- Don’t go requesting reciprocal links from every website on the planet. This might have helped several years ago, but you can be penalized for it today. If you do engage in reciprocal links, make sure they are with related sites and make the links natural within your site. In other words, don’t just make a “Links Page” and list links. Add your partner’s link to relevant content pages or wherever it just “makes sense” to do so.
- Don’t engage in comment spam. In most cases it’s a complete waste of time, because filters do a good job of catching spam comments. It’s also a good way to make bloggers angry with you. Only add your link in the space provided for your link and don’t add links within the body of your comment, unless it’s very relevant and you know it’s acceptable to the blogger.
- Don’t submit every page of your site to social news sites. We’re talking about sites like digg.com, reddit.com, etc. You’ll just end up getting ignored, and you’ll probably be banned too. A better idea is to encourage others to submit you instead.
- Resist the urge to submit to every directory you run across. There are only a few that are worth your time. Directories that post sites without reviewing them are usually considered link farms, and their links are penalized in the search engines.
- Show Restraint and Be Relevant. Avoid posting links to your site in forum posts unless they are extremely relevant to the subject at hand and is allowed. That’s what your signature is for.
- Don’t bother with web rings and other dated link building techniques. Concentrate on creating good content and promoting it, and links will come.
- Don’t make outrageous claims if you’re offering a service or selling a product. You’re credibility is worth more than any sale and it’s cheapens any legitimate offers that you are making.
- Don’t make ugly comments to the webmaster about their website or the webmaster personally if you want your links listed. This was covered well in “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Even if the comment is grammatically incorrect, generally I will accept it and give folks the benefit of the doubt. Constructive criticism = good, just plain meanness = delete. 😉
Creating Traffic
10 Ways to Build Quality Links to Your Website
- Write guest posts on blogs that are related to your field. Many bloggers will be glad to allow you to provide some fresh content for them in exchange for a link back to your site. Just contact the blogger and make an offer.
- Answer questions on sites such as Answers.Yahoo.com, AllExperts.com and JustAnswer.com. By providing quality advice on subjects related to your site, you link to your pages as related information. Just understand that sites like this frown on website owners simply linking to their sites. You can link when it’s relevant, but you don’t need to say it’s your own site.
- Offer testimonials for the sales pages of products you enjoy. Internet marketers love to get them, and most will gladly post an active link or at least a URL to your site in return.
- Find other organizations that link to members’ websites to join. For best results, choose ones related to your niche.
- Offer to write articles for a fellow blogger or news media organization. You’ll want to voluntarily send them a sample of your work ahead of time so that they get a taste of what you’re offering.
- Join and participate in forums. Add links to your site to your signature.
- Comment on blogs whose subject matter is related to your site. If you take the time to read the post and write a good, relevant comment, the blogger is unlikely to consider this spamming. Be respectful; keep your link in the space provided for your link.
- Sponsor giveaways on blogs. You supply the product, and the blogger holds the giveaway. You’ll get a link from the blogger, and you could also request that entrants be required to link to your site. Make sure that the blog is in a related field and readers are interested in what you’re giving away!
- Create profiles on popular social networking sites, and link to your site from them. Some of these will be “no follow” links, but when link building, don’t worry about this…just build good, quality links.
- Make yourself available for interviews, not only online, but with offline media. Most media outlets have websites, and they often post transcripts of interviews there along with relevant links.
Do you have other ways that you have used that work well for building quality links? Please do share what you’ve done and how well it worked in the comment section below! Hint: This is a great example of a invitation for #7 above!
Social Media creates Backlinks via the Law of Curiosity
What are “backlinks”? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. Also knows as Inbound links (IBL’s). The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.
When search engines calculate the relevance of a site to a keyword, they consider the number of QUALITY inbound links to that site. So we should not be satisfied with merely getting inbound links, it is the quality of the inbound link that matters. This goes back to our original premise of creating value. A search engine considers the content of the sites to determine the QUALITY of a link. When inbound links to your site come from other sites, and those sites have content related to your site, these inbound links are considered more relevant to your site. If inbound links are found on sites with unrelated content, they are considered less relevant. The higher the relevance of inbound links, the greater their quality.
For example, if a webmaster has a website about how to rescue orphaned kittens, and received a backlink from another website about kittens, then that would be more relevant in a search engine’s assessment than say a link from a site about car racing. The more relevant the site is that is linking back to your website, the better the quality of the backlink. Search engines want websites to have a level playing field, and look for natural links built slowly over time. While it is fairly easy to manipulate links on a web page to try to achieve a higher ranking, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from other websites. This is also a reason why backlinks factor in so highly into a search engine’s algorithm.
Lately, however, a search engine’s criteria for quality inbound links has gotten even tougher, thanks to unscrupulous webmasters trying to achieve these inbound links by deceptive or sneaky techniques, such as with hidden links, or automatically generated pages whose sole purpose is to provide inbound links to websites. These pages are called link farms, and they are not only disregarded by search engines, but linking to a link farm could get your site banned entirely.
