Today we're taking a different angle than we normally do on the blog. As you know, recently New Zealand and Christchurch specifically was seriously affected by an earthquake on February 22nd. After Rand sent out an email last week for those chosen to participate in the 2011 Ranking Factors, our friend Kalena Jordan from Search Engine College responded asking if we could help raise money for the New Zealand Red Cross to help with the aftermath of the earthquake. The answer was "Absolutely!" so we thought about ways to include the community.
Donations For Thumbs Up
SEOmoz will donate $1 for every (authentic, human-created) thumbs up on this post and every thumb to every comment (up to a maximum of $2,000) received by 12pm Noon Pacific Tuesday, March 8th. We also invite any organization (or person) to offer a 10% match (providing 10% of the thumbs up in dollars donated) and we'll add you to the "matching" list below.
Want to match? Send an email to jen[at] seomoz.org to be added to the list.
In order to get as many comments and donations as possible, we ask that you add your best, creative and unique "white hat" link building ideas in the comments. The idea is to then thumb up any and all of the tips you like and agree with to help get the thumb count high.
You can also make donations directly to the New Zealand Red Cross.
Information About the Earthquake
On February 22nd, Christchurch was struck with a 6.3 magnitude earthquake which has caused devastation throughout the city. The New Zealand Red Cross is in desparate need of money to help the homelss and displaces. Currently, over 75% of the city is without water and half without power and sadly the death toll has risen to 163.
Read more up-to-date information about quake and aftermath:
Companies/People Matching
Following are the groups or people who will be matching 10% of the thumbs up:
Distilled
Lindsay Wassell
Dr. Peter Meyers
Jamie Steven
Direct Match Media
Odd Dog Media
Alan Bleiweiss
Affilorama - Based in Christchurch, New Zealand will match 20%
Viperchill
Best Buy Metals
Kate Morris
Third Door Media - Will match $2,000
@jameszol
Lauren Hall-Stigerts
Linear SEO
Image Freedom will happily match 20% of SEOmoz donation.
WyzAnt
Metronet Norway - on behalf of Anita Williamson and her loved ones in Christchurch
Geeks.com
Trip Technologies Inc
Click2Rank
Kris Roadruck
Lucas Ng
Eintouch
Whitespark
Liberty Games
eurobookings.com
Paddy Power
Bill4Time
Local.com
Slingshot SEO Inc.
SearchEngineConsultant.com
Thanks to everyone for participating, let's see how many thumbs up we can get and raise money for a much needed cause!
Update 9:00pm PST March 3, 2011: Wow! In under 8 hours we've tallied a total of 2077. We also have 20 individuals/companies who are matching a percentage of our $2,000. Right now we've raised: $8,200!!!
Update 11:00PM PST March 3, 2011: We got quite a few more contributors in the past 2 hours and we're now up to $9,400!! Thank you thank you thank you everyone for your contributions. :)
Update 10:00AM PST March 4, 2011: Whew! We have over 3500 thumbs up total and have raised a total of $9,800!! Please remember that every little bit helps so feel free to donate directly to the NZ Red Cross however much you can.
Update 10:00PM PST March 5, 2011: We have raised a total of $10,200!! Please remember that every little bit helps so feel free to donate directly to the NZ Red Cross however much you can.
Link building tip to win long term rankings in really tough industries - go find the "big brands" (e.g. in finance, maybe it's Bank of America and Chase). They don't necessarily need to be the ones that are ranking well (oftentimes, they'll have great links, but poor optimization/SEO knowledge), just the "known" brand names. Plug those into the Link Intersect tool, reverse their top links from Open Site Explorer, check out their "mentions" in Blogscape or via a Google news/blog/24-hr search.
What you often find are link opportunities that, while hard to get, are amazing quality. It's my view that in the long run, as Google gets more aggressive about throwing out thin content, penalizing manipulative linking techniques and biasing toward brands, these are exactly the type of links and citations you want. The best part is that many of these will force you to jump through hoops that lesser links won't - you'll need a beautiful, unique site design, a real "brand" that people believe in, reputable content, customer service, a social profile, real-world connections, etc. All of that will get you the links - and it will replicate the behaviors that Google's trying to reward in the long term.
odd place for this post, but I get why... TU! (oh that is a thumbs up, not another reference)
odd... in the sense this is quite good and worthy of a WBF. How about adding a paypal link so we can donate directly?
This is an awesome idea. Very cool of you all to give. Love you even more now :-)
It's always nice to see a company publically step in like this. Two thumbs up!
I have relatives in Christchurch so love to see that you are getting involved in this. If you are reading this but maybe can't afford to join in with SEOMoz's initiatve, please do give anything you can through The Red Cross
Wow! That's a lot of money raised in a few hours! Thanks, SEOmoz.
Are you a real Jedi? COOL!!
Love the idea for the post and love the avatar!!! Tumbs up for the win!!!
Awesome idea and the response seems amazing too. 133 thumbs up (on the article alone) and 18 matches already!
