I consider myself to be a very successful link builder which is why I know that even before you attempt the link, there’s heavy research to conduct and careful analysis to consider.

Don’t believe me? How else will you get the info you need about your top competitors? For example, what types of links are they getting? Where did they get their strongest links? What anchor text are they targeting? Are there any opportunities for my site??

This is why a huge part of link building often involves gathering and sifting through mountains and mountains of data.

Maybe not a problem if you’re doing it for just one site (i.e. your own) but what if, like me, you’re often doing several different campaigns at once? Never before have I gathered and managed so much data, on so many different sites, as when I started to do link building professionally for clients.

I love it though. Which is why I happily do my own research (using Google and Yahoo), chart everything in Excel and then draw conclusions and select prospects based on my own criteria. This method takes time though and, being a busy little link builder, time is something I’m in short supply of lately.

Therefore, in an effort to streamline my services, I’ll be actively looking for and trying out various paid link building tools that make my life easier.

Maintaining the same level of quality that my clients are used to is extremely important to me though, so you can be sure that the tool(s) I finally settle on (if any!) will be, what I consider, the best.

Since I’ve had a few curious followers express their interest on twitter, I’ll also be writing about my findings here. If you’ve ever wondered which link building tools truly give you the most bang for your buck (I certainly have!), then you won’t want to miss this

And, if you’ve had any experience (good or bad) with paid link building tools or if there’s a tool you think I should try, be sure to leave a comment below!

Post from: Canadian SEO

It’s more commonsense than rocket science so please don’t judge me too harshly at the simplicity of the technique. I know there will be some hardcore link builders out there who may scoff at it, but the fact remains that there are site owners out there who aren’t as hardcore as you and they have to start somewhere.

For those of you that will be trying the Reciprocity Method, I plan to post follow up articles here, that will help you find suitable prospects within your industry as well as custom email templates that are tailored to fit almost any situation.

I started out as a small ecommerce site owner myself and I know how hard it can be to generate results. If you have any questions or need some help implementing the technique, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Srsly

Post from: Canadian SEO

This tweet gives you a plethora of insight into the man that is Matt Cutts. If you lie, he will know. If he knows, he’ll get mad. If he gets mad, you’re toast. Pretty cut and dry lol.

This is funny on so many levels lol. From this you can learn that Aaron is hilarious and that poor @graywolf gets burned a lot on twitter (we laugh with you Michael, WITH you lol).

This was even funnier when the account was active. Twitter catches spammers pretty quick though.

For some reason, even though I don’t literally have balls, this stuck with me. Note: I do have gigantic figurative balls though.

I already knew this but it’s nice to hear someone who matters saying it. Maybe people will listen?

Turns out, @sugarrae was just joking BUT this doesn’t mean that this isn’t a perfectly acceptable use of twitter!

He obviously doesn’t know many Canadian link builders lol.

lol I wonder how $$ much he made?

I may make “Sweet Tweets” a monthly deal, so if you know of any spill em’

Post from: Canadian SEO

Truth is, I’ve been extraordinarily busy and I hate posting just for the sake of posting, you know? I’ve got enough interesting things on the go now though, to be able to give you a healthy update as to what I’ve been up to for the past two months. Some pretty exciting stuff on the horizon (if you’re geeky, like me)!

The Reciprocity Link Building Method

I’ve developed (what I consider to be) a good method for gaining authority links. I’m calling it the Reciprocity Link Building Method. It involves offering, er, “something” of value first (not money/gifts or blackmail though) and then creatively “suggesting” a reward for your initiative. So far, the success rate is great. So much so, that I’ve been invited to write about the method in an upcoming guest-post at Search Engine Land. I know right!?