Another reason to achieve quality backlinks is to entice visitors to come to your website. You can’t build a website, and then expect that people will find your website without pointing the way. You will probably have to get the word out there about your site.
One great way to get the word out about your site is through social media like Facebook. Simply place a “Like” button on your posts and when people read your article and click on the button it is posted to their Facebook wall. Others will see what they liked and naturally be drawn to your post to see what their friend liked! This is based on the Law of Curiosity. The Law of Curiosity occurs when someone is actively engaged in an activity that creates interest for those around him (or her).
To create your own “Like” button, simply go to: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like and use the configurator by typing in the URL of your post in the “URL to Like” field in the configurator and clickety-click on the Get Code button. Then simply cut and paste the code above or below your post via the HTML area of your website. Voila! Insta-LikeButton!
How to Use a Blog in Event Planning (Part 4 of 4 )
The Rest of the Year (continued)
Video is another important feature. You may have a video portion of your website for conference videos, but a once a week update or feature with a few with links to your other pages are an easy way to keep traffic flowing and people interested.
During conference use
Special download area can be used to allow conference attendees to obtain a copy of the speaker’s slides along with any special conference material that is included with the price of the conference ticket. Once the conference sells out, you can offer a backstage pass to those not attending to still generate interest.
Your show daily should be in electronic form and be emailed to conference attendees (you do this don’t you?), it should also be in the blog every day of the show. Even if it is posted elsewhere on your website, you can do a preview with a link to that page where the daily resides. This is called spreading the wealth. The more places something lives, the better the chance it is going to be found and read.
Take a few videos during the show in the form of interviews, highlights of speakers, backstage photo opportunities,etc. post them to YouTube or Vimeo and then embed them in the blog. Make them interesting and (intentionally with purpose) raw, that gives the impression that it is breaking stuff. This also gives non attendees and “aw shucks” moment that maybe they should have been there.
How to Use a Blog in Event Planning (Part 3 of 4)
Preconference use (continued)
Information about the host city. This is a great way to get the community behind you. In the weeks prior to the conference, feature local restaurants, shops and hotels and let the venues know that you will be doing this, ask them to contribute an article. They will love the exposure. You may ask these local vendors to offer a discount and you can put the code in your blog.
Video from past conferences. This is a great place to highlight snips from past events and talk about them. If someone did a crazy crowd sourced jig and someone posted it to YouTube, embed it in your blog. This builds excitement and makes people want to attend.
Post conference use
Surveys for venue, speaker feedback could be hosted on the blog. Calendaring for the next event could be hosted. Attendees could tell their friends about the value they created at the event to entice others to attend the next event.
Write recap articles, post video (or highlights with links to your video pages) and thank your sponsors and attendees. Spread this out over a few weeks, you can get a lot of mileage out of this tactic.
The Rest of the Year
Feature sponsor press releases throughout the year, if XYZ company has a new product and they have a press release, post it (and then send the link to the sponsor). They will love this because not very many events care about them beyond their sponsor dollars. This is a great way to show that you value them.
The same can be said for speakers. Let the world know what they are up too since they presented at your conference. If a speaker went on to become President or a Nobel Prize winner, this gives your conference or event added credibility. Ask speakers to provide articles on the industry.
You can also do something that almost no show does and will truly set you apart from the crowd. Feature some of your attendees in the months between events. Pick some attendees from your list and call them and interview them. Ask them what they learned at your event, why they loved it and how this learning has impacted their daily lives. Ask them why they would return and use this as an extended testimonial. A WARNING – Make sure that the focus is on the attendee, not the event or conference. People love to get kudos and be mentioned, it helps them in their career and it helps them with the boss. Talk more about their accomplishments than the events. This is loyalty that money cannot buy…. Again, do not cut corners, you may be tempted to have a testimonial part of your website which is critical but if you do not do longer pieces in blog format, you are missing an amazing opportunity.
How to Use a Blog in Event Planning (Part 2 of 4)
Sales
A lot of times speakers will have published a book, are able to offer special offers on continuing training/coaching or have upcoming events of their own that attendees would be interested in. Assist them in extending those offers to the audience in return for a percentage of the total sales. Partner with a travel agent and negotiate a special rate for travel and hotel accommodations. Partner with the venue’s kitchen to arrange for a special deal on meals so that the conference attendees are not inconvenienced by having to go offsite for a meal and assist the venue in generating revenue. Allow them to purchase conference materials (coffee mugs, stationery, t-shirts, etc.) online and ship them before the event to generate interest.
Preconference use
A room and/or ride share area can be arranged for those needing assistance with room or ride accommodations. A forum can be put together to help future attendees to communicate and generate interest for the event. Information about the venue and amenities can be communicated to assist attendees in getting ready for the event. Pre-conference training calls can be coordinated via the blog along with pre-conference material lists or training materials or assignments can be posted via the blog. Encourage potential attendees to link to the blog post via Twitter or Facebook to generate interest for their personal tribes. Advise everyone when the Earlybird registration deadlines are approaching. Create a tweet session the night before the big event to elevate the excitement about the upcoming event.
