Social websites such as Digg can be a great resource for gaining backlinks and exposure for your blog or website.  Links on Digg are tagged with the “nofollow” attribute.  However, using Digg to promote your site can be to your advantage as I’ll explain below.

Digg is a social network website base on the premise of a voting process where users can submit articles or stories and also vote on or “Digg” those articles.  Digg is quite popular and receives an enormous amount of traffic each day which can be used to your advantage.

The first step to take at a website like Digg is to create a profile page.  Within this page you will be able to add your website with a link back.  You should also add links to your other social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Once you are set up on Digg you can begin submitting stories, pages, blog posts, and videos to the site.  I recommend submitting your own blog posts or pages that you have written.  These submitted stories will receive views and will possibly bring traffic to your site as they emerge in the up and coming voting stream.

A word of caution is in order when using Digg: DO NOT SPAM.  You can get your account banned if you are simply submitting countless posts and content from your own website.  A good practice is to “Digg” other submissions, submit items not from your site, and generally get involved in the site’s community to lessen any virtual footprint.

As I mentioned previously, the links on Digg carry the nofollow attribute.  However, I have had great success getting backlinks via Digg that produce direct traffic as well as links that are counted by Google.  A good way to check your number of incoming links is to visit Google.com and type in domain using the following structure: site:http://yourdomain.com.  This will return a listing of all the links in the Google index that point to your site.

Although Digg links are thought to be useless in Google, I have found that several of them show up in the count within Google.  So, Google seems to feel they are valuable links.  It is likely, though, that Digg and other nofollow links do not carry as much weight as a good text based anchor link.

I have also had traffic to my stories on Digg through searches performed by others on Google.  Being very popular, Digg’s content is typically quickly indexed by Google thus bringing your content to the forefront of Google search results.  Keep in mind, this traffic will first go directly to Digg.  But, because your story at Digg only contains a teaser snippet, visitors are often inclined to click through to your site to read more.

Digg is a great social website with hundreds of thousands of users.  Using Digg to create backlinks and drive direct traffic to your site is a tool you should consider for your website.

All internet marketers are aware of the importance of backlinks to their websites especially those that do not contain the “nofollow” tag. Targeted keywords as your anchor text combined with the absence of the “nofollow” tag will produce great backlinks to your website provided they are coming from related websites in your niche.

If you are new to internet marketing, you may be wondering how you can get another website or blog owner to link to you without reciprocating the link. Reciprocal links count less in the Google scheme than a one way link. Thus, they are typically avoided unless they have the added benefit of producing direct traffic.

One solution is to simply ask. Ask other website or blog owners if they would be interested in linking to you. Ask them if you could post a guest article on their site with a link back to your site. Many website owners are more than willing to have fresh content posted on their site in exchange for a link to your niche site. The key is to offer unique content that will only be published on their site.

Finding other website owners is not difficult. Simply do a search on Google with your niche and the term blogs. You will be presented with any number of blogs as well as some blog directories, which can be a great one-stop-shop for locating blogs in your niche.

Most blog owners provide a contact form or other personal information on their site. Look for this on their About or Contact pages. Then, contact them proposing that you will give them content in exchange for a link. If you make a practice of contacting at least ten blog owners a week, you will have dozens of quality, one way links pointing back to your site from relevant niche blogs. Not everyone will agree to your offer, but many will; persistence is the key with this link building technique.

Remember that building backlinks takes time. Most website owners and bloggers are quite busy and would be happy to have your free content to help lighten their burden. Give this technique a try. You just might be surprised at the results.

Most bloggers agree that to really succeed online you need a steady stream of backlinks to your site or blog. But, what most bloggers and marketers overlook is the use of blog comments for this purpose.

Over the past several years there has been some debate as to whether the art of blog commenting is beneficial or a waste of time. This has been due to the use of the “nofollow” tag that is implemented automatically into the comments section of WordPress and Blogger blogs.

The use of “nofollow” and “dofollow” attributes is actually misused in a lot of circumstances. The “dofollow” tag is non-existent. A link is either tagged with the “nofollow” attribute or it is not. The term “dofollow” simply means this tag is not present on the link itself.

Several plugins have been developed for WordPress bloggers that will take the “nofollow” tag out. These plugins allow the blog owner to moderate comments and actually be able to pick and choose which links will be followed. There are a lot of bloggers whom have adopted this practice.

So, how can you implement a commenting campaign that will be beneficial to your link building efforts? First, perform a search on Google for “dofollow” blogs. Find those related to you niche and begin leaving comments. You can use keywords as your name field which will give you a backlink with your chosen keywords as anchor text. Don’t do this every time, however, or the blog owner will become annoyed with your desire to use his or her blog for link building only.

When commenting on these blogs, make your thoughts pertinent to the post itself. Don’t simply comment with a phrase like “Great post!” This will not be received very well by the blogger and either won’t get approved or, if it does, it will be tagged as “nofollow”.