A note to the sponsors - I, for one, checked out your websites. You can now feel good about it from a business point of view as well as a moral one. Keep the sponsors coming!
Just Press Thumbs Up ;)
I have relatives in Christchurch so love to see that you are getting involved in this. If you are reading this but maybe can't afford to join in with SEOMoz's initiatve, please do give anything you can through The Red Cross
THUMBS UP on the post, comments, and idea - 100%
And I will match it as well on behalf of seoforums dot org
Amazing to see how fast SEO MOZ can raise funds with the great community, very proud of you all =)
My tip as follows:Use linkbait as a relationship building tool. I mentioned this in my whiteboard friday last week - the idea is that not all linkbait is successful but good content is still a great way to get in touch with people. Consider reaching out to journalists, bloggers and site owners with an email like "Hey, we did this content a while back but we're looking to upgrade it for your niche - do you have any tips you can share or things you'd like us to put in the guide?".Off the back of that - also look to get social shares from influencers. The barrier to entry to get someone to tweet/facebook something is much lower than to get them to link to it in content. But by getting influencers to share your URL you're still putting your content infront of people who might link to it.
This is kind of a related idea - when I guest post, I sometimes post a relevant topic on my own blog just before the guest post goes up. It helps me build a connection to the audience and draw them into my content. Also, helps them realize that I'm not just guest-posting for links and then running away.
you guys are awesome. count one real, human thumbs up for me!
This is a great idea guys. I'll kick off with a link building tip.
If you're an ecommerce site with a physical location, this can work well. If you have a physical shop in a shopping centre, check if there is a website for the centre that lists the shops in the centre. If there is, it is quite easy to ask for a link from your shop page on the website which points to your online store.
Here is an example - https://www.bullring.co.uk/All-Saints
Kudos!! They definitely need the help :(
Agree. Major kudos to SEOmoz for this one!
Lots of love to our SEO friends in NZ and Australia - mother nature has been rough on them this year.
As for link-building, I'm going to put in a plug for content marketing. On average, I figure that my stronger content pieces take about 10-20 hours. Some of those pieces have generated dozens or hundreds of quality, relevant natural links (and actual click-through). Twenty hours sounds like a lot, but let's say you put it into manual link-building, and a link takes 30 minutes to get. That's 40 links, many of them probably low-quality. Did you really come out ahead? The low-hanging fruit is blotchy, worm-ridden, and tastes like boiled crap.
Your best content marketing comes from your own brain - don't take what you know for granted. I compiled my usability process into a 25-point checklist, and it has generated 2,143 links from 183 root domains and 90,122 unique Pageviews to date. It's still getting links and traffic, after almost 2 years. Plus, I use it for my audits, so it saves me time and makes me look better. Win-win-win-(win?).
Duh...winning!
My link building tip surrounds reputation management tactics. If a company will set up a brand keyword Google Alert, they can get a weekly look at who is mentioning them and perhaps not linking. The same can be said for doing alerts on top tier key phrases in the industry. This is an easy way to spot sites and blogs that are talking about your business. From there the company can do some relationship building with the site. If they are already talking about the topic, they probably will multiple times.
Three thumbs way up for this!
1 on the post
2 from me sitting at my desk, yeah I just thumbs up'd at my monitor
That right there deserves a thumbs up
Hello Jennita - Geeks.com would like to be a donor as well. Please let me know what, if anything we would need to do to assist.
You can email me directly @ michaelb at geeks dot com
Regards,
Michael B.
Hi Michael,
Can you email jen [at] seomoz.org and let her know what you would like to do to assist. She will take care of you from there.
Casey
Hey Mike! I was your Nintendo Wii Supplier. I supplied Evertek Wiis by the pallet. I hope you guys made money on it. I'm Fran34. Say what's up to Roger. If freakin' sold like $150,000 worth of Wii in one month, but only a little went to Evertek. ZERO returns too!
Sweet! Great job, guys! I'll join in :)
This is such a brilliant idea! I shall certainly be giving the thumbs to all in this post :-)
My Best Link Building Tip is to create a relationship from the first paragraph. Building links is HARD and takes a LONG time. Create a template for what you want to say but whoever will be building your links for you, instruct them that they have to make the first paragraph be ALL ABOUT YOUR TARGET. I've found that it's the best way to hook your person in from the beginning. Make a good comment about their website, their latest post, one of their products and flatter, flatter, flatter.
Start that dialoge and they will be more apt to read your email, find a connection, and start a conversation.
Guys thank you so much. I live in Seattle, but Christchurch is my hometown. I'm fortunate in that my family is all safe, but a lot of people weren't so lucky. It's pretty bad down there right now, but we really appreciate support like this... it means a lot and it does make a huge difference. Kia Ora!
