I thought of blogging about all kinds of abuse that affect real people day in, day out, but decided that ultimately that doesn’t fit in with my audience, or really add any authority to the words I would be writing.

As it happens, today part of a 2 hour interview with me was published in the Guardian (Digg Story you know you want to). I honestly didn’t expect any more words in print from the article, because it was so wide ranging, and such an article gains authority by citing multiple sources.

Some things were however a little disappointing, and I thought I would cover that initially, and then add to the end some points.

The Press Doesn’t Handle Linking Well

This comes down to 3 different situations which I will cover briefly

1. Linking To Sources Where Possible

This is for a situation where someone actively played a role and was mentioned in the story. As an example they gave a short or long interview.
In the Guardian article for some reason I didn’t get a link. I am not a blackhat or bad neighbourhood, and I think I made a large contribution to the story. The few paragraphs on paper is the result of a 2 hour telephone conversation.

I know there isn’t really a legal obligation to link to me, but the contact came about because of my online presence and blogging in various ways, and how can I prove that the Andy Beard in the article was in fact me without the link? (yes I might one day like to be in Wikipedia)

2. Linking To Junk Without Nofollow

The tone of the article suggests that Danny Bradbury didn’t really approve of some of the worst MFA sites, yet they received links as a pointer so readers could see for themselves. Unfortunately, the links did not use rel=”nofollow” (known in SEO circles as a “link condom) which was introduced 2 1/2 years ago to fight comment spam, but since then is recommended by Google to use on links to untrusted sources, spam sites etc.

Those sites linked to could most likely rank better in search results now, compared to other content – it is not for me to judge whether in the eyes of the author that was his intent, but that is the effect.

3. Reusing Other People’s Content Without Link Attribution

The press sometimes also regurgitate other people’s quality content without any useful attribution, though they might rewrite the content by hand. I am not a lawyer, but in my opinion that is still stealing traffic and search results by repurposing and replacing an original work with their own.

In this particular case with the Museum of Hoaxes the museum missed out on a massive front page story on Digg, which can lead to lots of links. Social media sites want to vote on the original article, and not something which is a cut down rewritten version, but without a link, who is to know.

Invisible Links in Plain Sight

This is really a separate section of the article, but is still regarding linking. I don’t regard this as in any way abusive, it is strategic.

Whilst Matt Cutts worries about hidden links the same as or very similar to the background colour, such that they can’t actually be seen by a human, there is another kind of hidden link, or invisible link.

Here is an example taken from Dana’s excellent rules of social media, which she learnt in kindergarten.

Could you see the links? Didn’t think so… well here they are a little more visible.

The links are now underlined, but they are not hidden, so they might receive some clicks. It should be noted that many people are reading your content, especially on large blogs, in an RSS reader.
That does however depend on the source of the traffic – if traffic is from a social media site such as Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Propeller, or Sphinn, then the visitors will see the content on the page.
You need to determine why you have the links on the page, and how you want your readers to interact with the links.

Here are some more “click happy” alternatives

The classic blue encourages readers to click, which is why it is also so highly recommended for blending Adsense to increase CTR.

Red links are becoming a lot more popular in blogging circles, popularised by Copyblogger and Problogger.

There Is No Quick Fix

The press and bloggers really need to be aware of how they link and attribute. If you are giving a link to someone, think about how that link can best benefit them.

Take another look at the article on the Guardian (and possibly give it a Digg), I have emailed them hoping they will adjust the article so that is is more link friendly and unfriendly where a link might have to have a “link condom“.

Linking Awareness is what is required to avoid linking mistakes

WordPress SEO Tips & Hacks

Subscribe to Comments Hacks – I am including this at the top of the list because it is highly important. Emails sent out from your domain could cause you problems with email delivery or spam complaints, and the plugin by default doesn’t comply with CAN-SPAM if you or someone else (a spammer) includes a marketing message in your emails.
The danger of overloading your server with emails being sent faster than your host allows is also worth thinking about. I know multiple blogs that have problems delivering all subscribed comments and I am sure the owners are not aware of this.

Just imagine you have 20 people comment on a post, and then you get 5 new comments in the space of one hour – that would put you over the limit on most shared hosting.

Mine are set up to be delivered by Gmail by SMTP – which email host is going to block Gmail totally?

Spam Karma latest release, and I also speculated that I get less spam using it than if I was using Akismet.

My Ultimate List of Dofollow Plugins first published in February still gains links on a daily basis, and has helped convert 100s of people into removing nofollow from their comments and trackbacks.
I have a followup project planned that I will launch within the next week that will provide a way of highlighting blogs that wish to be highlighted as supporting DoFollow.
The page also now includes information on how to remove NoFollow from blogs using Blogger and I hope to be able to include detailed Typepad and MoveableType instructions (I know of 3 people working on this)

How linking to social media and bookmarking sites could affect your search engine performance. The discussion that followed on is just as informative as the post.

