That's correct. I don't cross link promotions but then again that is so a savvy marketer can't discover all the niches I am in. They may be able to find one or two but that should be about it...and that is okay with me.

Sorry Agrande, I only get to respond to the few comments I get for this blog about once a day. As far as value, it changes. If you remember, a couple years ago Squidoo was THE place for niche marketers...then the slap from google came and many marketers watched as their rankings disappeared. These days, there are several parasitic hosts that rank well with google. The key is to watch it, log it and use it.

Links in posts or blogroll....well, typically I will use parisitic hosts for one of two reasons...

1. to form a link chain for the juice.
2. to sell something directly.

There are some things you need to consider. Covering your tracks is important....well, that is all I am going to say about that actually, lol.

well, trusted sites have a ton more power BUT take time and most marketers don't or aren't willing to invest in a ton of time without seeing some benefit fairly quick. I mess with both. When I build a niche network, I typically will have anywhere between 100-400 articles and will inundate that niche using primarily parisitic hosting companies with established trust rank. It works for me but once again, your success rate will ultimately depend on how well your marketing plan is formed. That is my 2 cents anyways. That said, there are a million different ways to arrive at the same conclusion.

Hi Agrande,

Thanks for commenting. Don't get me wrong, I am not necessarily against Connect-Content. I think what JT has going is a good thing, especially for webmasters that are struggling. BUT, the point I was making was that most of the links that are exchanged aren't coming from self-hosted domains but are coming from the free kind. What this tells me is that the people who are using the service are either doling out links on sites that they don't necessarily care about or are really hesitant to link up to their blogs and websites that do matter to them (by the way, I am in no way saying that free hosted blogs can't get ranked or don't get ranked...I am just saying that it was my experience that I was getting links from sites with questionable integrity).

The big, uh-oh dilemma that new webmasters have isn't getting links. Anyone can get links. It is getting links that matter. For one reason or another, everyone has gravitated toward PR as the sole determiner of importance, link wise. I think it goes much, much further than that. I think that getting links from sites that are trusted by google is where the bang is at. And that, unfortunately, can't easily be measured.

Hey Dave, it really depends on what your agenda is. Obviously an authority site is a better longterm solution because it will gain trust rank after a period of time and you can leverage that into more opportunities. I have found keyword sniping good for things like localized search. The biggest problem that most marketers have with keyword sniping is keyword cannibalization....

I use keyword sniping for the purpose of creating funnels to my authority sites solely these days though. The only reason I have mentioned it was it is a very easy way for a beginner marketer to learn SEO quickly and see results within a few weeks. It is kind of like getting your feet wet, ya know?

Hey Patrick, yeah, I actually do and was going to go into it but was kind of pushed for time. While it is true that this guy/gal has a 14 month head start, they haven't really "attacked" the niche....they have simply built content....most of their 100+ pages isn't really linked although they do seem to keep it "in house" on Squidoo with internal links and also do the same with hubpages. In other words, their link strategy sucks and it is very likely that I could push them out of the way in weeks, not months just by doing a little link laundering with parasitic hosts that have already built trustrank. The trustrank is absolutely crucial for a marketer to actually get ranked and stay ranked. Plus, if you are using a site that is trusted, you can literally hurl hundreds of links at the page a day and the worst thing that could happen is Google would ignore the page. It happens occasionally but not near enough for me to abandon the strategy.

Make no bones about it....there is a reason why some of these parasitic hosts do well in the SERPS. There is a reason why EZA dominates micro niches with long tail keywords. And this particular marketer found out that out by using squidoo to push his product. He did it without external links. Now, that said, what do you think would happen if someone like me, doubled his efforts (200+ articles, quality and spun) and started a link campaign? Two things could happen....

1. He catches on and we wind up in a link campaign war where the marketer with the most capital and resources wins...
2. He scratches his head as to what is happening and simply writes off the niche as a nice run while it lasted....

On a separate note, this marketer is likely not utilizing "ad space" on the page correctly as the way he is promoting his products is at the end of the ad. While testing would be necessary since markets are inherently different, what I have found is that you want your offer to be above the fold...not buried deep within the page...since most people are likely to never go below that. And most marketers forget that people naturally will follow links for answers.

appreciate the comment Luca and thanks for the tweet. Obviously, different marketers have different ways. I have learned at least in my experience that thorough keyword research lends itself to a better chance of success. Plus, this method leaves no stone unturned.

thanks for stopping by Mrinal.....you are in close company, ya know...I can think of one other person who visits this site occasionally...she is related to me

Thanks for stopping by Sheila and sorry for the delay (I was out of town).

I imagine if you buffer your BH sites, ie. use the sites with established trust rank like forum profiles and what not and then pound the hell out of it with backlinks and link up to your site (or go even a tier back) that this would be fairly safe.

How long would it last? well, I guess that depends on a lot of things. The worst case scenario in this case would be that the backlink would be ignored.