This is a post by Cristian Lungu

Reciprocal linking is without doubt one of the most disputed subjects in the SEO community. The reason for this is because they simultaneously can greatly contribute to your link network and also damage it pretty seriously.

One thing is certain though, Google is getting better by the semester in finding and demoting low quality link exchanges to zero and even negative values.

Search engines have not declared war to link reciprocation but rather to the unnatural linking patterns meant solely to increase the number of links and consequently, enhance rankings.

There are 2 directions to follow

1. Build reciprocal links by going beyond you niche limits. This will benefit you short term but once practicing these obscure exchanges chances are you’ll get penalized.
2. Staying in your field; although it takes more time to find and initiate quality link exchanges opportunities, keeping the relevancy level high will empower your sites position in that niche’s organic listings.

Still, keep in mind that it takes time to build a presence online and brand yourself. The good news is you build a solid foundation for selling your product or service.

After securing a considerable number of quality links pointing to your site, it’s advisable to diversify your linking sources and even include some low quality ones; and there is no easy alternative then reciprocal links.

This tactic it’s beneficial as it enables you to build relevancy for your website by extensively using targeted keywords as anchor texts.

Junky back links are not a thing to worry about as long as you don’t return the favor.

A white hat method for link exchange is reciprocal promotions, where each linking partner promotes content referencing the other party on their own website.

From a marketing perspective reciprocal links are especially valued for being an efficient medium for brand promotion. Still, if you can obtain a one way back link the better.

Then again, this statement is contradicted by our incorrigible human nature that constantly cries the “what’s in it for me” exception.

To make this human behavior work for you, you must gratify them with some top-notch content that they feel they must reference and discuss and debate around it, on social platforms, with blog posts, etc.

Another, more subtle approach to promoting your content is to present it among other relevant resources. This gains you credibility and impels the recipient to take note of your suggestions.

As 99% of automated link requests are simply ignored resume using such link scouting tools only to researching. Once a link exchange opportunity is spotted address the webmaster in person.

When to Drop Reciprocal Links as a strategy:-

Once you start getting involved with the reciprocal linking networks, consider this:

1. The featured websites in these back link catalogues have at best 0 PageRank. Reciprocating with these low quality,( most importantly) irrelevant websites is easily spotted by Google.
2. At best, these sites reach 10 pages in length, giving them no chance of ranking even in markets with low to no competition at all.
3. Not only does their copy sounds as hype from a mile away but they’re also built in the spam religion with keyword stuffing in the title and description tags, etc.
4. All things being said, common sense will tell you that you do not need these artificial linking schemes to get good rankings.

Reciprocal links are valuable, but not on their own. They must be included into a coherent link building campaign.

Read more: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/Reciprocal-Linking-An-Unbiased-Analysis.html#ixzz0gG06nEoz

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By Donna Gunter – Posted on February 22, 2010

Unfortunately, this scenario is a reality for all of us who use social networking — it’s not a matter  of IF your Twitter or Facebook account will be hacked, but simply WHEN. I’ve been on the receiving end of messages from my friends whose accounts have been hacked. The message typically compliments me on some body part or requests me to click on a link to view a video of myself. Also, there are usually a number of misspellings in the message.

Be very careful when you get those kinds of messages, even when they are coming from trusted friends who would normally not engage in this type of behavior. Many of the messages are linked to a virus or some type of malware that either infects your computer or will gain access to your account and send all of your friends and followers spammy messages. If you do slip and click on
one of these links, pay attention to what your virus scanning software tells you, especially if you get a security warning about a site.

If your Facebook account is hacked:

1. Visit Facebook’s information page for problem resolution.
2. If you are still able to access your login email address, then use the “Forgot your password” link to prompt an email from Facebook with a password reset code. If you can’t access your account, then use the link above.
3. Clear your browser cache (your browsing history and cookies and private info) and close down your browser as described above.
4. Your account could also have been phished/hacked by a phishing web site, worm, or malicious software. To ensure that all is safe again, refer to the “Warnings” section on Facebook.

