London SES Feedback on Link Building Methods and Risks

Jim Boykin
Jim Boykin
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Posted On:
February 23, 2010
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Last week I spoke in London at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference about “Link Building – Methods and Risks”.

I was lucky in that I had a 1 hours time slot all to myself, rather than the usual 10-15 minutes that one normally gets when you’re on a panel with others.

I’ve often felt that at conferences where a speaker only gets 10-15 minutes, that you tend to get an “introduction” to a topic…when often, what I’m seeking, is not an “introduction”, but “Here’s what’s important, here’s why, here’s what to do, and here’s how to do it”….at least with an hour I can get a ways beyond “introduction” and more into the “dirt” of the topic. At Hostingcon, SEO Class, and Internet Marketing Ninjas I often had an hour or more of talking time….and I always preferred that over 10-15 minutes of talking time…sheeet…when it comes to links, I can talk all day and all night….

For my talk, I split my time between “Link buying – methods and risks”, and “Trust Bait for Links”. I also talked about some of my ideas on how trust flows through sites, and  my values of different types of links. I also showed how content can get great links, and some ways to do this.   It was great to go a bit deeper into my topic of love (link building)…and I could have talked for hours if they’d of let me.

But in any case, I had a great time, met some great folks, and I can’t wait to get back to the UK again. I also had some nice things said on twitter about my presentation that I thought I’d share (and use for a selling point for those future conferences which I’m seeking to speak on)

philipmorgan:  I think @avinashkaushik and Jim Boykin @webuildpages stole the show at #ses - really enjoyed both, some awesome tips shared by both.
MartinHayman: Enjoyed SES but was gutted that JimBoykin had to rush at the enddue to lack of time… great link building advice… wanted more.

palbocino:  2nd day at #seslondon better than the 1st. Bryan Eisenberg, Lysa Meyers and Jim Boykin gave a lot of food for thought.

RelevancyStream:  Another good day at #ses great keynote this morning and an awesome linkbuilding session by Jim Boykin.Thanks guys

SEOMalc: Jim Boykin: It’s all about quality / trust over quantity.

RedwebSearch: @webuildpages Best presentation of ses2010 so far! #seskey
davedewar: @RelevancyStream Came across just how much @jimboykin loves his job!

JessicaWHealy: RT @evolutionuk: #SESKEY I think we all could had done with another hour with jim from @webuildpages.

evolutionuk:  #SESKEY I think we all could had done with another hour with jim from @webuildpages.

JessicaWHealy:RT @RedwebSearch:@webuildpages Best presentation of ses2010 so far! #seskey

.
I’ll be doing a very similar presentation at SES NYC next month, so if you didn’t catch the London show, Come to NYC SES …I’m speaking on the 24th.
If you’d like to talk to me about speaking at your conference contact my first name at mycompany.com
Cheers!  I’m Feeling Lucky,
Jim
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I went to a Marketing Party. Song Parody

Jim Boykin
Jim Boykin
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Posted On:
January 7, 2010
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I went to a Marketing Party
(Parody of Garden Party by Ricky Nelson)

I went to a marketing party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share new techniques and talk of links again
When I got to the marketing party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, my hat color wasn’t the same.

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t buy links anymore, so you got to go long tail.

SEO’s came from miles around, everyone was there
Giovanna brought her SEOBook, there was tweeting in the air
And over in the corner, much to my suprise
Mr Sullivan in yellow shoes wearing a Rand disguise.

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t buy links anymore, so you got to go long tail.

Talked all night about link building, thought that’s why they’d came
No one believed I’m not link buying, even though I’ve changed.
I said Hello to Stuntdubl, he used to work for me
When I started talking about old site buying, he said it was time to leave

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t buy links anymore, so you got to go long tail.

Someone opend up a conference door and out stepped Matty C. Goode
Writing down SEO operators of interest, like he thinks he should.
If you gotta go to SEO Parties, I wish you lotts luck
But if SEO were all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.

:)

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Pubcon Las Vegas and Death Valley Next Week.

Jim Boykin
Jim Boykin
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Posted On:
November 5, 2009
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Next week I’m off to Pubcon in Vegas for Mon, Tues, and Wed…then Thursday I’m slipping out to Death Valley for a few days of vacation.

On Tuesday I’ll be Moderating the “Hot Topics and Trends in the Affiliate Space” panel.

Speakers:
Steve Schaffer, Publisher, Offers.com
Elisabeth Archambault, Freelance Affiliate Marketer, Wedding-Resources
Rae Hoffman, CEO, Outspoken Media
Jerry West, President, SEORevolution

On Wednesday I’ll be moderating the “Interactive Site Reviews: Focus on Links” panel

Speakers:
Todd Malicoat, Independent Marketing Consultant, Meta4creations, LLC
Aaron Wall, Author, SEO Book
David Klein, CEO, Purpose Inc
Dixon Jones, Managing Director, Receptional LTD

The Focus on Links panel reminds me of this old song I wrote about showing your sites to Mr. Cutts.

And also on Wednesday I’ll be speaking on the SEO/SEM Tools

Moderator: Kate Morris
Speakers:
Jon Henshaw, Product Manager, Raven Internet Marketing Tools
Jim Boykin, CEO, We Build Pages
Aaron Kronis, Director of SEO, Wpromote Inc.
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOMoz

It’s been a long time since I spoke at an SEO conference (Besides SEO Class)…in fact it’s been 2 years….2 years ago at Pubcon I was on the “How to Buy Links with Little Risk” panel… Even 2 years ago the name of the panel seemed to scare me a bit….even at that time, buying links was a risk…and being on a panel whereby admitting that “yes, I buy links” seemed like a great way to paint a target on me (since I bought links back then)…I basically stood up and said, “Stay under the Radar, and Don’t piss off Google”… that was really the only advice I had back then…it was hard to give some of my real thoughts knowing that there were several google engineers in the room including Mr. Cutts.

