Written on February 24th, 2007 at 01:02 am by Darren Rowse
Secret Confessions of a Link-A-Holic
Is it just me or has everyone been becoming a little ‘link obsessed’ lately?
This week I’ve been counting the number of posts I’ve seen written about getting links for your blog – I’m over 40 and still counting.
Posts I’ve seen this week so far have covered:
- How to ask for links
- What type of links to ask other bloggers for
- How to write content that is linkable
- What type of links are best
- What type of sites to target for links
- How to do internal links on your blog
- How to get .edu links
- Link building tips
- Linkbaiting techniques
- How to get links that increase traffic
- How to buy links effectively
The list goes on…. and on…..
Not only have I seen a lot of posting about links, this week I’ve had around 40 emails from bloggers ‘asking for link exchanges’ (not including all the emails with suggestions for posts that others have written).
So what’s my problem with all the link building articles and exchanging links? Am I ‘anti link?’
No – that’s not it, I believe that SEO has a place in blogging and that one of the most powerful ways to grow in your search engine ranking is to build incoming links to your site. I’ve written many times about this and have covered a lot of the topics in the list above here at ProBlogger. I value the incoming links that I have to my blogs and would like to see their numbers keep growing.
However this week my alarm bells have been going off and I’m starting to wonder if we (as a blogging community) might be getting a little distracted from…. from…. well blogging itself.
Two main thoughts come to mind:
1. Blog Holistically
Beware any type of blogging obsession. I’ve talked about the temptations that bloggers face to focus in on one aspect of blogging at the expense of others – link building is one of those that can lead to blog destruction. Give it some attention by all means – but keep things in balance and realize that of all the factors that make up a successful blog – incoming links is at best midway through the list.
2. Blog well and the links will follow
This might be easy for me to say as a reasonably established blogger – but I’m a big believer in the principle. How do most of the top bloggers going around build their readership? From talking to a few of them I’d humbly suggest that the main thing in their favor was that they built blogs with compelling content which engaged their readers – the links followed.
My Secret Link Obsession
Let me let you in on a little secret. I’m a recovering link-a-holic.
In my early days of blogging I stumbled across the idea of incoming links as the key to SEO and so I began a campaign of gathering links to my blogs (at the time I only had a couple).
I wasn’t all that blog-savvy at the time and so did a pretty crude job of it (I bought a few links, I tried to exchange links, I got into listing my blogs in directories) but I managed to increase the numbers of links to my blogs over time. In the process here’s what else happened:
- My posting frequency dropped
- Readers became frustrated with my content (which was obviously linkbait)
- I lost some of my passion for blogging and my topic
- I sold out content wise (started picking topics to write about that didn’t really add value to my blog)
- I started watching my metrics more than the news in my industry
- Frustration crept into my blogging when the links didn’t come
- My Page Rank increased – but my actual SERPs (the position of my blog in search engines) dropped
It wasn’t until I took a step back from blogging for a week at one point that I realized how distracted I’d become and how the very thing that I thought would ‘make’ my blog was in danger of killing it.
I decided to focus again on my readers and on producing content that would be useful to them and in doing so saw a reversal in all of the above points.
Do I think about incoming links these days as a blogger? Yes I do – they are one aspect of blogging that is important. However as a recovering link-a-holic I attempt to keep that side of my blogging well in check. I think my blogs and I are in a lot better shape for it.
87 Responses to “Secret Confessions of a Link-A-Holic” - Add Yours
Scott Howard
February 24th, 2007 2:14 am
You are so right Darren. As most of us have heard before. “Content is Key” or “Content is King”
Jon Symons
February 24th, 2007 2:21 am
“I started watching my metrics more than the news in my industry”
While I’m not obsessed with getting incoming links, this is a jewel of wisdom for me. Now all I have to do is figure out what industry I’m in :)
Jean MacManus
February 24th, 2007 2:42 am
Hi,
Although I completely agree with you that content is “King”, I did notice that you said that you had originally focussed on getting links. As with any venture, progress moves forward by fits and starts, with frequent course corrections. I would posit that your link creations had a long-lasting effect – which complemented your excellent posts to provide us with a truly excellent blog. It is so interesting to me how the field changes – and the marketing that goes with it. What worked in the beginning may not work now – and yet it may. I very much appreciate that you have provided us with all of the “basics” of marketing our blogs.
