Blog commenting and Akismet

I recently had a comment here on the blog from a reader who was concerned that commentig big style could bring you into trouble with Akismet (and other Anti-Spam plugins) The answer got a longer longer, so I decided to make it into a blog post.
Akismet and all the other Anti-Spam plugins are really a blessing for any webmaster who owns a blog with anything near decent traffic.
To be honest – I could not survive the spam flood if I did not have those myself. As I write this there are already more than 100 spam comments sitting in my spam folder. And I was not happy to find areally useful comment falsely being flagged as spam(In fact I was told that my donation form was not working). Conclusion: Akismet – this can really bring you into trouble if you are not catious when you comment.
There are people out there who flag every comment with a link or every comment from someone they don’t know as spam. Of course that is not the idea behind Akismet, but that is how some people use it 🙁
It is a wise idea to act with caution, have a look around the blogs you are planning to comment on. What is the quality of the other comment, what does the blog athor write about commenting – does he or she encourage commenting, etc. Then of course put some thought in your comments – the better your comment and the more related and valuable for the authors topic you comment is, the higher is the probability that it will go through and you won’t run into trouble.
But what if it already happened and how could you know you are in trouble? To know for sure you need a blog with akismet installed (you could get one at wordpress.com) and have to make a comment there. If your comment gets sorted into spam, you know you have been flagged.
How to lift the ban?
Difficult question – I have not run into that situation myself, but I recently had a good read about that. Head over to Barbara Ling and read what she did:
How to fix an Akismet Ban

Mike

Are there shortcuts to earning money on the internet?

That is an interesting question – and honestly a part of me is really wanting to tell you:
No – there are not shortcuts, you have to learn everything the hard way.

Why is that? Maybe because in great parts it was like that for me – I had my fair share of mistakes made, and projects that died because I did it the wrong way etc.

Of course with gaining more and more experience that changed, not that everything I touch turns to gold now, but the successes outweigh the failures now.
Did I learn everything all by myself? No – not really. Would be nice if I was that smart, but actually I am not…

So what really helped? I credit much of my knowledge to the coaching program I took at dotcomsecrets that I took a couple of years ago.
Now to be honest again – that was not really cheap. I really had to cough up everything I could spare (if you are going to watch the video I link to below, Russell will tell you the price of his coaching program of that time…).
But I can tell you one thing: I never regretted taking the coaching! It brought me further in big steps.

Now there is one good question, that someone recently asked Russell: “If your systems are that good, why don’t you teach it first and then take the money the students earn instead of taking it upfront?”

Excellent question, and it seems Russell really listened to that guy, because I think he has found a system with an excellent balance:
You pay one dollar for the first month and from then on Russell literally takes you by the hand and goes every step with you that is needed to earn the money for the next month’s coaching which is only $97 from the second month on. But that is not all, he also gives you a lot of shortcuts to making money on the net (Yes I have to admit those exist, and although I grudge a bit because my coaching was by far more expensive, It would just not be fair to keep the knowledge…)

Have a look at the following video now to see what all the shortcuts are:

Money Earning shortcuts with DotComSecretsX

By the way here is a picture of me and Russell when we met in Cambridge, England. It proves I have not mastered everything yet, for example how to look good in public places 😉
Russell Brunson and Michael Busch

Article marketing Callen Style

If you have been following my blog for a while you probably know about the products Jon Leger creates for Linkbuilding .
Today I signed up for a new service by Bryxen Software, which you may know for products like SEOElite or KeywordElite.
Now Brad Callen has come up with a new product that at the first glance looked very much like 1waylinks.

It is called SEO Link Vine and and like 1waylinks is a blog network where you can submit articles that will be posted all over the network.

If you buy now, even the price is the same. As having another weapon in my link building arsenal was something I could not say no to, I decided to sign up and write about my experience here.

The buying process:

I know it is a clever idea to offer upsells and I have no doubt that the SEO product upsell is a good product – but having to scroll down long pages two times just to skip the offer is getting on my nerves…

The looks:

The over all design of the site is better than 1waylinks, it has a very straight user interface and is easy to use from the beginning.

Instructions/manuals:

There are excellent video instructions on every step. Did not miss anything.

Built in functions:

Now here it gets really interesting:

Not only has it a built in spinning function, but also a ranking checker with backlinks count and PR.

