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The problem with a 30 day flip is that it’s incredibly difficult to build your statistics fast enough to make it look like the site is worth anything. Of course, I’ll do what I can to get you guys moving in the right direction, but a lot of it depends on how much work you put in on your own. Alexa ranking, backlinks, Rss subscribers, and traffic are your biggest nightmares when flipping a site in 30 days. It’s just hard to get MEANINGFUL results in such a short amount of time.
Today we’re going to knock one of those problems out. We’re going to learn how to use a method that all of you already know to build a sizeable amount of backlinks. Let’s get started!
Normally I despise the idea of link exchanges. In the long run, they offer very little help to your site, and they can often be downright worthless if you aren’t linking (and getting linked) to from the right types of sites. You need to target relevant sites when doing this as a long-term linkbuilding strategy. However, we can’t be so selective when building links for flips.
Here is an example of my link building strategy for a 30 day flip, and bear in mind you need to start building now or else the links aren’t going to be indexed by the time you sell it! First of all, I go to two major sites… Sitepoint, and Digitalpoint. Both of these allow you to request link exchanges for free, so take advantage. What you want to do is target the niche that you cater to in the first round of linking… an example ad would be -
Need Link Exchange For Celebrity Gossip Blog
I’d like to stay site relevant, but I’ll consider just about any site that doesn’t include adult, racist, or otherwise offensive content. I’m no so concerned about the PageRank of your site as I am the number of pages… the more pages, the better! Send me a PM, and we’ll see if we can work out a deal!
My blog is dedicated to celebrity gossip, and the latest Britney Spears meltdowns. I post daily, so the amount of pages will increase rapidly, and therefore, so will the number of your links.
SITEWIDE links only please!
It’s that easy. I always do this twice on each site. The first time I’m looking for relevant sites, or at least something that follows my niche laterally. The second time, I’ll take just about anything.
You’ll notice that I asked for a sitewide link. This is very important because otherwise you may just get a couple of links from the site that you are exchanging links with. If you add someone to your blogroll, you appear on EVERY page within the site (minus the about, contact, etc. usually). So it’s important that you add them to your sidebar in a blogroll, and that you get the same in return.
The next step is approving the link exchange. After you find someone to exchange with, you want to post their link, and then check in 24 hours or so to make sure that they posted yours. You are also going to want to make sure that they didn’t attach “nofollow” to your link. If they did, you need to promptly email them and ask them to remove nofollow, or you’ll be taking their link down. Nofollow links don’t pass juice, so these are practically worthless, although they do show up in your link totals if you do a backlink search (usually).
If you don’t know how to check to see if a link is nofollow, here is a quick tutorial.
My comments are Nofollow, which keeps me from getting spammed like crazy. But if I link to you on the sidebar, or within a post, it’s a followable link. Here’s how to find the difference if you use Firefox. And if you don’t, why the hell don’t you?
- Highlight the link and the text around it
- Right click
- “View selection source”
A link within my blog posts would look like this …
Piss Biscuit
Wherease a link in my comments, which has the nofollow attribute added, will look like this…
Piss Biscuit
or - Piss Biscuit
Now that you know how (if you didn’t before), don’t forget to check your link exchanges to make sure that your links are being followed. It’s worthless if they aren’t.
Remember, I’m not a huge fan of link exchanges, but they produce results fast when it comes to blog flipping. It shouldn’t be your only link building method, but it should be in the arsenal!
Don’t forget, you should also be commenting on dofollow blogs, and doing a bit of forum posting. Add these methods to your social bookmarking and you’ll be building links pretty quickly.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Good tips Bryan!
I’ve leisurely checked before to kind of monitor how long it takes for backlinks to show up, but I never did it on a “time constraint” like we’re doing here. I noticed a few of my backlinks for this Go Green blog have showed up within a couple days, so that’s cool.
Is that typical?
I’m still working on getting my shiznit together for getting social traffic. Everyone is claiming hundreds and I got like one day of 150 so far. Damn It!
You’re right, 30 days (on a brand new site) seems tough to make a site show that it’s a good investment - at least for what you think/know it worth.
