It makes me want to scream when it comes to how lost many writers are when it comes to giving respect to their online peers!

I was shown a post in a major online news site where they were talking about the effect you get from Google when you make the home page of Digg. I give him credit for understanding what Linkbait is but Senior Reporter Andy Greenberg goes on to tell us every headline that reaches Digg’s home page receives an average of 129 links. This could have really made me follow what he writes if he could have just given an example of one link in his post! He talks about a few people that I know and respect, but if I were an outsider this post would really be worthless to me. How do I know he did not make all these people up? Who is Neil Patel? I knew who he is but what if I were not as heavy into the Social Media industry?

In all his effort, it really is a great article. But I am hung up on its lack of reference. When he wrote "Chris Winfield, president of search marketing firm 10e20," would it have been so hard to have given Chris a link so someone new to the industry could learn more about him and why he an authority in his niche?

Here is what I suggest, since we are no longer allowed to take these people out behind the barn to tar and feather. We must write up a packet teaching them the effect they would have on their sites if we were all to link to their posts. Outline how they need to know who these people are that they reference and what sites they write for and link to them. Also how to determine if the site is a bad neighborhood to avoid linking. An example Andy Beard offers in his post Linking Abuse Or Linking Awareness.

Next time we gather for a conference I wish to have the writers present themselves so we can offer this to them. Let them see the value of us linking back to them.

It is now after 2AM and my rant is over. If you agree with me help me educate these writers so we can all get along… Or should I start looking for a bag to collect chicken feathers to bring to London?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

How do you build and manage your online reputation?

If you are not posting on a regular time frame you may be hurting your online reputation. A few years ago I could set my watch to a few of the ezines I subscribed to. Each week they were sent to my inbox within a specific time frame. These same ezines were also gathering a very large following with a very low attrition level. What was one of their prized secrets? Simple, it was consistency.

If you are publishing a blog, setup your schedule so that you have a time that specific types of posts are going out.

As an example I am going to begin having guest bloggers once per week.

• Lets say that Monday is Guest Blogger Day.
• Tuesday is review of what guest blogger wrote.
• Wednesday is social media marketing tips Day.
• Thursday could be how to improve your reputation day.
• Friday is a featured article day. On Friday I publish my most important posts.
• Saturday and Sunday could be follow up days to important posts.

The ultimate goal is to keep your readers knowing what to look forward to and thinking of what you are posting next. The SEO value of new fresh content added each day does not hurt you either.

We now offer a personal reputation management plan for CEO’s and other highly visible professionals at a smaller scale.

A few simple steps could make a difference in your blogs usability!

These things are not the total solution to becoming a star of your favorite social network, but hey may help your post get its feet wet. A few days ago I noticed on a blog that as soon as one person voted or submitted a post that many were to follow. I also noted that 70% of the traffic had already been to the page. The results were very disappointing in that out of the 30% of traffic that visited the site after someone had Stumbled it more than half of them stumbled it too. So many visitors were lost to lack of effective usability.

What could have been done in preparation to this surge of traffic and convinced them to take a more active part in the social activities of the blog?

• First thing since it was a post related to SEO I would have submitted it to Sphinn. If it were on another niche I would have found another Pligg type voting site to add it to.
• Next I would have added it to StumbleUpon. This would capture those visitors that do not wish to take the time to write a review, but do thumb up an article they like. Adding some paid Stumbles may also have been a good boost to get it started as well.
• Third option that should have been utilised is the Digg submission and a shout to everyone on the friends list.

When each of these three things are added it is making it that much easier to get your users to interact with your site.

One thing that I did not mention was to make the first comment and be sure to answer each and every comment on your blog. You should always be the last comment on any post.

If you have any more simple methods to make a blog post more user friendly I would love to know them.

Do you know who is visiting your blog? is an example of a post that was not user friendly and did not receive very much in the way of activity. I did nothing to promote this page other than answer a few comments. How would you have helped it along its way? This post had several hundred people read it over several days, but only a few participated.

My name is Mark Laymon, and I would like to get to know each and every person that is visiting this blog!

It is often difficult to meet every person that crosses our path, but I often wonder just who is the person at the other end that is viewing what I write.

You could be new to Internet marketing or you could be a veteran that I have crossed paths with at a conference or two.

Today I am reaching out to everyone that reads this blog to post a comment below with your name and a link to their favorite site. This way I can look into your world and view what you are also doing online.

This is also a way for you to add a link to your site for others to see. Don’t be shy if you have a few links you would like to add I will not stop you.

While you are making your comment, write 5 things that come to your mind when you hear some one say the keyword phrase "Search Engine Optimization"

Today we have our first guest blogger on A-list SEO! Let’s welcome Marcos Azaro. Marcos writes for SEO Consulting - Social Media Optimization and Linkbait Services.

Mark Laymon from A List SEO wrote about User Generated Comments on Blogs and their key importance on developing the community engagement amongst blog audiences. I think we all agree with Mark. If you don’t, I’m dying to know why. But for those of us who do agree with him, how do you make your busy readers take the time to write a post in your blog?

Make an intentional (obvious) omission

Leave something out. Make it obvious. There will be more than one reader happy to call you on it. By doing so you are allowing them to build credibility in front of the rest of your audience. And since many of your readers are bloggers themselves, it’s usually on their interest to build credibility by posting legitimate and useful information.

Take sides on a heated debate

This is one isn’t hard at all. Most successful bloggers have used this resource. You could, for example, claim that the sandbox doesn’t exist (big one in 2006), argue that Matt Cutts is a schmuck, question the lack of transparency and credibility on Digg’s algorithm, support the claim that global warming worries lack credibility. The list could go on and on.

Pick a fight with a character that your audience is familiar with.

Be careful on this one. Don’t take up more than you can chew or you’ll choke fast and miserably. Don’t start as a blogger who no one knows and expect your audience to back you up when you fight a heavyweight. However, when done right this can be very effective. Most of your readers will naturally tend to take sides with you and agree on your claims (mental note: make a post about cognitive dissonance)

Ask for feedback.

Brain dead simple and yet very effective. Want something? Ask for it. Ask for general feedback, or ask for a piece of information that your readers may have. Just ask your readers what they think about something. They’ll be happy to play along.

Post about something personal.

We all make fun of the fact that bloggers blogged so much about their cats, but there is a good reason for it. Personal posts allow bloggers to introduce themselves to their audience. Not what they know about whatever topic they are blogging about. But themselves, and their personality. And guess what, readers are happy to get to know the person behind that wordpress interface. It makes complete sense for your audience to want to know something personal about you, the same way we are always happy to know about some intimate details of the private lives of those actors, musicians and writers that we enjoy.

Make a mistake

Screw up. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake. You are human and your audience will understand that. You don’t need to know it all. Who does? To make mistakes is human, but the beauty is that it gets people talking. So make a mistake and get people to talk about it. Sure, some will be happy to shove it up your face: measure your risks, don’t go ahead and make a silly mistake that could affect your credibility in your core business. I trust you will use this one carefully.

Fix your mistake

By all means: fix your mistake. Show your audience that you can acknowledge your own mistakes and are willing to course correct when it’s necessary. This will increase your overall credibility on all those situations where you disagree with other people. The reaction you are looking for is the following: "If this guy realized he was wrong about Blue Widgets and acknowledged it publicly, it means he is not biased, so I choose to believe what he says about Red Widgets."

Make up a game

This may not be the smartest one of the block but it has proven to work. Silly I-Post-You-Post games have been popular in forums for a reason. So get creative and come up with a silly game for your readers to play and post.

Propose a plan

What do your readers want? Why are they reading you? They must be looking for something. Think about it. When you know what that is make a comprehensive, complete, A to Z post on how your readers can get what they want. You’ll have them right where you want them.

Reveal a secret

Two kinds of people will get all worked up. Those who are mad at you for unveiling the secret, and those who are grateful at you for unveiling the secret.

Will User Generated Comments be the King of Search Engine Optimization? How does this compare to copywriting?

Sites like Digg, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, and the many other user generated content sites are quickly becoming the money making online properties to have. But some smaller user generated sites and niche bloggers are creating some very lucrative properties of their own.

Last night while trolling around TechCrunch I ran across Cookshow, a user generated site made up of videos created by the users. Cookshow is interesting to me since I can now show my skills as a former chef and create my own online cooking show. But what is more important it shows me that as a content creator for many niche sites, I do not necessarily need to be the sole source of content. If I have an area of real estate on my site for users to add their content, they will also want to promote it too. But how do these sites keep users coming back?

Comments! For thirty days I studied several blogs that were very active. Their readers were promoting everything that the bloggers would write. What was the one thing that each of these bloggers did that kept the readers coming back? What made these blogs so sticky that every day I would see the avatars on the MyBlogLog widget spinning? It was simple! The bloggers were interacting with their readers in the comments. Most posts would have from 5 to 20 responses to the comments made.

So how do I capture this user generated comment content? Do what they are doing! If it works for bloggers like Quadzilla, Maki, Andy Beard, Marty Weintraub, Lyndon Antcliff, and Darren Rowse just to name a few, why can’t it work for both you and I? Each of those bloggers have utilized their social skills to make friends with their readers. With only a few comments they can create a loyal reader. Just think if you could interact with every reader that came to your blog. Then convert them to be a dedicated subscriber of your content. Do you think that they are willing to communicate with you on your blog? Yes, of course they will! This content that they create with their comments is what you want on your site. You can’t pay for content as good as this. The risk of duplication is nearly zero when you begin to add a long string of comments to your posts.

