1) Directories – only a few worthwhile
a. Yahoo
b. DMOZ
c. BOTW
d. Specialty (Industry Specific)
e. Business.com

2) Do-Follow Blog Commenting

3) Articles/Widgets/Tools

4) Analyze high ranking sites
a. Hubfinder by Aaron Wall
b. Common Backlink Tool – Jim Boykin “We Build Pages”
c. Linkdomain:competitor1.com – linkdomain:yoursite.com

5) Ask for links from related sites

6) Look up Search Engine Journal “20 Places to Submit Your Blog”

7) Paid Links from Blogs
a. Look for blogs w/ adsense below the fold – shows they want to monetize the site, but they’re probably not making a lot of money on it.

Paid Links
a. Relevance (page good, site better)
b. Purchase Annually

9) Buying Dead Websites
a. Search “temporarily down for maintenance”
b. Search “site is offline”
c. Contact the webmaster & offer to buy – it’s probably a deadbeat client
d. Look for underperforming websites
e. Search for “copyright 1999″ and things like that

10) Site of the Month
a. Search for “site of the month” + keyword – ask to be the site of the month

11) Google “google doesn’t know the face of evil”

12) Use the Ego Hook
a. Create “Top 100 Bloggers” – contact them, they will link to you

2)ROI for Local/Mobile Search is much harder to measure than web traffic.
a. Most people don’t click through – they call in.
b. Create a unique phone #
c. Include a coupon

3) Mobile Site Notes
a. Create a new site for your mobile site.
b. Mobile sites need fresh content – RSS feeds are awesome
c. Use your standard mysite.com – do not use .mobi or m.mysite.com – use a redirect for mobile browsers
i. This establishes your brand much stronger

Common Forms of Linkbait

1)      Informational

2)      Controversial

3)      Humor

4)      News

5)      Tools

 Benefits of Linkbait

1)      Links

2)      Link Profile

3)      Traffic

4)      Branding

5)      Bookmarks

6)      Media Publicity

 Finding Ideas

1)      Run searches on the social bookmarking sites for ideas on what to write on.  What was popular.

 Creating Content

1)      KISS

2)      Lists

3)      Pictures

4)      Videos

5)      Example: myspace for rehab – wrote “The Most Dangerous Drug in the World”

1)      Eye catching titles

2)      Image(s) above the fold

3)      Short, easy, scannable content

4)      Don’t make pages dead-ends.  Include links at the end.

5)      Don’t be a grinch – link to sites you’re not related to.

6)      Be topical & time sensitive.

7)      Solve someone’s problem.

      Use buttons/widgets to encourage linking/voting

9)      Everyone loves “top 10″ lists

10)  Make your list go to “11″

1)      Run a Google Analytics “Site Search” Report

                  a.       Google Analytics > Content > Site Search 

2)      Optimize your “no results page”

a.       No Results! No Problem!  Here are our top sellers!

3)      Build Visitor Trust

a.       Footer

                                                               i.      Years in business

                                                             ii.      Hacker Safe – tested daily

                                                            iii.      Label CC’s you accept

                                                           iv.      Must include 800 # 

b.      Checkout

                                                               i.      Satisfaction Guarantee

                                                             ii.      Shipping Cost & Policy

                                                            iii.      Secure Shopping

                                                           iv.      Privacy

      4)      Error Message Relay – make sure you’re notified of errors 

5)      Use lightboxes – when someone scrolls over, it pops up

6)      Submit to Froogle shopping feed & MSN Live