Here's my tip: If you donate some of your time and provide some free SEO services (or your company's product if you don't do SEO) to local non profits, you can usually manage to get a link on "partners" page. Usually this will yield some good anchor text from pretty good domains.You can provide them with the HTML code in-case you ever decide to update your logo - This way you can specify your anchor text and simply pull a graphic from your site.
Great idea, guys!
Let's help our friends in Christchurch!
New Zealand and Cristchurch are exactly on the other side of world from where I live (Valencia, Spain), but I never felt it so close... not even when I was daydreaming to see the locations of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Go Kiwi! My comment and thumbs up are for you.
My Link Tip
When it comes to influencers it's all about attitude. If you sincerely like them, tell it to them. If you disagree with them, tell it to them. If they ask something, answer to them. If they are in a conversation mood, talk with them. If you think you have something useful for them, give it to them... but do not pretend anything in change. Befriend them. Be generous... because only creating a real relation with the influencers, they will become friends. And friends are the best link of all.
SEOmoz = One site to rule them all?
No... One Site to TAGFEE All
Agreed!
This is a very wonderful thing to do, guys. It will mean a lot to Kiwis worldwide. On behalf of my countrymen, thank you.
Yay for Kiwi mozers!
With marklincoln one comment below mine, there are three of us in a row :)
Haha awesome. We're the best flavour of mozzer ;)
Thanks for doing this. I was thinking of doing some type of fundraising thing on our end in association with our SMX conference next week. This makes it easier. Third Door Media (that's the company behind Search Engine Land and SMX) will kick in a $2,000 donation to the effort -- basically matching your end goal, and regardless if you meet that or not (though I'm pretty sure you will). Catch up with you at the show about the best way to get the funds over -- I assume we can just make the donation to the NZ Red Cross directly.
Wow! Thanks so much Danny. Yes, we were pretty sure we'd hit the 2,000 mark but we didn't realize we'd hit it so quickly! I've added you guys to the list and I'll email you on Tuesday (or maybe sooner) about how to contribute. The best way really though is to do it directly to the Red Cross. Thanks again!
Are we there yet? My clicking finger is getting tired, so many comments, lol
Jen has a link to the Red Cross appeal above, but donations can also be made directly to the government's website (via https://newzealand.govt.nz/). All gets to the right place :)
Way to go Danny!
Oh - and count me in as a "dis-"organization participating with a 10% matching donation!
Awesome Alan thanks! Will you shoot me an email jen at seomoz.org so I know how to contact you after? Also let me know where to link to.
Thanks!
OMG you don't know how to get hold of me? talk about epic fails... #WOW :-)
Count us in as well. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to give back. Sometimes we need a good nudge to be reminded we can make a difference and that every dollar goes to helping those effected by these recent unfortunate events.
My latest tip is the "submit" tab on many tumblr blogs. It's a great chance to submit content that the site owners will love in a format that will get published immediately. Get creative with your queries to find them - stuff like:
[keyword] site:tumblr.com inurl:submit
or (to find those hosted on their own domains):
[keyword] "tumblr theme" inurl:submit -site:tumblr.com
Distilled's in for the contribution as well - we've been spending ££ on baked goods from our resident kiwi (and matching contributions).
Heather and I landed in Christchurch on the first day of our honeymoon - I just can't believe the whole thing. I hope this makes a difference.
This is an admiral thing for a company to do.
Well they are located very close to Elliott Bay... ;)
I hope I don't miss the boat, I should launch myself into something like this for shiploads of links ... ;)
Do Pro Member thumbs count for extra donations? :-) You're awesome for doing this!
While Pro thumbs don't count any more than non Pro Alan, in your case such a good looking pair of thumbs is surely worth double points. :)
It's having an attitude such as this as a core foundation that makes companies truly special. It isn't design, products, or even the number of people gainfully employed. I applaud your decision to lend a helping hand.
Tip: Find brands/pages with large Facebook communities and a frequent update schedule. Write/create interesting or entertaining content around their product/brand and send a link to one of the Community Managers. These pages are always looking for content to publish and they can drive a ton of eyes to your site.
Great tip, and Community Managers love that stuff. ;)
great tip - why are the best ideas always the most simple ones?!
Great idea, guys. Wonderful way to share information wealth along with monetary wealth.
Our link building tip: Find your existing brand evangelists - people who already love to talk about your brand on Facebook, blogs, etc. - and make them "official ambassadors." Empower them to create new content and start new conversations on your behalf, then reward them with special perks, free stuff, first access to your latest stuff, etc. It can be completely transparent that they get these perks. You get links, great UGC, and the extreme pleasure of working closely with the customers who love you most.
Also, once the trust is there you can start using them as mini focus groups/usability testers/beta users for your brand new stuff.
Good idea to raise some money SEO MOZ =)
I live in Australia and we have been seeing alot of unlucky thing happen to this region, we had massive floods recently which killed 10 people and caused billions in damage I helped raise over 7,00 for that one =) and then the NZ earthquakes our next door naighbours soo close and many business partners over their =( soo tragic...