Tagging and How Tagging Can Help SEO is one of the primary topics of this blog. I have written a lot of posts regarding the benefits of using Ultimate Tag Warrior (that is a link to the tag).
My analysis of the Google BlogSearch Patent didn’t gain a lot of links from SEO blogs, but then most SEO bloggers don’t understand the benefits of tagging and are too worried about duplicate content (another tag link)

Do you get linked to by the press? I also highlighted how bad some press agencies are with linking.

My attack on Top Commenters plugins caused some uproar. It is great to provide a way to thank the people who comment on your blog, but I prefer to do that by using DoFollow.
If you can understand my milk bottle analogy, you will go a long way to improving the SEO profile of your blog. If you do use a Top Commenters plugin, at least include it using some WordPress logic functions such as is_home() and is_single()

Top WordPress Plugins

I will be opening up the voting for the first round of my cash donations for best wordpress plugins later today (I need to decide which plugin or service to use). I am giving away real money in large chunks to help support WordPress Plugin Development.

Monetization & Blogging Tips

Warning about using Amazon Contextual Links

PayPerPost vs Jason Calacanis turned into an in depth discussion regarding ThisNext vs PayPerPost on Disclosure (you really have to read the comments)

Performancing Metrics Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing for Niche Website owners and why I recommend Clicky instead.

I write a lot about disclosure in affiliate marketing and blogging. Whilst PayPerPost is constantly being highlighted, the people doing the highlighting are actually as guilty of poor disclosure and unethical practices themselves.

Maki asked a number of bloggers why they display a feed counter and I gave what I believe is the most in depth answer. There are some good tips there for those people who already have an existing mailing list to jumpstart their blog subscription for an insane amount of social proof.
Why don’t Aweber and Getresponse offer a decent email subscription to RSS feeds that reports numbers to Feedburner? Anyone who uses their services misses out on the social proof benefit.
They should also offer their own social proof icons for email subscriptions.

In some ways I hate product launch formula style marketing of services. The scarcity factor makes it hard for a potential buyer to make an informed decision despite all the proof.
Sometimes the materials left over are of huge value, and I recommend you watch the videos from Rich Schefren.

Product Reviews

Stampede Traffic

Sponsored Reviews – with this service you can negotiate with me for paid reviews :)

Volusion Shopping Cart – was I too harsh on them?
Auction Ads

Web 2.0

Is this the Future of MyBlogLog when we finally get an API? Smart internet marketers should already be planning on how the data could be best integrated into other applications.

Tips on using Reddit and Stumbleupon. The StumbleUpon post lists my membership details to a number of social networks… lets be friends. I really should include those in my sidebar.

Sometimes it is amazing the knock-on effect of what you blog about.

My How To Use MyBlogLog post sent Cord some traffic, but the important factor is the quality of traffic sent. Eric from MyBlogLog saw the post, read Cord’s 2 part guide, and then listed it on the MyBlogLog blog, along with some more tips.

I wrote a fair amount about Twitter, partially because it was the talk of the blogosphere, and partially because as with all emerging technology, there were a lot of ethical problems in using it for commercial use. The best way to read full coverage is to use my Twitter tag.

I love Technorati, but they really have problems coping with all the new kinds of RSS and micro blog services such as Twitter, and co.Comment

I had some Digg success earlier in the month, with a story I submitted to Digg actually reaching the front page. The discussion is well worth reading with some insight from Michel Fortin and others.

Major Websites and Press Agencies Seriously Don’t Give a Damn About Conventions

Vipul Arora wrote a story today entitled Yahoo plagiarizes content – does not give credit!!

But was it plagiarism?

Lets go into detail and see what happens, and how this all works.

Museum of Hoaxes publish a great piece of linkbait “Top100 April Fool’s Hoaxes of All Time”

The Missing Pointer

AFP Picks up the story

Now unfortunately AFP doesn’t include a link through to the original source of the material it used. Links provide attribution on the internet and are used by visitors to read the rest of the story (only the top10 was published, not all 100 items), and by search engines in their calculation of the original source.

I am not sure where the law is on this, they only used 10% of the material, and they did provide attribution in textual form. They also didn’t use the content word for word.

Then again in value to readers the Top 10 is probably worth more than positions 20 – 100

Here are 10 of the top April Fool’s Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.

You might think this is a minor issue, but Google currently shows the title of the story on 10,900 websites.

Yahoo Plagiarism?

Yahoo was the most prominent site that picked up the story – they have permission from AFP to use the content that legally probably isn’t plagiarism, but bloggers if it happened to them would be very upset, unless they gave specific permission.

Yahoo are in many ways the innocent party in this, but ultimately the site that is benefiting from the content the most. It is a very popular story that has already garnered over 900 votes on Yahoo. That is a lot of votes as not every reader would click the vote button.