Take care when using Twitter and Facebook. Trust your intuition, and if something doesn’t look or feel right, ignore it or delete it before clicking on it. You will have probably saved yourself hours or headache in trying to restore a hacked account.

If your Twitter account is hacked:

1. Visit Twitter’s information page for problem resolution.
2. Log out of Twitter
3. Clear your browser cache (your browsing history and cookies and private info) and close down your browser.For Internet Explorer: Go to Tools — Internet Options, and then click on the “Delete” button underBrowsing History. Check all of the boxes (except InPrivate Filtering data) and click on the “Delete” button.

   For Firefox: Go to Tools — Clear Recent History, and then click on the down-arrow next to “Details”, check all of the boxes, and select “Everything” for the time range to clear.

4. Open a new browser window, log into Twitter, and change your password. You can also use the Twitter password reset feature to set a new password before logging in again.
5. Visit your settings page and check your Connections. Revoke access for any third-party application that you don’t recognize.
6. Submit a support request to let them know you have taken all of the proper steps to reset your account and to request that your direct messaging capability be restored. You can also include info on any statuses that weren’t posted by you in the body of the request.
7. Update your password in all of your third party applications as well. If a third party application (like Facebook, Twitterrific, Twhirl, etc.) is trying to use your old password to access your tweets, it will lock you out of your account.

Take care when using Twitter and Facebook. Trust your intuition, and if something doesn’t look or feel right, ignore it or delete it before clicking on it. You will have probably saved yourself hours or headache in trying to restore a hacked account.

Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Read more: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/General/What-To-Do-If-Your-Facebook-or-Twitter-Account-is-Hacked.html#ixzz0gG0Q04C8

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Watch this important video now only 1:52) and grab your free report bellow – no opt-in required

Opens in new window – Or right click and select save as..

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In my previous post http://bloginstallationservice.com/analyzing-blog-activities-january-2010/ Reza Winandar from Blogger Make Money commented asking me to share some of the ways I generate traffic to this blog, so I’ve put together 10 of the techniques I use and plan to use in the hope you too will benefit from them. Follow these 10 blog traffic strategies and your blog just might be the next Engadget, TechCrunch, JohnChow.com, StevePavlina.com or BoingBoing.net. – The key here is consistency, which am still working on

Disclaimer: none of the links this article  are affiliate or sponsored by their respective owners!

1. Blog Regularly – many of the top blogs post 10-20 times per day. This is not the requirement – see  2.

2. Create Authority Articles – instead of blogging frequently, post less often but focus on creating Authority Posts — lengthier articles that are really well put together which will attract attention from other bloggers & users of social bookmarking sites like Digg, reddit, etc.

3. Comment on Other Blogs – do not keyword spam in these, but rather use your own name and add value to the conversation. – I do this as often as I can – I still get traffic from blogs that I commented on well over a year ago.

4. Link Out Frequently to Industry Leaders – show some linklove to other bloggers in your niche.  In turn, they might eventually link back if you have a quality post on a topic they have not covered yet.  – To set an example see the opening summary. Be bold and don’t be afraid to link out, just be sure not to link to what is know as “bad neighbourhood sites”.

5. Participate in Blog Carnivals – these are a way for bloggers within a niche to get together and periodically highlight posts from one another’s blogs.  You can find an index of these at BlogCarnival.com. – I purchased the blog carnival software when it first came out and use it as often as I can for some of my blogs

6. Do Guest Posts – not just for A-List bloggers, but B-List and beyond.  Be sure to work up some good material first, so as to make a good first impression. – This is my to do list, so if you have a blog and willing to let me guest blog for you give me a shout

7. Article Marketing – chances are, you’re reading this via a site that syndicated this article using an article marketing script of some sort.  Join a site like ArticleMarketer.com and ArticleDirectoryProject.com to syndicate your articles to thousands of participating sites.  If distributed via the web, these sites are required to link back to you via a byline/author box.

8. Social Digging/Mixxing – join sites like Digg, Mixx, Bumpzee, etc. and encourage your users and/or friends to submit your stories. – Still working on this and number 9 and I humbly request you all to submit any of my post you like to these sites please

9. Social Bookmarking – join del.icio.us, Furl, Wink, Backflip, etc and submit your popular articles to these sites to seed them into the community.