tillerman
February 24th, 2007 2:42 am
So right. I don’t think I’ve ever begged other people for links. I just try and write interesting stuff about what I enjoy (sailing) and over time the number of links to my blog has just grown naturally. What has surprised me is that although I am just an average guy doing a bit of weekend sailing I am getting links now from top sailors such as Olympic campaigners and a couple of the America’s Cup syndicate blogs. Can’t imagine what they found of value in my blog but I guess I must be doing something right.
Perhaps my motto should be, “If you can’t sail, blog!”
Anthony
February 24th, 2007 2:52 am
I agree. Content and community is key. I believe everything else will fall into place once your content is established and you’ve built a loyal community of readers.
mark
February 24th, 2007 2:52 am
I wrote a getting links post lately ;-)
“Blog well and the links will follow – This might be easy for me to say as a reasonably established blogger”
Your exactly right, easy for you to say!
I agree content is king, however like Gray Wolf Said Recently…..
“Content without promotion is like locking William Shakespeare in a closet to write for you, you’ll have great novels that no one will ever know about or read.”
I had the most visitors to my blog on a single day, ever, this week (at over 350). Why? Because I wrote good content AND went and actively got links. The best one was from you (thank you).
I’m not for directories or random links, however writing good content and then going and letting people know about it (getting links) is the only way to fly, for the little guy.
Ashish Mohta
February 24th, 2007 2:58 am
I noticed that in this month.But it actually worked.Every reader likes to have things changing in the blog.Read something different than the same stuff(no offenses its a state of human mind.)
You are few of bloggers i have been seeing linking the other blogs and its a good thing
siong1987
February 24th, 2007 3:01 am
I agree too. But, it depends actually. For a established blog, author can mainly focus on building community and writing good content. But, for a just starting blog, link building is very important to get more traffic to the side. We must strike a balance between writing good content and link building in order to make a successful blog.
Mark Levison
February 24th, 2007 3:38 am
Riffing on the theme – Blog well and the links will follow. I blog well (at least in my own mind). So how come you’ve not linked to me yet? After its a me me me world out there. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek).
Daniel Scocco
February 24th, 2007 3:40 am
You ve’got a point there!
Actually not I find myself getting distracted by other activities like reading newsfeefs, commenting on many blogs and hanging on forums. While those factors can help to promote your blog sometimes they deviate from your core business.
Dave
February 24th, 2007 3:47 am
I must admit I’ve spent very little time builing inbound links to my site, its not something I’ve ever really concentrated on. I’ve had plenty of emails asking for link exchanges, but I rarely take them up. I’m probably suffering long term from being underlinked, but part of me feels that my site should survive on its own merits, and not because a couple of big sites have got a link to it.
Edward
February 24th, 2007 3:52 am
I just started my blog , so I will try to exchange links with others , but soon after my blog has become more established then I will consider focus on content …
Stephanie
February 24th, 2007 4:46 am
I see what you mean. I’ve been putting a lot of work into links lately, but when you’re trying to build a readership it’s tough to choose the right balance. Great content is great, once people start finding it.
Jeremy Steele
February 24th, 2007 5:13 am
One way of getting new links that I have found useful is to spend a few days doing some good ol’ fashioned marketing, getting to know people, and all that good stuff. Then take some time off from link building, then go back and do it again.
It seems like many people constantly try to get links all the time, instead of concentrating on their blog’s content. I prefer doing it in pulses.