Jay
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Bryan Clark reply on July 9th, 2008:
Jay, nothing is typical when it comes to SEO. But it’s not unusual. I wouldn’t worry about it… let it play out.
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July 9th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Thanks Bryan,
I have the traffic nailed now I think!!!
SU has brought me 19000 visits over the last two days (according to my statcounter tracking) but sadly I am not yet getting any Google traffic but have just written some posts that should rank well, as I did a little keyword research.
I also managed to earn which I have never done with a new site!!!
As for link backs, I guess that is tomorrows goal. Thanks so much for the details…. I will get as many of these as possible.
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Bryan Clark reply on July 9th, 2008:
That’s quite amazing Forest. I’m happy to hear you are getting results so early! You’ll get the organic traffic, just go after some easy keywords!
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Forest reply on July 9th, 2008:
Thanks Bryan,
I have targeted a few keywords now and need to wait and see how well they index.
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July 9th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Bryan:
I have a general question on link building. This is a question i’ve had for some time.
If i purchase a link on a site say for 30 days, does a blog still benefit from the link juice. What happens after the 30 days, when i no longer have my link there. Dont i have to have it there longer than 30 days, or like permanently, for it to benefit me?
I am in the process of acquiring a (30 day) link on a PR4 myspace resource site for an image host of mine. But will one month or even two, help my site?
I guess im wondering how long does the link juice last on a dofollow link in a sidebar?
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Bryan Clark reply on July 9th, 2008:
I don’t think that there is a clear cut answer for that one Missy. However, I asked the same question a long time ago to my SEO consultant that I had hired for One Man’s Goal, and he told me this… “However long it takes for Google to index the link, that’s about how long it’ll stay indexed if it gets removed.” For example, if you have a link for 30 days, and it takes Google 2 weeks to index it (leaving you another 2 weeks), then you are looking at roughly 2 weeks worth of juice. Not enough time for any real benefits.
If you are buying links, you need to do it for the long term.
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July 9th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
@ Bryan: Great post, and thanks for a little link love too!
@ SuiteJ: The big problem with backlinks is that bloggers don’t add ping services to their pingback list. That means that your back links won’t show up until “G” crawls the site naturally. If the page isn’t built right, the blog author could be sending the spiders else where before ever getting to fully index the page.
Solution… update the pinglist ASAP, and remind all of your fellow bloggers to do the same. Once done, they will be telling all the major online indexing systems to be aware! This will help index you faster, and notify you backlink blogs that the link exists.
Need the list of ping services? I just wrote about them here…
http://thepissbiscuit.com/news-piss-biscuit/
@ Forest: Holy smokes.
@ Missy: I’d stay clear. If you’re buying backlinks for the juice, then a new owner will HAVE to take that into consideration. I’m not sure a new blog owner would really want the expense of paid links, nor the after effects should they choose to not keep it.
If you ask me, there are way to many negatives in buying backlinks… on a flipper. But that’s just me.
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July 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Thanks Mr Biscuits,
I gotta go look at this ping thing and make sure I update my blog… cheers for the heads up.
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July 9th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
@ Bryan: I’ll try, but I don’t know if I can “let it play out”. My heart’s racing, caffeine is seeping out of my pores, and my eyes are burning red. I need to know it all now…before bed…tonight!
@ Pissy One : Good tip on not buying link juice for a 30 day flip. Also, in case you guys don’t know, the ping list Pissy listed goes under Settings/Writing in “Update Services” at bottom of the page/panel.
@ Forest: I was infuriated that you got so many Stumbles since I can’t get more than a trickle. However, the anger passed shortly after I saw your post listing a long ass list of where to get free coffee! Yeah!
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July 9th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Ha ha!!!
That list took me a while to compile but I think it was worthwhile.
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July 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Just wanted to clarify to the guys, that the question i posed to Bryan for link buying, was NOT for the flip blog. But for an image host of mine.
I need to get craking on some content for my flip. So will be busy next few days with this.
I’ve already stumbled most of you, and left comments. Do stumble me, and leave some comments, please. Thanxs!
