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Monday 12 May 2014

What Are Backlinks and How Do You Create Them?

Webmasters, internet marketers and bloggers are very familiar with the term backlinks and what it does to a website. People who never start a website and never heard of backlinks will one day become familiar with them. This is because backlinks have great effects to a certain website. It shows that the particular website is popular and talked around any other website or forums.

Now the main question, what is a backlink? Wikipedia defines backlink as:
    "Backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node." – Wikipedia

For easier understanding, backlinks are your website’s signature that you leave behind when you visit another website, forums and any other social interactions on the web. When other people who want to know more about you or your website, they will click on those links and they will be directed to your personal webpage, Facebook fan page, google+, blog, twitter or any other thing that you want visitors to go. In this case, usually people will drive traffic to their blog or blog post.

If you see the backlinks definition by Wikipedia, you realize that there are a few types of backlinks that you can create. We will go to that part later. Let’s stay at the basic first. The basic thing about backlinks is they are supposed to help your website rank better in search engines and they are good for SEO.

When you create backlinks for your website, it is closely related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and your website’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Hundreds and thousands of backlinks means that your website is popular among internet users and it will push your website to higher ranking when internet users do search term related to your website topic.

Backlinks can be created manually or automatically. Manual backlinks are when you go to a certain website and comment, post or submit your link yourself. This is quite tiring but it is the best way to do it or at least pay someone to do it. Automatic back linking is when you do backlinks using certain software which is usually paid software. All you have to do is put your website url there and it will magically send your website link to any bookmarking site.

In terms of SEO, the term black hat, grey hat and white hat will be most commonly used. It is like doing SEO with ethics whether it is bad, moderate or nice. Good backlinks means your website is SEO friendly.

Black Hat SEO

These techniques are not ethical at all. It is aggressive and usually done automatically with software that usually created by the user or that you can buy from software’s black market.  The results in doing black hat are extremely fast and you can get rank on 1st page of Google. Creating backlinks using black hat techniques are super-fast but it is useless. Most of the backlinks are created using bots which is considered spamming.

The black hat techniques don’t last long. Google and other search engines are not that stupid. That is why Google launch the Panda and Penguin algorithms. After these cute animals are unleashed, many websites are taking its toll and de-ranked from their original rank. Many people thought that these algorithms are bad but I personally think it’s good. These algorithms create a fair play in the SEO field. It means that only those who work hard to create their website are acknowledged by Google.

At this time, many webmasters don’t use black hat anymore although a few may still have but what is the use? Nobody creates a website just to get punished by Google. In other word it means that you also have to be a good boy and girl and work your way to the top.

Grey Hat SEO

This is the most used SEO techniques in the whole internet world, well at least for webmasters and bloggers. Grey hat are also aggressive but in ethical ways compared to black hat that use force to knock down their competitors. Black hat also mostly related to hacking.

Grey hat are also a bad boy but for good intention. It is hard to explain but it’s like Robin Hood on the internet, on steroids. People who use grey hat techniques will break the law but not for their own personal gain. What even better is, people who use grey hat techniques are considered not breaking any rules and will get away with it.

Webmasters who used the grey hat techniques will also get fast results for their website but not as fast as using the black hat techniques. Grey hat users will see their results in a month or a few months later compared to black hat users that will see results in weeks.

White Hat SEO

Need I to say more about white hat techniques? I’m guessing that you already know about what white hat techniques are. It is the most religious and polite kind of way to create backlinks. It follows all the rules on the internet and it doesn’t even tend to break any of the rules.

To use white hat techniques in creating backlinks and to get good rank can take a lot of time. Some website even takes up to six months to get to first page of Google and some even take years. Don’t let this discourage you. The long term effect is what we want. Your website will be at first page of Google for a very long time like..forever. That is unless you frequently update your content and follow the update of Google algorithms.

Commenting on Facebook DOES NOT create backlinks, it works only on websites


Now you already know what are the techniques involve in creating backlinks, we will move on to identify the types and terms of backlinks. Being a webmaster or a blogger, there are so many internet terms that you should know and what does it mean. I will try my best to make it easier to understand so that you don’t have to worry about the little details.

The “backlinks” term

Incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links are all backlinks. You don’t have to worry about what they really mean. All you need to worry about is how to create them. These terms are used to identify specifically on what kind of backlinks you have outside your website. All those terms are just backlinks that point back to your website and getting your website’s SERP on steroids.

