It was another exciting week in the world of Internet marketing. Google actually made a number of announcements on Friday, but I’m going to discuss those in a post next week (foreshadowing FTW!).
As usual, I’m going to focus on great posts that were published this week. But I have to warn you: I went a little overboard on “list” posts this week. So… if you love lists, you’re going to love these posts. And if you hate them, well… you’ll come around by the time we’re done ;-).
10 Twitter Mistakes That Make You Look Clueless
Twitter has fundamentally changed the way we communicate and share information online. If used properly, it can be a marketer’s most valuable tool. But if used improperly, you can end up like this guy:
Don’t go to Twitter jail! Read this post by Frank Viola, and avoid these 10 Twitter mistakes:
- Repeating the same tweet over and over again – I know you’re proud of your new blog post, but throttle your enthusiasm and only tweet about it once or twice.
- Repeating the same tweet multiple times, tagging all the people you want to see the post – There are better ways to contact people without spamming everyone else’s timeline.
- Retweeting compliments and posts that extol your own work – Try to be humble. Thank people for their compliments, but don’t announcement them to the world (I have to admit I’m guilty of this sometimes :-P).
- Only tweeting your own work – Your followers want to know about your work, but they also want to know what you find interesting. Plus, if you help promote others, they will help promote you!
- Asking questions that demand long answers – Twitter is made for quick, 140 character thoughts. Save the diatribes for other venues.
- Overwhelming your Twitter followers with too many tweets in a day – Respect your followers, and try not to spam their timelines.
- Not thinking before you tweet – Make sure you really want others to see what you’re about to tweet. If there’s any doubt, keep it to yourself!
- Never Retweeting others – You want to avoid being too self-absorbed. When others have interesting thoughts, share those thoughts with your followers.
- Never checking or responding to your Direct Messages – People typically send Direct Messages to discuss topics that are too sensitive for the general public. As a result, it’s usually disrespectful not to at least read those messages.
- Tweeting things that contain no value for your readers – This goes back to respecting your followers. Don’t waste their time, and try to add value to their timelines!
101 Ways to Link Build in 2012
Ever since Google unleashed the Penguin Update, people have been scrambling to find ways to build links in a post-Penguin world. In this post, Sujan Patel drops a giant knowledge bomb in the form of 101 link building techniques! That’s right… 1-0-1!!
Sujan’s list is broken down into 9 categories, which I have summarized below (along with my favorite link building technique from each category). For more details, you’ll need to read the full post.
- From Your Website – These are all techniques that focus on leveraging your website to acquire links. My favorite tip from this section involves adding TYNT to your site to generate a backlink when others copy and paste your site’s copy.
- Using Specific Types of Blog Posts – These techniques include content creation ideas that are proven to generate traffic (and backlinks). Specific types include controversial posts and comprehensive “how to” posts.
- On Social Media Websites – This category focuses on leveraging social media to generate links. These techniques include sharing documents on sites such as Scribd and SlideShare, posting videos on YouTube, and answering questions on Q&A sites such as Quora.
- Through Promotions – These techniques focus on promotional activities such as coupons, contests, and events.
- Using Traditional Techniques – These are all techniques that you’ll see on almost every link building list. My favorite technique in this category involves being interviewed by the media (and having them link to your site in the interview). HARO is a great service for reaching out to the media to acquire these links.
- Via Product Creation – This category focuses on creating something valuable to attract links. We obviously love this approach because we offer a free eBook, a free SEO analysis service, and free website badges.
- Through Link Reclamation – These techniques help you take advantage of pre-existing linking opportunities. The easiest (and most) effective approach in this category involves redirecting 404 URLs (or recreating content for those URLs) to capture link juice.
- With Unconventional Techniques – All of these techniques are labeled unconventional, but many of them are fairly standards (e.g., posting a job listing, joining the Better Business Bureau, etc.).
- If You Have a Lot of Time or Money – This category includes techniques that require significantly more time and money than the previous techniques. Obviously, my favorite approach in this category involves hiring an SEO agency (you know… because we’re an SEO agency :-)).
7 Lessons My $1.8 Billion Competitor, Omniture, Taught Me Over The Last 7 Years
In case you didn’t already know, Neil Patel is a writing machine (and a pretty kick ass entrepreneur). In this post, he presents 7 lessons that are valuable to marketers and business owners alike.
Read the post for the details, but here’s a summary of the lessons:
- Best Product ≠ Biggest Company – History is littered with examples of inferior products ultimately winning the hearts of consumers. The bottom line is that the quality of your product is only factor in your company’s success.
- Sales is the quickest way to grow a software company – You don’t need a finished product to begin making sales, but you do need a finished sales pipeline to being making money.
- The more you integrate the higher your lifetime value – This is very simple. As you embed yourself deeper and deeper into the products and services of your customers, they rely on you more and more.
- Mindshare = sales – If potential customers think about you more than your competitors, you’re going to get more business than your competitors.
- If you can’t beat them, buy them – Competition is often more expensive than acquisition. Additionally, acquisitions allow you to gain market share quickly, which immediately helps your bottom line.
- It’s better to have short term pain and long term gain, than it is to have short term gain and long term pain – You need to operate with the big picture in mind. If a small setback in the short term leads to a large breakthrough in the long term, it’s worth the initial pain.
- Location matters – You want to base your organization where your ideal employees are located.
How Google Finds Unnatural Links to Your Website
In this post, Christoph C. Cemper explains how to uncover a large link network (without actually joining the network). And he uses this excellent infographic to do so:
