There is always a debate going on amongst webmasters as to whether or not the various types of links we acquire have any impact on our rankings. How much is this type weighted, does this one carry the day, and so on. What’s hot now is always a matter of part speculation and part testing, but there are some patterns that emerge that we can take as pretty good indicators that a certain type of backlink is worth pursuing or not. Let’s look at the current state of affairs, as best as we can divine it!

First off, there are MANY sources of backlinks you can get for your sites. You can get them from articles, blog posts, directories, RSS feeds, Web 2.0 sites, videos, podcasts, software, themes or templates, news sites, blog networks, blog comments, video responses, social bookmarking, social networks, affiliates, forum signatures, forum profiles, guest books, trackbacks, and many more I’m just not thinking of at the moment! Yes, some of them are more valuable than others. You’ll also hear terms like follow and nofollow, .edu and .org links, comment spam, and more. These also have a place in our world.

Bottom line: a link is a link. Get as many as you can, avoid bad neighborhoods, such as porn sites or gambling, big pharma, and a couple of others Google dislikes. Don’t obsess about follow and nofollow; a balanced link profile will have some of each —  it’s only natural. Do try and get follow links from sites with high page rank if possible. Contextual links are weighted heavier than blogroll, sidebar and footer links, and especially link pages. Don’t buy links from text link sellers: this is not only expensive, but it’s also not permanent. You stop paying, it goes away, not to mention that if Google finds out, you’re penalized.

If you are commenting on blogs, leave quality, valuable comments that contribute to the discussion. For example, .edu links are a good thing, while .org links maybe not so much anymore. Make sure, if at all possible, to make sure you are promoting your promoters. This means throwing bookmarks or other links at the pages that are linking to you. This helps them get found, and thus count for you as well.

Remember that things change. What’s working today may not work tomorrow, and link building is something you will always be engaged in, so get used to it! Outsourcing it can alleviate some of the pain! (Hint, hint!)

You never call, you never write… is that about the state of affairs in your business? We work so hard to attract an audience who wants to follow us, and then find it hard to make the time to communicate with them. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, eh? Let’s take a look at what you may want to do, and some of the ways you can accomplish keeping in touch with your peeps on a more consistent basis a reality in your business!

So how much do you want to be an authority in your market? The authority blogs out there are blogging on a daily basis, sometimes many times a day. This type of frequency is really dependent on the type of business and market you’re in, and can vary wildly. It’s fairly tough to blog about solid tires for commercial tractors several times a day. However, other niches are begging for it. You need to gauge your audience based on need along with what you hope to accomplish with this. How do you find out this information? Communicate with your audience and ask!

Your communication can come in several forms — it doesn’t have to be only blogging. You can contact via email, videos, audios, webinars, web conferences, and live events, making yourself available and establishing yourself as someone who is not only worth listening to, but is readily there for them. This means a lot. These days when it’s essential to have mentors and advisors to help us with aspects of this sometimes complicated world of marketing and technology, being Johnny On The Spot counts for something!

Also, be sure it’s you who is setting the agenda and the terms of this communication. It’s very easy to be drawn into time-sucking rounds of emails, Skypes, and God-forbid phone calls with people who, to put it kindly, are willing to take up all your time and offer nothing in return.  You need to draw a line in the sand kindly, but firmly. In all likelihood you have a price for your time, especially if you do consulting of any kind and you don’t want to be in the business of giving away the buisiness!

Communicate regularly with your readers and followers. Just be sure to do it on your terms!

Are you utilizing the power of free offers in your business? There is a lot to be said for it. Who doesn’t like getting something for nothing (or a perceived nothing)? I know I do. Of course, there are tradeoffs to all this wonderful free material that usually come in the form of email addresses and other contact information. There are times when, in the course of delivering up a large amount of value, you offer something for absolutely nothing, not even an opt-in, simply for the sake of building up your reputation and brand for future dealings.  There are some definite best practices involved in this, and we’ll take a look at those now.

• Offer Genuine Value – How many times have you downloaded something free that was totally unmitigated junk? Many? Yep, me too. Usually what follows is an immediate unsubscribe, along with a mental note never to bother with that person again! The poor sap has lost you, probably forever, by simply trading on your good will by giving him something of value, which he reciprocates with his lousy free material. The insanity of this is that delivering (and over-delivering!) is not all that much more difficult than finding and serving up junk. And, it will serve you infinitely better in the long run. Moreover, the more valuable the material, the more authority and trust you gain in the eyes of the beholder.
• Have A Plan – You should have an overall plan that leads to a desired outcome. Whether it is a campaign leading to a launch of a product or creating an email list for affiliate marketing, make sure you have a step-by-step plan that details for yourself how this goes. Very often, timing is critical in this sort of thing, and you want to be sure of your next steps.
• Outsource It – If you either aren’t qualified or simply don’t want to take the time necessary to create your free reports, whitepapers, videos, or other media, look into outsourcing these tasks. It is not as expensive as you might think, and will almost certainly be done a lot faster! This counts for something when you’re trying to get things done; there are only so many hours in the day, and you need to put them to their best use!

Free is good! Make sure you use it in a good manner, and it will be a win for you!

