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Links – DP – Sitepoint – Going Old School.

March 30th, 2009 | 3 Comments | Posted in Rambling

I always thought that when I no longer had to work for the man, life would be easy, travel would be great – just bring the laptop and go!  So when a family member needed some help I hopped in the car thinking – no problem.  I’ve got a laptop.

Regretfully where I’m at there is nothing other than dial up :(   I can’t even get a signal on one of those wireless cards that I purchased just to make this trip easier on me.

So I guess today I went “OLD SCHOOL”.  I’m doing some extra promotion for the folks who are using the BHD Site Building service and putting some of my money where my mouth is.  Since I’m stuck in this crappy hotel, and can’t access any site with https (just WILL NOT connect to any secure site) I was poking around on some forums looking for link buys.  Since I can’t log into paypal to send funds it’s a pointless excercise of course, however there are a ton of places to buy links on Digital Point and Site Point…. the catch is they aren’t advertising.

I’m not talking about the folks selling links, I’m talking about all the folks NOT making any real money that have websites.  Just a few PM’s and I’ve got couple dozen links on sites with PR for about 20 bucks.  All related, all in content…. and more importantly no Google slap for buying links.  Since it’s all through the PM system there is zero record of buying links (or the seller selling).  Anyway at the end of the day (and when I can actually pay for something) I’ll probably end up putting out about 2 or 3 hundred bucks this way and getting over 500 one way links from related sites.

Of course I might get burned – it happens even when you use places like text link ads, and even google (click fraud).  Most of those links will stick though — and be worth it.

I’ll be back tomorrow – and can’t wait to have my internet connection and my desk top pc back again.

Cash in on your Competitors’ Work – SpyFu Ad History

Popularity: 9% [?]

BlogSolution $1 trial

March 26th, 2009 | 2 Comments | Posted in Online Tools

Blog Solution occasionally does a $1 trial — and they are doing it right now.  This isn’t something you should just run out and purchase with out putting some thought into it — be it a dollar trial or not.

First things first — you can’t REALLY do this on a shared host.  Your going to need a VPS.  I talked about my experiences with Liquid Web in a post a couple days ago… and while I love Liquid Web you can probably shave off a few bucks a month going for one of the cheaper VPS providers for something like Blog Solution – UNLESS it’s your first VPS.  In that case suck it up, put your big girl panties on and spend the extra 15 a month for the extra support.  You will probably need it your first time around with a vps.

Now the good news with Blog Solution is that you can fit about 15 instances of a Blog Solution install on a low end VPS set up.  That’s 15 domains with hundreds of subdomains pointing links to any sites you want.

Now for the little tricks that end up being ‘work’ but make things worthwhile.

To set up BlogSolution your going to need to know how to do the following:

  • how to ftp files.
  • how to use cpanel on your host/server.
  • how to modify html for your blog templates (or how to find someone to do it for you).

That last bullet point is really going to be the hardest part — because if you use the default templates your just coming out the door with a ton of footprints and Google is going to find you fast, and de-index you.

Here is what you need to do to get the most out of every single BS site you put up.

The “real” part of this where all the “WORK” comes in is that your going to have to add some ‘real’ content occasionally.  You CAN get by with out doing so, but when I used blog solution regularly I found that adding articles and fun stuff like that on a regular basis paid off with longer indexed times, etc…

Your also going to have to make sure that all the links your building inside BS don’t all go to your sites. I’ve found it really confuses manual reviewers if you are building links to 100 sites that aren’t yours….. just make sure they aren’t your competitor :)

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

Finally – you still should build some links to your BS sites – If they are all getting links from only pinging your really missing out on what these sites can do for you.

I’ll be upfront here and say that I stopped using  Blog Solution some time ago.  I use a combination of the tools that are available inside Niche Site Special 2 to get blogs that rarely get de-indexed and suit my needs exactly…. but Blog Solution really could be a part of your marketing plan if your willing to take the initial time to set them up — because once you do that they can pretty much sit and continue to grow.  My problem was I didn’t take enough time to elimate the footprints and Google eventually caught up with me.  Didn’t have the energy or desire to really put the work into another set of sites when I already have my own solutions available — and it’s much easier to sell a wordpress blog when your done with it than it is to sell a BlogSolution site that 99 percent of the website buyers aren’t interested in or aware of.

Cash in on your Competitors’ Work – SpyFu Ad History

Popularity: 9% [?]

My Hosting Suggestion

March 25th, 2009 | 2 Comments | Posted in Online Tools
The inside/front of a Dell PowerEdge web server
Image via Wikipedia

In the past in various e-mails, and inside the 30 day guide I’d mentioned a company called virpus.  At the time they were a budget VPS (virtual private server) provider and did the initial set up and server hardening for you (a requirement if you aren’t familiar with what to do).  They were also about half the cost of most other VPS providers.

Since then, they have pretty much let me down, and I’ve gotten a number of complaints from others…. and some thank you’s oddly enough.  However, due to the complaints and my own issues, I can’t suggest them anymore…. even with the issues you would expect from a budget provider.

SO… I’ve tried out half a dozen VPS companies and I’m still blown away by my experience with liquid web.  I have a VPS with them, and a good friend of mine got a Dedicated Server from them shortly there after.  From the get go it’s been a good experience, and they have also gone above and beyond several times for my friend who is shall we say not a technical wizard :)

Liquid web is NOT a budget hosting company, but somethings you don’t want budget for — especially if it’s your first VPS or first Dedicated server.  You want a helpful, smart, dedicated support staff behind you…. and you don’t get that by saving a few bucks a month.  Most VPS’s are at least $25 dollars a month — and that’s with crap service, downtime, etc…

I’ll be moving a couple of my dedicated servers over there as well in the near future as well.  2 of my servers have been “sold” to other companies who I’m not as happy with…. so I’m glad to have a new home.

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Cash in on your Competitors’ Work – SpyFu Ad History

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