The thing that many blogger’s fail to grasp is that Google takes FOREVER to update the backlinks to your site. So they do link building and keep doing it because they don’t think Google picked up the links.
feral
February 24th, 2007 5:20 am
Emails begging for link exchanges are starting to really get on my nerves. Especially those that try and lecture me on how good it is for me to place their link and the “we have placed your link here please place our banner/link on your site”. I have never emailed anyone for a begging for a link and never will. I have added some of the links people begged for in the past, but you find many of these people don’t even bother to reciprocate or remove the link when they think you will not notice, so the deal becomes one sided. I’m going to remove the links page from my site and its going to be a simple case of write something interesting about film and I may link to you from an article otherwise send the begging letters to someone else.
Maki
February 24th, 2007 5:27 am
“My Page Rank increased – but my actual SERPs (the position of my blog in search engines) dropped”
Darren, I’m curious about this. Why did your SERPs drop if you were receiving more incoming links?
Was it because of a corresponding drop in keyword density or was this because of the sort of links you got (i.e irrelevant/non-contextual etc.)?
ilker
February 24th, 2007 5:29 am
I agree with Scott: “Content is King”
Paul
February 24th, 2007 5:46 am
I think you touched on a problem that is far more endemic in the blogger population – the analytic-o-holic.
In my experience web entrepreneurs and wannabe professional bloggers can become so obsessed with the performance of their websites that they check analytics and earnings figures every couple of hours. I’d bet that a huge percentage of people that attempt to make money online actually fail for this very reason.
Become a slave to your content guys, and don’t become seduced by your numbers!
louiss
February 24th, 2007 6:02 am
“Anything happen,will happen with a reason”,i do believe, anything we do or putting effort on,it’s will get back to you. Maybe some are a bit negative when you start, now you are putting back the positive to neutralist it, well done darren!
Nusuni.com - Random Rants of a Rambling Computer Nerd» Blog Archive » Favorite Links Of The Week
February 24th, 2007 6:32 am
[...] 5 Blogging Methods That Work Secret Confessions of a Link-A-Holic Digg Lets Banned Domains Back In Internet Explorer loses ground to Firefox, Safari in US, holds its ground worldwide [...]
Ryan
February 24th, 2007 6:54 am
My montra is that if you have something worth linking to then people will link to it.
Larry Eiss
February 24th, 2007 6:58 am
Darren,
Interesting indeed. I had been thinking the same thing for the last week or so. I’m glad you posted this. I absolutely agree that blogging is about the content. Frankly if one has nothing to say, one should find another line of work (or another hobby as the case may be).
THanks for taking a stand on this. A lot of people look to you to set the pace.
–Larry
Alan
February 24th, 2007 7:08 am
brilliant confession. well done. really enjoyed it.
Shawn Blanc
February 24th, 2007 7:11 am
Great Post, Darren. I’m going to link to it…just kidding.
Jules
February 24th, 2007 7:22 am
This is a very good article! It gave me a lot of insight, thanks!
Barbra Sundquist
February 24th, 2007 7:32 am
“My Page Rank increased – but my actual SERPs (the position of my blog in search engines) dropped ”
This is a really important point.
Kimber
February 24th, 2007 7:52 am
I too have seen the increase in requests for links.
What irks me is not the request for links but how the request is phrased.
There’s often no reason given why out of all the blogs available I should link to their’s.
Mike Schinkel
February 24th, 2007 8:07 am
I completely agree, and frankly have been a little turned off by all the (subtly positioned) discussions about ways to game the system here and at many other blogs. I don’t suggest your are doing it on purpose, just that competitive people often focus on how to get results for themselves and not creating value for others. In some cases that is still okay, but most of the time these days you get results for yourself by focusing on how to provide more value for others. Too many people want to “loose weight without dieting or exercise!” So it’s good to see you recognize this situation and are trying to address it.
Bes Zain
February 24th, 2007 8:21 am
Interesting point. “Blog well and links will follow”; that’s what most people have to realize. Even commenting on a hundred other sites everyday and having links all over the internet won’t help if the content on your own site is not good enough for readers to enjoy or learn something from.
feve
February 24th, 2007 8:27 am
nice read, my first thoughts were to link to this.
Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot » Confessions of a link-a-holic
February 24th, 2007 8:56 am
[...] Excellent post on Problogger that talks about how Darren (the webmaster) went through a phase of working really hard on improving his inbound links, to the detriment of the quality of his blog. Makes good reading especially the lessons learnt. Incoming links are important, but like everything in life, focusing just on one thing, to the detriment of everything else, can be a very bad thing. [...]
Kumiko
February 24th, 2007 9:19 am
HOW TO GET LOTS OF LINKS IN ONE EASY STEP!
1. Write a good a article.
Easy!
Maybe I should put that into an e-book and sell it for $49.95
Kumiko
xo
How to start a clothing line from scratch
February 24th, 2007 10:34 am
for some reason that post was oddly (spell check on oddly) funny!
mark
February 24th, 2007 10:38 am
I don’t understand everybody’s opinion of
“Write a good a article.” and that is it, or
“Blog well and links will follow:”
that doesn’t make sense to me. If Darren spends $8 and anonymously sets up a new blog, then writes the post of his life, it will just sit there and nobody will see it, UNLESS he gets out there and promotes it (e.g. gets links)
no?
RecoveringBlogger.com coming soon! .-. ..- -... --. ..--.. Boldly Going
February 24th, 2007 11:28 am
[...] Inspiration has hit after reading all the way through this thread on Darren’s ProBlogger.com. I’m immediately going to register RecoveringBlogger.com (yeah it is available so if YOU really want it, be my guest ;), just don’t tell my friend, Steve over at TechquilaShots.com about my getting yet another new domain! ) [...]
Almost, Not Yet - Weekly Readings 2007-02-23
February 24th, 2007 11:33 am
[...] Secret Confessions of a Link-A-Holic [...]
Trent
February 24th, 2007 11:58 am
Of course you have to promote it, but if the content isn’t there, no one will come. Write good content first, then worry about promoting it. If you’re sweating the promotion now without any good content, you’re putting the cart before the horse.
Darren Rowse
February 24th, 2007 12:05 pm
mark – yes it’s important to find ways to promote your work – but I guess what I’m seeing is that people are becoming obsessed with building links – quite often at the expense of content.
What I tried to emphasize in my post numerous times was that it’s about moderation and balance rather than becoming obsessed with any one aspect of blogging.
Nothing wrong with links, self promotion, marketing and networking with the hope of bringing visitors in – but I’m seeing more and more bloggers putting their main emphasis on these things when I think they’d do a lot better to put their link building efforts into writing good quality content.
Bob Glaza
February 24th, 2007 12:31 pm
Amen, Darren – if only we could remember the reader -
Ken
February 24th, 2007 1:21 pm
Darren,
It’s posts like this that have lead me to choose problogger.net as my blog of choice on the topic of blogging. With both the website and blogs I’ve been building, I found myself becoming an incurable tweaker.
If it wasn’t the look and feel, then it was plugins, then widgets. I’m sure links would be next. But I often wonder about the quantity and quality of content I could have developed by now if I had limited my tweaking to one day a week.
[MacStansbury]
February 24th, 2007 2:49 pm
What FARK teaches us about linking, community, and finding your voice…
I bet those who know what FARK is would never think you could learn that sort of thing from FARK …
Kirby
February 24th, 2007 3:25 pm
Part of the problem is that most bloggers dont have anything unique or original to say.
LintCollector
February 24th, 2007 3:33 pm
Regarding content which engages readers – I think the attitude and personality of the writer can be as important as the written information if getting links is to be of any use.
For example, Darren comes across (to me) as a genuine guy who is interested in his subject and keen to help others learn from his experiences, such as being a recovering link-a-holic. Hence I’m a regular Problogger reader – because of the content AND the writer. On the other hand, if I’d viewed Darren as a self-promoting know-all guru who wrote purely as a vehicle for selling e-books, I wouldn’t keep coming back, despite good information and copious links to it.
