Successful Blog

Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo

by

I’m not actually sure how I got there. That happens to me in real life too–more than I’d like to admit.

Somehow I ended up on a forum called SEO Guy on a thread about backlinks. The discussion was about that age old question

Why don’t my backlinks show up in Google?

It’s accepted knowledge that Google only reports about 5% of the backlinks it knows about. This practice frustrates folks attempting to see where they stand.

Embedded in the discussion thread that I found was a way to uncover what backlinks Google has by asking Yahoo. The technique set forth below by forum member Brandon is complete with the compelling argument for why you would trust that Google has these same links.

This is an image of Brandon’s post at the SEO Guy Forum.

This is an image of the search text in action. It took a few tries to get it right using a blog with a subdomain. Note the space before the hyphen.

Not only did I find out what links Google has, I found out that Yahoo doesn’t show me all of its links when I do a simple link:mydomain.com search either. The link count for both my personal blog and for Successful Blog were both almost 40% higher through this command.

Believe me the entire thread at SEO Guy Forum is worth reading. I just found this particular bit worth highlighting for your attention.

I’m heading back that way. I’ve bookmarked both the SEO Guy Forum and the SEO Guy Blog. This SEO Guy makes SEO interesting. What a concept!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Google–Do You Have Something to Tell Me?
Google Site Maps–Looking for Lancelot or Guinevere
Google Blogger–403 Forbidden–How Could You Let that Happen!
Google Zeitgeist–Will Make ME Millions

Checklist for Starting a Directory Listing

by

Have you ever thought about starting a small topical directory of blogs in your niche?

Done with consideration, a small directory of resources that you’ve hand-picked with your readers in mind can be a real service. The service, often called “pre-selection,” saves readers time when they’re looking for something they need. Here’s how to do it well.

    1. Study your niche to determine the resources your readers might find useful to have in one place.

    2. Determine the strategy for defining your listing–Will it have one or more category of resources? How many blogs do you wish to include? What choices you will make for readers? How many options will you offer them of each kind of thing? Know where and how you will set up your directory listing. Know how you will tell readers that the directory is available to them.

    3. Use the Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs here at Successful Blog or develop your own set of criteria for deciding whether a blog should be included. You want your directory to be small and to have a reputation for quality and relevance.

    4. Invite publishers of appropriate blogs to join your directory. Be prepared to explain tactfully why others in your niche might not fit in the mix. It’s important that you hold the line here, not allowing links or friendship to tempt you to include blogs outside your strategy. You always have the option to reconsider by expanding slightly once the directory is known and its reputation is established.

    5. Wait for at least three months, but begin planning how you might expand your directory list in logical ways outward from the resources you currently offer.

Keep in mind that quality needs to be top-notch as always, and you need to choose your links carefully. Your challenge is to prove that you’re not making a directory only for the links they bring.

Done right and well, however, a professional listing can offer readers a resource they come to depend on. Your own credibility will be enhanced by the value of the listing you’ve given them.

You’ve built a community center at the very same time. That can’t hurt, now can it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Collaboration Link 6: Media Events

by

Collaboration Link 6: Media Events
Two or more bloggers specialize on their coverage of an ongoing media event

In the time of a serious media event or tragedy, it seems that too many bloggers are blogging the same things from the same sources. Whatever the newsworthy cause how much more useful and interesting for readers if a group of blogs worked together to collaborate on posting. Each blog might report on a specific aspect of the event to avoid the pervasive problems of redundancy. Anyone who surfed for news during Katrina knows how redundant redundant can be.

Quality needs to be top-notch as always. So it becomes the main criteria for choosing collaborators. Still, if you choose with care, you might find that you develop a news team that has some expertise. What a service you would be performing actually offering some depth and planning to what people could be reading. It’s sure to get your team noticed and gain readers for the blogs in your collaborative group.

All collaborations are a great way of building community, but they can’t be your only form of linking–and you shouldn’t collaborate only with the same people continuously. Finding new people to collaborate with is a relationship-building activity. Besides everyone should have the experience of collaborating with me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Collaboration Link 1: Image and Text
Collaboration Link 2: Topical
Collaboration Link 3: An Event
Collaboration Link 4: Movable Posts
Collaboration Link 5: An Interview
Collaboration Link 5: Begs the Question

Collaboration Link 5 Begs the Questions

by

Link 5 Begs the Questions

So I’ll ask them.