Quota:

There is none – you can submit as many articles as you want and they will get posted on as many blogs as will accept your article.

Where will my articles be posted:

The deal is that SEO Link Vine brings together blogs that need fresh content and users who will write content with their links embedded.

Your article will only be poted on blogs that accept your content category and blog owners can accept or decline articles.

Those are the main differences to 1waylinks. There are a few negative sides to mention, too. For example you cannot use spinning in the title but have to add every title variation manually. Don’t ask my why what works in the article body should not be good enough for the title…

Another thing is the Thesaurus of the spinning tool. It worlds away from the quality I am used to with Jon Leger’s The Best Spinner! It is nice that there is a spinner built in, but I prefer to keep using the Best Spinner – and here is the good news: SEO Link Vine is compatible with a whole bunch of spinning formats so I can just copy and paste the spun articles into SEO Link Vine.

Altogether this looks very good in my eyes – now it has to prove whether it will create the same quality of results as 1waylinks does.

If you want to try it out yourself, here is the link: SEO Link Vine

Test your Webmaster knowledge

You never know too much… but how much do you actually know about running a successful site?
Now there is a pretty fun way to know – take the google webmaster quiz!
The quiz can be found over here:

Google Webmaster Quiz

The Quiz is online from today until Wednesday, January 27 at 5PM PST.

Technorati and What It Can Do For You

Techno Who!?
This is the response I usually get from my clients when I suggest that they need to link their blog to Technorati. (…)

Source: Blog Marketing, Web 2.0 And Social Marketing By Trish Jones

Alternative Methods of Improving Your Backlink Profile

Typically, those of us in the SEO community in the past have counted on a few reliable link building tactics to drive our rankings. Directory submissions and blog commenting seemed to be the easiest way to get a high volume of do follow backlinks without expending too much energy. But as Google continues to tweak their algorithm so that it better reflects actual human perception, these “automated” link building tactics, and actual links, are carrying less value. Content marketing has come to the forefront of the industry, and blog post links more valuable than their directory and blog comment counterparts. This makes perfect sense, as Google is rewarding those that provide valuable information to people that are searching and essentially looking for answers.

As a result of this shift, it has become more difficult to acquire strong backlinks, and it certainly takes more time. This is particularly the case for new websites that have yet to establish themselves online and lack the digital connections that older websites may take advantage of for building up their backlink profile. For those sites, I still feel that it is valuable to submit to related directories, and spend some time blog commenting, as you have to start somewhere and these links can gradually help to strengthen the domain, albeit on a minimal level. As the old adage goes, “You have to start somewhere!”

For webmasters that are running older, well established websites, link opportunities should be more abundant. Often, however, webmasters tend to overlook a couple of strategies that can be used to identify opportunities right from under their noses – using data from analytics software, assuming it is set up on the site, and conducting branded searches to see where other webmasters are linking to you but are not using targeted anchor text, and to find links that are pointing to 404 pages. If you are like most webmasters and using Google Analytics (most use this as it is free and for the most part user friendly), check out the Referring Sites report to see what links are sending you traffic, and identify which of those you should contact to improve the anchor text.

Regarding branded searches, it is always important to remember that it is much easier to convince a webmaster that already has a link up to your site to change the anchor text to something that will greater benefit you than contacting a webmaster that you do not have a relationship with at all. If you are operating an e-commerce site that tends to add and remove products frequently, there may be a good number of links that exist on other sites that are pointing to dead pages. Contact those webmasters with new URLs and new anchor text, and drive link value to the new product pages!

 

Andrew Hagan is an avid writer in the SEO industry. For more SEO tips, information, and strategies please visit his blog at http://www.engineheat.blogspot.com/!

What Permalink Structure Should I Be Using?

In my last post, I spoke about the importance of permalink structures, but it seems the one I recommended isn’t without it’s issues.

I told you that I personally use the custom permalink structure /%postname%/ which hasn’t seemed to be an issue until now… but yesterday, I started getting all kinds of errors with my feeds and when I tried to check for feed validation, I get another error saying that my feed isn’t valid.

After some digging around, I found a discussion on the Semiologic Forum and Denis de Bernardy, the developer of Semiologic, states that using the custom permalinks structure /%postname% will make make WordPress think that yoursite.com/feed is the post titled /feed. In other words, it makes WP confuse your posts, pages, and feed urls.