Just imagine if there was a link through to the original source

Effect on Traffic

The Museum of Hoaxes should have had a tidal wave of eager readers visiting their site. It is possible they gained a small surge from search traffic from people who were interested in finding the rest of the Top100.

The story should have also done insanely well on social bookmarking services.

This is actually an extreme example of what happens when correct attribution (in internet terms) isn’t given by the press to the original author of an article.

Printed Media

Printed media in the UK, if referencing a website, typically use a service such as TinyURL.com to provide a link from an article so that they don’t have to print a long URL – that is a very ethical method, though I would question why they don’t spend $20 and buy their own redirect script that can be branded.

A Similar Example

This is actually a similar situation to what happened with Colleen who was recently interviewed by the LA Times regarding PayPerPost.

The followup video interview was a cracker, and you really should read the comments for a discussion on ThisNext vs PayPerPost, and whether you should have to use a disclosure when commenting.

I should also point out that I have seen a number of blogs that have also written about the LA Times story, and linked to their syndication partners ;)

Pot Calling the Kettle Black

The press shouldn’t attack the ethics of bloggers if they don’t provide correct attribution for the medium in which they are working. On TV it is verbal, in print it is written, and the best print even provide short links.

Online correct attribution is links.

Even Wikipedia provide a clickable click, although it does use nofollow

Note: Screenshots were used with permission from Vipul, it saved me 5 minutes preparing this. He has contacted AFP questioning their method of attribution.

But just like Barry Schwartz wrote a few days ago, I feel that the 10% of the time they mention your name, or heaven forbid give a link through to the article they were quoting from (creating duplicate content), is something worthwhile that most people would stop climbing up a burning rope ladder to obtain.

Here are just a few tips that might help nudge the link & citation ratio up to as much as 50%

Preparation

• Text – have materials available you can quickly send them by email to clarify specific points of conversation
• Exclusive Pictures – have some exclusive material pre-prepared, whether it be screenshots or photographs at slightly different angles (individually numbered so you know what has been used)
• Links – collate reference links on your own websites, and other press coverage
• Market Awareness – know what is happening in your industry more than reporters or your competitors

Control the Conversation

If you have done the preparation, discussion about the subject should be relatively easy, but you also have to ensure you try to gain a win/win situation.

• Ask for what you want
• Be suggestive about your goal
• Make it easy for them to provide what you want

That list is a bit simplistic, but also ambiguous, so here are some more detailed ideas

Some members of the press prefer not to use citations for legal reasons, or may just simply overlook such a common courtesy.

• Tell them it is OK to cite you
• Ask them if they want to quote you
• Suggest a juicy citation

Many press websites have restrictions on deep linking, mainly as leverage with partners and competitors, sometimes for legal reasons, or just lack of understanding of how the internet really works.

• Tell them it is OK to link to you
• Ask them if they would like some supporting materials to link to
• Suggest that a link might…

Engineering Opportunity

Being well connected is sometimes extremely useful

I have done a lot of what might be looked on as “joint venture” marketing, but at the end of the day it really resulted in being able to demonstrate your hot product for free on the stand of a Fortune 500 company at major exhibitions such as Cebit, Comdex, Game Developer Conference, E3 and ECTS.

In one situation I was talking to the rep of one Fortune 500, and asked whether their other Fortune 500 partner had arranged any special press coverage for an event where I was just expecting to have one of my guys sit at a computer and demo our products. We already had a large booth at the same show (I will save that for another day), so I wasn’t going to be present on their booth much to talk to press.
The rep said he would check into it, and the next day I received a call from the press, did a short interview, and gained a large shared 1 page segment in the show edition of the primary press sponsor. The coverage was actually more valuable than if we had taken a paid double page centre spread, which would have cost more than our total booth outlay (I did some great deals on the booth).
I didn’t get just name and company association, I effectively gained endorsements from both Fortune 500 companies, and our booth ended up being mobbed.

How mobbed? Well our booth had 16 demo computers and 2 rooms, one was intended for me to hold meetings, and the other was for storage. My CEO ended up holding meetings in the storage room that was rapidly cleared out and furnished with 2 chairs and a table, and missed all the development lectures he had planned to attend.

My wife and the CEOs girlfriend, who were meant to spend a few days shopping in London ended up on booth duty full time.

Confidence, Training & Professional Integrity

If you are confident in your dealings with the press, you can often negotiate better coverage (whilst retaining journalistic integrity).
Training is often effectively setting ground rules and expectations. If members of the press know they can get a juicy citation out of you, and you make their job easier as a source of in depth knowledge, they are more likely to follow through with a win/win situation, such that you no longer have to worry about whether you will get a citation or a link, and you can focus more on the content they will present.

Conclusion

The more you work it, the more success you will achieve. You deserve to get more than just crumbs, and defining what you want to achieve within a win/win relationship is highly important, and may even enhance your ethical working relationship with the press.