Blogging Tips

Ive placed this post in the ‘Promote Your Blog’ category but only because i haven’t yet created a ‘How not to promote your blog’ category!!

I’m still amazed at how many people jump on board these link trains. I’m sick to death about posting about them but so many Blogging Tips readers are taking part in this one i had to say something.

The one that has been buzzing about the blogosphere in the last month is called Viralink. The train seems to have started from this post and the number of bloggers who have jumped on this bandwagon is quite scary.

Basically, viralink is a pyramid linking scheme. There are 120 stars (*) and each blogger makes the star a link to someone who has linked to them. This has resulted in hundreds of blogs with posts with stars on it – ive already unsubscribed from a few blogging related blogs because of it. The only person i believe has benefited from this is the person who started it all, Andy Coates.

As andy says, you WILL get lots of backlinks with Viralink. Unfortunately, i would have to agree with him as you will have 120 backlinks to you with the keyword *. Now go get yourself an ice cream and pat yourself on the back These pyramid linking schemes have been here since the start of the internet and i have yet to see anyone get any real benefit from it. I had hoped that they had put in the same coffin as frames and pop ups.

If you are looking to increase backlinks then this pyramid sceme will probably do just that but is it really worth it. By participating in these schemes you are filling your blog with bad content (linking to unrelated sites with a * can hardly be called a good post!) and alienating your readers. There is only one way to ensure you get good targeted traffic to your blog – writing good posts! I can’t stress this enough.

Sure, you may exploit sites such as Technorati and increase your backlink ranking there but this will not bring you any targeted traffic as the only people clicking on these stars are the people who posted the damn links!! Not only that, look what happens to your search listings at Technorati when you do take part in something like this. This is the the kind of search result Technorati will bring up for your blog if you take part in Viralink. As you can see, it makes searching for normal posts on your site a nightmare – it pretty much stops readers from being able to use technorati to research a site.

I don’t wanna talk too much more about this as i have already covered this before and let everyone know why i strongly believe these things to be a complete waste of time. Also, i do not want to tell readers what they should and should not do with their own blog. However, i do encourage you to reconsider how you promote your blog and what content goes on it.

Do you wanna stand out from the crowd or do you wanna jump on the bandwagon and write a post full of stars? Its your choice

thanks,
Kevin

p.s. for the record, i have nothing against the guy who started this and those who joined in – im just sick of the blogosphere using the same shitty promotion techniques that porno sites were using 10 years ago. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it!