What I learned
Well we all know you learn from your mistakes and I have done that. I thought I would write this up to warn anyone that is thinking the way I did.
Buying back links for me was a disaster, this is just the first thing I did wrong with the site. I used a service to submit articles to social bookmarks at a much faster rate and to more urls than I ever could...solely for the purpose of manipulating my ranking, the only reason for doing both...wrong....will not rinse and repeat.....
Second mistake was my content, I had a review site, front page sold before giving valuable information it really was set up to try and get the sale (did not realize that for quite a while) it did not answer any real question nor did it give any valuable information (two paragraphs of information, that was it)
Although the reviews were well done and did really relay unique content and valuable content to the visitor.....nothing more than Amazon already does...I had ten articles on the blog....some were informative for the niche and some were more interest bits but still in the niche...not really sure how bad the blog actually was....a mystery for now...
I was trying to manipulate my ranking in a link wheel type of a way somewhat different but same idea, it worked well I guess as my rank was increasing and position kept going up slow but sure it always went up...there were other factors that I do not know how much they played in my Google ranking like submitting to Digg, stumble upon, etc.....what I learned from this the painful way was any type of rank manipulation in any form is not Google friendly now, maybe it was ok in the past not now...not a good thing I will not rinse and repeat that campaign.....
I have done a ton of reading on the new changes that have taken place with Google...and every where I turn including WA will tell you back link manipulation for the sole purpose of ranking higher is frowned on...do not do it do not do it do not do it....
Again as I look deeper into this mystery, well what do they want what use to be is no longer so what is a IM er to do....I go no where no article no forum on SEO or IM in general that will stir in any direction but quality content that is intended to inform the visitor and give valuable information on a specific niche....socialize is bigger than ever....natural linking....selected linking to get the most out of your back linking campaign....quality all the way around in everything you do on your site will get you looked at....no back linking is not dead the rules have changed it seems....
In conclusion, do not manipulate back links in anyway to better your rankings, try not to just sell and not give, give before you sell, get social, and give the visitor a reason to bookmark you and/or to go to your site.....think why would they want to come to your site rather than someones else s...
Just my take on where I am and where I want to go....they were what I presumed were my mistakes in the first site....
Google understands backlinks, far greater than most marketers understand them. They know what a good one is, and what a real one should look like. That is why they have an algorithm in the first place, to rank sites that people actually like and that are of quality content, having a billion backlinks does not determine this, in fact, the more backlinks you have typically means the more you are trying to game the system.
Create content for readers and the rest will take care of itself, including people sharing your content, and yes, backlinking to it!
Keep plugging away and follow the advice of K, C, and others here and see where it takes you. You are working hard, so you will eventually succeed!
Josh
I like to use blog comments more for traffic than back links. I am not saying you cannot get back links from them, but a site owner is going to approve more of your comments if you don't put anchor text in your comment.
If you are one of the first comments approved on a high traffic site, you can bet on people seeing the comment that was approved and following through to your website, as long as you add a sensible and valuable comment that offers good information.
Josh
.I will be approaching my linking very carefully this time taking it one step at a time...as quality will out way quantity, at least that is what I keep on reading...My last back-link campaign never stood the test of time so another approach for me...have not started my back-linking as of yet I will need more reading and understanding of what I should do to get the most of my efforts....