10. Use Great Headlines – okay, which sounds better “Some Ways to Get Readers”, or “10 Time-tested, Battle-Hardened Blog Traffic Techniques”.  Many readers are particularly fond of “Top X” lists, or “How To …” posts.

I hope this has given you an insight of how  I go about generating traffic to my sites as whole. There are numerous other techniques that you can use to gain more exposure and more visitors to  read your content, hopefully I will do a second part to this article to highlight them in the near future – stay tuned!

Be sure to sign up for RSS feeds and leave your comments bellow to let me know what you think – and better still add your own techniques and let us all benefit too.

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I’ve decided to do various experiments to see the true affect of certain actions on a live blog. Having read a number of guides, reports and pro-blogger’s advice I felt it was time to put it all into practice and see the outcome first hand.

Point I

One of the main advice given in many a guides/reports is to blog consistently on a regular basis – as this is what drives traffic to a website/blog. So for this month (January) I decided to experiment on this by posting very little in way of blog posts.

Conclusion: In terms of new visits; I found that the number had reduced drastically and as a result the Alexa Rank dropped from 130,000 to 165,468. In terms of repeat visitors there was hardly any changes although I noticed a small drop.

In terms of feeds being accessed, there was a significant drop in this department. Comments continued on steady stream and a significant increase in spiders/bots trawling the contents.

My overall point of view is to continue blogging on a consistent basis – write highly relevant, on topic and valuable content. *Consistency does not mean blogging everyday – atleast once a week is sufficient, unless the blog is fairly new!

Point II

Since this blog main topic is blog (WordPress) installation I decided to promote only that aspect of the business. As a result I have noticed that although the readership dropped, the request for services such as installation, upgrades and troubleshooting had a significant increase.

Conclusion: Content may drive traffic to a site/blog but it does not determine the conversion rate. Promoting to the right mass is the way forward for business success. One should therefore endeavour to drive targeted traffic in both aspects, readership and monetization – as readers may not necessarily be/become customers nor does most customers become regular readers. There maybe a crossover but the number is very small.

So if you run your blog as part of a business venture be sure to cover both readership and conversion.

In the month of February I will be reverting back to posting on a regular basis (at least once a week) while continuing with further analysis of what really makes a site/blog successful.

I will be looking into the site/blog design, content management, monetization and relationship between me and you the readers. I will be looking into how I can extend the facilities to give you a greater involvement – as commenting alone is not enough.

Membership facility is still under consideration and an announcement will be made in the February analytical report for the blog activities.

This is not a conclusive report and is just an overview – I am hoping to be able to put together a comprehensive report at the end of my 3 months analysis process that will give a fuller and in-depth overview. This will be a learning curve for me and hopefully at the end of the day for you too.

Should you have any suggestions, recommendation or simply want to put your point of view across then please do leave a comment bellow. I also welcome you to submit your views in the form of an article which after reviewing I will publish on this blog – you will get full credit for the post plus you may add up to 2 links to your own blog (1 of the links must be to the home page) and No affiliate links!

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With the advent of new blogs springing up on the net, Wordpress as a blogging platform is set to rise in popularity. The community behind this popular software is already huge and will continue to grow.

The evidence is the newly founded WordPress Foundation with its prime location at http://wordpressfoundation.org and sporting a new default theme for Wordpress. The foundation is set to add value to the already immensely valuable WordPress platform and by no means is it here to change or take over.

The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.

You can read more on what the Wordpress Foundation is all about at http://wordpressfoundation.org/

Also check out the first post: Getting Off The Ground and while you are there admire the new default theme that is set to be released with future versions of WordPress.

The new default theme is also available to download directly from wordpress themes repository and you can get your hands on it at WP themes repository – Kirby. Be ready for other major changes to WordPress as we proceed to version 3.0 and beyond. I will be sure to bring you more information on these as and when it is released, if you have not done so already please subscribe to my RSS feed by entering your email id in the box bellow this post to be kept updated.