I’ve truly been blessed with a lot of success in my link building career. I figured it was time to share some of my winning techniques though, which is why I’m also…

Writing an eBook

Or at least *trying* to write an eBook. It’s just like writing one great-big, gargantuan, in-depth blog post. In spite of this, I’m aiming for release in approx one month. It’ll include a step-by-step guide to finding and qualifying prospects, the Reciprocity Method email template and a few secret places to get instant authority links (including .edu and .gov). For the sake of the resources getting abused and thus devalued though, I *will* be charging a nominal fee for the book. I hope you don’t mind but I promise it’ll be well worth the money

Link Building Tool

Being a professional link builder, well, I build a lot of links (duh!) and I constantly identify things that, if a tool were around for them, would make my job a lot easier. I’ve therefore been sitting on a bunch of ideas for link building tools and I finally picked one and put a plan in motion for it’s creation. My partner in crime is @teifion and we’ve already started building. Keep you posted as we go. He’s already had a heart attack at the size of the database we’ll be needing so don’t expect a launch anytime soon though lol.

ORM Stuff

Along with steady link building jobs, I’ve also taken on a couple of Online Reputation Management campaigns (which is basically link building anyways). This involves getting rid of or burying a negative listing on Google. I’ve been making Google dance for a number of years now but even a veteran like me needs a little guidance now and again (no, I’m not afraid to admit that). With that in mind there were a couple of articles that were helpful to me and I recommend that you check them out if you’re facing a similar ORM situation.

50+ Sites to Help You Bury Negative Posts About You or Your Company

38 Must Reads on Online Reputation Management

The major downside to these type of campaigns is the waiting involved. Especially when the client is eager to see things happen. So far so good though. If all goes as planned, I’ll be offering affordable ORM packages as part of my link building services.

Lastly, on a more personal note:

I’ll soon be trying to change the world via an anti Drunk Driving video and accompanying song. The song itself is beautiful and touching and, I’m proud to say, was written a long time ago by my dad. The cause is personal to us because we lost someone to (what we suspect was) a drunk driver when I was four years old. My mom.

Since the culprit was never caught, we can’t be *sure* they were drunk, but I figure you can’t plow over a pedestrian in the middle of the road and then just drive away as if nothing happened. Although we’ll never know what really happened, we’d like to try to and raise awareness in the hopes that we can save just one family from experiencing the same anguish and heartache that many innocent families, such as ours, are forced to face daily.

The song has been professionally produced and recorded and the video is now in the planning stages. I’ll need your help promoting it when we’re ready to launch though. I hope I can count on you

Other than that, I’ve been working diligently for my clients, growing my business, taking care of my family and trying to pop in on twitter now and again to catch up with all my buds.

Miss you guys!

Post from: Canadian SEO

Depending on the skill level of the audience, I may even spill a juicy link building secret or two. If you happen to be in Calgary next weekend, I hope you’ll drop by and say hello

In the meantime, I’m interested in hearing what YOU think women in business should be aware of when it comes to marketing themselves and their businesses online. Are there any special sites geared towards women and their businesses? What are some of the challenges they face? Are there any different marketing tactics they can use? What has or hasn’t worked for you?

When it comes to women in business, there are some absolutely stellar role models out there (yes, you!) and we could all certainly benefit from sharing our experiences. If you’ve got a comment, anecdote or even a compelling story, I hope you’ll post it here so that others can learn from it.

Thanks!

Post from: Canadian SEO

Here’s exactly what he said:

Alberta based Melanie Nathan publishes a brand new and very well designed blog that offers the promise of posts on link building, interviews and miscellaneous. We’re hoping she can tap into her vast link building knowledge and post more often so the blog can get included in the BIGLIST at a future date.

When I started this blog, I honestly had every intention of posting regularly. In fact I have an entire folder full of post ideas which include;

• How to qualify a link prospect
• How to quote link building services
• What I learned from twitter
• How to make money with SEO

And… something about ‘Social Media Parties and SEO Cage Dancers’, which upon re-reading it, I must have wrote when I was tired and deranged so don’t ask

I also have a post from my sister, who I have been teaching how to link build. She’s catching on, and she understands the ultimate goal, unfortunately with her day job and taking care of a diabetic kid, she isn’t able to spend as much time on it as I’d like. In an ideal world, she’d have fallen in love with link building, dropped everything in her life to pursue it and we’d be happily running a link building empire by now. I can dream can’t I?