Think about this for a minute. What would you rather have, a 2000 word essay on your site about your product, or a 200 word post with 2000 words in the comment section below your post all created by individuals with different outlooks?

Update: I have just stumbled across this related post: Content or Community, The Red Pill or the Blue?

 Reputation Management

How do YOU thank someone that has added a brand sparkling new link to your fantastic blog?

Over the past few days I have been asking others how they respond to their peers, when their peers have added a link to their post and now they have a trackback sitting there staring back at them. Most just place a thank you comment or email and go on to never look back. This disappoints me very much when they could do so much more.

If you are one of the many that do this, you are hindering what could be an even bigger asset. Links are a commodity online. We trade, borrow and beg for them. (But never buy them) Then when we get them we often do not look outside the box at how we can improve that link and help the person that gave us the link in the first place.

I have a urgent task for you that can not wait! Next time someone adds a link to your site. As soon as the trackback appears in your email or control panel, do your normal "thank you" like you normally would. Next I would like to see you go out and look at how you can add at least 5 new links into the page that is linking to you.

If you do this each time that you receive a trackback, you know that you are not only helping yourself with a quality link, but you are returning a favor that someone has done for you. But I also don’t want you to run out and tell them you did this either. That is just a secret between you and your blog.

If possible look for a quality link that your friend may not be able to acquire.

 Reputation Management

My version of how to do well in Sphinn

This weekend I was under the weather so I was not too active. But I wanted to let a few readers know I am still alive. So I created my 5 methods to Sphinn fame.

• First and foremost don’t talk about Danny Sullivan. It will get you nowhere. In fact, only talk about yourself.
• Second, whatever you do, do not post comments on other peoples posts. Especially Chris Winfield’s. Most Sphinn users do not like comments on their posts. I am sure that Lyndon does’t want your input either.
• The third thing you need to avoid doing is to return private messages. We are here to work, not make friends. So stop returning private messages to Marty. Just don’t send them.
• Fourth item that is just as important. You must vote without reading the post. Since you do not need to make a comment, there is no reason to even read the post. The title should give you enough information.
• The fifth "Fool Proof Plan" to Sphinn fame is to submit only your own posts. Again this is work. Do not help the other guy. They will not vote for you anyway.
• Finally the sixth thing is write another stupid "Sphinn How To" post. Yes, I said five, but I can’t count today.

Now that you are done reading this, Digg one of Tamar’s pages and tell her how much better Digg is today!

Are you still reading this? If you are still reading this let me know if the RSS subscription method is working. By adding me to your favorite RSS reader I can spam you with each and every post. 

PS: Ask Andy to Sphinn it for you after you already submitted it. It makes him blush!

 Reputation Management

Zap a Yahoo Mash Pet!

There is a new game in town! If you have received your invite to Yahoo Mash you have seen all of the new Mash Pets. This has created a new game. When you follow threw with an action, like zap the Mash Pet, on Yahoo Mash it creates a link back to your profile. From what I have seen this is a great ice breaker to meet people who are also using Yahoo Mash. I do not recommend killing someones Mash Pet! They may retaliate and change your profile to something not so pretty. Just a warning…

There is a bonus to either feeding, zapping or petting a Yahoo Mash Pet. A backlink is created going to your profile. While adding backlinks to your profile the action also creates more weight to your profile for future profile building!

So how many Mash Pets can you zap in an hour?

Don’t yet have a Yahoo Mash invite? Why not? Just ask in a comment below and you will receive one in your email!

When reading this, you are admitting that you want to be a filthy rich SEO slumlord that carries massive amounts of money to the bank in wheel borrows! You may nod your head in agreement now!

Sorry to burst your pretty pink bubble, but making money like a real estate slumlord does not work very fast. It will take large amounts of time and an effective strategy to make it work for you.

While watching an infomercial that never seemed to end, I realized the connection between being a highly profitable slumlord and an online niche portal builder. The two really are not that far apart.

The infomercial was not directly telling you to become a slumlord, but it was pointing out the art of making massive amounts of residual money in real estate is to own a property that houses many people. When you own a property with multiple tenants you can have occupants pay many times the cost of the mortgage each month. The excess money that is paid into your bank account creates a substantial positive cash flow. How would you like a positive cash flow going into your bank account? I know I would!

Let’s get strait to the heart of how a slumlord and a niche portal are similar. Both have multiple sources of cash flow. That is it! Really is that simple to understand. Do I need to repeat myself? Both have multiple sources of cash flow…

To make a niche portal site work for you, you will need content that creates traffic to the site and in sequence sell advertising to someone willing to have their links on your site. If you have been online for more than a year, you will know that affiliate marketing dominates a vast amount of online real estate. This brings us to the point of either buying a prime property that has already been developed or creating our own. Buying a niche portal can be as easy as going to your browser and searching eBay. You may also spend some time diving deep into Moniker or one of many locations that sell both domains and full blown online businesses. (you are a pervert, get back to the story) As a bonus, an already developed niche portal may also have traffic piling on to it from many of the search engines. Either way when buying a developed site or creating one for yourself you need content to build traffic and sell links!