Don’t overlook popular blogs that do not follow or pass on page rank to commenters. These blogs will still get traffic to your site simply from others reading comments and clicking on your name or site link. The sheer number of visitors to a popular blog will almost always guarantee you some traffic when you leave a comment. Remember, in all cases your comment should add to the blog community for maximum effectiveness.

There are many ways to work with blog comments to increase your backlinks and overall traffic. Try to get into the habit of reading blogs related to your niche. If a post strikes your interest, leave a comment with your opinion. Over time the practice of commenting will become an integral part of your internet marketing efforts.

To your success!

Many bloggers begin their careers or hobby blogs with great aspirations.  However, when the traffic does not come quickly, they soon become discouraged and often stop posting or simply give up on the blog.  After all, most writers are ultimately interested in making a name for themselves and a few extra dollars along the way.  Without traffic, those two things never happen.

Getting your site indexed by Google in a short period of time is really not that difficult of a task.  If you take the time early on in your blogging career to perform a few quick steps, you can get your blog into Google within a few days at most.

The first thing to do if you’re blogging on a self hosted WordPress installation, which I highly recommend, is to install the Google XML Sitemap plugin.  You can start by setting up your blog, making at least one post, and then go into the Google XML Sitemap settings on your blog and click the “build your sitemap” for the first time.  Your sitemap will be built in the location “yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.”

The next step is to go into your Google account.  Go to the webmaster tools section of your account settings.  Once there, you’ll see a link to add a site.  After you add your URL, you’ll be given a meta tag to place on your site for verification purposes.  Next, open a new tab and go to the dashboard of your blog.  Then go to the appearance-editor section.  In there you will have several .php files you can edit.  Open the header .php file.  Scroll down until you see the </head> tag.  Copy and paste the verification meta tag just above </head>.  Click save at the bottom and you are finished.  The final step is to go back to your Google webmaster tools account and click the verify button.

Now that your site has been verified it is time to add the sitemap you created so Google will be notified of all of your pages.  On the side of the webmaster tools page you should see a link labeled site configuration.  Expand that section and click on the sitemap link.  Now you should have an opportunity to add a sitemap.  When given the prompt, it will have your URL followed by an empty box for typing in the location of your sitemap.  Simply add “sitemap.xml” to the box and click submit.  Google will take a few hours to crawl your site after your submission.  After a couple of days, go back into the webmaster tools and check to see how many URLs have been found by Google as well as how many are indexed.  To speed up the process of indexing, follow the next steps as well.

One of the best ways to get indexed is to have a link pointing to your site from another website.  I suggest going to blogcatalog.com and submitting your blog there.  As with Google, you will need to verify that you are the site owner.  Blog Catalog gives you the choice of using a meta tag to verify as well as a button you can place on your site.  Follow their instructions for the method you choose.  To speed up the process with Blog Catalog you will have the opportunity to sponsor a category.  This is really inexpensive and turns the acceptance time into a couple of days versus the three or four days experienced via the standard submission.

The next step to getting your blog indexed quickly is to submit your first post to Digg.com.  If you don’t have a Digg account set one up and follow the instructions for submitting your story.  I recommend that you also configure your profile page and add a link to your blog from that page as well.

There are bound to be many blogs already established within your niche.  The next step to take is to do a search at Google or Yahoo for those blogs.  You want to target one or two that have removed the “nofollow” tag from comments.  These blogs, typically referred to as “dofollow”, can be found by adding dofollow to your search criteria.  For example, if I had a blog focused on the gardening niche, I would type “gardening blogs dofollow” into the search bar.  You can also search for a general index of these blogs by using “dofollow blogs” as your search criteria.

Once you have located a couple of suitable blogs, read a few posts and leave a useful comment on the article.  I stress the term useful as many bloggers do not appreciate short comments for the sake of gaining a backlink.  The reason to target dofollow blogs is for the simple point of these links counting in the Google scheme.  Nofollow links can be useful in getting traffic if a blog is popular, but for the sake of getting your blog indexed, stick with a dofollow attribute for quicker results.

One final step to take for getting your blog indexed quickly is to visit feedage.com.  At Feedage.com you will want to submit your RSS feed to their index.  Follow the instruction at the site and add your feed.  On most blogs your feed is located at yourdomain.com/feed.  I recommend you use another Google tool, FeedBurner, to burn your feed.  FeedBurner is also located within your Google account.  Follow the steps given at FeedBurner and your new feed address will look like this: feeds.feedburner.com/yoursitename.  Using FeedBurner will allow you to track subscribers to your feed.

If you follow these simple steps you will have your site in the Google index in a very short period of time.  Remember, this is not your final goal.  To climb in the rankings at Google you need to continue to produce great content and build more keyword rich backlinks.

To your success!

[podcast]http://meadowscirclemarketing.com/plrpodcast/profiting_with_plr_episode_1_getting_started.mp3[/podcast]

In this episode of the Profiting with Private Label Rights podcast, we discuss the basics of PLR and the equipment and tools you need to get started.