Note: Look for her post next Monday. It’s not ground breaking stuff, but hey, she offers some good insight on link building, from an outsider-looking-in perspective.

Luckily, my lack of posting hasn’t deterred me from getting work. In fact, shortly after launch, the requests for work started pouring in and I’m now doing more than 40 hours of solid link building per week. As you can imagine, this makes me one busy beaver. Also, as a result of all this new work, I’ve been toying with different search operators in order to uncover wicked new places to get links. I found some great ones too, and I totally plan on sharing, I just have to find a way to share them, without killing them. That always has a way of happening whenever I share a backlink resource publicly. If you have any ideas, I’m all eyes.

So you see, I *do* have some content to offer, which I consider to be of value (hope you do to!), I’m just finding it a tad difficult to juggle my client workload and everything else a solopreneur has to tackle. Although, I had some idea of what running my own biz was going to be like, I forgot to factor in that, as my only employee, when something needs done, there’s me, and only me, to do it. I knew it would be a learning experience though and I’ll eventually get the hang of it. When I post more than once in a week, you’ll know I made it lol.

Being mentioned by Lee Odden as an up-and-coming SEO blog, gives me some excellent motivation. In fact, I’ll be holding another contest in order to get the community involved in helping me post once per week.

Ironically, you’ll have to wait for upcoming details

Post from: Canadian SEO

Congratulations to… Jesse Friedman, the winner of a sweet Canadian themed prize package! I’ll be contacting you soon regarding your shipping address.

I’ve also decided to give @ChrisHooley a consolation prize on account of his energy and enthusiasm (and because he makes me laugh like a banshee lol).

To all those who participated… thank you! To those who couldn’t be bothered… well it serves you right… next time don’t be so lazy

Post from: Canadian SEO

There’s only so much of me to go around, so in the interest of expanding the company (and because she’s been pestering me for years), I’ve agreed to teach my younger sister some techniques of my trade.

She’ll be blogging here about her experiences, as she learns from scratch, one of the most challenging aspects of search engine optimization – organic link building (link building for the intention of ranking). She’s 27; her name is Jodie, she fully rawks and I know you’ll adore her. Watch for her first post next week. For now though, you’ll have to settle for me (hi!) and a recap of our first lesson…

Examining Competitors for Relevant Backlink Opportunities

We began with a lengthy discussion about the different value of links (anchor text, vs. straight url, followed vs. nofollowed, high PR vs. low PR, image vs. text etc) and some of the different types of links available (directory listings, blog comments, article mentions, lists, news resources, etc). After a couple of hours, I felt she had a firm grasp on some of the concepts so I gave her an example site to work with and set her loose with the following scenario and instructions.

The sample client site is: www.canadianseo.com
The sample client keyword is: “SEO Canada”

Perform a search for the client’s keyword on Google.com. These sites are the ones that Google considers most relevant to “SEO Canada” and are our client’s direct competitors. Visit each of the top 20 competitor websites and look for backlink opportunities. It may be in the form of a blog comment, a product review, a directory submission, a play list, content submittal, a profile page etc. Record possible opportunities on a word (or excel) doc. And, for future reference, make notes on what exactly will be required to get the link.

Next, you’ll need Yahoo.

Using Yahoo’s Linkdomain Command

Perform the following search on Yahoo, substituting the url for a competitor’s (the one’s within your word doc):

• linkdomain:www.competitorswebsite.com

This shows you the majority of websites that link to this competitor. Start visiting these sites and keep a sharp eye out for backlink opportunities. It helps to start by locating the competitor’s link within the page to see if it’s a viable prospect. For example, if it’s a page from CNN and the link comes from the competitor being quoted in a story, then there’s probably not much possibility of us duplicating that or getting a link off the same page (without some planning that is). If, on the other hand, the link comes from a mention in a resource list from a blog, then there’s a decent possibility that we can get added to the same list by contacting the blog owner.

