Increase In Lameness
I go from having a blog to being on Twitter. I can feel my lameness overcoming me as we speak.
But in all seriousness, follow me if you’re on twitter and let me know you’re not a dirty Twitter spammer and I’ll follow you back. I don’t have time to write up long blog posts, but I’m hoping I’ll use twitter more often than I’ve been posting here (which has been never, lately).
Welcome to Lameville!
I’m Buying Links
If you work at Google, please stop reading this post.
I’ve started buying some links for one of my sites (not this one!). I started using TNX and I’ve been pretty happy with the results. I looked at some other link buying platforms, but the problem is that they expose the sites that are participating. With Google supposedly cracking down on paid links that business model just doesn’t work anymore.
It was pretty easy to get started with TNX: I signed up and created a campaign to advertise one of my gray hat sites. It then took a couple days (I think) for them to approve the site. I didn’t get notified, but the next time I logged in it was approved. I wish they had sent me an email or smoke signal or something to let me know.
I also tried to sell links on one of my black hat sites, but that site wasn’t approved. Trust me when I say that this is a good thing for TNX. Had they approved that site I would have questioned buying links from them. I do think they allow you to buy links TO your BH sites, but they don’t allow you to sell links FROM them.
Once my site was approved I added $50 to my account and started creating “orders” which is how they fulfill your link requests. Each order is a combination of PR, number of Yahoo backlinks, category, and language. I think the ability to specify PR, Yahoo backlinks, and language is HUGE. PR has become the de facto method of measuring a link’s worth, but we all know it isn’t effective. Adding the number of backlinks at Yahoo gives another data point that can help you decide if a link is worth it or not.
Just as an example, one of my orders is for sites that have a PR2, with at 500-5000 Yahoo backlinks, in the E-commerce niche, with english as the primary language. There are 4000+ combinations of orders and the TNX system encourages you to create at least 50 of them to make sure you get all links you order.
If you’re interested in signing up (they have a great affiliate program, BTW) make sure you check out their offer on digitalpoint for free text links.
And if you want to go through my affiliate link, that would make my day.
.CN Domains No Longer Working in Google
I’ve been shoving .cn domains down Google’s throat for months. A couple of weeks ago I could no longer get my sites indexed in Google.
I thought maybe it was because they decided they didn’t like my IP anymore, so I moved IPs. They still wouldn’t send me any traffic. I thought it was because of my template, so I changed it. They still wouldn’t send me any traffic. So then I decided to try a different TLD and went with .info. Two days later, my .infos are indexed and bringing traffic while my .cns I built weeks ago still haven’t seen the light of day.
Thinking back, it’s interesting that I heard Cutts mention .cn spam on two separate occasions at Pubcon. It must have been on his to-do list of things to obliterate.
This is obviously just my experience, so I’d be interested in hearing from anyone else who are using .cn domains. Are you still getting them in Google?
Back From Pubcon
I landed in Boston early this morning, back from my first Pubcon. I’m not sure I can say it was a life-changing event, but I did meet a few people and I learned a few cool tricks.
My overall impression is that if you’re reading this blog you’re probably way ahead of everyone else. A large number of attendees weren’t technical at all and wouldn’t know a 301 from a 404.
Here are a few of my notes:
If you need niche ideas, attend the site review sessions
The people who are naive enough to put their sites on review in front of a whole bunch of other webmasters (exposing their keywords, niches, strategies, etc.) are the same people who don’t know what they’re doing. I only went to a couple of these sessions, but one of the sites was ranking top 10 for a fairly competitive keyword even though the root of the domain was a javascript redirect! I’m building a handful of sites in that niche as I write this.
The first day was the best day
I asked around and there were mixed feelings on which day was the most useful. I guess it depends on your goals and experience level, but I found the first day to be the most informational. I liked the social networking sessions and came away with a few good ideas. Here’s my tip for anyone going to any conference: To get the most out of any of the sessions you have to listen to how the panelists are talking about the subject more than what they’re saying. If you can read between the lines you can get a better understanding of what they’re doing than they want to spell out in their presentations.
Matt Cutts has a tough job
He can’t go anywhere without being surrounded by 5-20 people. He gets asked the same questions 30 times per day. He has to remain diplomatic even though people are pushing his buttons to see if they can get more info out of him. I’m glad for him that Google’s stock is doing so well because I can’t imagine his salary is justifying the work he has to do.
The poker tournament was a good time
As I mentioned before, the poker tournament was a no lose proposition. I didn’t win, but I did come in 13th. Finishing four places out of the money hurts, but I was able to play poker with some really smart people including Neil Patel (who plays extremely loose, by the way) and Shoemoney (who came in second and owned a few of my chips). The complete rundown with pictures is here.
For those who are interested, I went all in with a short stack with 10-J suited, four away from the button. Two people called and the flop gave me an open ended straight draw with 8-9. I couldn’t get the Q or the 7, and the big blind who called with K-9 took it down. If I go again next year, the poker tournament will be a must play event.
All in all, Pubcon was a good time.
You Can’t Lose This Poker Game
Apologies to the few people who contacted me about meeting up during PubCon. It looked like the only day we could all meet up was Thursday night, but now it appears that there is an SEO poker tournament that I will be participating in.
The buy-in is $200, with $50 going to charity, $40 going to the poker room, and the other $110 will be added to the pot and split amongst the winner(s).
Here’s why you should sign up, even if you’ve never played poker before:
1. Support some great charities
The $50 goes to several different charities, including firefighters who were injured fighting the San Diego fires and the Lost Boys of Sudan.
2. Networking
What’s in it for you? Well, how about the opportunity to sit down with some of the most prolific names in internet marketing? Even if you fold every hand you should be able to hang around for at least an hour. If you don’t learn $200 worth of information during the game you aren’t paying attention.
3. Free link!
You get a link from Purposeinc.com, which is gaining authority quickly. See here, here, and here for examples.
4. Free drinks!
Free drinks aren’t hard to come by in Vegas, but it’s still nice. I recommend RedBull, especially for my fellow East Coasters (the tournament doesn’t start until midnight ET!).
5. Free T-shirt!
You may not be able to get into Rain with this shirt on, but it might get you some attention on Friday during the networking session.
6. You might win
Poker takes more skill than other casino games, but if you get the right cards at the right time you can’t lose. I’m willing to bet the winner will get some link love as well as a stack of cash.
So, remind me again: why aren’t you signed up yet?
