SEO Kung Fu: Using CVs for linkbuilding-purposes

/6 Comments/in , , /by

Backlink building with CV-sitesLet's face the facts that make feeble-minded webmasters cry: diverting online services from their intended use is a vital part of any effective link-building strategy. But while almost any self-employed SEO-consultant runs a couple of social network pages, curriculum-vitae site are usually left out. But that's a big mistake! There are, to be more specific, at least two online curriculum-vitae services where registration pays off if you're looking for a job, but for some juicy backlinks.

Of course these sites try to satisfy their targeted clientele, which means that the actual process of assembling your curriculum-vitae is really simple and fast, and both services are free. Also, this is not a fire-and-forget action: you can log in any time later to expand your curriculum-vitae by adding new paragraphs (and links). In other words: these are two juicy add-ons for your backlink-portfolio.

Emurse

Domain Pagerank: 6
Example: socialmarketing.emurse.com

“Create, share and store your resume online for free” – and spread your link-love. Emurse is the first choice as every user gets to chose his own subdomain. There are no limits to your copy-writing skills. The editor uses a special kind of link syntax, which is explained in the help section. Of course there's no nofollow-attribute inserted and there is no limit to the number of links (and images) you can include. (But you might want to limit yourself, too many outgoing links will decrease the flow of the backlink juice :mrgreen:) And who says that you can only have one curriculum-vitae?

VisualCV

Domain Pagerank: 6
Example: www.visualcv.com/socialmarketing

The second candidate also knows how to make a backlink-builder happy. Assembling the profile is as easy as one-two-three, the comfortable editor even lets you chose title tags for your backlinks. All you have to do is some keyword research and some writing and you're good to go. Don't forget to switch the privacy setting to “public” thought.

Doesn't pay off: ResumeSocial, Resumbucket

ResumeSocial has more categories than online CVs plus a Pagerank zero. Resumebucket gets a wee bit more G-love, but the ghost inside the machine is crippling every backlink – even the one to your own blog – with a nofollow-attribute.

Addendum: Both pages list the “latest CVs” on their homepages, but it's still a good idea to set up some backlinks pointing to the new subpages. After all, this is not a short-term measure.

If you have any interesting backlink building secrets to share, I'd be glad to hear about it. And if you're need a huge bag of nofollow-free backlinks, try Fast Blog Finder.

Mr. Tweet: find those like-minded folks

/0 Comments/in , /by

mtbannerOf all twitter add-on services, Mr. Tweet has surprised me most during the last week. That basic aim of the service is to let you find folks in whose tweets you might be interested in. Since twitter is still growing so rapidly, topic-specific selection becomes more and more inevitable. Yet while I'm quite sure that in the long run the retweet-rate will act as twitter's “backlink factor”, Mr. Tweet introduces a well thought-through recommendation system.

Basically, Mr. Tweet is one of those services you have to trust enough to hand over your twitter account data – that's the one thing I don't quite like about it, yet still the surplus value is great. On each twitter users profile page a number of statistical data presents an overview of the type of twitter who's at work here: Updates per day, percentage of conversations, posted links plus additional notes (like “usually follows back”) give a better impression about the realness/spammyness of any account:

mrtweet

And there's more: the service regularly provides very interesting twitter tutorials as well as suggestions for new follows – and these work really well in comparison to what Twitter itself has to offer:

Twitter's suggestions for me include a grocery store, the microblog of an online shoe store CEO and a mommy blogger. On the other hand, Mr. Tweet has actually recommended people I have met or at least know professionally.

The founders of the company refer to their service as a personal networking agent, yet while this label sounds a bit exaggerated, some truly juicy candy is hidden inside the recommendation system: Mr. Tweet encourages its users to ask for recommendations by other users and to issue these to their own favorites users. Such recommendations are tweets which look like this:

#MrTweet I recommend @username because [insert reason here]

Not only do these messages raise awareness for ones account, their overall number is also used by Mr. Tweet's follower algorithm which determines the follow-suggestions. Besides, you get to know some nice bits and pieces about other tweepers – so in other words: please go to Mr. Tweet and recommend me! :mrgreen:

Since I really like the service and the idea, I'll recommend one of my favorite twitter friends each day for the next two weeks. Using Tweetlater, that's a breeze – even the scheduling option of the free version are great, but to harness the full power of pre-tweeting, I highly recommend the pro version, which enables you to schedule replies and direct messages.

