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Affiliate Ball at this years Affiliate Summit East with Ice-T and Coco!

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 07:40 AM PDT

Ice & Coco say the Affiliate Ball will be CRAZY!

If you are attending the Affiliate Summit East in NYC then you definitely want to RSVP for the Affiliate Ball. Hosting the night and the first annual AFFY Awards will be Ice-T and Coco with Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys performing.

Last year this party was featured on TMZ when the Ball had a bunch of hip hop legends jump up on stage to perform with Doug E Fresh, most notably Kurtis Blow, members of Whodini, UTFO and more. Affiliate Ball creator and promoter Darren Blatt says this year’s "Legends" performance will not disappoint as they have something special planned.

Here’s a video of Ice & Coco promoting this star studded event:

Darren says, "The Affiliate Ball is a about the industry which is why we want to turn the spotlight back on the people who are good for our business. The AFFY Awards is a fun way to share the spotlight as Ice-T and Coco hand industry figures trophies during the party. It’s not about who has the best network or software, it’s about the person. It shouldn’t take more then 10 to 20 minutes, I guarantee it will be super entertaining."

This years party is on August 13th starting at 9:00 pm until close. Register online to secure the hottest ticket during ASE

The biggest sponsor of the event is Neverblue. Other bigger sponsors include: InAds, AdSupply, PeerFly, Matomy, FFN & RedRopeAffiliates.

Only a few sponsorships and tables remain, if interested email info at affiliateball.com

Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

Why is Danny Sullivan on the Anti-Google Bandwagon

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT

What is up with Danny Sullivan’s open hatred of Google these days? It seems Danny Sullivan has had his panties in a knot about all things Google this year. Whether at SMX, on Twitter or on Search Engine Land, it seems more and more of Danny’s mentions of Google are done with a “God, Google is so stupid look what they’ve done now” tone. Or maybe he just used to be such a Google fanboy in the old days that it is that much more apparent to everyone these days.

Google did a great thing last week by being MORE transparent and sending out notices to webmasters with sites that had a sketchy backlink profile. That is a good thing. But Danny Sullivan? His opening line on Search Engine Land?

Google's war on bad links officially became insane today.

Yes, instead of focusing on the good that Google being transparent brings, he gets his snark on. And trust me, webmasters do not want LESS transparency, most of us would take insane backlink warning messages rather than hear nothing and get zerged in the next Google Cute and Cuddly Animal update, which is what has been mostly happening up until now.

So Google took this user feedback and sent further clarification emails on Monday - something that Matt Cutts said took an engineer the weekend to complete – and you guessed it, Danny is super critical once again of their transparency with Google Updates Link Warnings To (Sort Of) Clarify They Can Be Ignored (Maybe).

Dear Google. Please don't send out any further link warnings to publishers. Your latest round yesterday, intended to clarify the confusion sparked by ones sent last week, is likely going to make things worse, not better. No more warnings, not until you get some fundamental clarity in place.

Really? From the person who has bitched that Google needs to be more transparent? Well, I am here to tell Matt that despite what Danny Sullivan says, webmasters are perfectly happy to get link warning emails. If you asked us to, we’d bow down at your feet in gratitude at the next conference you are at, that is how happy the majority of webmasters are to be getting these emails. Please ignore Danny’s snark on the link warnings, and keep sending them out, regardless of whether the emails require action or not.

The snark is also present on the Google Earnings call report (if you can even call it that) that he posted. Of all the things brought up in the Google call, he brings up the one thing that showcases his previous displeasure on Google’s Shopping product, which Danny insists on calling Paid Inclusion. So his entire reporting on the earnings call is, you guessed it, all about his interpretation of paid inclusion and how he sees Google abusing it.

And why does Danny care so much about the is-it-or-isn’t-it paid inclusion? Well that would be because he wrote to the FTC asking them to investigate Google on paid inclusion. Most of us were pretty shocked he stepped so far over the line as to be writing a letter to the FTC asking for an investigation on a company that arguably made Danny Sullivan famous back in the day. Oh, and then a month later he got back up on his Search Engine Land soapbox to complain that he hadn’t gotten a response and rehashed his whole investigate Google for paid inclusion rant once again – and really at this point, it is obvious that for whatever reason, what Danny wants to do these days is rant about Google. And for good measure, he also ranted about it in a different article on Marketing Land Once Deemed Evil, Google Now Embraces "Paid Inclusion". He also complained that the Wall Street Journal wouldn’t even respond to his request to write an opinion piece on it (which isn’t really shocking considering the blatant bias in his non-opinion “reporting”).

Of course, it isn’t all Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land. Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land’s news editor has a habit of writing just about everything he does in Rand Fishkin-style linkbait titles on SERoundtable, and he does a good majority of the daily news stories for his boss Danny on Search Engine Land too (and usually posts them on his own site first, then pops it onto SEL) so there is a team effort on the anti-Google spin. Here was Barry’s version on the link warning emails:

Matt Cutts posted the update on his Google+ page saying that these notifications can be ignored. Ignored! Yes, ignored!