So, having shyed away from using the default date/name based structure, it seems that this is the one Denis and many others recommend because it’s just as good for SEO, and it’s much better for usability.

This is what yours would look like, using the date/name based structure:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/2007/06/12/sample-post/

Source: Blog Marketing, Web 2.0 And Social Marketing By Trish Jones

Article Software Comparison and Review

[Update:]
While all being correct at the time I wrote this, by now there is a new player on the field, it is called TheBestSpinner and even although it has no possibility to submit articles it, really is superior to everything else I have seen when it comes to spinning…
Here is more onfo about TheBestSpinner
If you don’t know where to post all those articles, have a look at 1waylinks.
[/Update]

Product
Mass Article
Control
Quick Article
Pro
Instant Article Submitter
Rating
9.8/10
9.0/10
8.5/10
Link
Visit Site
Visit Site
Visit Site
Features
Customer Support
Ease of Use
Price
$77

$99.95

$97


#1 – Mass Article Control
Increase Your Traffic And Sales With Mass Article Control

Overall Rating:

Despite knowing the impact article marketing can have on a business, countless entrepreneurs fail with this form of marketing. Whether it is the writing or submitting, there are several ways you can ruin a perfectly good marketing campaign. Fortunately, Mass Article Control will help you get more traffic, drastically increase your search engine rankings, all while making far more money.

No one said running a business would be easy. However, there are ways to simplify various facets of your business like writing and submitting articles. Mass Article Control gives you the ability to create a number of different high quality articles with the simple push of a button. If that were not enough, you can then submit each of the articles to all of the best article directories in a matter of seconds.

Mass article creator uses state of the art technology and artificial intelligence to help you create over 1000 articles from one article. If you are going to have any kind of success with article marketing you need to be writing and submitting hundreds of articles. You can have over 1000 articles in just 30 seconds while creating and using market specific keywords. In addition, you will be able to reach out to your target market by saving these articles in niche specific categories.

The point of article marketing is to gain as much exposure and credibility as possible. The easiest way to do this is by writing enticing content and submitting it to as many directories as possible. Mass Article Control will help you generate thousands of backlinks that can set you up for a tremendous amount of exposure.

It is extremely simple software to use by just pointing and clicking. You do not have to worry about training yourself to use it as it comes with a simple layout, a built-in database so you can choose words to use, and you can manage everything yourself to get it the way you like.

At the end of the day you will find a plethora of different benefits with this software. You will be able to create unique articles without worrying about duplicate content infringements. You can take these articles and get published on hundreds of directories. Search engines love fresh content and your Google search results will soar. Perhaps the best part about this system is the drastic increase in sells you will experience.

Mass Article Control is a tremendous way to take your business to the next level. With the help of creating articles and submitting them to a mass amount of directories, it will save you time while making you money.

Click Here to Visit Official Site Now!

#2 – Quick Article Pro
Everything You Need To Know About Quick Article Pro

Overall Rating:

Even with the demand for video and audio increasing there is still a dire need for quality content on the internet. Regardless of what type of business you are running, you need to have fresh and enticing content. Quick Article Pro claims to have the software of your dreams that will help you produce great articles while speeding up the submission process.

If you are a professional SEO content writer and you need to create a plethora of articles, this software is ideal for you. If you are looking for fresh content to place on your web site or to use for marketing purposes, this is for you. If you are spending too much money every month on ghost writers but you still want the content, Quick Article Pro is for you.

There are a number of benefits you can take advantage from this and the submitter. As for the original software, it will help you convert far more visitors into customers thus increasing your overall profits. The goal of article writing is to get your articles on the first page of article publishing web sites. This software claims to be able to do that for you so you can get the maximum amount of hits.

If that were not enough, you will be able to accumulate a number of different links of value that will keep visitors at your site long enough to become a customer. Finally, you will be able to produce higher quality articles on your site in order to climb in the search engines.

As with Quick Article Pro, there are a number of benefits to Quick Article submitter as well. First, it will help you increase your site popularity while improving your Google page rank. You can get better search engine rankings from all of the top search engines making it easier to increase your traffic volume.

Perhaps the best benefit of all is the time you will save by using the submitter from Quick Article. It can take hours to submit the amount of articles you need to see results. With the automatic article submissions, you can use this extra time to develop your web site and produce more articles.