Want some recommendation love? Since I'm a big fan of reciprocal network building, of course I'll gladly return to favor if you write a recommendation for me!

Old Man Stewart shakes his fist at Twitter

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Comedian Jon Stewart has his popular character “Old Man Stewart” explain our favorite Microblogging Service. Why is everybody at congress going crazy about 140 chars, especially congress? And why is everybody on Grunter these days? This is just hilarious! Read more

Snowy city-winter on tilt-shift fire

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Vimeo really sends out a lot of e-mails, but once you start reading the daily recommendations, you just can't stop – there's always at least one clip which really captures my imagination. Like this music video: Erik West set the visual scene for Codebreaker feat. Kathy diamonds track “Fire” (Jimmy Edgar Remix), and he did a fantastic job: it's all plain footage and post production: Read more

Twestival Vienna: The Movie

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

twestival Vienna videoDan aka @MountainDan aka The next Stephen Spielberg uploaded his video about Twestival Wien to Vimeo – expect some pure HD Goodness! Very smooth job – and I'm not just saying that because Dan interviews me as well :mrgreen: I cannot help the feeling that we just recently became aware of the tip of the iceberg called micro-blogging. And the fact that it's possible to organize such an event in a couple of days and to raise almost 500 Euros demonstrates that – as opposed to what culture critics don't get tired of repeating since the age of print media – the power of media can be used for good! Read more

Fast Blogfinder update: Version 2.6 available

/0 Comments/in , , /by

easy link buildingYesterday, G-Lock Software announced the release of a new Fast Blogfinder version. The main feature is a keyword suggestion tool that makes a very useful add-on. The option is called “Provide query suggestions” and offers additional keywords combinations. This is very helpful to narrow down your searches – and as always, the upgrade is completely free for all users who bought a license for a previous version (which costs the ridiculously low sum of about 50 Euros by the way), so hurry up.

Basically, the query provider works like any other keyword research tool and helps narrowing down the niche and finding new juicy backlink spots:

When you type your keywords into the search box, Fast Blog Finder automatically suggests you keyword phrases based on your keywords. You can review a list of suggestions and select any keyword phrase from the menu. Sounds great, doesn't it? If none keyword phrase suits you, type in your own search query and click Start.

DownloadFast Blog Finder Demo-Version:
Download
*.exe file, 125kB
OS: Windows XP, Vista

This feature comes in very handy and speeds up the process. The import/export wizard has also been improved, and the “Most Recent Post Date” row has changed to “Last updated”, which means that you can actually figure out if the author has recently fiddled with his blog, even if there is no fresh entry.

Once again, G-Lock has done an outstanding job – I've only been using FBL for a couple of months now and this is already the second major upgrade which introduces new features. I've said it before and I'm saying it again: FBL is the most efficient link-building tool currently available. Even if you only want to spend 30 minutes a week promoting your own site, you should get a license! And the fact that the user continuously finds new interesting blogs a nice side effect!

Fast Blog Finder trial version
Buy Blog Finder

WordPress.tv: Automattic goes television

/0 Comments/in , , /by

WordPress.tvOne week ago, Automattic launched a brand-new WordPress-centered video site: WordPress.tv features various screen casts, presentations and tutorial videos on the world's leading blog content management system. The available clips are bound to water the mouths of beginners and pros, as they range from basic explanations like “How to post a blog entry” to all the advanced presentations held during last year's WordCamp.

Keeping Automattic's mission statement in mind, this launch is a huge step in my opinion – videos and screen casts are extremely helpful when it comes to understanding the potential of WordPress:

Blogging is too hard. Through WordPress we?ve enabled millions of people to effortlessly publish to the web. Now we want to enable millions more.

Some of my friends didn't have any programming in mind when they started their blogs. But it seems that sooner or later almost everyone feels the strong urge to start tinkering with his theme, installing new plugins and so on. So since the technology is a part of blogging, ease of access is the way to go. Now I'm fully aware of the fact that competitors like Typepad take a totally different approach, but to me fading out the underlying scripts doesn't make too much sense in the long run, and this is why I'm very excited about the new video repository, especially since there's much more goodness to come:

On WordPress.tv, you'll find tutorials for both WordPress self-installs and WordPress.com to help you get blogging fast and hassle-free. We?ve kicked things off with the basics ? now you can shape what comes next. Just drop us a line and let us know what you?d like to see added.