Whitehat link building technique: Using linkedin profiles to generate a link back to your website, but make sure you do not use a specific anchor text use something like "personal website", "blog" and it will not be a no follow. Sure it is not the most powerful link back but it is a easy one.
Good on ya SEOmoz.
A random link idea: offer to provide a testimonial to anyone you can think of in exchange for a link. Our office did this for our water cooler service peeps, and they placed a testimonial with followed link to our site.
This is good stuff.
My Tip:
Donate to a local softball league that has a website, asking them to blog about the donation. Or, if they don't have a website, offer to make them one!
Also is the 10% thumbs up unlimited, or up to $200 (10% of the $2000?)
(If it's up to $200, count me in, under Best Buy Metals)
Yes the 10% is also limited. I'll add you to the list! Shoot me an email jen at seomoz.org and I'll email you back on Tuesday with the final tally. Thanks!
Great I just emailed you. Thank you!
That's 10 matching orgs (and dis-orgs, counting Alan) - we just doubled the contribution!
Wicked Awesome!
Yeah, I can do the $200 cap, too!
Partner with a charitable cause in your industry. https://www.cleaningforareason.org/index.html Cleaning for a Reason partners with maid services all across the country to offer four free house cleanings for women that have cancer. The maid services get a link and good publicity, and are in a directory people can search if they're looking for a maid service that also gives back to the community.
Know who writes about certain topics and wants tips or breaking news. If you don't have enough time to write a good post on the topic yourself, send the tip to the person who best matches the content. Often, you'll get a link and a hat tip in return, and you'll also be building good relationships with bloggers to boot.
Awesome, big thanks for this from a Christchurch resident. And thanks to Kalena for suggesting the idea :)
+1 - Nice one Kalena.
Right now we're already at 515 thumbs up in comments and 74 on the post! At this rate we'll reach 2,000 in just a couple hours. You guys are amazing!
Ha! Looks like I was writing my post while you wrote yours. Well I guess anything worth saying is worth repeating.
Thumbs up times 2!
I think it's quite edifying to see support on so many levels with this blog post: thumbs, donations, invaluable information. It's all quite awesome.
For linkbuilding, I would recommend going for what your strengths are. If you do well with graphics, go for making a compelling infographic. If you are a strong salesperson, be part of the team that "sells" the useful widget to people's blogs. If you are great with social media, contact your social media friends and find which ones are most likely to give you a link.
Love and Prayers to the victims.
Love the idea of an infographic. I wish there were more of these out there!
two thumbs up ! i hope the tweet count and facebook likes are included in the count :)
Makes sense to me!
Great job you guys, what a wonderful way to raise funds for Christchurch.
I'm an SEO tutor at Kalena Jordan's Search Engine College and have been closely following the news about the earthquake and its aftermath from my home in Australia.
It's terrifying just watching the news, reading the papers and following the unfolding tragedy via social media channels. It's beyond comprehension how these people live through all these aftershocks day in day out.
Sorry, no link building tip from me but I just wanted to thank you and applaud you for taking this initiative. Thumbs up!
One hour later (give or take a few minutes) and we're already at 588 thumbs up!
At this rate, we'll have 67,914 thumbs up by the deadline! This is amazing.
We better slow down lest Google hits us with the Kiwi update...
Great idea and thanks for setting this up SEOmoz.
My linkbuilding tip: If you have a community, use linkbait and empower your community to build links for you. We have a large tech Q&A community that competes for points while helping other techs that are in need of help. What we have developed is a badge that pulls their rank, points accumulated, stats, expertise areas, etc. The community members can then show off their stats on their own website or blog by embedding their badge. Geoff Kenyon at Distilled wrote a blog post on SEOmoz with an example of what we do with our badges and getting your community to build links for you.
Thanks again, one of the many reasons I love SEOmoz.
Matt
Since we're all in the giving mood, I'm going to give a link tip that involves giving too: Kiva
Kiva.org is a nonprofit that lets you send out micro-loans to small businesses in third-world countries.
Lenders get their own profile page, from which they get a followable link. Every time you lend, you get another internal link to your page. When your money is paid back you can just lend it right out again. I started with a $50 lend in early 2008 and am still rolling it back to new struggling entrepreneurs from right here: https://www.kiva.org/lender/usrecallnews .
Giving really IS receiving!
As an Australian with family in Brisbane, living in New Zealand (and with friends in Christchurch, who are all okay, thankfully) this means a hell of a lot to me. Thanks SEOmoz, this is awesome.
Great idea !
You can also setup a Donation Paypal Button vizibile on the site as I am sure people will donate !
I'll thumbs up a million times if it helps those folks in NZ! For the Hobbits!
Save the Shire!
