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Am I linking to other sites too much?
I really don’t want to turn this into a link-blog. Everything I try to present is somehow related to Working at Home, Internet Business, Programs that can be used by people starting their own businesses. Sometimes I think that I am linking more than writing.
I preach about writing good content then find myself involved in different projects that can only be presented by linking. I do write some things that require a link to the original source or some type of referral for additional information to the topic.
Every Sunday for the past 20 some weeks I have presented the Weekly Helpful Reads post. Each one is written by someone I feel has made a good point or would be an advantage to any home business owner. But recently I have been participating in writing projects that are good for my numbers, if one-offs is what I really want.
I do get hits from those projects on the original post and get subsequent views and links from other participants. Then I try to find links that are relevant to the overall topic of working at home and link to them.
I think the community effort is a really good thing. It helps me, other bloggers and brings blogs to my attention I might never have seen otherwise. But, is it link baiting, or just participation?
I guess it really depends on the motive for doing the linking. I don’t think linking for the sake of linking to boost your own numbers is a good thing. I do think that linking as part of a project or to add value to a post is.
If you are as confused by this post as I am, raise your hand. Do you think I use too many links? Are the links I use relevant to my site?
43 Comments
I don’t think you link too much, but your last post with 95 links might seem like Link Baiting to the uninformed. New readers might not like it IMHO. I keep links to a max of 20, and I mean max on any one post, unless its my Friday Link Day post, but tht contains non-blog links as well.
Hey TechZ,
Thanks, I think the reason I started questioning myself WAS the 95 links I had yesterday.
But, they were all good links and I thought relevant to the overall topic of the blog.
I never linked so much in my life, and it took hours to complete. A lot of work.
Anyway, thanks and have a good Ramadan.(I read your post today).
Joe
Hey Joe,
link baiting only comes in if you’re linking to junk.
even if you posted 1,000 links and they all:
1) provide value
2) create new opportunities for your readers
it’s be worth it.
i cant imagine anyone saying: hey i dont want useful stuff, or hey i dont want to improve my WAHB.
that’s insane!
ha.
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Hey Andrew,
Like I told TechZ, I just started questioning myself because it seemed like a lot to me.
But you’re right, as long as they add value, it’s a good thing.
Thanks,
Joe
So no more questioning yourself abt linkbaiting?
can we expect 200 links from you next?
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
I think that depends on how well the next project Darren has goes.
I guess if he has 1000 responses, there should be a couple of hundred WAH posts involved. I just don’t know if I can find the time to do that many.
Joe
Joe,
rome wasn’t built in a day.
you could post 20 links every day.
that way your traffic will be more stable than having one whole bunch of traffic over 1-2 days.
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Andrew,
I guess you’re right, especially if there are that many links. Problem is, I did that last time, over 4 days, but posted them all on one post.
I don’t want the readers/visitors to get bored with a couple of days of links.
Joe
Andrew is totally right!
The other thing you could do is get the linkspage plugin and make a category for WAH links… Then take about a dozen or so of your absolute favorites (ones that apply to YOU and your working at home), write a post, and link off to the links page for the rest.
In this manner, posting the links gives them a little more value (since they don’t fall away to the archives) to both the search engines, AND (more importantly) to your visitors. It gives them the choice, and still gives you a reference point.
I’ve seen a bunch of sites linking to the entire 4 days of entries, either in one whole post or day by day – I get the trackbacks, thinking “Oh cool, they liked my entry!” and wind up a little disappointed that my article’s linked in with all the others on someone’s dating advice site. (Mine was the one about writing directory submissions!) At the very minimum, you’re linking to the relevant ones. I did the same thing! Keep your readers in mind and everything’s great.
(Oh, another thing I found during this project… canned comments being spread around. “Great article. My How To is up here (with link).” That just drives me mad!)
Hey Lara,
hmm, good call on the linkspage plugin.
which do you recommend?
there’s so many.
i’m looking for one myself!
could you recommend one?
link posting: yeah, filtering the appropriate posts would create more value for the readers, rather than the incremental drop-ins from the non-related bloggers. i guess that’s darren’s rationale behind shortlisting the most relevant 5.
Lara: your page seems to be a static website? in which case having the contact us page (which i see you’re included) and also a privacy policy page would help you rank higher in the SERPs.
i heard this was part of the Google PR algorithmn.
looks like generating traffic is a priority at the moment as your PR is pretty decent.
Joe: I’m experimenting with inserting the ‘follow comments via email” notification above the submit comment button.
you might have higher opt-ins that way.
cheers,
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Hey guys,
Nice conversation, mind if I join in?
I had to help K. move her Salon to the house today (eehhh, physical labor). Right now it looks like the kitchen and dining room are out of bounds for living temporarily.