I recently stopped reading another blog for this reason, because the tidbits of good content were buried among advertisements for the bloggers own e-books. The writer’s efforts to get links may have brought me to the blog, and some useful content brought me back a few times, but the writer’s attitude (or what I perceived it to be) deterred me from hanging around. And isn’t that what we want – not just visitors, but readers who want to stick around?
kukuman
February 24th, 2007 6:28 pm
if someone is anonymous and is page rank is zero?
what is his first step???
any suggestion!
steffen
February 24th, 2007 6:52 pm
Hi Darren, you are right! We should spent more time in creating good content instead of watching trafic, keywords, incoming links etc…
I spent more time for link exchange – instead writing new articles…
Greetings from Germany
Armen
February 24th, 2007 8:41 pm
This is one of your best posts in recent days Darren (imo).
Sometimes you can be quite repetitive, (I recognise that it’s difficult to blog everyday about the same topic without being repetitive – plus most of us need reminded of things frequently to keep us on track) but this is fresh.
mark
February 24th, 2007 11:55 pm
Darren,
Thanks for your reply.
“quite often at the EXPENSE of content” . I understand better now.
“Nothing wrong with links, self promotion, marketing and networking with the hope of bringing visitors in ”
Amen! Somehow I missed this point in my starting with websites. Maybe the info is out there and my introvert “filter” kept me from seeing it. But I’ve had a slight epiphany lately that I (and probably many others) really miss this point.
(maybe a blog post idea for a rainy day for you, “how to do a self promotion campaign for your blog”)
“moderation and balance”, two words I could learn to include more in my vocabulary ;-) Thanks again.
Jerome
February 25th, 2007 3:54 am
What a nice post about the links.I am also now searching for the details of the links.Any way its a nice work.
Wohnfläche berechnen
February 25th, 2007 4:08 am
Mhhh, funny Adsense ad by John Chow in thies article O_o
Psycho Dude
February 25th, 2007 5:45 am
I would say I partially agree with the lot of you, but having to add that it definitely isn’t of importance to every blogger to even be worried about incoming links at all. It just serves no purpose on some blogs, if you are blogging about your own life not generally on a subject it’s a bit of an if. But if you’re blogging about something in my opinion as stupid as the life from your cat from a standpoint of that same cat…. you can keep on trying to get links but it’ll pretty much end up with no results at all.
In general though it are not those kind of bloggers actually busy with trying to get link exchanges and such going on, trying to build up as many incoming links as possible. The focus of the bloggers which do in general always tends to be money, throwing up adsense ads all over the place and hoping to get some incoming links along afterwards believing this’ll be the key to success and along with that money, lots of it.
It’d be nice to see the blogosphere actually turn to blogging simply for the fun of blogging, rather than all the second objectives which have taken up top priority.
Todd Howard
February 25th, 2007 6:06 am
Great post. I started blogging last year a little bit on and off with a few sporatic attempts at personal blogging sites, and this year started writing regularly and blogging daily starting this week. Your blog has already been an enormous help and also inspiration for my work. Thanks for all the great insights, and I’m sure I’ll be a long term reader. I am blogging on Zoom In Online. I’ll link it here in case your readers would like to check out a growing online community and resource for creative pros. Your posts remind me that balance and moderation are very important principles in blogging, and in everything I do.
Thanks again, and keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Todd Howard
rjlight
February 25th, 2007 8:29 am
Hmmm. I have been blogging for about 2 months and LOVE it! Since I currently don’t have any ads or wiki’s or anything on my site I have been focusing on content. I have never asked for links but have discovered people linking me. I am still ranked 5 million or so (okay only 1.5) but I can see in 2 mo. I have gone from 8 hits to 80 – 100 hits just by commenting on people’s blogs and eating enormous amounts of chocolate so that I can produce content. I have been posting once to twice a day and the posts are about 300- word counts. I love writing but am starting to feel this pressure to compete and chase after links and I am afraid that I will start to hate blogging if that is my focus. I have tried to look for other blogs similar to mine but haven’t found to many…Apparently there are’nt too many blogs focused on the mating habits of the chinchilla. Okay, just kidding.