Preciousssss
I wonder how much would launching a PR and publish it on PRweb,Marketwire etc hoping it reaches Techcruch,Mashable,CNN,BBC etc would help create additional exposure to this advocacy :)
My tip: Make it really easy to share, and rank the sharing by benefit. For example, at the top of your content you could have a button that will give the reader code to "Share this article on your blog!" Later on, a "Tweet" button and a Facebook "like" button. Digg, Reddit, HackerNews or something else big in your industry? Make sure those buttons are there and available. Even though a Facebook "like" may not carry much more natural SEO weight, but it gets more people to check out your content and you can try and convert them to linking to you all over again!
Three cheers for SEOMOZ!
I like to leave several comments on a blog over a month or so before reaching out for a link. Building your reputation as a regular reader gets a higher rate of return on link outreach.
Thanks for thinking of us Kiwis! I'm not in Christchurch but the whole entire country is doing everything we can to help out.
So proud to call myself a New Zealander at a time like this!
Awesome work SEOMoz!
Coming from NZ it is hard to see the devastation tear through the nation but humbling to see how everyone has pulled together in the face of such a horrific event.
Thank you for helping! :-)
To honor our friends in New Zealand: HAKA
And who the hell is that lonely thumb downer FTW!
There are a few YouTube videos out there that make me proud to be a Kiwi, and this is one of them. The best airline safety video you will ever see. Ever.
Cast supplied by the All Blacks (the New Zealand rugby team) and its coaches :)
I'm thinking someone slipped when they clicked :) Oops!
(: ¡ʇı ʇunoɔ ¡plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ ɟo ǝpıs ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ ɯoɹɟ dn sn pǝqɯnɥʇ uosɹǝd ǝuo ǝʞıl sʞool
edit: well...guess that voter decided to vote the way the rest of us did...and now my comment isn't as funny as i thought it was...but hey, keep the thumbs up coming - i'm matching up to 10%! woohoo!!
Brilliant idea! Go SEOmoz!
My tip for linkbuilding is to never turn down an opportunity for an interview or a writing a guest post. These are excellent opportunities for both building your brand and spreading your message as well as getting a nice link or two. Every time I do a guest post it seems to just lead to more opportunities.
Kickbutt idea moz!
Something I think works wonders for nonprofits and I have had the pleasure of implementing with a charity I help out is to reach out to the members already present in the organization to help build links, project managers, large donors, and especially advisory board members. Usually in smaller scale nonprofits most of the main contributors are volunteers and run their own businesses.
The advisory board members can link to the charity from their website and in general they have a large list of contacts that they can reach out to with that oh-so-important personal touch and it grows from there. It was pretty awesome when about 2-3 weeks passed and we had gained upwards of 30-40 really good links with pretty minimal effort.
Thats my tip! Also going to check with some of the owners at our company / other contacts to see if we can join in on the matching, will tweet@ya if I get any greenlights!
I just want to express tearful thanks to Rand, Jen and the entire SEOmoz community for this wonderful and generous initiative in response to my request for help. My city has been utterly devastated. So many lives lost, so many houses broken beyond repair, so many businesses ruined. It has taken every ounce of strength to simply get up each day and try to plod on with life, while aftershocks continue to rattle us every hour or two. The stress is almost unbearable. But seeing the level of support we have - not just around the country, but around the world - gives us hope that we can get through this and rebuild our lives again. Your donations will go directly to people who need it - the NZ Red Cross is providing hardship grants to displaced persons & those who have lost loved ones in the rubble. On behalf of all of Christchurch, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
We love ya Kalena! Hearts and prayers continue your way each day!
I DONATED TO RED CROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hERE'S MY PROOF. i DID IT FOR ALL THE MOZZERS! Give me a thumbs up!
Your payment has been approved. Your receipt number is: 000000004982
Become an editor on JoeAnt and submit all your sites, you clients sites and friends sites for review. That's my White Hat seo. Send me your website and I'll see if I can get your site in the index for free. PM me.
I thought I might even have to thumb up spam comments on this one, until I realized that we'll surely hit that 2000 mark without them. Awesome turnout from a wonderful community.
I'll happily match 10% for my Trans Tasman neighbours.
Our company had a colleague who tragically passed away in the earthquake, even while our Christchurch media outlet (the largest in the city), continued to pump out critical news updates through our paper and news site. My heart goes out to all of the affected. Seems like being Antipodean is not good this year (floods, Cyclone Yasi, Christchurch quake)
Anyway, love the SEOmoz community!
My link building tip is simple.
Don't forget brand awareness, the ultimate link builder.
For one site, over a period of 12 months, we went from 2% top of mind brand awareness to over 20% as measured by brand surveys.
We didn't do any traditional external SEO linkbait/linkbuilding campaigns. Our marketing consisted of 2 lots of 3 month long branding campaigns with online video and cheap TV slots.
The number of unique domains linking to our homepage increased by hundreds. Our direct traffic experienced 20% YOY growth while simultaneously, our organic search traffic increased by 14% YOY. Best of both worlds!
Thanks!! Would you send me an email at jen at seomoz.org and I'll get you added to the list!