There's a contact form for entering your own videos (just take a look at the guidelines) and a commenting function. Personally, I would like to see two new features added in the near future: a basic editorial “rating” (beginner, advanced pro) and a user rating (WP-Rating might do a great job on that). Once again, congrats to Matt and his team – I'm positive that during the next month a couple of online enterprises are going to copy WP's idea and open their own niche-Youtubes. Here's an interview with Matt on the way Auttomatic operates – quite interesting stuff:

Weekly Blogistan Round-Up no. 04/2009

/2 Comments/in , , , /by

twestivalSeth Godin got the best business advices, here comes another one: ask your customers if you can pitch in times of crisis. Don't buckle down, let's face the not-so-hard truth: great times are coming up for small enterprises and networks: after all, the small overhead costs allow for efficiency. So there's actually no need to worry, unless you're planning on launching a new car company. Or a web designer, for that matters – Which brings me to my first news of the week:

TechCrunch reported the sad story of a guy trying to sell his Digg-Account on Craigslist. Right now, TechCrunch is collecting money for his rent, since there's not enough web design work:

How bad is the economy? In an effort to raise money for his rent, one man named Victor is trying to sell his Digg account on Craigslist for $650. It

Best/worst gadget: Carnival elongation till 31st of January

/0 Comments/in , , /by

6fireAbout two weeks ago I started a blog carnival on the Best and worst gadget of 2008. Since a couple of bloggers didn't yet have time to finish their entries, I'm extending the deadline: the carnival now ends on the 31st of January. So if you want to come aboard, you can enter your posting until next Saturday. Obviously, not everything that glitters is gold – or even silver. But let's face it: the web 2.0 revolution has turned us all into beta-testers. But geeks usually love do-it-yourself attitudes anyways :mrgreen:

Thanks to everybody who has already entered a posting – I'm looking forward to the rest of the entries, next week I'm going to publish the results. This blog carnival will be held yearly in the month of January; after all, gadgets are geeks' favorite toys. And since first-generation-users are very likely to become beta-testers, there'll be plenty stories to tell.

This weekend: moving datdirt to a new server

/0 Comments/in , /by

I'm very happy that the number of visitors is constantly increasing on my English blog; during the last weeks, the site's overall performance has drastically decreased, so I will move the blog to a new server this weekend. Expect a few hours of downtime – currently, my sys-admin is working on setting up the new server. Thanks for your patience – things will speed up here, starting tomorrow – I promise! :mrgreen:

T-Mobile G1: Android Insights

/0 Comments/in , , /by

T-Mobile G1 Android Google PhoneLuckily, I'm a member of the selected few bloggers who got one of the first T-Mobile G1 phones here Austria. While the device is already available in Great Britain and the UK, the market launch in Austria will take place in 2009, but there's no specific date yet. During the next weeks I'll blog about my experiences with this new geek toy – for starters, here's an unboxing-video:

The first thing that comes to mind is a comparison with the iPhone – but I must say quite frankly that I could never use this phone, as it the lacks the keyboard I need though badly. That's why I'm currently using a T-Mobile HTC MDA, which suits my mobile e-mailing needs much better. Luckily, the G1 has a built-in keyboard as well (the hardware is actually manufactured by HTC) which works quite well. Google doesn't focus on entertainment, there's only 256MB of built-in memory – it's all about the operating system: Android is open source software. Instead of implementing a “single-point-of-software-sale” model (hello iStore), big G is relying on the creativity of the developer community. The number of available apps is quite low, since the device is so new – but this will probably change rapidly. I'm positively surprised on first impression, but I have yet do sync the device with my pc and try some apps.

One phone to bind them all

mobileblogger.at will go online soon – all postings will be aggregated on this site, and while most bloggers run German sites, there will also be some English reviews. Max, Michi, Luca, Peter, Helge, Robert, Martin, Georg and me got our phones yesterday. The official Feature-PDF is available on at T-Mobile US, I'm looking forwarding to testing the G1 under real live conditions – of course I'll keep you updated.