1. I Follow Some Excellent People. I follow all kinds of people. SEO & link building experts like @graywolf, @wiep, @sugarrae, @lisabarone @dazzlindonna, @debramastaler and others. Social media friends like @chrisbrogan, @JessicaKnows, @ambercadabra, @cr8tivejen and @jowyang. And people who are just fun to know like @marybabysteps, @bellastrada and @chatterboxcgc. Of course, I have my real-life friends like @Jaimison10, @pittfall, and @boggles. Now my family is on there like @mpgarlock57 and @katiegdc. I’m a firm believer in the fact that if I’m the smartest person in my group of friends, I need new friends. I want people who challenge me and teach me knew things. These are a small portion of the people I follow who do just that.
2. I Read More Blogs. Because these people (among others) are constantly putting out great information, I feel like I’m in an industry news room every time I fire up Twitter. I get constant updates on new posts, insightful articles and more.
3. It’s Made me a Better Blogger. I want to keep up with these people as well as I can and that means that I have dig a bit deeper to come up with great original content to push out to my twitter stream. And since I know these kinds of people could read it, I don’t want it to be junk.
4. I’ve Made Better Connections. I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with tons of bloggers and content managers that have helped me with projects, given me insights into industries I didn’t know too much about and in all give me new ideas to brainstorm.
5. It’s Made Me More Transparent. The power of Twitter shows me the power of real time feedback and the need to be transparent. And by that, I mean in everything I do. I’ve always been a white hat link builder. Twitter has just pushed me to strengthen that position and pursue it with everything I’ve got.
6. It’s Taught Me That I Still Have a Lot to Learn. And this is the crucial element. As much as I know about building links, I’m constantly faced with blog posts and tweets that tell me I have a lot more to learn. And in my quest to be a link buiding expert, I think that’s critical to understand.

In all, I’m yet to find a tool that has been more beneficial to my career than Twitter. The relationships, the knowledge sharing, the candid discussions… they all play into this effect that Twitter has had on me. And, by the way, if you want to follow me, go for it. If you want to follow my company just hook up with @Intrapromote.

Photo Credit: Physorg.com

Now that the Olympics are finally done, I’m sure many of us have no idea what to watch on television in the evenings anymore. Never fear, link development is here. I haven’t reached out to the IOC yet, but I’m sure link development could become an Olympic event if they really knew what we spend our days doing.

I’m going to propose a Link Development Decathlon to the committee. Here are the events that would make up the event and the scoring system that would accompany it.

 

1. Research Steeple Chase – Every link builder worth their paycheck knows that finding good links requires a ton of research. This event involves jumping hurdles of low quality sites and slogging through the mess to find the coveted high-quality, relevant sites. Points are given for each site found in one hour; deductions are made for sites that have low quality factors such as hidden text, link farms, and irrelevant content.
2. Contact Info Scavenger Hunt – Participants will be given 10 sites that they have to find contact information for. Points will be allocated for each email address found as well as bonus points for faster location times. Deductions include listing webmaster@domain.com and other such email addresses when an actual contact email is somewhere on the site.
3. Timed Link Audits – Given a list of pages to audit, athletes will have to perform an audit, determining how many links are attributed to each page. Points are given based on time as well as accuracy. Deductions include not knowing how to use Site Explorer correctly.
4. Marathon Directory Submissions – A day full of directory submissions will be a physical challenge for each athlete in this event. Points attributed to each directory completed correctly, accuracy of submissions, and varied anchor text that’s incorporated into each submission. Deductions include directory rejections (human editors will be there to accept or reject the submission).
5. Site Evaluation Sprint – All athletes will be given 50 sites that they have to evaluate for a sample client. Points are associated with accuracy of evaluations including relevancy, value of the page, and inbound links to the sites. Deductions include the same as the Research Steeple Chase.
6. Fee Boxing – Dealing with directories that are paid can sometimes feel like a boxing match. Each athlete will go head-to-head with a directory representative to negotiate fees for a client with a bulk submission. Points will be awarded for each dollar knocked off the first price. Deductions include being rude with the representative, giving up too early, and nonsense arguments about why a discount should be given.
7. Link Bait Power Lifting – An all out one-man (or woman) brainstorming session to come up with as many link bait ideas for a sample client as possible in one hour. Points associated with each concept created, research behind the brainstorming, and presentation. Deductions include link bait that is not relevant and sneaky ways to get links.
8. Strategy Ping Pong – Each athlete will have to create a niche strategy for a sample client and then discuss it with that client. Points awarded for each time the client says “sounds good” or “I love it.” Deductions include strategy components that are not relevant, black hat, or not thought through completely.
9. Competitive Analysis Fencing – A list of competitors for a sample client will be given to each athlete to analyze and evaluate. Points awarded for thoroughness, accuracy in findings, and metrics accounted for. Bonus points for each black hat tactic identified. Deductions include missing obvious black hat tactics, inaccuracy of conclusions, and inability to explain the data.
10. Analytics Dive – Everyone loves the idea of link ROI, but how can you explain it? Each athlete will be provided with two sample analytics report from consecutive months as well as consecutive link audits and will have one hour to explain progress of a link building campaign. Points associated for each valid conversion point identified, variety of analytics used in explanation, and questions answered from a panel of sample clients. Deductions include missing KPIs, inability to understand the report, and just making stuff up.

I don’t know about you, but I would stay up late to watch this. Then again, I’m weird.