Doshy Link Attack! SEO, Link Building Tactics, DoFollow and Forums for Blogs

I come across a lot of interesting blog posts everyday and I thought it might be a good idea to share them through some sort of a speed linking post.

A collection of links with short descriptions is a time-efficient and easy way to integrate relevant content on your blog, while also adding considerable value for your readers.

Now that I’ve finished putting up all my blog drafts, I’m finally free to do some active linking. I’m a firm believer in sharing because I think insular blogging is one of the worse things a blogger can do, when trying to build link popularity and consistent traffic.

Without further ado..

Yaro Starak gives us his interpretation on the Top 16 SEO tips from a Yahoo Insider. Basic SEO advice but very useful to have them all on one page.

One tip on link buying stood out:

It’s well reported that Google is attempting to crack down on links purchased purely for SEO benefits (links purchased for direct traffic is okay)…In general stay clear of buying site wide links across many sites all at once and if link buying is a strategy you intend to use for SEO, focus on in-content links or homepage only links.

John Chow dishes out his top Six Linking Strategies, which brought him 7,218 links from 1,952 blogs, according to Technorati. Link strategy #3 talks about regularly highlighting posts from other blogs.

A good habit to get into is doing a weekly or biweekly “Top Links� or “Things I saw while browsing the Web� post and sending a pingback to all the blogs linked. The bloggers from these sites will appreciate it and they’ll be more inclined to link to you when you have an interesting post.

Aaron Wall tells us that if people hate your writing google hates your website. Good read for anyone using Made-for-Adsense monetization strategies.

If search engines get more aggressive at using user feedback as a quality signal the profitability of poorly formatted content will be drastically reduced. If people do not read your content then they aren’t going to link at it either. Content without links only works if you operate in an undiscovered or uncompetitive niche - which eventually will get competitive when others find it.

Andy Beard recently came up with a very useful Ultimate list of DoFollow Plugins. I’ve been really thinking about whether I should set up DoFollow on Dosh Dosh.

Wordpress by default, just like other blogging platforms, has automatically been adding the “nofollow” microformat extension to all links from user generated content such as comments and trackbacks. To support the growing rejection of NoFollow for blog comments, I have compiled this list of plugins that help you remove nofollow from your blog forever.

This is a little old but Chris Garrett has a nice article on better blog branding and the factors one should consider when choosing a name for your blog.

He’s also offering a free ebook on how to write killer flagship content if you subscribe to his blog. I read it and thought it offered some brilliant tips on content and site building. Highly recommended.

A snippet from Chris on choosing a blog name:

When looking at evocative or metaphorical names it is sometimes useful to think about the benefit that your blog will provide, or the problem you are solving?…Standing out is important you need to consider what your competitions names are like. If they are all descriptive a more creative name might give you that bit of difference. Your name is very important in positioning.

Robin Good and Michael Pick have written a mini guide on how to create your online store for affiliate marketing or drop shipping. Definitely worth a read if you have a strong product-centric blog or one with a steady reader base or traffic flow.

An online shop takes affiliate marketing to the next level, by providing not just a few items in the sidebar of a blog post, but rather an online store filled with selected, relevant and in-context content of high interest to your readers.

Lorelle “Wordpress” VanFossen asks a question I’ve been thinking about for some time: Should blogs have forums? Should Forums have blogs?

A blog that offers industry specific expertise could expand that “expert� qualification with a forum dedicated to their industry, expanding their coverage on the subject through the participation of others, not just themselves. Any blog which requires more extended discussion and input are great candidates for forums.

I’ve actually installed a forum script on Dosh Dosh but I haven’t got the time to design the forum or promote it. Then again, I’m not sure how many people will actually be interested in a forum about making money online.

My buddy Everton Blair has a cool tech forum which was spawned from his blog, Connected Internet. Apparently he uses it as a pretty effective way to network with his readers as well as members of his MyBloglog community.

That’s it for this edition of Doshy Link Attack!

Yes, I have a knack for cheesy blog titles.