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Thanks for the advice for link exchanges. I have never been good at these, I add the ones I like but get very little response from others. I will try this approach and see if I can get something going.
Also I see a lot of discussion about google, and google crawling your site (not just here but all over). I use the google sitemap generator widget and have no problems with google noticing me quickly. I have already started to see some organic traffic from google.
Hope my 2 cents worth helps.
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Hey Guys,
Everyone in the comp has been given two backlinks by me. One on TheRandomForest.com (my home) and one on FrugalZeitgeist.com so I hope that helps a little.
As for dofollow blogs I found this great place http://linkbuildingbible.com/dofollowdiver/ allows you to search keywords and find dofollow blogs to comment on.
I’m just going to run around and do a stumble run for everybody…… good luck guys.
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July 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Awesome stuff Forest! You’ve been a great help so far. Keep kicking butt in the contest!
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July 10th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Ha ha, thanks Bryan…. looks like my amazing stumble run is coming to an end….. Better find the next step….
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Hey guys, sorry I’ve been absent of sort - I moved back to my home for University and have been busy getting my life (and head) sorted out
And now - the weirdest thing happened, I had all of my bookmarks in Firefox and now they’ve disappeared, that’s so many bookmarks i’ll never be able to find again
I’m so bummed.
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am
I don’t know if anyone can help but I am convinced that I have been sandboxed by Google…… anything I can do??
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:40 am
@ Forest:
http://www.google.com/search?q=http://frugalzeitgeist.com/&complete=1&hl=en&safe=off&filter=0
Sandbox… no sir. But last night I did do a little research on all of my contestants… I guess I can post the findings if it would help.
I think your biggest issue is you simply have not been indexed. That said, there are some things you can do to help fix that. However this early in the game…. “fugetaboutit” No worries.
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Okay Forest… http://thepissbiscuit.com/
Post is up… have fun!
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July 13th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hi, to all:
I’ve got 3 posts up on my flip blog. Commets are appreciated. I know i need to add way more, and am working on it. But there are only so many hours in the day.
By the way, who owns the green blog? I can’t tell.
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July 13th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Frugal Zeitgeist:
What do you mean by Google sandboxed?
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July 13th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Oh if Google suspects your site of being illegit it can stop you from getting ranked highly for your keywords…
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July 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Anyone know where Bryan is????
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July 14th, 2008 at 8:58 am
He has stolen all our websites and is selling them as a group package on sitepoint for 0.25c….. I knew I should not have given him my login details
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Jay reply on July 14th, 2008:
LOL. That’s selling websites in a frugal way! Maybe he’ll post his master plan before he sells the blog(s).
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July 14th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Forest, you bad boy! Bryan WOULD NEVER EVAH DO THAT. He better not!
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July 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
@ All: Bryan was seriously injured in a softball accident. He’s been banged up pretty good with a massive concussion so I’ve been told he’ll be taking a few days off to help cure the head spinning.
You all can can fee free to let me know if ya need something, and I’ll try and get you all squared away.
- PB
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July 14th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
So thats where he is! Thanks PB.
Rest up Bryan!
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July 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
ahhhh that’s awful
Still better than what I thought had happened after reading the first few words you wrote…. I thought it may have been far worse!!
Bryan, look forward to having you back when them head spins go away (I got hit by a car once and my eyes were looking in different directions for 3 days….. so I think I know how that feels !!! )
Take care.
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July 14th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hope your noggin is ok, Bryan…and hope your team won the game!
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July 15th, 2008 at 4:58 am
That is bad news, but it happens in sports. I have been involved with many injuries and know how scary it may be. Get well soon, do what ever the doctors tell you, and you will be better than ever.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I usually do link exchanges with buddies… and for checking dofollow or nofollow I use the firefox SEO plugin. It highlights the no follow links in whatever color I choose Very helpful
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Bryan Clark reply on July 23rd, 2008:
Yeah, I use that one too. I was having some issues with mine when I updated to FF 3 though. It’s all been fixed now, so the plugin still rocks.
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