And wow…. It was also almost exactly a year ago that we stopped buying links. I’m actually amazed to this day the types of links that our ninjas are able to get w/o paying a cent….Tomorrow I’m doing an hour and a half interview with Stuntdubl on MarketingMotive called “White Hat Link Building for the New Millennium” …can ya believe it??

For part of that interview I’m going to talk to Todd about the last 2 link building clients that Todd sent to us, and we’ll talk about how we were able to achieve these links in just a few weeks:

Both these clients are on our 10 links per month package and so far they’ve received:

Site 1:
out of 30 links so far for that client in the first 3 months:
12 edu’s
7 other colleges
1 org
1 k12
1 gov (library of congress)

Site 2:
so far we have 19 links in just over a month.
out of 19 links:
7 are edu’s
3 are schools that aren’t edu’s
5 are orgs (3 of those are schools)
2 are police websites
1 is a gov from NASA

That’s pretty dang good if I do say so myself…these are certainly links that I’d never have been able to buy….but with the right content, and writing to the right people, it’s amazing the links one can get.

———————

So I’ll be at Pubcon Mon -Wed…then I’m going to head out on the open road to Death Valley for a mini-vacation.

Chuck Price will also be at Pubcon with me…he’s got the morning shift, and I have the late shift.

….gosh, I miss blogging… but there’s something to be said for just quietly going about my business…but FYI,  I’m alive and doing wonderful….and yea, I’m still a link addict….just not shouting about it anymore.

Hope to see ya in Vegas,
Peace,
Jim

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Reminder: SMX West Rates Increase Midnight TOMORROW!

Lisa Barone
Lisa Barone
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Posted On:
January 8, 2009
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You need to be at SMX West this year.

Listen, I have one of the most awesome jobs on the planet.   My day-to-day job activities actually include blogging about whatever’s on my mind, strategizing with the brains of We Build Pages and then traveling to conferences once my brain needs a bit of a vacation and I want to see my friends. It doesn’t suck to be me.

And last year the search conference that rocked my world the hardest and gave me the most value was absolutely SMX West. And it’s about to come around again.  I’m going to be there and I know some of the other ninjas will be too.

Are you?

The answer is that you need to be.  And you need to register now because rates increase Friday at midnight. We’re in a recession; why pay more?

I don’t usually pimp shows. It’s not really my place and the whole idea of it actually makes me feel a little slimey. But SMX West holds a very special place in my heart after last year’s debut performance. The networking opportunities at West 2008 were amazing and introduced me to some of the people that this year I call my very best friends.  But all the high level of networking isn’t even the best reason to attend this one.

So why should you attend SMX West?

Like I said, I don’t promote shows that often, but this is one that I definitely recommend attending. And I know I said it already, but have you seen the Developer Day sessions? They were my absolute favorite at SMX Advanced last year and they look even juicer this time around.

We’re going to be at SMX West and we’d love to see you there.   The rates go up tomorrow at midnight, so make sure you book your place now.  You can thank me later.

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Why Liveblogging is Not Useless or Evil

QualityGal
QualityGal
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Posted On:
November 14, 2008
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In case you missed it, there’s quite a brou-ha-ha on Sphinn concerning John Coronella’s condemnation of liveblogging. The post has been Sphunn and Desphunn. The comments are where the real meat of the conversation is.

And far be it for me not to add my two cents to the conversation.

Liveblogging helps people like me, who can’t attend conferences because 1) other work and family obligations, 2) company has already sent a gazillion people to Pubcon (or other conference) and didn’t want to lose any more of its workforce for the week.

In my case, there would never have been another ticket for me to go to the conference. Pubcon didn’t lose anything from me not being there. Sure, Lisa will come back and share what she learned with the rest of the class here at WBP, but who’s going to remember everything they learned at ALL of the different sessions throughout the week? Yeah, liveblogging will never get EVERYTHING from every presentation, but it’s a way to retain more of the information that would otherwise be forgotten due to information overload. And communicate it with others.

If the conferences didn’t want this information to be shared in this manner, they wouldn’t allow it. Why do they allow it? I mean, people who aren’t paying to attend the conference are benefiting from this liveblogging information, right? But this is Internet marketing. Not only is that the industry, but it’s the tactic. After all, if you can learn this much from the liveblogged sessions, just think of how much more you could learn from actually being there and being able to talk with the presenters! It’s publicity.

We all know that we’re not going to get everything from reading about a session, but it piques our interest about what we’ve missed. And maybe next time, people who aren’t like me (different reasons for not attending the conferences) will buy a ticket so they can experience it for themselves.

As for the criticism that liveblogging isn’t edited and refined and whatnot… Livebloggers are human. They aren’t robots. They’re typing away furiously for hours on end, expending energy both listening and translating to a written medium for their audience, session after session. It’s a bit unreasonable to expect them to go back and spend half again as long going back and trying to tweak everything they’ve taken a full day to write about. They’d never get to day two.

Critics should cut livebloggers some slack. Filter what you read. If you know that someone is writing crap, then don’t read the crap. Read the good stuff. Or not. If you’re a presenter who’s worried about being misrepresented, treat the liveblogging of your sessions as you would the rest of your reputation management. Make a comment to set the record straight.

Livebloggers rock.

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