If you find a backlink possibility, take note of the following:

• Will the link be “nofollowed”? If so, it won’t help with PR or rankings but it might still be good for traffic purposes. Record it anyways.
• What’s the PR (pagerank) of the page? We’ll want to give more importance to pages with higher PR. We won’t discount pages with little or no PR though… we just won’t try as hard for them.
• Will we be permitted to use anchor text or will the link be a straight url (i.e. “this is a Canada SEO company” vs. http://www.canadianseo.com). Although links with anchor text are definitely better for ranking purposes, we won’t discount a straight url link because they can still help increase our client’s PR.

Use the Yahoo “linkdomain” command on each of the competitors within your word doc. Yes, visiting each of the sites may seem daunting, especially seeing as some competitors will have thousands of backlinks, but try to think of it like this; uncovering more competitor backlink’s = uncovering more opportunities for our client. Record all prospects on your word doc (which should be getting fairly big by now).

Finding Directory Links

Next, we’ll look for some good directories to submit our client to. Perform the following search on Google.com:

• allinurl:directory “Canada”

This shows us some popular directories that have Canada related categories. Visit the top 20 (or more) and look for ways to get our client listed. Some directories are free to submit to, others cost money. We’re mainly interested in the ones that are free. Keep in mind that if a “submit site/url” option isn’t readily apparent on the homepage, you may have to go to the category we want to submit to, and look for the “submit site/url” option there. If it’s a paid directory, you should then be presented with a pricing page and you’ll know it’s not a prospect.

Hopefully by now you’ve got a healthy little list of link opportunities, with detailed instruction on how to go about getting the links. If not…

Digging Within Related Industries

If your list isn’t as big as you’d like and you can’t really find any viable opportunities for links, you can try researching the backlinks of sites within industries that are highly related to the client’s keyword. In the case of “Canada SEO” some highly related industries may include:

• SEO Consultant
• SEO Services
• SEO Specialist

Although the terms are broader, it stands to reason that any sites ranking for the above terms will be direct competitors of ours and therefore are good prospects for backlink examination. As long as it’s a related/themed industry we can go after links within it.

Basic Link Building Tools You’ll Need:

Since she already uses FireFox (converted her months ago) I told her to either get the Google Toolbar or install one of the many FireFox plug-ins, which shows Google PageRank (a list was provided). You’ll now be able to see the PR of every page you visit.

After that, you’ll need Greasemonkey so the “nofollowed” links on every page you visit will be highlighted in pink for you. This will save you a lot of time. You’ll need to enable the “nofollow highlighter” option either during installation or right after.

Lastly, if you have a Google account (gmail etc)…. make sure you are logged OUT when you’re performing your research. When you’re logged into your account, Google tends to show you more “personalized” results based on your location and habits. Same with Yahoo.

Oh and I wrote a well received link building article awhile back that I think you should read it as it pertains to what I’m trying to teach you. Lastly, don’t forget to use the “find” command (ctrl+f) if you need to find a word, phrase or url on a heavily worded page. It really helps for finding those tricky “submit site” or “add url” links and also locating competitor backlink’s on crowded pages.

She’ll be giving me the results of her research after the weekend. Can’t wait to see if we’ve got another link ninja in the family

Keep you posted.

Post from: Canadian SEO

I have big plans for future content on this site so you might wanna subscribe to the feed. I’d hate for you to miss out on a secret link building resource or even my recipe for Canadian bacon butter for that matter

Oh, and although I offer all the usual search engine optimization and marketing services, if you’re looking for a kick a** link builder, I’m definitely your girl. Seriously. Hire me or lose out. I’m not bragging, I’m applying for a job. I want to be your link builder. My services page is coming soon… feel free to use the online contact form in the meantime if you’re interested in a custom quote.

Btw, since I’m teaching my lil’ sister how to link build right now, I though it would be a neat idea for a first post. Watch for it sometime today in my shiny new “link building” category.