Quick Article Pro will help you write much better articles that are extremely knowledgeable on any topic. If you are looking to increase your income while producing hundreds of articles in a decent amount of time, this software claims to have the answers for you. Start nourishing your web site by supplying an endless amount of fresh and enticing content all of the time.

Click Here to Visit Official Site Now!

#3 – Instant Article Submitter
Get Lightning Fast Article Submissions With Instant Article Submitter

Overall Rating:

There is no denying the fact that if you want to boost your web sites’ search engine ranking, increase credibility, and accumulate far more traffic to your business, articles are the way to go. While it is imperative you produce a mass amount of articles while submitting each and every one of them, this is a time-consuming process. Instant Article Submitter has the shortcut to writing and submitting your articles today.

If you are going to make it in the internet marketing industry, you have to have a marketing scheme that can help you produce quality traffic. Instant Article Submitter claims to have what you need to improve your search rankings because of the hundreds of quality backlinks you will be receiving.

You will finally be able to submit all of your articles without having to go through the daunting task of visiting each any every directory manually. All you have to do is fill in the required information and let the article submitter do all of the grunt work for you.

By having hundreds of free quality backlinks all over the internet, it will also help to improve your search engine rankings. The more incoming links you have pointing to your site, the easier it will be to claim the top search engine positions.

Another benefit to writing and submitting articles is that you get to publish loads of fresh and enticing content all over the internet. As people recognize your knowledge and expertise on various topics, they will be more inclined to visit your web site. Submitting to a few directories is limiting the amount of exposure you are getting. Instant Article Submitter will help you get the exposure you need to succeed.

Aside from the time constraint of submitting to hundreds of directories, another reason many businesses do not submit to more directories is because of a lack of knowledge. Every day it seems as if a new directory pops up and you deserve to know about the most recent ones to arise. Every time you open this software it will automatically update with the freshest directories online.

The last reason to make use of this tremendous software is because of the back-up it has to offer. You have the ability to save an endless amount of articles and resource boxes for further use making it much easier to stay organized. If you have multiple web sites and businesses, this can save you a great deal of time.

There is no sense in spending hours upon hours submitting the articles you write to hundreds of directories when you can do it in a matter of minutes. Instant Article Submitter claims to have the software you need to get lightning quick article submissions thus saving you loads of time.

Click Here to Visit Official Site Now!

New design on www.seo-traffic-guide.de

Hi folks

It is very obvious, but in case you did not notice 😉 : I have changed the design of this site.

I am very interested in what my readers think, so drop me a note in the comments below. Do you like it? If not, what would you change?

Take your chance and tell me what you think (And don’t forget, this earns you a free do-follow backlink with your keywords if you use KeywordLuv syntax)

Mike

Which WordPress SEO Plugin should I choose?

The most often downloaded SEO plugin for WordPress probably is All-In-One-SEO.

A little less known, but in my eyes superior is Platinum SEO Pack .  I decided on Platinum SEO for all my sites quite a while ago and while my information may be outdated today, I nevertheless want to share the reasons for my decision:

Platinum SEO and All in One SEO Pack look very similar at the first glance. That is because the author of Platinum SEO formerly used  All in One SEO Pack, too, but then improved it because of missing features.

So why did I choose Platinum SEO over All in One SEO Pack? Personally I’ve chosen to make use of Platinum SEO for the following reasons:

1. There are some on-page optimization settings that are missing in AIOSP

2. It allows to set single pages to “noindex” and thus keeps SEs from indexing a website I don’t want listed.

3. Platinum SEO has a feature called “Automatically do 301 redirects for permalink changes”. Which means that you can change the permalink structure of your site if you want to optimize it and still older links to the old structure will not result in “404 page not found”

4. You can switch off the credit back link and are not pushed too hard to make a donation

If you’re already using All-in-one SEO, Platinum SEO has the ability to migrate all your current settings into it’s own setup, which comes very handy.

So a final thought, the key reason I changed was for the ability to set a single page as “nofollow” to hold google from indexing it. In addition to that they are both comparable, and may actually do equally good jobs at SEO.

If you like AIOSP better don’t worry – it will probably work just as fine for you as Platinum SEO does for me.

I will conclude this article with a good article I recently found on the net, and although it was written for AIOSP it actually works with both plugins:

This AIOSP tweak boosted my rankings