Derrick Sorles
February 25th, 2007 9:49 am
Hi Darren,
Love your site! I found somewhere here last week “What Bloggers Want From Readers and What Readers Want From Bloggers” (I think that was the context) and I wanted to share your findings on my site. Would you be so kind as to redirect me to the post/info? You are the best-Thank You!
Derrick Sorles
derrick@networldingbusinessblogging.com
http://www.businessbloggingtips.com
CHris
February 25th, 2007 10:23 am
I wouldn’t say that I’m obsessed, but it is something I’m thinking about now. How am I going to get placed in Google, etc. Right now Google is running a month-old copy of my site, and it’s basically a test pattern. I’m trying to do as much as I can right now, because if this next spider doesn’t go well, it looks like I’ll have to wait a while.
Rob O.
February 26th, 2007 2:47 am
It is tough at times to find the balance. I focused on content & post frequency for quite awhile, yet nobody seemed to notice. And although my site visit stats were gradually on the rise, nobody ever left comments, even despite appeals for said.
Then about 2 months ago I did a massive site makeover and also intensely focused on basic SEO techniques & getting my site noticed more. (I’m hopeful that having overhauled the code made a difference too.) Now things seemed to be on the upswing. My site visits are still inching up, but more importantly, I’m also getting more feedback in the form of posted comments and emails from the site.
I can attest that community-building makes a big difference. A significant number of our hits every month come as a result of my wife’s activity on the newbeetle.org forums where she’s posted about her beloved Caliente car. (Yes, that’s a shameless plug, but by golly, it is a beautiful car!) Point is, a large percentage of our site traffic is generated from forums and other community sites.
Rob
Shiva
February 26th, 2007 4:41 am
I don’t know much about link exchanges. Does it inadvertantly promote the blog to a different theme / category in Alexa, google etc ?
Meaning if I am doing a fitness blog, and someone puts my link on his/her site which is a news blog, will my related links in Alexa try to categorize my blog also as a news blog, when it is not ? Hope this question makes sense.
theshiva
Web Clippings (Tippoint) - 2/25/2007 » Continuous Learning
February 26th, 2007 6:30 am
[...] Secret Confessions of a Link-A-Holic Coming from Darren Rowes on why one should not become obsessed about link buildings. It is all about putting the content first – blog well builds the foundation for which success can follow – linking is secondary. [...]
Terje
February 26th, 2007 7:50 am
Very familiar stuff. Thanks for an interesting entry. I’m an utterly unambitious blogger (commenting on ProBlogger, I know). My blog is fairly schizophrenic – there’s no red line whatsoever. Yet I find that there’s two things that really excite me about the blogging experience:
1. The writing experience itself and the joy of writing for an audience.
2. The thrill of analyzing my visitor statistics. I’ll probably never earn a single dollar off my blog, but I think it’s great fun trying to find new ways to get hits. A few of my posts are shameless (and completely unsuccessful) attempts to attract an audience, but most posts are based on genuine interests and experiences. And should my blog against all odds suddenly become a huge hit, I’ll likely get Adsense up and going in a matter of hours – me hungrily analyzing the stats every two hours…
Point is: To me both aspects are perfectly good reasons to be blogging. No. 2 even more so if the blog actually had profit potential. And somehow I imagine most pro bloggers must feel the same way? Mr. Rowse, even though you’re a recovering link-a-holic, you’re still slightly obsessed, aren’t you??
Golbguru
February 26th, 2007 11:48 am
I agree…I have had the same experience in the initial phase of my blog. Metrics and linking used to take up more time than blogging. The problem is even after realizing the problem, it’s difficult to get out of it…sort of becomes a vicious circle…no incoming links hence the increasing need to linkbait…excessive linkbaiting leads to even less backlinks. While I agree that content rules, I have seen many good bloggers with great content getting almost zero attention. I guess that’s what forces them to indulge linkbaiting.
smriti.com » Don’t spend too much effort on incoming links
February 26th, 2007 4:37 pm
[...] Problogger has an interesting article on the dangers of spending too much time on trying to build incoming links to your website. He points out: Give it some attention by all means – but keep things in balance and realize that of all the factors that make up a successful blog – incoming links is at best midway through the list. [...]