If you want to be working toward becoming an authority in your chosen market or niche, few things are more important than being keenly aware of what’s going on within it! There is always something to learn, keep up with, and chime in on with the news you need to be aware of. Not only is this a great way to stay abreast of your competition, you can also learn about new products, ads, trends, and more. Let’s look at some of the ways you can effectively do this.

Probably the simplest way to keep track of what’s going on is to create Google Alerts for any forums, groups, blogs, news items, or keywords you want followed. While this is easy to do on Google, and you do get an email alert when something you’ve tagged is mentioned or comes up,  it does get quite onerous to keep up with, particularly if you have several niches to keep an eye on.

Boardtracker is the best service for tracking at the moment. It has more than 37,000 forums programmed into it and can be customized to your needs. There is a free version (basically useless as you can only set up one alert), but they have a 30-day free trial for their premium version which bills out at $39 a month.

Another option is SocialMention, which tracks some 80 social media sites, sending you an email alert daily. This one is free; however, it does not cover individual blogs,only social media.

Your best bet may be a combination of SocialMention and Google, if you’re looking to not spend any money. Otherwise, BoardTracker is pretty comprehensive.

Whichever way you choose to go, make sure you are keeping an eye peeled for what is happening in your space. Not only will this keep you constantly learning, but it also allows you to pass this on to your visitors in the form of added value, which is something we all need to be doing more of!

Today, more and more people are becoming very interested in making money with affiliate products, and rightly so. Affiliate marketing can be a terrific way to not only bring in a little spare change, it can actually mushroom into a thriving, fairly passive sort of income. This business model is especially attractive for those who are talented writers or marketers, as you can pretty much be a one man band. (that is until you want to REALLY start making some money!) But where do you find products to sell? Let’s take a quick look at several good sources for affiliate products, and ways to find others.

Commission Junction – One of the more venerable affiliate networks, CJ has been around a long time and has a load of good products to promote in a number of markets and niches, each with a lot of affiliate resources such as banners and other creatives, as well as instructions on keywords that you can and can’t use in your campaigns. The focus here is almost exclusively on physical products, and as such, the commissions are generally in the 4-10% range. This may not seem like a lot, but it can add up, and you may find less competition for your efforts.

Amazon - You can sell nearly anything from Amazon as an affiliate — that’s the good news. The  bad news is that payouts are extremely low. You need to rack up a lot of sales to create anything meaningful. This one is generally used as a filler offer; they have great tools to make ad boxes and product offers.

ClickBank - The premiere digital download affiliate network. They have thousands of digital products you can promote, and they make it very easy to get links and promo material. Commissions are higher in digitally downloadable products, usually in the 40-75% range. You can make a lot of money here, if you can generate traffic to your offers.

OfferVault - A blend of physical an digital offers, this one also has a vast selection of CPA offers. This is good as it eliminates the need to get approved by the various CPA networks, which can be problematical at times. There are more than 20,000 products here!

There are many other good affiliate networks out there, including PayDotCom, LinksShare, MaxBounty, Hydra, Google, and others. All are free to join, and most  pay promptly.  Take some time to browse the offerings and see which products you would feel comfortable promoting, and then get to it!

We all know that Google is the 900 lb gorilla when it comes to web search, but there is a lot more to this behemoth than may be readily apparent. There is a wealth of applications, tools, and services that can not only enhance your business, but increase your personal productivity many times over. Webmasters have a sort of love/hate relationship with Google, but there is no denying it’s usefulness and utility. It’s true you may be able to find comparable and even better services and apps elsewhere (except web search) but you’ll not find them all in one place like Google. Let’s take a look at just some of the things that are cool there.

Alerts -Google Alerts are email notices of anything Google comes across that is of interest to you. You set keywords and they deliver topical info. A great way to keep up on the news of your market or your competitors.

Chrome -Google’s browser. Very fast.

Toolbar -Google’s toolbar is a useful tool for webmasters. Some balk at installing this on their computer as it does mine your computer for data, especially on your habits, preferences, etc. Up to you to determine if it’s a privacy intrusion or not.

Trends – Keep up with the latest trends in your market or niche. You can see hot searches and topics, as well as historical data.

Labs – See what’s next in the Google pipeline before it makes it into the mainstream. Many of these are available to use while in labs.

Blogger – Google’s self-serve blogging platform. Very easy to use, you can set up your own blog and be online in minutes. Don’t make the mistake of putting your business blog here: if Google doesn’t like it, they’ll take it down and you’re out of business just like that, no recourse, no appeal!

Calendar – A very useful app for scheduling your day, week month and year. Easy to use and integrate with other apps.

Google Docs - A suite of productivity tools similar to Word that can not only help you you do simple tasks, but also to work in collaboration with anyone you choose. Very useful, but again, decide for yourself how much of this you want in Google’s purview.

Gmail – A very popular and effective email program, Gmail is becoming ubiquitous on the Web. Nearly everyone has one these days, and they have a business application as well. Lots of storage and features.

Google Reader – This is one of my favorites, as you can find and compile all your favorite feeds here in one place and read them conveniently. Very simple to use.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! There is much more, but there are of particular interest to marketers. See what works for you and put Google to work!