There are three types of backlinks that people usually used to create to point back to their website. One is using the whole website url ex. http://imd208blog.blogspot.com/ . The other one is using anchor text or images which look like this. The last one is using your avatar as backlinks when you comment on other blogs or when you join a forum. The process of creating backlinks are called link building.
    “Anchor Text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. In modern browsers, it is often blue and underlined.” – MOZ

Let’s make this a lot easier to understand. All you need to know is external links and internal link, also known as deep linking. External links are already explained above. It all about the links outside your website whether you create them automatically or manually or created by other people. 

Internal link or deep linking is links inside your website specifically on you posts. When you create a new post, you can add a few links that direct readers to older post by using anchor text or the title itself. Creating deep links are also good for SEO because those links will also be crawled by search engines. Another good thing is users will have no trouble browsing your older content. All they have to do is click on those links.

How To Create Backlinks?

There are two ways that you can create backlinks. The first one is to create them manually. Creating backlinks manually means you have to look for other websites, forums, social medias, bookmarking sites and article submission site and put your links there. Your links can be your website url or using anchor links which I prefer better.

To create automatic backlinks, you have to use online features that are available which can be free or paid. Most people use the free service and I know you will also but there are bigger advantages if you use the paid service. You can choose which service suits you. For beginner, I suggest you use the free service because I know you don’t have a lot to spend and you want to save as much as you can.

Create Backlinks Manually

Blog commenting

Comment on other blogs with high PR (minimum 4) with the same niche as you are. If you are in cooking niche, why would you comment on car repair niche? You get the idea there right? Most of all, those links that you create at different niche will have a negative effect to your blog.

How do you leave your link there? You will find out when you write your comment. Most websites allow readers to leave comments and also their email and website. Now for the tricky part when commenting, DO NOT use your homepage url when leaving comment. Instead, put your post url. There is nothing wrong to put your website url but isn’t it better using backlink directly to your post? As I said before, it is easy for other readers to click your link and directed to your post.

Submit your article

You can submit your article to any article directories. There are a lot of article directories on the internet. You can choose to send to them all if you want. The more, the merrier it will be. This is not as easy as you think. The best article directories will review your article first before it is posted live. They have to make sure that your article is unique, free of grammatical mistake and never been posted before in any other website.

With my bad English command, I also have trouble submitting my articles there. I have to edit and read it a few times before being approved. Below is the list of article directories that are mostly used by bloggers. Before sending to other article directories, pass these three first. Good luck for that.
Don’t get me wrong. Your job is not finish here. When you pass these top three article directories, you also have to send it to other article directories. You can find them using Google. It seems that this part involves a lot of work but don’t worry, there are tools to help you do that but it is not free. Use one tool is enough.

Join forums

Joining any forums will not help you. You have to stick to your niche. Go to Google and type your niche + forum. Don’t just register, be active. Give comments and ask questions. I am sure there will be someone who will answer you.

How will you get backlinks by joining forums? It is almost the same as blog commenting. But using blog commenting it is hard to find blogs who allow links on their comment. Some blog owners think that is spamming. It is a different story with forums. They allow you to put links or even url. There is one forum that I join even let their members post about their blog there.

Use social media

Social medias are the most highly active communication hub today. People tend to be lazy and they won’t do anything. All they need is a laptop or smartphones and chit chat all day using Facebook, Google+, Myspace and so much more..much..much more. Get that fingers busy and create an account at any social media network that you like and promote you blog. Post a few of your blog content there and don’t forget those backlinks.

Guest post

For people who are still new to internet marketing or the blogging world, do not think that guest post is an easy thing to do. Many website owners go blog hunting trying to find anyone who wants to add them as a guest poster. What they do not know is not all website owners accept guest posting on their blog for some reason. The common reasons are they don’t even read your email, they don’t trust you and you don’t have the credibility to post on their blog.

Personally, I hate this option for creating backlinks. The blogs that you are going to hunt must be high in PR and already long enough on the internet. That is why those people have to scan their guest bloggers. But on the other hand, it is not impossible. Keep on contacting these sites and show them your blog. Not all website owners will ignore you.

One advice that I want to tell you is don’t ignore your readers and people that contact you via email. If you think the person is not suitable as your guest poster, tell them. Don’t ignore and keep quiet about it. You will lose readers and credibility on your blog if you do that. Remember that you were once like them. Help those people if they really need your help.