@ Andrew, I just added the follow comments plug-in and it seems to be working well. I think I’ll leave it where it is now, that way it’s right below the submit button.
@ Lara, Take care of your customers first, otherwise, they might find someone else and you wouldn’t want that.
The site can wait for a little while, it looks like it’s doing well for now. Just don’t neglect it for too long.
Joe
Hey Joe,
you are always free to jump in.
it’s yr blog!
Lara: are you using the static front page plug in?
looks cool!
i installed the links page plug in. tks!
it’s activated, though i’m not sure how to set it up or add to it.
do you think you could give me a quick n dirty tutorial?
tks!
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
I just looked at the txt file, would I save the whole thing and run it as a plugin?
Of course I know about the download and upload thing, but I just save the whole thing as php and go?
Joe
Hi Andrew – Here’s the linkspage one that I absolutely adore (The download site is down, so I put the .txt file up on my site. Just save it down as .php and upload it to your plugins folder, follow the instructions, and you’re all set.)
Actually – my site is built entirely by wordpress… cool, ain’t it? I have the pages, those consume most of the site right now, but just recently moved the blog over there from it’s old URL. So you’ll see a lot more content which is what I’m really trying to work on for rankings and all.
I’ve still got a few pages to finish – to be truthful, I’ve been so busy since the creation of the business, I’ve had to focus on my clients more than my own site… I’m hoping to have everything “static” up and running over the weekend (it’s rainy and cold here… nothing better to do!) and then continue with posting the articles and such there as well.
Thanks for the tip on the privacy policy page – I’ve been planning to include it, just as I said, have been soooo busy!
Lara,
Do I really need this plug-in? I have to think of what the advantages are over what I have in place. I don’t want to make any changes that aren’t needed or would confuse readers (or me).
I will look into this further, and look at what you and Andrew have done to see if it fits this site.
Thanks, I do appreciate all the info you gave, it will help in making a decision.
Joe
Yep – save it down as linkspage.php and then upload it to your plugins folder.
(I forgot that you need the capabilities to run PHP in your posts… check out this plugin for that: runphp-plugin-for-wordpress it’s the one I use – just download, install, activate, and you’re good)
Then you go and activate it, of course…
Make sure your WYSIWYG is disabled… and go create a new PAGE called whatever you want your links section called… “______ Resources” is good – where _______ is whatever your niche is.
When you’re creating the page, just enter the following into the page, check the tickbox on the lower right that says “runPHP?” and click publish:
Then go into your links section, and create link categories and add your links to their relevant cats. What happens is that when you go to the resources page, there’s a dropdown list where people can choose the category they want to view. It defaults to the entire list, but the sorting feature is great.
Let me know if you guys have any further problems…
About the index page – nope, not using the plugin. Just made a copy of index.php and called it home.php, cleared out all the stuff in the loop and wrote my own code. I hear the plugin makes it easier, but I did this before I’d heard about the plugin (and I prefer to use as few database calls as possible for greater site speed).
Joe – I would grab it. Especially considering that you have so many links and categories on your site already. Taking them out of the regular article posts and putting them in one good spot for your readers is beyond a good benefit.
What’s really bothering you about it? What you have in place is a list on your sidebar and some really long posts that get lost in the archives. How is that helping anyone? The search engines will skip over it (and skip over giving you credit for linking to valuable and related sites) if it’s not well linked to (in the event that you use a post to list them) and your visitors won’t find them in less than 2 clicks, so they won’t use them after they fall from the front page or their feedreader.
It’s not my plugin – I didn’t create it. But I do endorse it, and almost all of my WP clients use it. Plus, the runPHP plugin will help you with some other things too in the future. Rather than having to try to run PHP queries right in the posts, that plugin makes it easier with one little line of code to do all the work for you.
Hey, it’s up to you – I was just trying to be helpful…
Lara,
No, No, No…
It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, I do. There is just so much going on around here with K. moving her Beauty Shoppe into the house that my brain is fried. Not to mention that she fried her computer, and I have to fix that.
I do appreciate what you are saying and just have to let things settle here before I can really think…
I may be able to look into it a little deeper tomorrow or the day after, it looks like something I can really use.
Thanks, Really…
Joe
Hi Guys,
the reason why i have a links page is for the following reason:
1) main page is too cluttered. the links page helps me better categorize my links.
2) the most important and (more selfish reason) is SEO.
if you use linktemple.com on yr page, you can isolate PR leakage.
especially if you’re being listed on blog/website directories that require a reciprocal link, you can maximize listings and mimize PR leakage by using a links page.
ugh.
is this too complicated?
i have been meaning to blog post abt this for a while and perhaps this is the best time to do it.
—
ps: lara, back to my orig question: are you using ‘static front page’ on yr blog?
or what’re u doing to make it less blog-like and more like a website?
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Since I started using WP the wrong way for what I wanted in the move from Blogger, I have yet to figure out the best way to optimize anything.
I added a webpage (static)which has 5 pages of it’s own, AFTER I transferred the Blog. I really wanted the blog to be the .com address, but ended up with /WP because the Help Desk of the Host wasn’t knowledgeable enough about the process.
I ended up having the /WP because he told me I needed to use a Folder to add the Blog.
I ended up transferring my freespaces.com webpage to my domain only because I already had it.
NOW, things are so messed up, I don’t want to mess around anymore unless someone can help without messing up the SEO I have already built up.
AAAAahhhhh,
Talk about confusing…
Joe
Joe,
ugh….
i can sense your pain.
i did a major SEO overhaul at whoisandrewwee.com and revamped the site structure.
after the SEO, all the links before the migration were broken, and all my indexed links were dead…
having said that though, my rankings in the SERPs are high and i’m indexed very quickly.
A lot of it was using the techniques in secretblogweapon.com and i’m planning to put a review of it up soon. you may wish to take a look at the sales page and see if it might be useful for you.
PS: at some future point, if you do shift directories, you probably would want to use a /WAHB/ sub directory instead of /WP/
the /WAHB/ would catch tons of traffic because of SEO keyword optimization.
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
I know what you’re saying, about the WAHB, but I am just getting established with the WP (that is WordPress per the stupid host guy wanting a directory).
I don’t want to shake things up too much right now, as I said there is a lot going on at home right now with the spouses business moving into the house.
Right now, I think moving slowly is a good idea, at least for the short term.
Between you and Lara, I have some really good prospects to improve things, it may just take a little more time than I would like.
Thanks to both of you…
Joe
Hey Joe,
no worries, move at your own pace.
i really benefitted from participating at your blog and perhaps i’ll point back at this thread to illustrate how a blog facilitates the dialogue.
honestly, without the benefit of your blog being here, it might’ve been difficult to get the knowledge that i have received from Lara and yourself.
I’ve been enriched over the last 2 days.
looking forward to more great posts, Joe! And from you too, Lara!
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Andrew,
Thanks, I needed that…
I think any time there is a good conversation, blog or otherwise, it benefits all involved.
I consider both you and Lara blogging friends, so stop by any time.
I will (I already have you both bookmarked) stop to see you. Sometimes I just lurk, but beware, I DO COMMENT sometimes.
Thanks,
Joe
Joe,
i’ve picked up your RSS feeds.
beware, i may visit!
muahahahahahahaha
your visits and your comments are especially welcome!
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
PS: if you are in an experimental mood, would you like to try the ‘related posts’ plugins that i’ve uploaded at
http://www.whoisandrewwee.com/wordpressplugins/
i tried installing them but no dice.
i know for sure that related posts would increase the number of pages that visitors view, but my inability to configure it properly is getting real frustrating…!
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the sub, I personally like the E-mail type myself (even thought they really are RSS), but only for the headlines, I still end up going to the Blog itself.
I thought about the related post thing, but that’s mainly for search engine searches that end up on a particular page.
If I got more from the searches, I might try it, but more of my traffic comes from referrals.
Guess I gotta work on my SEO, huh?
I’m visiting a friend right now at Successful Blog right now. Stop by, she has a really good open mic night on Tuesday nights (you can stop by now, she’s there).
Alright you two… Lemme see if I can make this short and sweet
1. Andrew, nope – not the static page plugin – I told ya in an earlier comment: …”Just made a copy of index.php and called it home.php, cleared out all the stuff in the loop and wrote my own code. I hear the plugin makes it easier, but I did this before I’d heard about the plugin (and I prefer to use as few database calls as possible for greater site speed).” Most of the site is built with pages (which is why it looks so non-blog like)… I only recently moved the blog over from another URL and included it in the site with posts.
2. Please please please don’t worry about your URL when it comes to SEO. If that’s the only reason you have for changing your permalinks, and you’re going from anything other than the default ?p=## – DO NOT DO IT. It’s not worth it, because search engines sincerely don’t look at URLs anymore when positioning sites. It might help your site visitors who know what ‘WAHB’ is – but other than that, NOT worth losing the rankings you already have, even for a few weeks. I’ve seen sites with the default permalinks rank higher than those with keyword related ones.
The only reason I have them in my permalinks is because mine are set up to be /%category%/%postname%/ – I started the site that way, and I did it for my visitors – so they can see the URL when they do a search. But I do NOT recommend changing just because you think it will affect the search engine positions… because it will not.
3. Related posts plugins – I use the terong related. Takes some getting used to, it’s manual, and has a teeny little bug in it that resets the post to “draft” after you grab the related ones and you have to reset it to “published” before you save. Other than that, I like the interface, it just takes a few more seconds when posting is all. It’s also not really “mainly for the search engines that land there” – it gives your readers more information and keeps them on your site.
Boy, I should be charging you two!
I’ll be satisfied with you guys coming over to the site, reading my articles, and passing the link love if you see fit though… :OD
Hey Lara,
I have visited your site, and already have it bookmarked. You can be sure I’ll visit often.
I sure won’t worry about link baiting when I link to one of your articles, they are too good not to pass on.
Thanks for all of the information you gave here, I know it has helped me make some decisions.
Joe
I’m glad I could help out here some… I hope what I’ve offered up for info helps you and your readers!
Lara,
Thanks, you’ve been a great help. I hope you consider yourself a friend ’round here. I do.
I don’t know if you have ever been to Liz’s Open Mic Tuesday, but it is a lot of fun.
It’s just a bunch of bloggers gathering around a topic, not necessarily about blogging, and the conversation evolves (devolves) and morphs into a really fun night.
Her blog is Successful Blog. Stop by tomorrow at 7pm Chicago time and I’m sure you will enjoy yourself.
Joe
ps. Don’t be a stranger ’round here either, I enjoy the company.
J.
Hey Lara, Joe,
Yeah, no worries.
I sometimes overdeliver and then think ‘gee, i should be charging for this’.
but ah well.
a friend shared with me the concept of the emotional goodwill bank.
if you continue to altruistically help people, you put ‘goodwill’ into your EGB account.
although you may not see immediate monetization, it could eventually come back to you multiplied multiple time.
for example if one of us got a request for a SEO, PPC referral and we passed it to you.
the theory seems to have worked itself out in some situations too.
i’ve heard of situations where people were down on their luck or in a lull period, but the goodwill they’d built up, caused the community to band around them and tide them through.
at the end of the day, they’re sailing higher than ever.
(gee, this sounds like a good blog topic… waddaya think?
)
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Hey Andrew,
Actually, that is a good topic, how helping someone out, without thought for monetary gain, will come back to you x fold.
I have a saying I learned as a child, “What goes around, comes around.”
I really believe, if you do something for (to) someone, it will come back to you two fold.
If you do something Bad, you get twice as bad, but if you do something Good, it comes back at least twice as good. I guess that’s the same as the EGB account on both sides.
Joe
Joe,
EGB’s just What comes around, goes around in a more detailed manner.
PS: are you working in front of your computer all day?
wow.
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Andrew,
Yeah, it probably is more complicated, but I still like my old time saying.
And Yeah, I am working in front of my computer all day, and actually half the night. :-0
Geez – you guys make me feel like you actually believed me when I said that!
I really didn’t mean it seriously…
Lara,
No sad faces round here, ‘K
or 
No
The only things taken seriously here are tips and good advice.
I think I can speak for all involved when I say SMILE
As I said before, once you visit you are no longer a stranger, you are a friend.
You have already helped brighten the atmosphere, so no worries.
Joe
I re-read the comments and I could see where you got the impression that we were going in a different direction.
But I hope you noticed the emoticons, they all had a smiley or a wink.
I want this to be a Welcome place, never, ever having to say you’re sorry. (Remind you of a very old tear jerker of a movie?)
Joe
Thanks, Joe. I’m a firm believer in helping people for the sake of helping… with absolutely ZERO expectations. That’s where I stand… every minute of my life.
So you can understand why I felt a little misunderstood with direction after the joke-y comment I’d made. All’s good – thank you for understanding and knowing that in no way was I serious… 
Never a problem, my friend.
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the links, I can use all the help I can get.
WAH is the way to go, especially if you want time with your daughter AND still be productive.
Joe
Joe,
You DO live on your computer, don’t you!
PS: i just checked out your interview with Darren Rowse.
awesome!
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Hey Joe,
I’m back.
I really liked your freeware and shareware blog, so i’m linking to it from 2 of my forums:
1) WhoIsAndrewWee forum
2) dkforum
Keep up the great work.
I really enjoy reading yr WAHB and freeware/shareware blog.
I’m in the process of launching a WAHB blog too.
As a dad of a 5 month old daughter, i really like doing blogging and affiliate marketing from him.
truly the WAHB lifestyle!
Andrew Wee
http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com
Hey Andrew,
Sometimes it seems like it.
Darren was really nice to do that for me, he didn’t know me from Adam, just that I was a reader of his blog.
I have to go check out what you’ve been writing, I am getting pingbacks left and right…
Joe
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