SEO, you can guess how effective contextual links are.

Buy links form Text Link Ads.com, on the other hand, and you'll likely be put in the footer along some Viagra link.

No thanks, I'll stick with smart link buying.

Watching YouTube bloopers is addictive. I like to watch a few and have a good laugh before going to bed each night.

I noticed, most bloopers are due to misplaced faith. The kid who skateboards off the roof of his house, he has misplaced faith in his own abilities, or perhaps misplaced faith in the benevolence of gravity.

Some people would say that faith is empowering. I cannot disagree more. Taking charge of your life, that is empowering.

When I was 15 years old and homeless in Los Angeles, I had faith in God to get me back to Japan. I waited and waited and waited, and each morning I checked my pockets and was shocked to find that they didn't contain a first class ticket to Japan.

Eventually I got off my ass, got aggressive and got a ticket back to Japan. I made it happen. And my determination was of the kind that says, either I'm going to make it happen or I'll die trying.

Whenever I have issues in my life, I can pretty much trace the problem to some type of misplaced faith. Success is not something that happens to us as we patiently wait. Success happens when we grab the bull by the balls, hold a knife to his throat, and make it happen.

I am Christian, but I think "faith" is the biggest impediment to success, simply by virtue of its widespread use. Website owners have faith in some higher being to give them traffic and conversions. Perhaps they believe that they have it coming. Perhaps they think they are good people, and deserve success.

Success at Internet marketing, like success at life, requires determination. Take control of your fate. Forget faith.

Originally posted on John Scott's Internet Marketing Blog.

When you can't find what your looking for at first try, it can get annoying. I constantly search for things that are not mainstream and its hard to find them on the first 5 pages of the search engine reports. I look for things like doogie collars and foot warmers and nothing comes up.

I have to admit that I also like to rank in top slots for these odd things. I use a special SEO Exeter friend of mine who helps me out. I just link him what I want to see ranking and he does it all for me. Everytime too. Its like clockwork. I can't believe how easy it is.

I really just do this to amuse myself, because, you see, its not that hard. And who else to amuse me better than myself. Well and Jerry Seinfeld, because he is the king of no content.

What would you do in order to save 5 hours per day? Would you pay money now or would you like monthly installments? Its really simple now. With things now to automate your lifestyle, you now get more time to do whatever you want.

I ran across a new favorite website. It showed me how to save 5 hours a day. I had this sticky problem of wasting too much time on my membership payments and renewals on my web forum. I found a new solution with this membership management software. It does all the hardwork of organizing and managing for me. I now have time to build my client base, find more places to promote, save time by placing ads easily and efficiently. I saved at least 5 hours per day just by using this software on my site. I now like to play golf and laugh at the other fools who dress in pink and blue checkers and swing at balls for 5 hours a day. I really have found the meaning of life.

So let me ask you: what would you pay for finding the meaning of life? Well, I think you over-estimate the meaning of life, because I only pay $25 a month. I spend all the adsense revenue on poor baby asparagus sprouts in New Zealand knowing that I only paid $25 for the meaning of life. Take a look at the site and find out for yourself.

So, what’s with this iphone craze? It seems every goddam SEO in the Industry now has one. I went to a conference a few weeks back and I was literally stunned to see how many people there were sitting around playing with this new toy. Personally, I’m not really into them. I’m happy with my mobile phone and even that can get on my nerves at times. From what I have read the iphone has been hacked by about 10 different groups all claiming first bids.

Continue reading "Apple Iphone Craze" »

John Scott recently wrote an article on link building entitled John Scott on Link Building. It's been quoted and linked to multiple times since then, and for good reason. John makes several very valid points.

Buy links from websites which exercise editorial integrity.

This is a common mistake. I see people buying links from sites that are selling links to any and every spammy site under the sun, and it sticks out. Those people are just asking for trouble.

Vary Your Anchor Text

Awesome tip! I recommend making each link a unique anchor text.