Your comments are always appreciated and I would like to hear your views both on the Wordpress Foundation as well as on Wordpress as the most popular blogging platform, so please take a moment to have your say in the comments box bellow.

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The movie Julie and Julia took blogging mainstream for many who had no idea that an everyday, average individual could command attention and pursue their passion using an online technology available to the masses for free.

And it’s not just movies and rare blog success stories that make people want to blog. In 2009, the job market resulted in a ton of layoffs for journalists and print newspapers and magazines went out of business. These writers will take their skills to the Internet.

Blogging will boom in 2010 even more than it already has in marketing circles. Just like reality TV has now become a career pursuit for some young adults, blogging is being viewed as a potential income source for those who don’t want to take the regular route to financial success.

Perez Hilton has been very open with the amount of money he’s raking in – and it’s substantial. There are so many blog success stories that you can learn from and apply them to your 2010 Internet Marketing strategy.

The Bankaholic blog was sold for $15 million. ArsTechnica sold for $25 million. PaidContent sold for $30 million. Someone recently commented that you can start a blog about Doritoes potato chips and once it gets rolling with traffic, wait and see how much they pay you to own it.

In the year 2010, you’re going to find many grassroots bloggers who are flying by the seat of their pants. The one edge they may have over experienced marketers is that they don’t just get into a niche because it sounds lucrative – they do it because they truly have a passion for it.

That passion will translate into frequent blog posts and the building of a loyal and enthusiastic like-minded core audience. It will grow like a wildfire and when that traffic hits a certain number, competitors will come knocking at the door of these bloggers hoping to make an acquisition and funnel that traffic to their own interests.

Many of these bloggers you’ll be competing with won’t have the marketing savvy and insight to monetize their blogs as well as yours, so initially they may not see the same financial success. But don’t count them out if they’re fierce about feeding the Googlebots with constant content and ensuring they’re not hyping up their reviews in a way that violates current FTC rulings.

Your goal for 2010 as a blogger should be to continue leaving breadcrumbs on a daily basis for search engine spiders. Make sure you utilize broad and long-tail keywords. Comply with FTC regulations about being transparent if you receive compensation for a review or testimonial. And narrow your niche down so that you have a high chance for success against the influx of new bloggers in the blogosphere.

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The new year is upon us and let me take this opportunity to wish you
a very happy and prosperous year for 2010.

Achieve Your goals/resolutions/plans/ambitions:

As we say goodbye to 2009 and welcome in the new year, lets take a moment to reflect on the past year and plan for the new year. Lets reflect on what went well and how we can improve on it to make 2010 an even better year. Lets also reflect on what didn’t work or go well so that we can rectify the situations and not repeat the same mistakes again.

A good starting point is to look back at what goals you had set yourself at the beginning of 2009 and see which you achieved and which failed. Once you have analysed the data and have a good idea of solutions then its time to set new goals and plan for a better and more successful 2010.

As they say – Not planning at all is a plan to fail!

So plan ahead and achieve great success today and for the rest of the year

I look forward to be working with as many of you to make 2010 a memorable and highly successful year for us all. Lets make it count – Happy New Year

With best wishes,

Zulfikar.

P.S: You can get free themes at http://blogthem.es

Wordpress sales letter/page is available at http://www.easywpsalespages.net/

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Most of you will already be aware of the latest announcement on the release of Wordpress 2.9 – as always a major release comes with a bunch of cool new features. Here’s a short video showcasing just a few of the coolest features that come fully loaded with this latest major release.

The coolest new stuff from a user point of view are:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

For more details read the official Wordpress Release Post here!

As always the advise is to backup you current installation, both core files and the database before upgrading.  Also remember to deactivate all the plugins to avoid any conflict and to allow for a smooth and trouble free upgrade. Should you run into difficulties or problems after the upgrade give us a shout, I am here to help in anyway I can

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About the Author

The author is a full time online affiliate marketer. His livelihood is derived from & depended upon search engine marketing & daily monitoring of targeted keywords, mainly within Google. He runs numerous sites, including: Free Marketing Tools & Internet Marketing Tools Titus Hoskins Copyright 2009. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

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