“Paid links from off topic sites get devalued and flagged.” A common claim by otherwise savvy SEOs such as Ross Hudgens.

Ross, would you take three links from the Wall Street Journal if its reporters write about internet marketing?

Would you buy those links?

I would.

Both for the direct traffic (duh) and the SEO boost (duh).

The page is relevant, the readers are interested in the field… what more do you want?

Guys like Ross seem to think that if a site isn’t on your topic, then you don’t get any value…

Good copywriting does more than just explain the details of a website’s products or services. Copywriting that sells has to come off as more than informative. It needs to speak to a person on an emotional level, giving them hope while getting the point across fast. It also needs to compel a person to take action.

The biggest weakness of the average website today is its copywriting…

There’s a trend of editors in the SEO world uptight about linking out.

A friend in the industry who guest blogs recently told me that he was told by his editor he couldn’t promise links to contributors who participated in guest interviews. Others have been seeing the same, and writers I work with have seen their editors take forever about updating bios [with the attendant links] …

WTF?

The big three engines encourage you to link out to quality sites and resources…

What Bestselling Authors Know About Writing Titles

They vary by genre, but the majority of bestselling authors and editors return to the same hooks time and again to routinely sell obscene amounts of books. On the recommendation of Clayton Makepeace, a celebrity in the web’s direct response copywriting world, I decided to visit a bookstore and peruse the titles on their shelves and take note of what titles grabbed me…

If you pay attention to the ads that monetize most of the web, you’ve likely noticed a trend towards ads that promote content. Glance at these nifty alternatives to traditional banner ads, make some observations of your own, and then join me again at the end for my own analysis.

Is web 2.0 moving marketers to view community-building is a desirable goal?

AMEX

The AMEX ads above are the strongest affirmative answer to that question…

Schlock writing is bad. Schlock writing is bad because it is uninteresting. By uninteresting, I mean that writing in a schlocky manner is generic. Schlock writing is styleless and schlock is flat.

If you just read that introduction and didn’t jump off a bridge, you’re probably a schlock writer. Go hang yourself with some piano wire.

While those may be some harsh words, at least they take a position! The sentences vary in rhythm; the vocabulary radiates intensity and aims for precision…

Training is easily perceived as a chore by inhouse web teams, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 7 easily-implemented tips to make training fun and get your staff’s buy-in.

1. Buy them essential web books, videos or audio recordings. Create a mini reference library.

Many people are motivated to learn on their own, and enjoy self-study. By buying quality resources that your team can access, you’re helping them train themselves very affordably…

Despite what you may have read, Google secretly has a love affair with thin affiliates. Like a techie and Gizmodo, Google can’t get enough of affiliate marketers who build sites with no value add. If Google has its own internal Twitter, Eric Schmidt would tweet, “I heart affs who rely on search to power their business model.” Why?

Google loves thin affiliate sites because they:

1) Are lazy…

I was browsing around Wikipedia and couldn’t help but laugh at the stupidity of some of Wikipedia’s editors, or wonder how Google can love thieves like these…

Wikipedia editors can’t spell, yet they want us to make a better ‘choise’ of words.

So let me get this straight. The content was garbage, but you still thought it was good to plagiarize it? That’s like watching Bruno and thinking he’s a role model! And of course, while you’re plagiarizing, you may as well link around to the rest of the crap content you stole and repurposed on the Wiki…

When I started out in internet marketing, I browsed around various lists of high paying keywords as well as some arbitrary lists that veterans just decided to share [without explanations] on their blogs.

The problem with lists that have no explanations is that they require you to assume that
a) You can enter these niches and compete successfully in them, despite being a newbie; and/or
b) The person who compiled the list is infallible…

I’ve been writing about thinking critically recently and the Malcolm vs Chris vs Seth thing is great fodder.

I love Malcolm Gladwell’s criticisms of Chris Anderson’s writing here and appreciate Chris’ equally critically minded answer, but I had to take on the genius that is Seth Godin (I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically). Seth’s logic in his comment just didn’t work, imho:

“This is huge…

The economy is in a rut because of Big Risk – beyond just the subprime housing market.

First, it was Big Finance – AIG and company. Second it was Big Media – the NYTimes and friends. Third, it was Big Auto – GM and gang. It’s quite plausible that the next victims will be Big Advertising – WPP et al.

What’s the relation?

-> Each of them has profited from heaping risk on their customers … when they should have been the ones taking risks…

Ed Berrera contends that as Facebook advertising gets more niche, it will become less profitable to Facebook… methinks he be wrong. (And methinks further that writing like a pirate be good. Arrrh.)

Ed’s article confuses short term inefficiencies and arbitrage – eg, Facebook selling ads at higher rates to lazy advertisers – with long term profitability. He suggests that long term profitability will come from selling ads to lazy advertisers at high rates, because they’ll be broadcast to big swathes of Facebook users…

I solved (at least partly) my problem maintaining rankings over time. Old pages that used to get traffic are once again seeing inbound search visits. I did it by tweaking my blog’s category pages, but I think the lessons are also helpful for ecommerce sites.

By default, WordPress category pages show 10 posts. Similarly, most ecommerce category pages show 9 products per page (in a 3×3 grid)…

The Borgle is doing it again – after Google Maps ripping off MapQuest, Youtube is out to jack SoundClick.

Before I got into the search marketing community, one of the first online communities I really got involved with was the hiphop community. I’d seen 8 Mile, loved the ’seize the day’ message in its theme song and gone home to look up lyrics to the rap battles in it. As things happened, one such community site ranked for the longtail phrase I’d looked up, one thing led to another and the next thing you know I was writing, producing and recording my own songs…