The SEO News Blog from Pat Marcello

This is a test.

Seriously. I juts added ScribeFire Blog Editor to Firefox. I’ve been hesitating doing this because I’m right at home with my blog. I use Fast Dial as my homepage, so it’s really easy to get to. One click on my Fast Dial page or one click in my lower toolbar… what’s the diff, eh?

But I’m hearing all kinds of great things about this add-on, and there are times when I’m at a web page and want to blog about it, but think… I’ll get to it later and never do. Maybe this will stop that arrested intent blogging.

Here are some cool features:

• You can preview the post in your blog template or just in the Scribefire template. Kind of cool, but I rarely preview my posts. I hit send very quick and then, am glad that I have MaxBlog Press’s Ping Optimizer installed so that edits don’t matter to the blog directories since they’re only pinged once.
• It shows you the last several posts you have made in the “Entries” tab.
• You can select which category you want the post to fall into.
• It allows you to add TrackBack URLs, which I think is kind of redundant for WordPress, which does that automatically.
• Allows you to add images.
• Has a special button for YouTube video additions
• Will find related articles for you with Zemanta (notice the links at the end of this post leading to other articles), which is kind of cool
• You can make money with in-text links from InLinks.com
• You can bookmark at Propeller, Facebook, Digg, Fark, StumbleUpon, and Newsvine from the “promote” tab.

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Way back in the Stone Age of  SEO (like in 2006), linking was the potentate of the country, “IWPR,” or “I Want Page Rank.” It didn’t much matter where the links came from. You could buy them or sell them, add them to a gazillion directories, or trade with other folks in your niche in link exchanges. It really didn’t matter much where they came from, as long as you and the site linking to you were in the same biz.

Then came 2008 when Google cracked down on linking. No longer was it a good idea to either buy or sell links, to add your link to a non-human edited directory, or to exchange links with all your pals in a forum.

Linking became less important, but don’t get me wrong…

It will still boost your rankings. Google, our 600-pound search gorilla in the room, says that it wants linking to occur “naturally,” as in someone comes to your site, likes the content, and adds a link to it from their own website. You don’t ask, pay, or even try to get the link, it just happens naturally because YOUR content is just that awesome.

We know that those kinds of links are gold. They are one-way, meaning you don’t link back to their site, and the more of this type link you have, the better for your search engine optimization. Google will raise your page rank because of your one-way links from reputable sites and directories, and they’ll place your page higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages), too.

So, how do you get more people to link to you?

Well… social links are important, so make it easy for people to link to you from their social accounts at Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, to Tweet your posts. When folks can just push a button and do something, they’re much more likely to do it. You’ll notice that I have several different types of buttons on my blog to help you to add my posts to many different Web 2.0 sites. (So, please do! )

Another way to have your stuff linked to is by making it good, solid content that people can learn from. I have different types of posts here, but each week, I try to post more information than chatter. I have to admit that I’ve been chattering for a couple of weeks here, mea culpa. That was because I was so busy with the ListBuilding Club launch that I had minimal time for much else. However, if you go back into my archive, you should be able to find more information than chatter. That’s important.

Folks want information, and they want a good time. If you can be funny while providing information, all the better. Who doesn’t need a good laugh these days?

Be sure (and I’ve already mentioned this) that you stick to your topic. Wandering off about your vacation is OK, if you do it once a year or so, but generally, if you have a blog about Depression glass, you should write about Depression glass and not much else. People who read your blog come to read about Depression glass, not about the latest marketing promo going around.

That’s really all you have to do. Encourage linking, and make it easy for people. Folks who enjoy what you’re providing for them will do it naturally because it adds value to their audience or their list.  And that’s exactly what Google wants. Use your time to create good, linkable content and forget actively searching for link opportunities and I’ll betcha that the great content will win out every time.

Over at Search Engine Watch, Marty Weintraub posted about the “diehard members of social communities who want to keep marketers at bay.” There are? Whoa.

I’ve been doing StumbleUpon posts for more than a year now for Tellman’s stuff and my own. I never had anything like that happen. But here’s the thing… If it’s so bad for marketers to post at StumbleUpon, why then, is there a category for marketing? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

I was told to “gtfo” at reddit once. But that’s pretty mild compared to the stuff that Weintraub talks about. The post was about a sale I had for people to join Blogging4BoomersinBusiness.com and the headline was a bit spammy, I suppose. “Get $20 off today only” Well… I should have seen that one coming, right?

But I’m still of the opinion that if you post to social bookmarking sites with some meat in what you’ve written, and not just sales pitch, you won’t run into trouble. Or, maybe I’m asking for it by making this post. Weintraub says that he fell into bad graces with StumbleUpon long-time users because he posted in a search blog about how much he “loves” StumbleUpon.

Heavens!

Well, it is more serious than you may think. He had to call in the local FBI.

My advice to you is that if you’re in Internet marketing and you want to use StumbleUpon, only do it as Don Crowther says for your “best” stuff. Don’t bookmark every post you make, unless it’s got some real meat to it. Otherwise, you are spamming and that just sucks. Nobody, not even we marketers like spam.

Use the social networking and bookmarking sites wisely and you can do very well in terms of getting traffic and of building a relationship with a market.