Do NOT Rent Links

Finally somebody said it! Think about it. You can spend $10,000 a year on rented links and have nothing when those expire, or you can buy permanent contextual links for $40 each and end up with 250 permanent links at the end of the year.

http://blog.v7n.com/2007/05/02/john-scott-on-link-building/

A common topic in SEO forums Which links are must-have?

We all know that links are the most important part of any search engine optimization campaign, so this topic is a must-have topic on any SEO blog.

1. Yahoo! Web Directory

URL: http://dir.yahoo.com
Links: 86,967
Alexa Rank: #1
Comments: Oldest web directory on the web and one of the few that Google recommends you submit your site to.

How to add: Find the most appropriate category and click on the Suggest a Site link in the upper right. Adult sites are $600 non-refundable, recurring annual fee; non-adult sites are $300 non-refundable, recurring annual fee.

2. V7N Web Directory

URL: http://directory.v7n.com
Links: 172,050
Alexa Rank: #441
Comments: Powerful V7N Directory, owned by John Scott, a known and respected SEO expert. One of the highest traffic web directories on the web.

How to add: Find the category that best suits your site and click on the plus sign in the top right. Cost is $49,95, one time fee by PayPal.

3. DMOZ

URL: http://dmoz.org
Links: 9,789,433
Alexa Rank: #313
Comments: An older, well established web directory. Google recommends submission to this web directory, but acceptance rates are low.

How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the suggest URL link in the top right. Review time could be a year or more, but it is worth trying. No fee to submit.

4. Umdum

URL: http://www.umdum.com
Links: 125,918
Alexa Rank: #95,685
Comments: Umdum is a newer web directory, just a year or so old. It is owned by industry expert Loren Baker, a known and respected personality and operator of Search Engine Journal. Not exactly high traffic but the link juice is strong and the directory is not over-crowded.

How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Submit URL Here button in the upper right.

5. Aviva Directory

URL: http://www.avivadirectory.com/
Links: 332,245
Alexa Rank: #8,279
Comments: AvivaDirectory is one of the highest promoted web directories on the Internet, and consequently a very high traffic directory.

How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Add Link button top left. Cost is $49.95 per year.

6. Alive Directory

URL: http://www.alivedirectory.com/
Links: 1,137,797
Alexa Rank: #16,566
Comments: Higher traffic and highly promoted web directory.

How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Submit Link link under the search bar. Fee to submit is $49.95 per year.

7. JoeAnt

URL: http://www.joeant.com/
Links: 8,955
Alexa Rank: #9,693
Comments: JoeAnt is a volunteer edited web directory. In order to list a web site you must first become an editor and then submit the site. Higher up editors will determine whether or not the site is approved, but is you have a high quality site the chances are it will be approved.

More Link Building Tips and Resources

A must-read post by John Scott on Web Directory AuthorityRank.

A quote from the post:

I think the number one factor for me when determining whether I pay to submit to a directory is the AuthorityRank. It's a John Scott Original, which I am kind enough to share with you all for the paltry sum of $100. (PayPal me the $100 after reading the post.)

Web directories, like any of pages, are subject to evaluation by Google's automated algorithms, and if a web directory wants to keep its link juice passing power, it has to pass certain tests. Linking to crap including high levels of duplicate content are good ways of losing link juice passing power.

PageRank of the web directory page is not necessary to pass link juice. I have tested this and gotten a web page ranked for a keyword that did not appear on the linked-to page, solely on the basis of a link from a PR0 web directory page.

Conversely, a web directory page with high PR, such as PR5 or PR6, that has lost it's link juice passing power cannot help improve the rankings of a linked-to web page at all.

PageRank is not the determining factor in the value of a link. Link juice is. Trust is.

In order to forecast how a page will fare in Google, I do two things. First, check the descriptions. If a lot of the descriptions are duplicate content, then the web directory probably does not have editorial integrity and Google most likely knows it.

A must-read post by John Scott on Web Directory AuthorityRank.