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Building My Linking Campaign

I have a recipe blog. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a good resource for easy recipes. I started working on it a few months ago when I made the commitment to learn this whole SEO thing that has consumed our lives for the past 10 years. : )

While I’m kinda done with the whole “Loving My Blog Log” thing, I found myself there today searching for blogs that would be relevant to mine. I ended up steering towards the mom bloggers.

So I’m doing some pretty basic stuff here, but it’s fun for me and I am learning in the process. I decided to try and focus on working moms, because my blog has a lot of easy and quick recipes. To my pleasant surprise, I had already gotten a link added within thirty minutes of my first request. This was really motivating. So off I go, back to work.

BTW, try the Shrimp Penne it’s really easy to make and takes less than 30 minutes. Also, try the Artichoke Dip. It will be the hit at any party. Seriously, it’s the best artichoke dip you’ll ever have.

Side note:
Today is Sunday. This is what’s going on at our house right now. My son is upstairs on the computer listening to music and surfing You Tube. My daughter is in her room on her computer on her MySpace. SEOH is on his laptop doing the SEO thing and me well, blogging and link building. That’s a trip!

Google Adds Theme Selection

When I logged in to my Google home page this morning there was an option to add a theme. I thought it was a neat idea, so after looking through the options I chose the bus stop theme. After selecting it, I entered my zip code and the page changed to match my local weather. Today the weather is cloudy here, so the people at the bus stop are now standing under rain clouds. Now I’m assuming Google is sucking all sorts of local search data from me right? The theme is really cute though. I hate to admit it, but I really like it. I’m sure I’ll get an “oh brother” out of my SEOH.

Book Review | SEO Book by Aaron Wall

Reading SEO Book by Aaron Wall has brought clarity to many conversations I’ve had with my SEOH over the years. Reading SEO Book has been an “Aha” experience.

SEO Book takes its reader through the Search Industry step by step. It begins with the fundamentals and touches on more advanced topics at the end. Aaron walks you through all the phases from picking a product, picking a domain name, directories, links, PPC, etc. Aaron provides you with many different tools and resources along the way. I particularly liked this because I never felt limited to just reading. I am a hands-on learner and with the tools scattered throughout the book, I was able to test things as I read about them which helped me reinforce what I had learned.

SEO Book should be in the hard drive of every newbie search marketer. It’s an invaluable tool that provides focused direction with a consistent level of support along the way. It’s almost like Aaron knew when I was reading and had a question; he’d stop clarify, give an example. Aaron really has a knack for knowing what his readers need.

Some of the top SEO movers and shakers have contributed to SEO Book and Aaron really knows how to tie all the information together while keeping it fluid. There is really too much information for me to summarize SEO Book, but I will say there are three key things that I will use as the basis of anything I write on or offline.

Keywords
Relevancy
Content

Three very simple pieces to a very complex puzzle. These are the foundation from which most SEO campaigns are built.

The insight provided by Aaron’s detailed descriptions of SEO has given me enough knowledge to apply what I’ve learned in conversations with my SEOH.

If you’re interested here’s a cheesy example:
We were out to dinner on Friday night with some friends. After a few drinks our friend mentions that he needs a website. As always the conversation led to …”Hey, don’t you have something to do with where websites end up in Google? Cuz I’d really like to rank for [insert keyword here].” So we skim the surface of what SEOH does and before I knew it, I was participating in the conversation. We were going back and forth discussing blogging, links, relevancy, PPC, etc. It was really weird, but a very cool moment.

There is still a ton for me to learn, but at the same time I feel I’ve made progress in leaps and bounds from where I was when I started reading SEO Book.

Aaron, the amount of time, effort, blood, sweat and tears that went into SEO Book is obvious to anyone that reads it. Thank you!

Danny Sullivan Kicks Ass

Danny Sullivan opened up a can of whoop ass on Jason Calacanis this morning over at Search Engine Land. Jason Calacanis is some one who has made his fortune online and was a keynote speaker in SES Chicago 2006. So, apparently he made a comment that ticked a lot of people off.
He said “SEO is bullshit”. Yep, he said this in a room full of SEO’s or SEO related people. Yesterday, there was a post on his blog titled Why people hate SEO…(and why SMO is bulls$%t). First of all, why did he have to add the $% to bullshit? Why couldn’t he have just written bullshit? After all, he obviously used the word in Chicago right?

At any rate, I was smiling all the way through while reading Danny’s post this morning. Danny does a fantastic job of defending the industry that he had his hands in creating. In my previous post about Danny I mentioned that he “speaks softly, but carries a big stick”. Well, he just used his stick and yes it was a big one!

SEO Rockstars Talk About MyBlogLog

So, to my surprise my blog was mentioned yesterday during the SEO Rockstars show on WMR. What a hoot! The guys spoke at length about MyBlogLog and the ins and outs of spamming and jamming it (BTW-I actually know what that means).

It will be interesting to see any changes if any that are made to MyBlogLog over the next few months. They will have their hands full trying to figure out how to keep it real and stop the flow of spam seeing as how so many users are SEO’s or somehow involved in that community.

I agree with Oilman that I don’t know if I like my footprint left everywhere I go. For example this morning, there was an avatar on my screen that had these big boobs in a lacy top. The name underneath implied that this was an SEO person. I didn’t want to click on it. Fear of the unknown. I thought it was a trick I guess or some ploy to get me to join another community. Regardless, I did not want to leave my footprint there.