Props to the following tweeple for their contributions in helping me get this site up and running. I sincerely could not have done this without you.

@mvandemar
@reese
@jz
@jboeckman

Also a big thanks to everyone who allowed me to bounce ideas off them!

And now, in the interest of keeping things er, interesting…. I’ll be picking one commenter below by end of day Friday, to receive a fun-filled Canadian themed prize package. Hmmm. What *ever* could it be???

Post from: Canadian SEO

1. How long have you been working in SEO and Internet Marketing and what attracted you to it?

I started learning SEO out of sheer necessity in 2002 right after I took our Edmonton automotive business online with our first ecommerce website. The site was so successful that we sold it 3 years later. Since then I’ve worked for an Edmonton SEO agency (Epiar), in-house with Statusfirm and for myself. I’m extremely passionate about what I do and I feel very fortunate to be able to do it. In fact, I couldn’t imagine any other way to have spent the past 6 years of my life.

2. In your opinion, what’s the measure of a good SEO/PR/Blogging professional?

Basically, the same measure of a decent human being. Honesty. Integrity. Fairness. Not willing to step on others in order to get ahead and a genuine interest in helping people.

3. Whose blog do you read the Most?

Surprisingly, reading SEO blogs isn’t really part of my daily routine. I also don’t use a RSS reader or subscribe to any feeds. I like @sugarrae’s affiliate stuff and I sometimes find myself on @graywolf’s SEO blog but I mainly just spend time on twitter and go wherever the conversation takes me.

4. What’s your best “SEO secret” or blogging tactic?

Erm, it wouldn’t be a secret if I told you publicly. I don’t really have too many secrets anyways. To me SEO and Internet Marketing are simply about making it easier to connect those who have information, to those who are searching for it. Follow the rules and it’s all good.

5. Search engine algorithms are getting smarter, and a lot of people predict Organic SEO services will become obsolete. How do you plan to adapt?

As long as there are search engines there will always be a need for SEO. I’m simply doing what I’ve always done.

6. Please Describe the biggest challenge you face in your current job.

Time management. Having recently decided to become a full time consultant again, I now have a lot of different projects on the go and find myself pressed for time. I’m currently looking into programs I can use to help me automate some of my processes.

7. Do you have any advice for someone who is interested in SEO and Internet Marketing, but doesn’t have a background in it, on how to get started in this field?

With all the self proclaimed “experts” now in the field; you have to be careful whose advice you’re taking. Definitely ask questions and make sure and get a second, third and even fourth opinion before implementing something. If you’re in it for the long term then just follow the rules and concentrate on providing a good experience for your clients.

8. If you could rank for any keyword phrase you don’t currently rank for, what would it be?

Ranking for any term can be accomplished with a bit of time and effort. Unfortunately, time is short for me lately and I haven’t been able to focus on my new consulting blog. When I do find the time though, I was planning on going after Edmonton SEO to start with. I like to start small and build from there

9. Assuming you had never gone into SEO and Internet Marketing, what would you be doing now (professionally)?

I would definitely own an Internet business of some sort because I am, and always will be, an entreprenerd at heart.

10. What’s your favorite professional sports team and why?

That’s easy… Edmonton Oilers. Being Canadian, hockey is naturally in my blood and growing up in Edmonton makes the Oilers my boys.

Well that’s it! I hope you enjoyed reading this. A big thanks to @MelaniePhung for writing the questions for all to answer.

And thanks to the following for their participation:

@almacy a Digital Strategy Expert
@melaniephung a DC SEO Strategist
@martinbowling a lover of Zima
@utahseopro a Utah SEO Consultant
@fairminder who offers Boston Website Design and SEO services
@cyandle a Google Adwords Professional
@melanienathan an Edmonton SEO specialist
@jackleblond a VP of Internet Strategy
@djpaisley a Digital Communications Strategist
@vinceblackham a Utah SEO specialist
@researchgoddess a Staffing Social Media Specialist
@monicawright a Maine SEO professional

Post from: Canadian SEO