Social bookmarking

Social bookmarking is keeping your website address and categorized them in categories for future retrieval. Easy to say, it is like in a library where books are kept in a manner for easy finding by library users. However, for SEO purpose, social bookmarking does not help like it used to be. For the purpose of link building, you can give it a try.

It is the same concept as your browser’s bookmarking process. When you like a certain website or post that entertain you, you will bookmark it. You will no longer have to browse them using your browser. Who knows that those website will lose their rank in the near future.

Even though submitting your website to social bookmark page does not increase your website’s SERP, it is still a good way to give your link away. Register to a few websites below and continue to submit your website. Do not use automation in any of them. It is better to do it yourself.

Use authority sites

What are authority sites? They are websites with high PR, trusted and full of information. To get them to link to you is super hard. If you write some crap, misleading and non-useful content, you will not get your backlink from them. In real life, you can imagine authority sites are like the local council, police, government, giant companies and so on. You’ll get the idea.

These sites allow you to write for them but like I said before, what you write must be unique and informative. This is because these authority sites have to maintain their reputation as one of the high ranking website on the internet. They don’t want their readers to get scammed or misled. Don’t even try to write any controversies if you don’t have solid proof for what you write.

Luckily, there are some authority sites that you can easily put your backlinks there. But you still have to watch out for your content. Even if your content is live, it will be removed if you don’t follow their protocol. Here is a few that you can register to:

 Link baiting

Doing link baiting is easy but to get them to work is sometimes unexpected. To link bait, you create a post linking to another blog without being asked to do it. It is totally on your own free will. It doesn’t matter if you create a link text or their website url as long as links to the other website.

The trick behind the linking part is to get the attention of the other websites that you link to so that they realize that you exist. If you are lucky, they will link back to you. How good does that sound to you? Having a free backlink from high authority sites are very rare indeed so you must do it carefully with a lot of planning first.

Like always, make sure that your website is reliable to readers and has enough articles to browse for and don’t forget you must be at the same niche. Well, the concept is also the same with blog commenting. Go for the first few people who linked to that particular article, the best is the top ten people.
 

RSS Submission

This is the only automation in creating backlinks that is allowed today. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. I guess that most people know about what is RSS feed and I think I’ll pass the explanation part moreover we are talking about creating backlinks here. So we stick on how to create backlinks for your website.

Submitting your website’s RSS feed is the easiest part in back linking. All you have to do is take your RSS url, paste and click submit using Feedage which is free to use. You also can do it manually by sending your RSS feed to any RSS directories site. The list below is a few examples. There are a lot more RSS directory sites available online.

Create Backlinks Automatically

Unfortunately, I will not share on how to create your backlinks automatically. It is because any automation or anything involving bots will be penalized by Google. Your website will not rank well because of this. If you are aware which I know you would, that Google create new algorithm in their searches. Any low quality links will be penalized.

So, don’t waste your time learning about how to automate your backlinks in other websites. For my personal opinion, Google want us to be honest in creating a website or blog. By doing this, Google creates an opportunity for all internet marketers and the lazy will be left behind. Only the determine will stay. 

Conclusion

For conclusion about backlinks, there is no other way than to create them manually. If it is too tiring for you, outsource. Pay someone to do it for you.  No one really knows exactly how Google algorithms really work except for the Google boys themselves. It is good to play safe for long term effects.

Google change their algorithm every five years. When they do that, it's like they're 'cleaning' their search results. To be safe from those algorithms, go for white hat. It is slow indeed but it is the best technique if you want a long term business with your blog. But most important, write for people, not for Google.

 

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Appreciate Your Readers

One thing that I really hate when emailing, commenting or contacting any blog owners is their lack of response. I think that I am not alone in this situation. Just imagine that you are only starting to draft your way to your own internet business and you want a few advice or even one piece of advice but you get nothing. It’s kind of disappointing but it is something that you must keep in mind.

I comment and emailed a few very successful blogs around the internet even before I started blogging. It’s not that I am looking for advice but I was commenting or asking directly at the post. Out of curiosity, I comment and ask about the blog post but get no reply. Not just me but everyone that was commenting did not get a reply. What we do at that time was we answered each others questions.

It was a terrible experience for me for not being treated as a guest in someone’s house. Not only this was happening a few years ago but these kinds of bloggers still exist today. That will be my last day in visiting such blogs. I don’t care how much money you make or how successful you are, you can get lost from my sight!