If you could meet anyone in the blogosphere world–living or dead–and ask one question . . .

Who’s the person?

and

What’s the question?

Oh and . . .

Do you suppose you’d get a complete and totally truthful answer?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Collaboration Link 1: Image and Text
Collaboration Link 2: Topical
Collaboration Link 3: An Event
Collaboration Link 4: Movable Posts
Collaboration Link 5: An Interview
Collaboration Link 6: Media Events

Collaboration Link 5: An Interview

by

Collaboration Link 5: An Interview
A Question and Answer format posting

You have probably seen the typical Q&A collaboration done in various formats. We’ve done multi-day interview and single-day interviews at Successful Blog. Here are a few examples.

Collaboration Link–1. 5 Indie’s Advice–the fifth of a six part interview with the owner of The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy.

Collaboration Link–2.3 The Audience is Royalty–The third of a six part interview with the owner of The Reign of Ellen.

I’ve also seen the Five-Question Interview and the Ten-Question Interview. But you know me, I like to change things up a bit.

I’m working with Koray of Koray.ws to show us around his new design in a walking-tour interview fashion. So look for that in the next few weeks.

In a more creative collaboration, a fiction-based interview can a be fresh and entertaining way to pass on solid information. Okay so, this might not work on the most business of business blogs. But don’t give it up without thinking about it. You’d be surprised who might enjoy hearing you have a conversation with a paperclip. Look around. My point is not every interview has to be boring. I only make them that way to torture you. Here’s what we did.

In a collaboration with Teh Blogfather, Eric Mutta, we agreed that the interviewer should be The 65th Crayon, a character on my blog who has among his credits an interview with such the legendary toy, Mr. Potato Head. We thought it might be fun to have The 65th interview Eric’s character, the Blog Father. The resulting interview allowed for questions that were a little less ordinary and still led to answers about the man behind the blog. You’ll find that interview here.

Collaboration Link–Scribbles: Interview with Teh Blog Father

Who knows? Maybe I’ll send my colorful friend to interview Mark Wade next–now that his new design proves that he’s over his fear of crayons I’ve been wondering what his favorite color is. He should have one or two. After all, his company is called R Web Designs. I’m betting it’s red.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Collaboration Link 1: Image and Text
Collaboration Link 2: Topical
Collaboration Link 3: An Event
Collaboration Link 4: Movable Posts
Collaboration Link 5: Begs the Question
Collaboration Link 6: Media Events

Collaboration Link 4: Movable Posts

by

Collaboration Link 4: Movable Posts
Three or more blogs agree to write on the same topic in series each posting one after the next

You might think of a moveable post collaboration as similar to a moveable feast. You have the appetizer at one house, the salad at another, the main course at a third, and dessert at still another. This kind of collaboration requires a certain kind of topic and at least three bloggers to make sense. I’ve not done a moveable collaboration, but can’t see why it wouldn’t work well. Here’s the way a Moveable Collaboration might work.

Topic : 10 Ways to a Better Blog

  • Day 1, Blog 1: 10 Ways to Attract Readers
  • Day 2, Blog 2: 10 Ways to Promote Your Blog
  • Day 3, Blog 3: 10 Ways to Write Compelling Posts
  • Day 4, Blog 4: 10 Ways to Get Links
  • Day 5, Blog 5: 10 Ways to Improve Your Rankings

The series would include a schedule, and links that tie all posts to each other for readers, giving each blogger four relevant links. The caution here is that in order to strengthen the community and your blog, you need to be sure that you work with quality bloggers who provide quality, fresh content. The beauty is that you can limit the number of bloggers to the number of quality bloggers you know. No one said you can’t send readers around to every blog again.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Collaboration Link 1: Image and Text
Collaboration Link 2: Topical
Collaboration Link 3: An Event
Collaboration Link 5: An Interview
Collaboration Link 5: Begs the Question
Collaboration Link 6: Media Events