With regards to asking for reviews/link in return for something, is this not the same as publishers giving away copies of their book for a review? I just got a request this morning from someone looking to give out free copies of their ebook in exchange for an Amazon review.

Anyway, great episode. Loved your non-judgemental style.

I think the best advice is – make the web a better place. Or, in the words of Chris Burres and Charles Lewis of ‘SEO Podcast – Unkown Secrets of Internet Marketing’: “Don’t be a douche”!
http://www.e-webstyle.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO-Podcast.asp

By the way, the bit that gave me goose bumps was your very last comment. Don’t spend so much time doing internet marketing that you miss your kids growing up.

I also thought the discussion on backlinking ethics was very unique and valuable, and you looked at it from a way and presented some arguments that I had never heard before. Thanks for your hard work as always.

Dan Franks
P.S. Love the new music!

One thing I liked about your process was that you started talking over the music as you faded it out. Nice touch.

As far as morality and link building, I view it like this. Yes, putting some content out there for the sake of link building is probably not making the internet a better place. But these are mainly sites that are popping up in the top of search results anywhere so how many people are actually reading it.

However, if 100 people reviewed your main site along with the sites in the top of the search results and 90 agreed your content was the best, then you are making the internet a better place by doing what it takes to get that site to the top of the search results. It’s a big gray slippery slope.

I think that the hardest part of the link building discussion is for new businesses. Due to the way google is set up a new business would never be found if it played 100% by the rules. The way that you start a business, in my very newb opinion, is by developing a community that knows and trusts you and your product. That entails connecting with people on social media, forums, other websites through guest posts or comments. Rambling aside, a new business has to take part in gray and even sometimes black hat tactics in order for them to get their brand found.

You or Cliff said “dare to imagine what you may do with your interests”.

I think this actually nails a lot of the backlinking issue. How so? We can both rattle off dozens, maybe hundreds of people making a nice income online by sharing their passion and expertise on a hobby, interest, knowledge or skill. Granted if it is too finite one can become burned out as Cliff eluded too so well. If so, maybe the person could/should simply scale up their topic.

IMO a niche can be too finite, which creates burn-out or an animal slap. Imagine if Cliff’s show were Podcastequipmentanswers.com. He’d be having a tougher time broadening his scope. I think this is true across many spectrums.

Conversely, those I find that have hundreds of micro sites seem to always be re-grouping, or making the bulk of their nice living selling tools, software, etc. Nothing wrong with that – but I call it the Follow the leader burn-out syndrome. At some point, people simply move on because when they try one of the recommendations (link wheels as an example), by the time they get it up and running on 5, 10, or 30 sites – they get a major slap.

Thanks again Mark!