A real successful blogger will always reply to their readers. You should always remember this. Some bloggers hired other people to reply their emails or comment for them but it doesn’t matter. As long as your name is used, your readers will be happy enough to hear your reply. If you don’t reply at any comment or email, people will start to leave your blog and may never return again.

I get it when you said that you are busy with other commitments. You can reply late or leave a message asking your readers to wait. It doesn’t hurt to wait if you ask your readers to wait for you. Like being mentioned above, you can always hire someone else to do it if you are busy. Having an online business is like having a physical business. It can take away a lot of your time but don’t let it be in your way.

Conclusion


Take care of your readers. They are the one who makes your blog successful and also who will become your customers. Appreciate every single comment that they leave or any emails that they sent to you. A short reply won’t hurt. As long as your readers get what they want, they will surely be happy about it.

Have any comments? Leave it below and I will surely REPLY..GET IT? LOL..

Thursday 17 April 2014

Fiverr Review on Gigs Offered

Fiverr.com is a website that promotes gigs for people who wants to make some extra cash online. They use the term ‘gig’ for the services offered. People who have expertise (even a little) can register their gigs at Fiverr for quick cash. I found myself is also interested to put my gig there. I love to write for about anything and maybe one day I’ll post my gigs there (don’t forget to purchase lol).

If you head to Fiverr now, you will notice most of the gigs are insanely cheap. For a basic gig offered, it will cost flatly just $5.00. That is just the basic gig. If you want more ‘intensive’ and ‘accurate’ gig, you have to pay more. But it is still considered cheap than hiring someone from Odesk and Elance. For an extra gig, they will cost about $10 to a few hundred dollars. But mostly you will find it is up to $50.

The ordering process is also very easy. You can order any gig by using your Paypal account or Bitcoin. With a few clicks, you are good to go with the order. This is the best part that I like about Fiverr. There are no hassles when ordering. It is better than buying stuffs online.  I hope other website will learn this kind of stuff from Fiverr. Everyone is a consumer, can’t they see what makes people lives easier?

For internet marketer who wants to make a few bucks to kill time, this is the right place to look for. Considering the pay is cheap, the services are also quite simple. There are a lot of gig types like article writing, resume writing, buy facebook ‘likes’, get twitter followers, get website traffic, learn to play musical instruments, design a web page and so much more for just $5.00.

Other people who needs their job quickly done or don’t have the time to do their work, Fiverr is the best alternative to search for the appropriate services needed. Like I said at the above paragraph, the purchasing process is as smooth as silk. It’s easy to use and the job that you require will be done in no time. The period of time stated is 24 hours. Most work will be done during that time period except if they ask for extra time.

Choose your gig wisely. I spend a lot of money at Fiverr because I wasn’t satisfied with the work done. The gigs advertised are rated by user but high rated ads will usually have their hands full. I have no other choice but to pick other low or unrated gigs. Contact the gig advertiser before you do any purchase. Ask any question before agreeing with the purchasing. 

Fiverr
It is quite a terrible experience for me at Fiverr during the first few purchase. As I was adjusting myself with Fiverr environment, I become better at choosing. You cannot bargain the price but you can choose which one you prefer. Once purchase is made, you cannot take it back however you can do a cancellation at the beginning of your order if you feel that you don’t need the service anymore.

Bad experiences don’t stop me from purchasing more gigs. The trick behind any purchase is the choosing part. You must choose carefully. For as low as $5, don’t expect the gig offered is the best but some advertisers are the best in their business. If you don’t like the gig after it is delivered, you can give negative comments to the advertiser and learn from your mistake.

Conclusion
For conclusion on Fiverr and their gigs, I think they still give the best offer any money can buy. It does worth the money spend. There might be bad services but when you think back it’s only for five bucks, you get what you pay for.

To avoid getting bad business with the advertiser, contact the advertiser first and see whether he or she is responding fast or bargaining for their service. If you are not satisfied, don’t place your order. It is a simple as that. 

If you are thinking about placing your own gig at Fiverr, that is the best place to start to advertise your service. I think most people go to Fiverr now because of their cheap and fast product and services delivery. You can place more than one gig at a time. 

Disagree with me? Add a comment below and share your thoughts. For those who never visited Fiverr, go and check for yourself at Fiverr.com.

Friday 11 April 2014

Blogging Is That Damn Hard

Have everyone tried blogging yet? You may not be influenced by me maybe some other blogging gurus out there that may be your coach or trainer. I hoped somebody will tell their story with me and other readers on their personal opinion when blogging. Experience is the best teacher in life. What makes you tomorrow is your own experience.

I will share mine first. For anyone who already started blogging, they will realize that it is not as easy as they think. That is why only a few survived the blogging world. With millions of blogs out there, there is almost no chance of survival. Many can start a blog but many can’t maintain it and they will give up. Don’t think blogging is a piece of cake if you never blog before.

The reason I blog is to share my experience and I want my readers to feel what I feel. I love to influence others by my writing even though my English is not that perfect. As long as readers understand what I’m trying to say will be enough for me. The feelings that when everyone read what comes out from your head is priceless. It’s worth more than all the money in the world.

Feels like giving up?
It is important to blog about something that you are passionate about. I’ve read about this but I can’t put it in the right word. Describing feelings is my weakness but I try to make you understand. Blogging is actually like a job or hobby. Don’t think about money first. Get your job going and you will reap on what you sow. If you have a daily job, you will understand this. No job means no money.

For me, readers are more important. Concentrate on bringingtraffic to your blog rather than focusing on trying to make money. A blog is an online journal, don’t forget about that. How can you write a journal when nobody wants to read your blog? Bring readers first, and then you can make money. Bringing traffic to your blog is the main obstacle that you must overcome because it is the hardest part of blogging. For this reason also, many will give up.

Avoid negative thinking in your head. Don’t listen to those voices in your head saying “you are not good enough”, “nobody wants to read those crap you write”, “there are too many competitors” or “this blog will take years to develop”. If you are not sure if blogging suits you, do many experiments. Create a few blogs from free blogging platform. If you love what you are doing, then you can go for paid domains.

Here are examples of obstacles when you start a blog:

  • Lack of idea in writing
  • Lazy to update your blog
  • Not consistent in updating your blog
  • Too many competitors those are obviously better than you
  • No traffic (don’t know how to get traffic)
  • No traffic (too lazy to find traffic)
  • Always doing things for money (this can really frustrates you)
  • Thinks that blogging is easy
  • Don’t care about asking for help
  • Give up too quick

I can list down a hundred more obstacles if I want to. This is just the example. People are different and they see things differently. Some may give up for a while but they will continue back what they have started. Some people just give up and do something else. Not all people are lucky enough to head straight to success. Almost all have to work hard.

Discipline yourself if you want to blog. Some people see blogging as an impossible way to make money. This is certainly almost true. You can make a few cents and a few bucks per month but to really make money seems impossible. But think back again, if you can make a few cents or a few bucks, it means that you can make money by blogging. 

Conclusion

Blogging is a business and no businessman starts their empire in a blink of an eye. You have to work hard. Let’s stop talking about blogging for now. Talk about starting an outlet, shop, stalls or any other physical business. You will again face the same problem. You don’t get successful if you don’t do anything. You have to advertise and introduce your business to others.

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Top 10 List About Things You Should Never Forget If You Have A New Blog

You set up a blog or you bought one, get your post ready or at least some ideas, post it to your blog and everything should be fine, right? Wrong! I’ve been doing this for a few months but I can’t seem to get traffic to my blog. It bugs me for a while then I realize I didn’t do anything to improve the blog’s SEO and keywords.


Being a blogger means that you always do the same thing with a new blog in your possession. There are no other ways to get traffic to your blog. Doing the same thing every time can make your brain forgetful. Sometimes you are too busy with your personal schedule and you will tend to forget about small stuff about your blog.

I was truly devastated knowing that I don’t have good traffic to my blog for no apparent reason. But it’s not anyone’s fault. I’m only tired and couldn’t remember to set up the SEO pluggin and everything else. The only thing I remember was just to post my article every two days. Then I have to continue with my work and study. 

This is not a long post. I only want to remind you about the things that you might forget to do with your blog. Remember that you should always keep this list on your note so that you would not forget. Here is the top 10 list:


  • Do keyword research
  • Set up your SEO
  • Wait for your blog’s traffic results
  • Do a few experiments with your tweak to get the best result
  • Test your blog again
  • Comment on other blogs/competitor
  • Join forums
  • Be active on the internet/be social
  • Update your social account often
  • Build your relationship with readers