Peter
February 26th, 2007 6:51 pm
I have a few blogs among which are
Blogger Tips and Tricks
Dummies Guide to Google Blogger
I do get a lot of comments, some of them are complements, and most of them are question related to blogging. I do respond to the comments, and after doing that, I go to the commentator’s blog to leave a comment to thank him/her for leaving a comment with a link to the post and letting him/her know that I have responded to the comment. And I leave a signature line with a link to a blog that I hope will help people become more environmentally concious.
Does this sound like a labourous way of building up your links?
Peter a.k.a. enviroman
Enviroman Says
Reader Tips: 25 February 2007
February 26th, 2007 7:38 pm
[...] Secret Confessions of a Link-Aholic – Darren explains how the obsession for links can harm bloggers. [...]
MeTheGeek
February 26th, 2007 11:06 pm
Step 1. Concentrate con content
Step 2. Concentrate con content
Step 3. Build linking
Step 4. Repeat
Andrew Williamson
February 26th, 2007 11:23 pm
As another recovering linkaholic I have to agree there’s just too much noise out there that suggests the biggest secret to a profitable blog is back links, it’s simply not true any more and I personally love the fact that I can get on with writing rather than trying to invent ever more cunning link bait techniques.
Linkaholic cold turkey is tough but it’s worth it when you realise you’ve gone for months without checking your stats to see what you latest bank link count is, or had a mild panic attack when you’ve dropped a typo in one of your domain name checks and seen a big fat zero!
Monday Morning Musings - Spirituality Applied to Life - Balanced Life Center
February 27th, 2007 12:51 pm
[...] How do you KNOW? For me, it’s when I get things in 3’s. For example, I was getting frustrated with the pace of things with the blog. So, I journalled about it on Sunday. I felt I was doing all this stuff and moving further and further away from the intent. After free-form writing for about 30 minutes, which I had not done in about 3 months, I realized how much I loved writing. Ideas started pouring in again. Later on, I was on the phone with my cousin and she mentioned how much my aunt (one of my heroes) in Trinidad loves my blog. So much so that she’s asking for a blog of her own. Then, I opened up Bloglines to read my daily feeds and discovered that Darren wrote about turning the focus of blogging back to, well, blogging. [...]
Alex Blogging » My Bookmarks - 27 feb 2007
February 27th, 2007 9:23 pm
[...] Darren Rowse wrote about the secret confessions of a Link-A-Holic [...]
Wayne Bienek
March 1st, 2007 9:44 am
What problogger is saying is that, yes, links are important but if that becomes your focus, you’ve lost the most important thing. Not only that, but linking needs to be natural, such as posting insights in related blogs. I find it is better to consistantly post just a few times a week to someone elses blog CONSISTANTLY than trying to go crazy over a few days.. Thats when you’ll really get burned out.
Find a blog you actually LIKE and write comments on articles that actually INTEREST you. Over a few years you’ll find your ranking and readership growing.
Too often people get GREEDY trying to ramp up their page views ‘overnight’… Thats when things go south. Both your writing quality and ranking go DOWN!
Wayne – Web Designer
jennifer
March 7th, 2007 7:18 am
Thank you so much for this article to get my head back on track!! I am wanting to blog and have great content.. All of the other stuff will follow!
Vin Klassen
March 18th, 2007 3:51 pm
The debate on the effect of links is never ending. No one will ever agree on the true effects of links whether reciprocal or inbound.
The bottom line is that your rate of inbound link growth determines the amount of traffic you get.
Matt
March 26th, 2007 2:51 am
Is it not more a chick and egg issue? You make a site and there are no paths in so no one can find it so no one can link to it so that people can find it and link to it…
There is a sort of critical mass of linkage and content that must be reached before a blog can do anything. When starting fresh you will find that in short order you must link from any other work you stuill have access to, submit to search engines, get in dmos and join forums and communities and chat a good chat with you link at the ready as an answer of illustration whenever possible.