How can manual notifications be ignored when Google has told us that manual notifications are penalties and should not be ignored? Well, they did.

Google’s intentions were golden. They wanted to be more transparent, tell you they are ignoring links but when it came down to the implementation, they simply messed up.

Danny Sullivan blew up and called this insanity and he is right. It caused a major scare amongst SEOs, webmasters and those who owned web sites, never bought a link in their life, didn’t even know what link buying was and got this severe notification that read, “our opinion of your entire site is affected.”

Another biased writer Search Engine Land employs – and you can see more of it if you follow any SEL employee’s Twitter account. And independent writers at SEL feel the same pressure to either remain neutral or lean to the anti-Google side of anything they write, because fanboy type responses to Google about something great they did or changed is just not where Danny’s head is at anymore.

You have to wonder how the anti-Google bias will affect Google’s involvement at Search Marketing Expo events. Matt Cutts has long been a fixture at SMX since its start, when he stopped attending Search Engine Strategy conferences. But with all the blasting against Google (and targeting Matt as well), if I were in his shoes, I would probably start broadening my horizons with other search conferences – and perhaps he has started by attending PubCon again later this year. Google is a platinum sponsor at SES San Francisco next month, but was not a sponsor for either SMX Advanced or SMX West (which was incidentally held in San Jose, Google’s back yard).

This industry is definitely in need of an unbiased news site. If Google launches some new Google+ feature or something in Webmaster Central, I don’t want to read a diatribe from Danny Sullivan about how Google sucks, how stupid they were to do ABC, and so on and so on. Sure, Danny Sullivan might be a name in the industry, but fewer and fewer people are turning to him these days to get the unbiased news. Now to see who will take his place.

Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

“Comment Marketing 101” plus 1 more

Comment Marketing 101

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 01:08 PM PDT

This guest post is by Slavko Desik of LifestyleUpdated.

Trying to understand the ways to get more traffic to your site, or even get some backlinks, you've probably stumbled across comment marketing.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but the first thing you probably hoped to get out of it was some links (even though most of them "nofollow", hoping that it will still somehow boost your ranking), and also maybe get some traffic while making the blogger notice you.

Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but this is the wrong way to go.

So what are the basic benefits of comment marketing, and what should you aim to get out of it on the long term?

The benefits of comment marketing

Once you have a deep understanding of the benefits you can get from leaving comments on other blogs, you can learn the right approach to doing so. Let’s look at each of the benefits now.

Make yourself an authority in the field

The first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking about how you can present yourself as someone who knows your niche, is to leave comments on other blogs that serve that same niche. The only way to make this happen is to leave good, structured comments that add value to the discussion.

Forget about writing "Great post", or "I completely agree". You are putting your name out there, so you'll want to make every comment count. That way, you will grab the attention of those who are really interested in whatever goes in your niche. And those people are usually the key players now, or will be so in the future.

Grab the attention of the blogger

That's probably one of your main goals here, right? I mean, you probably wouldn't be leaving your opinion on another blog post if it wasn't at all important to you. And leaving a comment that adds value to the discussion is the right way to do it.

You can either agree with what the blogger’s is saying, and offer some of your own similar views on the matter, or you can take a different side (something that is highly recommended if you want to grab the attention) with arguments that support your claims.

The word "arguments" is very important here. You can also grab the blogger’s attention by being offensive, or offering some highly subjective opinion—sure. But you probably won't achieve any of the other benefits listed here if you take that approach. If you disagree with the points made in the post you’re commenting on, make sure to say that in a dignified, respectful way by offering strong objective facts that support your view on the matter.

In any case, if your comment’s strong, you will probably eventually spark a conversation between yourself and the blogger, so be sure to check back on the post after you submit a comment. Most of the comment systems nowadays have optional subscription for replies, but even if the blog doesn’t, you'll want to return to the post to check out the replies and other new comments.

Making connections

It's really a no-brainer when you understand the points above, but making those connections with the blogger, as well as the other readers, is so important that it must be mentioned separately.

Connect not only with the influential people in blogs’ comment sections, but also give your attention to those who are new, and not that experienced in the niche. Because note this: Your blogging peers now may one day grow to become A-list players in your niche.

Also, the "natural link building" which is so many times mentioned as the ideal way to gain backlinks, is not so “natural.” If you check the link profiles of some of the most authoritative sites in your niche, you will surely find that a large amount of links come from sites that are very well connected with the sites that they link to. By making connections with other bloggers, you're passively attracting future links from them.

Just ask yourself who you would rather link to: a person you know pretty well, a person whose blog you love responding to and leaving comments at, or a person you don't know anything about? The answer is pretty obvious!

Gain some search rank juice

This takes is such a small consideration in light of all the reasons why you should leave comments on sites, that I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning. But here it is anyway.