Enjoy!

The sheer amount of information available about internet marketing can be overwhelming to newcomers. They often wonder what info is legit and who to trust. Here are some quick and easy tips to get you started!

DO take the time to do your homework. A little patience could save you a lot of time, heartache and money. Before you plunk down the money for a program, product, or service, take the time to research it. Run the name through Google and see what comes up and don’t be afraid to ask on message boards and forums.

DON’T be afraid of social networking. It takes time to build up Twitter followers and Facebook fans but the time investment is well worth it because you will be rewarded with a built in audience for your product, and one that will spread the word for you. So take the time to set your accounts up and then to learn how to use the vast array of tools and tricks that will make them really work wonders for you and your business.

DO get organized. Keep your contacts updated and backed up, use folders to keep your emails under control, and keep a list of all your logins and passwords in a safe place. Use a spreadsheet to keep track of your sales and promotions.

DON’T confuse promotion with spamming.  Promotion is good; spam could kill your business and your reputation. Promote responsibly at all times. Use your affiliate links in your signature when sending emails, commenting on blogs and posting on message boards. Never post or email ads unless you know they are allowed/welcome. Take the time to review the advertising policy on every site you visit.

DO choose quality above all else. This includes the affiliate products you chose to promote and your website. Take the time and spend the money to do it right. A professional looking, high quality site inspires trust, and that is worth its weight in gold.

DON’T skimp on content. Interesting, original content will attract visitors and place you high on search engine results. Be careful with article spinners-while useful they can churn out little more than unreadable gibberish if you don’t take the time to set them up correctly and edit the result.

DO get involved in marketing communities and boards. Forums like Warrior Forum and Digital Point can provide invaluable feedback, information, and networking opportunities.

DON’T get discouraged. A successful Internet Marketing business takes time and often some trial and error as you figure out exactly what products work best for you. So be patient and stay positive and you’ll soon see results!

Affiliate marketing is the core of my online business model.  It works for me and thousands of other online marketers.  However, it can be a little confusing to those just getting started.  Believe me, I’ve been there and I can sympathize.

For anyone in this position, I have a great opportunity now available for free.  My 30-part ecourse is yours for the taking.  Simply sign up using the form at the right of this page and you’ll receive your first lesson shortly.  Subsequent lessons will be automatically delivered to your inbox on a regular basis.

This course is designed to give you the basics of affiliate marketing from defining the process to building a massive email list.  It’s all here and is my gift to you for joining my free newsletter.

To get started, use the form on the side of the page.  You have nothing to lose and a greater understanding of online affiliate marketing to gain.

Here’s to your success!

Ah yes, article marketing – the bane of my existence.  Why am I somewhat cynical on this practice?  For one, I hate to write in niches where I have to do very much research (see my About page).  And secondly, I hate to pay for good writers.  I have hired some really bad examples of English-as-a-second-language writers.  But, I have also hired some really great native English speakers.  I have found that you get what you pay for.

To make my investment go further, I have implemented the practice of article spinning which means to create multiple articles from one original.  Spinning articles and sending them to countless directories can be a daunting task.  I have started using a software package called Mass Article Creator (MAC) and Mass Article Submitter (MAS) to alleviate some of the stress and actually get my articles out.

The MAC program allows you to replace words, phrases, and entire sentences in a random order so that you can go through one article and turn it into several.  It also allows the user to include extra synonyms as needed which makes the software more powerful the more it is used.  The drawback is that you MUST go through every word in your article.  It does take a little time.  However, if you don’t, and you simply let the software change the words, you will end up with 100 articles of pure, unreadable garbage.  Tools like this speed up your work, but they also need your input.  You can Click Here to read more about this software.

As for the MAS program, you can submit a different article to each directory in the system.  Setup takes a few minutes as you input your user information from the various article sites.  Another word of caution: Only submit very unique articles to ezinearticles.com and only hand submit these.  Don’t use a mass submitter to this site.  This is the largest and most respected directory online today.  You want the material you have on their site to be your best.  With the other directories in the MAS system, you can submit your 20-40% or more spun articles without worry.

Of course, the best articles to submit to any directory are those that are 100% unique.  Again this takes time and effort on your part.  On a good day I can write only one article and be ready to stop.  The next day I get lazy and don’t even finish one (again, see my About page).  I suspect you may have these periods of low productivity as well.

As I mentioned above, a good solution to this problem is to hire writers to generate unique content.  On the internet you can find literally thousands of people ready at any time to fill your need.  However, this service comes at a price and you should evaluate whether you can fit it into your budget.  A good writer will usually charge $5-$10 for each 300-500 word article.  Websites such as elance.com will allow you to submit a project and get quotes from writers.  You can even see reviews from other customers as well as get writing samples.

The main goal of article marketing is to get backlinks to your site(s) or to promote affiliate programs.  I suggest you make this a regular routine in your arsenal.  Just remember that their are ways to make the process a little easier.

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