It’s not something you have to do forever but it is something you have to do. In any given week as many as one in twenty of your readers might link to you. But when you have three readers if you count granny you really are not going to ever get links.
AnitoKid
May 24th, 2007 2:41 pm
I have just read your post. and may I say I am impressed! I, too, am a link addict and a button addict too! The addiction tends to screw up the real reason why i began blogging in the first place, i.e., to be the premiere content source of everything related to the Philippine pool scene and around the world. Your article is an inspiration to me, and to people just like us. For this, I am forever in your debt. More power to you! Mabuhay!
Rose
August 20th, 2007 2:23 pm
I agree. I noticed that everyone is so linked obsessed. I think giving bloggers something to want to link to is the best way in building links.
Roger Green
August 21st, 2007 12:35 am
So, why isn’t Mark Levison linking to me? (;-)
I’ve taken a can’t worry about my blog count attitude. I post every day on an eclectic field of topics, and people (I hope) will come. I have links to people who interest me, I comment when I find something intriguing. It’s my blog, not my life – though the blog is ABOUT my life.
Best of ProBlogger - 2007
December 25th, 2007 12:43 am
[...] Secret Confessions of a Link-A-Holic [...]
carazed mike
January 19th, 2008 7:59 am
great advice and I 100% sure the gurus that write the search algorythms would agree. Focus on creating great original content.
Scott
February 6th, 2008 10:45 am
Great post, good solid original content is the way to go.
WolfGirl
February 28th, 2008 7:40 pm
Still new to the blogging scene and I keep getting assured by my Blogging King of a friend that quality will draw people in. It is nice to see that he’s not the only one who says that. :)
I admit, the last few days I’ve been checking my numbers more than I should. Thanks for the heads up on how damaging this can be.
Charlotte Babb
March 6th, 2008 5:01 am
I’m glad I found this site. I am not so clear on building links, and I do love writing. In fact, the idea of the blog is to promote the writing I love to do. So now I know to keep writing and stay away from hard linking…or at least, not to inhale when I am around it.
Fauaad
August 2nd, 2008 3:21 am
I wanna to understand we must type hyberlink of the website title or type the link directory
ATLANTA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
October 31st, 2008 4:40 am
we all get carried away once in a while. We focus on one aspect more than others. The famous quote applies here, “over commit and then disappoint”
we over commit our time to things that aren’t important and don’t give value to anyone other than the idea that you at least did something.
I’ve had to ask the question.
-is what I would like to do going to help me reach my goal?
-What is going to be the ROI?
-How is it going to do this and would I be able to confince someone off the street with this information?
ATLANTA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
October 31st, 2008 4:41 am
we all get carried away once in a while. We focus on one aspect more than others. The famous quote applies here, “over commit and then disappoint”
we over commit our time to things that aren’t important and don’t give value to anyone other than the idea that you at least did something.
I’ve had to ask the questions.
-is what I would like to do going to help me reach my goal?
-What is going to be the ROI?
-How is it going to do this and would I be able to confince someone off the street with this information?
David Brice
November 9th, 2008 8:45 am
I have been link building on some of my sites for 12 years. I have one site with over 1,400 natural links all built through good content. I did ask for a few but not many. Don’t try to beat the system. You can still rank in niche areas without many links.
Courtland
January 22nd, 2009 4:00 am
This is a great article, way to go.
Offshore Banking
March 18th, 2009 11:29 pm
I do not agree that optimization and backlinks are not that important. Come on, if you are trying to appear on the first page for the keyword with 20,000,000 competition, you need to use both of them.
John
March 19th, 2009 1:31 am
I am a link-a holic too. However being an owner of backlinks.com I guess I am also an emabler. hehhehe
Windows7Arena.com
March 22nd, 2009 6:10 pm
I am yet to get into this. I just dont get the point on how to get good backlinks..
Awais Naseer Keyani
March 29th, 2009 6:15 am
I had been wandering over the internet for backlinking methods, came up a post of yours about backlinking which brought me here. And I think this is the best article. I should focus more on quality blogging instead of backlinking!
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