If you’re thinking about boosting your site’s backlink count—and thereby search rank—by leaving comments on blogs, you're probably hoping to find those blogs that allow "dofollow" links back to your site. So you go over there, write a sentence—or maybe two if you are in the mood, pack your name rich with keywords that you are hoping to rank for, and hope for the best.

Sound familiar? It's all right—many, if not all, bloggers go through this stage at one point or another. However, the link value that’s passed even through those "dofollow" links is almost not worth mentioning at all compared to other methods of link building (and of course there’s none available through "nofollow" links).

On the other hand, if you leave blog comments under a name that’s rich with keywords, chances are that search algorithm updates like Penguin will make sure to greet you appropriately—that is, by penalizing your blog to some extent.

I should probably mention that there are still some sites in some niches that rank or ranked pretty well using this gray-hat SEO strategy in the short term, but it's just not a viable long-term solution for your brand or your blog. Also by doing that, you're just begging to be outed by someone out there.

Familiarize people with your brand and yourself

This point is similar to the first, except that this one deals with making a positive impression whenever someone sees you and recognizes your brand anywhere online. That's why I strongly recommend having only one name, and one avatar associated with all comments you leave. Choose whether this will be your own name, some nickname you go by, your secret ‘net alias—whatever, as long as it’s something you feel comfortable with.

It's widely accepted that the best option is to use your real name and your headshot, but you should probably decide for yourself. The thing is that this is how people will recognize you, so once you decide, it's better to stick with the name and image you’ve chosen than to change these details.

For that reason, be sure to choose the picture carefully. You will be surprised how important this is—even at such a low resolution. Choose a professional-looking picture, and try to make a positive impression by smiling. Using Gravatar is a great way to make sure your picture is the same all over the web. This can go long way to build that trust and connection with people.

Get traffic from the other blogs, and expose yourself to a broader audience

Each time you leave a comment, make sure you include a working link back to your site. Remember, the better you fulfil the ideas we spoke about above, the greater the chance someone will click your name, and visit your blog.

I’ve heard that the commenters that get most clicks are those who leave the first few comments. You can also achieve higher CTR by leaving responses in which you (respectfully) disagree with the author—this will surely attract some attention, but you'll have to make sure that the facts are on your side.

Guest posting opportunities

In some ways, this benefit is closely connected with the second one: grabbing the blogger's attention. But the thing here is to consistently add value to the discussion over a longer period of time. That way, you're sure that the connection you are building with the blogger is going in the right direction, and the chances of having a guest post offer accepted are bigger, and more real.

Using the same name and picture each time you comment should help here, because it increases your chances to be noticed by the author. That said, do should consider the number of comments on the page and the response rate of the author. If you’re commenting on a site that has a few hundred comments on every post, it’ll take eternity to get yourself noticed. By the same logic, a site on which there are a smaller number of comments, but where the author is not even willing to spend time responding to them is also a site in which you would have a hard time making yourself stand out from the crowd.

Comment marketing in practice

Building a brand and developing your persona as an expert in your field takes a lot of time, but knowing how to make the most out of the commenting opportunities on other blogs is going to help you a lot.

What are your practices when it comes to leaving comments, or better yet, have you had some experience from the other side of the fence, in the comment section of your own blog? Maybe you have some tips you want to share too. Be our guest, the comment section is right below!

Slavko Desik is writer and editor at LifestyleUpdated where he tries to blend together his passion for living full time with his knowledge and passion for blogging. Find Slavko on Google+ or the official Facebook Page.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Comment Marketing 101

Blog Comments: 3 Bloggers Discuss the Issues

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:07 AM PDT

One of the things I love about Problogger.net is the value of the comments my readers make here.

Image courtesy stock.xchng user lusi

Although the days when I could reply to many of those comments are now, sadly, long gone, I do read comments on the blog, and frequently get ideas and inspiration from them. Not only are they encouraging, they’re one of the best sources of thoughtful, spontaneous insight I have.

Not all bloggers feel this way—you probably know of at least one or two big-name bloggers who don’t allow comments on their blogs. And it’s certainly true that comments come with a range of challenges:

time: it takes time to wade through comments, sift the diamonds from the dross, and then compose thoughtful replies
trolls: there’s no shortage of trouble-makers online, and it can be wearing to have to deal with trolls on a daily basis
critics: some bloggers find criticism made in comments difficult to handle in such a public sphere
stalkers: while this problem isn’t often discussed, inappropriate comments can be a problem—especially if they persist
spammers: if you’re an experienced blogger, you probably rolled your eyes when you read that word!

Of course, these aren’t the only issues you need to consider in terms of comments on your blog. Which commenting system will you use? Will you set standards for accepting and rejecting comments? How can you use comments to enhance your blog—and your blogging?

We’ll be answering three of these questions today and tomorrow, in a series of posts that explore the issues of:

blog comment marketing
comment systems and technology
blog comment value.

Before we get started, I’d love to hear your approach to blog comments (Do you have them on your blog? Do you comment on many others’ blogs?) in—you guessed it—the comments!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Blog Comments: 3 Bloggers Discuss the Issues