Tell attendees about important happenings and press releases. If you are announcing that there will be a networking reception on the first night of the conference, this is one of the outlets you should use.
Inform attendees about a new speaker or go in depth on each speaker. This is especially useful, take one speaker per week (day) and feature them. Write an article about them, their accomplishments, their expertise and why attendees would want to attend their session. You could also have the speakers write a guest post which they like.
The same can be done for sponsors. Talk about event sponsors and what they bring to the table and why attendees should visit their booths. A WARNING – DO NOT make blog mentions or blog articles part of a sponsorship package, this will free you up to talk about lower level or new sponsors that may have an amazing product or service but may not have the funds for the larger sponsorship, it shows that you value them and that they are important as well.
Announce milestones, if the conference has reached an attendance record or the early bird is ending, make it a post in addition to the other places you will announce it.
How to Use a Blog in Event Planning(Part 1 of 4)
What is a blog?
Wikipedia defines a blog as (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.[2]
In case you were not aware, you are currently reading a blog.
How long does the event occur?
Let attendees know in advance when the event will occur. Also advise them the hours of the event. Sometimes events are scheduled earlier than 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. Typically your event will last 3-5 days. Typically people travel the day before and the date after.
What happens at the event?
Travel, sleeping accommodations, networking, sales, coaching, food consumption, gift consumption, entertainment, sightseeing, training, event testimonials, speaker feedback. These are all topics that can be covered in the blog and points that could be coordinated with reliable sources at the venue. Addressing these topics ahead of time will generate interest for the event and set the expectations of the event attendees.
What is needed at the event?
Tell attendees what to bring, what to leave a home, what the weather will be, remind them to bring business cards for networking. Will they need paper and pens for note taking or are you supplying those materials? Will recording and videoing be prohibited? Advise attendees of the expected attire (high heels or hiking boots, shorts or slacks, polo shirt or sport coat and tie). Will there be any formal events? Advise attendees of any special points that they would want to be aware of such as being prepared for a day at the beach or morning yoga or whatever you might have planned that they would like to be aware. Will you have special accommodations for disabled attendees?
Generating interest
Interest can be generated by giving prospective attendees a brief overview of the benefits that will be gained by attending the event. Will they also receive a DVD of the event? Will they receive valuable knowledge at the event? Do you have testimonials from past attendees? All that can be shared via e-mail. Invite them to bring a friend/business partner/team for free or at a deep discount.
Write Your First Blog Post (Part 2 of 2)
In the first part of this article, we discussed finding and using keywords as well as how to utilize the Six Servants to give your post a structure so that the reader can determine if the post is appropriate for them. We will now discuss how to move your reader forward as you lead them to your desired destination.
Lay Out the Path to Your Destination
Your reader will need to know how to get from point A to your desired destination. Lead them step by step to the finished product. Point A is simply where on the path your reader is now. Your desired destination is where your reader will be once the information you have is transferred to them. At the end of reading your article, you will want to include direction (hopefully to more of your content) to more information or the next logical step to take to get to the next level in their journey. As your blog post unfolds, your reader may need specific tools/information to take them to the next step along the way. Equip your reader as you proceed just as the Google Keyword External Tool was introduced at the beginning of this blog post. Your blog post takes the reader on a journey from Point A to your desired destination with you leading the way. The question you want to answer along the way is “The reader will leave with an understanding of…”. If this question is answered with “I have no clue”, that’s a great opportunity for your to rewrite that area to gain clarity for the reader. Here is a simple outline for you to follow:
o Answer the Six Servant questions for the reader. Give them a reason to want to read your article.
o Describe Point A
o What tools does the reader need at this point? Where do they find the tools? What is the tool used for?
o The reader will leave with an understanding of…
o What is the next logic step along the path? Describe the next logical step.
o What tools does the reader need at this point? Where do they find the tools? What is the tool used for?
o The reader will leave with an understanding of…
o Summary
o What are the next possible steps once the desired outcome is achieved? Where can the reader possibly go from here? Why would the reader want to revisit your blog?
Key Points to Keep in Mind
Use the rule of 21 W’s. You will want to create a template with 21 W’s to determine how wide to make your posts for easy reading. A good rule of thumb is to put 21 W’s on your page as your guide to how wide to make your post.
Keep your posts to about 300-350 words. Anything long can be broken up into a series for easier reading. That way the reader can choose if they wish to continue reading or not.
At each point along the way, you will want to give a subheading to describe what that section of the article is about.
Summary
You now have a framework around which you can structure your blog posts. By using the Six Servants and Laying Out the Path to Your Destination for your readers, you will have a well written, concise blog post that creates value for your reader.
Now that you have your first blog post written, you will want to publish it. I will describe publishing a blog post in my next posting, Publish Your First Blog Post, with a video example.