Today I am looking at crafting an entire niche portal from scratch.

So this brings us to our first major decision. What is our niche? Well that should be easy for you. What do you like? Are you an avid dog fan like Michael Vick, do you like furry little kittens like Hugh Hefner did in the 70’s, or do you want to show that you are just as good at parenting your little lumps of joy as Britney Spears is with her two children? We in the Internet marketing industry have been standing on rooftops screaming at the tops of our lungs for you to build your niche about what YOU LOVE. There is bound to be others that like the same things as you. Creepy as that may be. Exploit that deeply rooted niche!

About now you are asking what does this all have to do with SEO!!!

Content! Content is the driving force of your portal. Content is also the driving force that all of the crazed SEO’s are pounding away on their computers each and every day. Creating this quality content must be of interest to you, but it must also be interesting to others. At this point we want to know what the keyword phrases are that people are using to search for your content. Wordze is what I am using today, but WordTracker and many others out there work just as well.

What about the online real estate? Do we need a domain name? 

The perfect domain name is next in our quest to create this niche portal. Just how do we begin to choose a relevant domain that creates enough interest for searchers to click? You should look at a domain that has some age to it. Using the services of Moniker or one of many aftermarket domain name resellers are your best option here. Get a domain that has a minimum of two years on the registration. This helps with building credibility right out of the gate. Search engines love aged domains. I will let you in on a little secret. With an aged domain you also have an edge over a new one with affiliate companies too.

Hosting and software is your next adventure.

Web hosting is a farcical industry in my opinion. There are literally thousands out there and all of them, no matter how hard I try, I can’t find one that does not SUCK! But I do recommend that you choose one that has cpanel with fantastico. This helps with installing your CMS (Content Management System) on your server. The CMS is what powers your niche portal. Without it your site is just a plain site. A CMS will help you to organize your site so you can use the benefits of web 2.0 to you advantage. What do I man by web 2.0? With you CMS your visitors can and will be able to add content to your niche portal. Yes, that is right! They help build the site for you. I tend to prefer WordPress for my CMS since it uses a blog for the home page and I can create static pages in the background. I can also setup WordPress so a guest blogger can have their own column and be able to access their work from a remote location.

Back to niche portal content creation!

There are many ways of creating content for your niche portal. First there is scraping the article directories. Yes, I did just tell you to scrape a database of content. Scraping is not always a bad thing. As long as you make sure you are giving credit to the content creator, they are more than willing to give you their content for FREE. Writing the content yourself is also a way to build on your niche portals content. This sites content is written specifically just for this site. An advantage to writing your own content is there is less risk of the duplicate content factor in the search engine indexes. If the content was written for your portal and is located nowhere else, the chance of duplicate content has greatly diminished. Also when you write content for your site, you are the one to choose what keyword phrases are used. The next option is to use guest bloggers. Many bloggers would jump at the chance to write a column in your niche portal. When a guest blogger writes for you they are showing your audience an entire new perspective that you may not give them.

You have your site up and traffic is coming in, now what?

Now is the time to monetize your niche portal. Text links are the option of choice for most niche portals and affiliate programs are close behind. If you are giving quality content to your visitors then your traffic bounce rate will show in the analytics of your site. This is very important if you are selling links to your consumer. If you can show that your site is not just creating traffic but retaining them, they know that visitors will be returning to your site and this increases the odds of them clicking on their text links. Now is the time to broach the subject of no-follow links. Google, at the current time of writing this, does not like you purchasing text links that are not utilizing the no-follow tags. I personally think this is not a fair play on their end. I have been using text links long before they were even a company. So if I want to buy a link I think that I have the right to not use the no-follow tag. Your next option is to use one of the major affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are a great addition to your content creation. Consider that when you write a post focusing on a specific item, the reader would like to know more about how they may acquire this item. Why not have a way for them to get that item at a click length away. I still believe the reason Google does not want you to sell text links is that their AdSense program is in competition with this monetization method. Google does not want to share in the overall business model, so I am not going to give them more credit, other than they also have a method for you to monetize your niche portal.

So what’s next in creating this niche portal you ask?

Wait a minute; I do not know who you are, so why do I want to give you all my secrets? I am done writing today. It is my time to develop a niche portal on one of my ten year old domains. Go find your own niche portal! This should be enough information to get your juices flowing with ideas on how you can make massive amounts of money with your own niche portal. Now go away. But don’t forget to click on a link or too in the process!

 Reputation Management