Thanks SEOmoz you guys are amazing!! There should be a Thumbs Up buttion on the homepage, thanks for the support!!
Thanks SEOMoz- being a New Zealander - I am deeply touched by this.
New Zealand is such a beautiful and awesome country, skiing and sunny beach in the same day! I spent a few months abroad in school there and my heart goes out to ya. A round of thumbs up for all!
Tip: Follow-ups, no matter what company you are trying to get a link from, it seems the 2nd time I email is much more effective than the first. If you dont get a response from the first email, I recommend always shooting over a second one - it seems to De-Roboize you in the eyes of the site owner!
Love it Mozzers. Great IDEA!
Link Building Tip #24376
Lower the barrier of entry for potential linkers! Make it easy to share via social media by using Share or Tweet buttons, and even provide code for a nicely designed badge or certificate. We used the certificate idea on a local website to build brand and credibility. Since the badge was professionally designed, it looked great and almost became a sort of third party "trust mark" locally that people just wanted to get. And naturally backlinks "followed" (LOL).
And will this count towards the most popular posts of 2011?
At first glance your tip looked like a spammer had joined in the fun and wanted to promote their loan site. Lol!
Then I saw your "Associate" tag and reread your tip - very nice! Thumbs UP for you good sir!!
And I'm on my way over to KIVA for a link now...
HA! No, I just put up the link so people could see an example since it's not so obvious. Notice the first instance of the website URL isn't linked to on that profile. You have to put it in another spot.
But really this is just one small example of a much bigger tip: Giving. Whether it's sponsoring a race for breast cancer in your area, or donating to a non-profit within your vertical niche... just look at the folks at the top of this post who matched the donations from SEOMoz. ;-) I'm not saying that's why they did it (because it's not) but giving does have its advantages. And if you're going to give, you might as well get a link out of it. I'd ask my own mother for a link if she had a website. That doesn't mean I don't love her. :-D
Great tip, just made my first micro-loan hopefully first of many more!
Christchuch is my home town - it is where my roots are. My family are still there (they OK, but a friend I grew up is still missing in the PGG bldg). I grieve for the loss of life and I grieve for the loss of all those old buildings that make Christchurch what it is - they are all gone now.
Thanks for doing this.
You all are just amazing. I wanted to let everyone know I just updated the post with this information:
Update: Wow! In under 8 hours we've tallied a total of 2077 (as of 9:00pm PST March 3, 2011). We also have 20 individuals/companies who are matching a percentage of our $2,000. Right now we've raised: $8,200!!!
Also, I wanted to again thank Kalena for making the suggestion that we try to raise some money. Little did she know how quickly the industry would jump in to help. Thanks!
One day off and I missed almost this important post - absolutely great idea!
My linkbuilding tip: try to get a Wikipedia link - but not as usual - try to suggest the link to the discussion page for the target topic.
Since none of my really good linkbuilding Ideas are "white hat" I decided to just throw my hat in the ring for a matching donation :-) Yay for charity!!
Wow! Love all the support!
Great stuff SEOmoz! Link building tip - it's got to be personalised. Without that you are wasting your time and will be treated accordingly as a spammer!
Very cool, time to wear out my mouse and clicking finger thumbing all these comments
First of all SEOmoz you guys are just awesome for doing this. Now my linkbuilding tip is to reach out to clients and ask them to write about you. This way you're getting more than just a link, it's some promotion and a testimonial. It's better to ask those you've got a close relationship with, because those are the clients that will go into detail about what a great business you are (special note you must be doing good business).
Y'all at SEOmozwere already the bees knees. This latest example of your awesomness makes me really proud to call SEOmoz my online home.
Goodnewscowboy, where were you!? I don't think I've ever seen you be so late to post a comment. You're usually first!
Yeah, I was late to this Kiwi love fest Darren. But I didn'tknow about it until I logged in to the moz last night. My day job was a tad bit overwhelming yesterday..All week actually.
Oh, I thought commenting on moz posts WAS your day job! ;)
Fantastic idea! I have a lot of family involved in the Christchurch and while all are well, many of their properties have been totally destroyed. Christchurch will need the support from the entire world for the next few months.
Thanks SEOmoz!
My first blog comment: who knew it would be one of the most useful : )
You guys are awesome for doing such a thing, this really helps justify my PRO membership! Marketing gurus have it right, as a consumer I'd much rather spend money on a service offered by a company who helps others, than a selfish one. Goodwill really goes a long way, thanks SEOmoz!
Just updated the post with this message:
Update 11:00PM PST March 3, 2011: We got quite a few more contributors in the past 2 hours and we're now up to $9,400!! Thank you thank you thank you everyone for your contributions. :)
Late to the party, but my linkbuilding tidbit is muckrack.com - a very awesome list of journalists on Twitter segmented by different beats, their locations, etc. It takes a little longer to cultivate a relationship at first, but once you get on their radar, it's good stuff. Public relations at its finest!
Great idea, I am always touched how this community looks out for each other. Keep it going!
I have relatives in Christchurch so love to see that you are getting involved in this. If you are reading this but maybe can't afford to join in with SEOMoz's initiatve, please do give anything you can through The Red Cross
Thumbs Up for the noble cause :)
Fab idea & a very worthy cause.
Here's my link building tips:
In terms of link building ideas, I've had a fair amount of success with 'awards' / top 'xx' lists of late. (NB - perhaps not awesomely original, but ego-bait still works). I'll typically pull together a list of all the sites I think are awesome in a niche, and create a list post perhaps highlighting a piece of content from them that I really like. I'll then create them a badge (linking back to the list) which they can display if they like.What's really nice about it is that it's a great opener for conversation. Not all will display the badge of course, but some will write a post to make mention of it. More importantly however - post the ego bait I've had much more success in terms of guest posting on these sites, building relationships, partnerships etc. It won't solve all your problems straight away, but it makes future link building in a niche much easier as people already feel like you've given something to them - and as such are typically more willing to talk to you moving forward.Speaking of which I *really* love Rapportive https://rapportive.com/It's a plugin for gmail and allows you to see everything about the person you're contacting inside your gmail window. Plus you can use it to store all your notes about previous contact you've had with an individual - kind of like a super-powered address book. It makes it really easy to build and maintain relationships, plus you can quickly and easily see what your contact has been up to social media wise.Finally, I've also had some success with turning a lose into a win. So I created some lovely linkbaity gorgeousness, but the guys I thought most likely to link just didn't. Rather than sending an 'I can haz link plz?' follow up; I'll instead ask them for honest feedback on what I produced. They'll then often give me a much clearer idea about what they do like and do want to link to - I'll then go away and figure out how best to deliver that next time. Again, it's a good way of beginning to build a relationship.
Thanks seomoz for helping the kindest people in the world! Kiwi's all the best to you!
To be honest guys, I think Michel really hits the nail on the head with things like this.... https://www.smartcompany.com.au/brand-matters/20110118-do-you-like-me-now.html
I think you may have misunderstood this post and our intentions. First, we're not benefitting from this directly. Sure let's be honest here it's a nice thing to do and it will stay in people's minds that we did a nice thing. But the thumbs up we're asking for don't benefit us in the least. In fact, some people have received 30+ thumbs up on their comments which directly benefits them (not us).
The other thing is, what if we had decided to just donate the $2,000 and not do anything more? Sure the Red Cross would have received our $2,000 but would the other people giving have still donated if we didn't start the chain? We'll never know. What I do know, is that as of right now we have more than quadrupled our $2,000 and the people of New Zealand are the ones who will benefit. :)
Well, not to detract from the donations, which are wonderful, but for it to be true that you don't receive anything from this you would have had to remove the requirement that people either have to be existing members or that they sign up in order to thumbs up a comment on this post. Also, as a company I am quite certain that you guys could have used your connections to do some behind the scenes fund raising without any recognition, and I am sure you would have been able to raise a considerable amount doing so.
While you're free to post your opinions, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with MaxTheWolf and mvandemar.
First of all, it's free to sign up for this site. Yes, there is probably some value associated with a free signup, but I'm sure it amounts to a rounding error.
Secondly, to expect SEOmoz to do behind the scenes fund raising is absurd and here's why:
1. There has been a lot of negative press recently around SEO. By making this public, SEOmoz helps our industry put some of that behind us.
2. SEOmoz is a business and they have responsibilities to pay bills, pay salaries, complete projects, etc. The cost to conduct a behind-the-scenes fund raiser (I'm thinking about the time required) makes the whole idea silly.
3. If they had done this under the radar, they would have missed out on the opportunity to leverage their position as a leader in our space and inspire us all to do better in all aspects of our lives - a lesson I think you should consider before you leave another comment.
I've got to agree with Ryan and offer my own perspective.
By doing something behind the scenes, it misses the opportunity to bring further awareness to a crisis that many around the world would otherwise not give a second thought to. By simply inviting people to click a thumb in participation, not only did it bring the crisis to many people's attention, it prompted several of us to kick in as matching 10% contributions.
Personally I'd already made a private donation, yet when I read this, it gave me an opportunity to look closer at my own finances as a business owner, and allowed me to see I could do even more. And that is a beautiful thing.
@mvandemar, I rarely if EVER have thumbed anyone but spammers down for their comments but only the fact that I would be removing $1 from the Red Cross donation is keeping me from thumbing you down. Instead I thumbed you up for the Kiwi's.
How in the world can you look at what SEOmoz has done here through such cloudy glasses? Either you got out of the wrong side of the bed or you are just a negative person. Remove the requirement that there be a log in record when offering to part with cash for every thumb up? Do you run a business yourself?...Sorry. I think I must have gotten out of the wrong side of the bed today. I was all set to blast you and that is hardly TAGFEE.
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion, but I respectfully disagree. What SEOmoz has done here is just a few clicks shy of pure altruism.
I think the Bing Lee example was a bit different becuase they attempted to be naughty and build a brand out of a facebook page using the Australian Floods.
this thread is different, it is like charity where if a basket baller scores more then 40 goals in a game companies will give $1000 a goal. what is wrong with this it brings the fans in to donate and it drives the basketball player to play better and score as many as he can.
I think what SEO MOZ is doing is 100% fine, they are meerly thumbing up comments ona random post what is wrong with that, they are assisting NZ.
I think people should keep quite and donate/ assist to donate rathing then crying about silly things.
Wow! This is one of the best ideas you guys have come up with. I mean every week, you just seem to show how much human compassion you all have.
At the moment I trust SEO Moz more then I trust my own government.
Great idea guys, and a worthy cause. Big respect to the whole SEO community!
Excellent idea! I can't afford to match any donations but I do plan on sending my own donations.
Here from Argentina, we love the idea!
Great idea guys!
A couple of good friends of mine from Scotland are living there and got caught up in it. They are also featured in the NZ press https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10709340
Gotta support the MOZ ideals! :-)
Just totally thumb uped every single comment.... :-)
Thumbed you up for that dedication - there are a lot!
Edit: I hope you didn't thumbs up the spammers though =)
LOL, that's what I'm doing. There's so many!
Definitely interested in donating. Shooting Jen an email now :)
Thanks Roger! Local.com's contribution takes us to $10,000 rasied. :)
Latest update!
Update 10:00AM PST March 4, 2011: Whew! We have over 3500 thumbs up total and have raised a total of $9,800!! Please remember that every little bit helps so feel free to donate directly to the NZ Red Cross however much you can.
Can't wait to see how much thumbs up you get until next morning :-)
So awesome! I'm glad to be a part of this great community and really impressed by how supportive everyone is, also really happy our group could participate in the match donations!
Heres to hoping that the total continues to grow over the weekend and through Tuesday!
How are there more tweets (466) than there are thumbs up (253)???
@Spencer, I think by the time people finished clicking all of the thumbs in the comments their clicking fingers were tired =)
Good form SEOmoz
Jean Madden
Well done!
For all the bad press the SEO world gets for being "dark" (really from people who don't understand/follow/pay attention to SEO aside from the occasional NYT article!), it's great to see a company like SEOmoz not only being a leader in our industry for promoting genuine best practices and ethical techniques, but for also doing things like this to demonstrate a great company culture.
Now if only the press could pick up on good stories like this....and of course link to the post ;)
Wow, this awesome! You guys are doing a great job!
Keep it up, SEOmoz! Thumbs up!
Just added this note to the post:
Update 10:00PM PST March 5, 2011: We have raised a total of $10,200!! Please remember that every little bit helps so feel free to donate directly to the NZ Red Cross however much you can.
Donate here
Wow! We have such a TAGFEE community! You guys are awesome. <3
Some good news from NZ this morning.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12654197
Very cool. I am new to this community but I am proud to be a part of it.
Wow, finally reached bottom! Here's an extra dollar of a comment for you. Our thoughts go out to the people of New Zealand. Thanks SEOMoz for encouraging us to remember we are all also world citizens.
Great idea! Just signed up to match. Glad to see mozzers so hyped up about helping out their fellow peeps.
I know I am really late in giving a Thumbs up but you guys are doing a great job.
I guess I'm a little late. It's good that the goal was reached!
(forgive me if this has already been mentioned.)
My favorite linkbuilding strategy is an extension of real-world Public Relations relationships that you currently have.
Public Relations is, in part, the art/science of making good works well known and accepted, with the additional goal of securing the cabability of your organization to exist in and more easily expand into the environment with its objectives. Charity fundraisers, supporting local schools and sports teams, encouraging and perhaps even supporting employees to volunteer some time in their local communities, doing what the locals need and want. Making friends. Etc.
One company I've worked with has, for years, sponsored a local sports team with raffle prizes. Out of the blue, I find our link count on webmaster tools has suddenly increased by a factor of a bajillion.
I asked the Manager, and she told me - we got our logo, with backlink, got placed onto the template of their site, a local sports information hub, netting us 10,000+ backlinks. The PR wasn't high of course, but volume counts.
Basically when a community partner has recognized you as a positive influence on their efforts, or as a leader in the community at large, don't feel shy about asking for some backlink-love in exchange. If your relationship is well developed, more likely than not they'll be all too happy to honor the request. I mean, according to Google, a link is a vote, right?
Linkbuilding is one factor of SEO that integrates brilliantly into any on-the-ground, real world Public Relations effort. It is one of the most creative aspects of SEO, in my opinion. Done well, it can net you those elusive .edu and .gov links, too.
I'm not the only one beating the drum on it - I think that it can be the obvious things that people overlook. Go thru your existing real world relationships and you will find people to link to.
-Brandon
Happy to be part of this good cause.
So many thumbs up!! :-)